Tag Archives | money

Questions About Cost of Living

By on February 8, 2011 in Yk Life

Hi everyone, it has been a long time. I just received an email from a first-year journalism student at Loyalist College. He is doing a presentation on the cost of living in the north. I know this is a hot topic for many, I think we can all remember the Facebook page created by one concerned resident went viral locally.

In any case, this student is looking for some residents to answer some questions, and I though we could do it collectively. So below are the questions. If you feel up to it, please send me an email to info@ykonline.ca with your answers and I will pass them along.

  1. What are the challenges of bringing goods into Canada’s northern communities?
  2. What is being done to ease the problems?
  3. What do northern residents do to help deal with the high cost of living?
  4. What are some sample prices of everyday grocery items in northern communities?

If you would like to add anything to the email, please do so. If anyone is willing to do a quick phone interview with him, please also let me know, as that is something he is interested in. As well, we can keep the discussion going by commenting those thoughts/answers in the comments. Thanks for you help.

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I survived the Dragon’s Den! Tips for those auditioning

By on March 25, 2010 in City

3 years ago I needed about $50,000 to take my business to the next level, so when I heard Dragon’s Den was coming to Vancouver (my home then) I decided to audition.

Suffice it to say, they scorched me!  I didn’t make the show — but it was a worthwhile experience, and nothing ventured, nothing gained, non?

So now they’re coming to Yellowknife (and I STILL REMEMBER THE EXCEPTIONALLY MEAN PRODUCER WHO HARANGUED AUDITIONED ME and I kept my “MEAN PEOPLE SUCK” t-shirt for PRECISELY THE DAY WE’D MEET AGAIN.)  (oops. pardon me.  I digress).

So now they’re coming to Yellowknife and I hear a few good folks are giving it a shot.  Here are the tips I gleaned after I recovered from my char-ring:

  1. If you have it in you to be an entrepreneur, you have it in you to pitch to them.  So if you’re on the fence about auditioning, get off the fence and go for it.
  2. Remember this is first and foremost *a TV show*, meant to entertain and draw a viewing audience, not first and foremost a reasonable forum in which to obtain venture capital.  Don’t expect it to be like a livelier version of a conversation with your banker.  It’s an entirely different beast.  Again:  they’re seeking entertainment value.
  3. You may get ripped to shreds.  I was (my biggest mistake:  asking too little).   I held it together, admirably I thought, through the experience itself, but on the walk home, it was a whole other story, let me tell you.  Thank God for cell phones and friends and daschunds who love me in all circumstances.   If you get scorched, you’re in good company, not just with me, but thousands of other Canadians with the guts to give it a shot.  (Call me.  I’ll buy you a beer in sympathy.)
  4. In my opinion, the investors are looking for:
  • Tangible goods (I don’t know this, I’ve just noticed on TV folks are showing Goods, not Services)
  • That you’ve personally invested (if you haven’t, why should they?)
  • That you’ve already made a fair number of sales (gives a clue that people actually want your stuff)
  • That you come across as a good business person, not simply someone who’s clever enough to have invented a new product
  • A product that’s scalable, fast.  They want to make a quick return on their investment, not slowly build up a company

Their website spells a lot out, so spend a lot of time there.

The experience will force you to clarify a number of key components of a good business.  If nothing else, that’s always a good thing.  And if you make it to the show —   WOW! — getting the investment is only the icing on the cake.  That kind of exposure, even if they publicly humiliate grill you will probably yield good things.

The last bit of my story is this:  on the same day, a pal of mine made his pitch for a sweet little tool kit. He got turned down the first time he auditioned, but the second time, he took it all.the.way  – got over $500,000 plus Debbie Travis promised to market it.

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Dragon’s Den coming to Yellowknife

By on March 25, 2010 in Events, FP

It was brought to my attention that CBC’s hit show Dragon’s Den announced the dates it will be coming to Yellowknife. A couple weeks ago CBC announced that it would be coming to Yellowknife but didn’t release the dates. Read all about it in the press release below.

Do you have a hot new invention or the next million-dollar idea? Think you have the money-making chops to take on the savviest business tycoons in the country? Then DRAGONS’ DEN wants to hear from you!

The DRAGONS’ DEN production team will be in Yellowknife scouting for Season Six of the hit series on CBC Television. The show gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to a panel of wealthy Canadian moguls for the chance to earn real cash and real investment – from the Dragons’ own pockets!

Open auditions are taking place on Thursday, March 25th from noon – 7 pm at the Yellowknife Inn, 5010 49th St, in the Zinc Room.

No experience is necessary – just be ready to pitch your business in under five minutes. If you can convince producers you’re ready for the limelight, you could be invited to face Dragons when the upcoming season is filmed in Toronto.

