I was sitting with a group of new entrepreneurs this morning; we were working on the mundane but important reality of cash flow forecasting… trying to figure out how much money you’ll earn and how much you’ll spend. Trouble is, when you’re new in business, there are so many areas of expense that you don’t…
By the time you read this, the Olympic Torch will have passed through Barrie on its way up Highway 11 and actually gone through Huntsville as well. How lucky are we that our city was on the route? As the athletic eyes of the world focus on our most western province and athletes themselves prepare…
I just read Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub. He tells the story of the magic of a Christmas Eve during World War One when enemies stopped killing each other and met in No Man’s Land to exchange gifts of tobacco and puddings and shared photos of wives and children. This was surreal strength of movement…
Happy Birthday, Innovative Automation! Twenty years ago, Steve Loftus and Paul Tyndall and Jim Carnegie opened the doors on their company. Functioning as a custom machine manufacturer, Innovative Automation designs, tests and manufactures specialized equipment for industry. It’s a specific, technical field and over the years its customer base has grown and shifted. Last Friday,…
Sometime in our lives as parents, our children write embarrassingly long list letters to Santa. The items on the list can make a parent wonder where they went wrong. Won’t just one gift do? David Bly encourages us: “Your children will become what you are, so be what you want them to become.” As the…
He was a fixture at the Chamber’s Business Breakfast. First to arrive. Wisest to speak. On top of the hottest business or leadership news of the day. A feisty teenager who refused to go past high school, an educational frustration to his parents, he went on to have kitchen table discussions about a college for…
Babyland is booming these days as the boomers kids head into parentland. And oh! the changes! Thirty years ago when kids one, two and three were wee all I heard from my mom was how many wonderful inventions there were. Well, welcome to antique-land as the new mommies and daddies herald gizmos we couldn’t even…
It’s so simple, it makes me giddy. It’s so powerful, it makes me humble. Empty bowls. They signify not enough to the person who’s struggling with life. Empty bowls made by pottery artisans like Lisa Fischer-Jenssen of Ploughpenny Pottery are attractive vessels, perfect for gift giving. And a container of frozen soup made by a…
At 21 years old, Jason Devitt could play a mean guitar, run a soccer field like the wind, and put internal fire into his university studies. A year later, in his final year of Biology studies at York University, Jason’s headaches turned into nodules that were diagnosed as brain cancer. For the next two years,…
On Monday, November 2, Jerome Parchment will climb the steps of Barrie City Hall and make his way into Human Resources. There for his first official day as a Barrie Firefighter. While the first couple of weeks will be training, he’ll be starting a new life. This twinkle of a light has hovered on his…