BMO Bank of Montreal and PROFIT Magazine Business Coach Podcast

Now in its sixth season, Dragon' Den mixes business with game show, with reality television in a show that has generated huge TV ratings for CBC Television, millions of dollars in equity financing for its contestants and more than a few lessons in the area of raising capital. In this episode of the Business Coach, Ian talks to Sean Wise, a professor of entrepreneurship at Ryerson University and the founder of Wise Metric Capital, a Toronto based Financial Consultancy. He is also a special advisor to Dragon's Den and has been working behind the scenes of the show since it launched in 2006.

July 1 will be a very important day for Canadian businesses in 2010: it is the first day of the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia and Ontario. Although the new taxation scheme will have a great impact on business owners in those two provinces, it also has repercussions for companies in other provinces, and the time to plan for them is running out. In this episode of the Business Coach, Ian talks to Heather Weber, a certified general accountant and the leader of the Indirect Tax Group at Meyers Norris Penny LLP, an accounting and business advisory firm.

The federal budget was recently announced and, as expected, it was a stay-the-course document bearing few surprises. But it did offer a few new goodies for business and, like any federal budget, it will affect economic fortunes to some degree in the coming years. In this episode, Ian discusses these issues and more with Doug Porter, Deputy Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets.

If you are the owner of a small business, you can't afford to waste your money on ineffective advertising. So how can small businesses maximize their marketing ROI? In this episode, Ian discusses these issues and more with Terry O'Reilly. Terry is the co-founder of Toronto-based Pirate Radio and Television, an award-winning advertising and creative agency.

How should small business owners market their professional services? How can you protect your practice from creditors? In this episode, Ian discusses these issues and more with Peter Merrick, president of Toronto-based MerrickWealth.com, and one of Canada's leading specialists in financial planning for business owners.

Why is understanding social media so important to business owners? How can businesses leverage online tools like Twitter and Facebook to help network for new opportunities and drive results? On location at the Art of Management event in Toronto, Ian discusses social media with Mitch Joel, Canada's most influential thinker on social media. Mitch is the President of Twist Image, an award winning digital marketing agency based in Montreal, and author of Six Pixels of Separation.

You don't have to be a gullible investor to be the target of fraud in today's increasingly complex and hectic business world. Entrepreneurial businesses are prime candidates for being duped out of major dollars. How big is the threat and what can you do to stop it? In this episode, Ian discusses these issues and more with Cathy Penny, Director, Fraud and Electronic Monitoring for BMO Bank of Montreal.

How efficient is the average executive or business owner is today? On location at the Art of Management event in Toronto, Ian discusses the issue of efficiency with David Allen, the founder and President of the David Allen Company and the author of the international best seller "Getting things done, the art of stress free productivity and ready for anything - 52 productivity principles for work and life."

During tough economic times, all smart business owners try to reduce spending. However, not many address fixed costs and overhead, the biggest of which is often rent. In this episode of the Business Coach, Ian discusses these issues and more with Dale Willerton, Founder and CEO of the Lease Coach, which is an Edmonton-based provider of commercial lease consulting services with seven corporate and franchise locations in Canada and the U.S.

How does managing your strengths and weaknesses affect your overall proficiency? On location at the Art of Management event in Toronto, Ian discusses the importance of managing strengths and weaknesses with Marcus Buckingham, global guru and author of First, Break all the Rules, and Find your Strongest Life.

Will I have myself a merry little Christmas? That's the question Canadian retailers are asking themselves as the 2009 Holiday shopping season approaches and they have reasons to be concerned. In this episode, Ian discusses this issue with Andy Buyting. Andy is the President of Green Village Home and is a past winner of the Business Development Bank of Canada's Annual Young Entrepreneur Award. He is also the entrepreneur in residence and primary contributor to myretailer.ca.

How has business leadership potentially changed, post-recession? How can good leaders manage unhappy, unmotivated people in the workforce? On location at the Art of Management event in Toronto, Ian discusses these issues and the importance of leadership with acclaimed blogger, author and management guru Tom Peters.

Thanks to the recession, failure is on the minds of many business people these days. In this episode Ian discusses this issue with Dr. Dean Shepherd, the Randall L. Tobias Chair and Entrepreneurial Leadership and professor of Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

Most businesses and especially small businesses do not dedicate sufficient thought and effort to staying on the leading edge of the innovation curve. In this episode Ian discusses innovation challenges and opportunities with Jim Carroll. Jim is an international futurist, trends and innovation specialist who Business Week has named one of four leading sources of insight into innovation and creativity.

Writing has always been a key mode of business communication but email has made the written world more prominent and important than it's been since at least the dawn of the telephone. At the same time, we are producing and receiving more written communication, writing skills are in decline. The results are reduced productivity and lost opportunities for business. In this episode Ian discusses business writing with Sandra Folk, program coordinator and professor of Education at the University of Toronto and the Principal of Sandra Folk Educational Consultant.