And as extra incentive this year — entrepreneurs with an eco-friendly business, invention or idea could qualify for a $100,000 Greenvention prize from Sun Chips.

Please apply online starting March 1st and bring your completed application form to the auditions. More details can be found on the show’s website at http://cbc.ca/dragonsden.

DRAGONS’ DEN airs on CBC Television at 8 pm Wednesday nights. Full episodes and web extras can be viewed on the DRAGONS’ DEN website.

Knowing a fair number of people in this town, I know this is an excellent opportunity. We here in Yellowknife are privileged to have so many bright minds living among us. If you think you have what it takes to be on the show or know someone who should be make sure you’re at the auditions.

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Are you ready for $0.25 Plastic Bags

By on January 18, 2010 in Discussion, FP

Here is something worth discussing, the now $0.25 it will cost for a plastic bag from a grocery store, which started January 15, 2010. We all remember when both Extra Foods in town raised the price of these plastic bags from nothing to $0.10, but now all three grocery stores will be charging $0.25 for a bag. That is 1/4 a dollar.

I can understand why this might be done. It is an environmental move to persuade people to switch to tote bags which can be reusable. I can tell you here in my house with have about 15 floating around and probably more in the van if we forget the ones in the house. Over the past year we have collected them from businesses around town giving them away as promotional items. The 2009 Yellowknife Trade Show had them everywhere as well as the YK75 celebrations. I actually like these bags, they are useful in may ways. They are a lot stronger than plastic bags which allows them to be used for many more tasks.

Although there are many uses for the tote bags, I started to think about some of the uses of the plastic bags. Sometimes I don’t think we realize but most of us actually did/do reuse them. The one task that I can think of that will need a new solution is the cleaning of cat litter. I have actually talked to several people who also reused these plastic bags for this task among other things around there house. Another scenario that comes to mind when thinking about the cost of the bags, is how much will we end up paying for bags when we think of something we need at the store while were on our way home. Or when we need to pick up a few items unexpectedly and don’t have our tote bags with us. If I had a quarter every time that happened… well I guess I would be buying a bag with it.

The other thing that was unclear to me up until writing this post was where the money is going. Now that all three grocery stores in town have adapted this new price change you may be thinking that the Territorial Government is behind it, If you did then you are right. I have been told that the Bag Fee goes into ENR’s Environmental Fund. This is the same as the non-refundable part of the beverage container fee. You can find out more information about the Single-Use Retail Bag Program in this PDF, starting on page 32. If you know what the Environmental Fund is for we’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Now over to you, Yellowknife, tote bags have been around for some time now and many use them. Will this transition effect you? If so how? Did you reuse the plastic bags, like many other people, how did you use them? Do you think this is a good thing to enforce over all?

We’d love to hear what others think about this change, leave your opinion in the comment section below.

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For $25K a year, you too can tell the north what to do

By on November 20, 2009 in City

It looks innocuous, doesn’t it? and it sounds kinda … classy … Centre for the North. Even the body that’s pulling it together has a neutral sound to it: Conference Board of Canada.

But being a money coach in my past life, I’m always interested in following the money (and those of you who have watched the Best.Series.Ever, The Wire, will have had that emblazoned on your brain too). And when I followed the money on this, here’s what I found at the end of the document:

Funding of the Centre
This Centre will be funded by a variety of organizations from the private and public sectors. We are asking each investor to commit for a five-year period.

There are three levels of investment:

Champion investor ($100,000 annually)

Champion investors will be deeply involved with Conference Board staff in the drawing up of the Centre’s research plan and meeting agendas. These investors will be part of the Centre’s Steering Committee and will play a leadership role in Centre meetings.

Lead investor ($50,000 annually)
Lead investors will help the Conference Board and Champion investors develop the research plan and review the research in progress. They will also suggest meeting topics and be invited to participate in Centre meetings.

Participant investor ($25,000 annually)
Participant investors will be invited to attend Centre meetings and will have access to the detailed research findings. They will also provide input on the choice of research and meeting topics.

So. People willing to cough up between $25K = $100K every year get to

  • set the agenda
  • choose which questions get asked and which don’t
  • and have access to the research findings.

Anyone else find it hard to believe that the Conference Board of Canada will live up to their stated commitment of being:

  • “The foremost independent, not-for-profit, applied research organization in Canada.”
  • “Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests.”

I call bullshit. But I’m guessing the final document and research findings will be presented with little mention of who actually drove the whole project.

I dunno. I guess I thought we voted in MLAs every few years to, you know, set the agenda and direction for the north. Clearly I am mistaken.

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