Halifax Business Blog
What it really costs to run something in Halifax.
Two things live here. Interviews with owners around the city, and the local business news, strategy and events worth knowing about if you operate in HRM. Pick a side.
Tab one
Local Business Spotlight
I sit down with owners around the city and ask the questions most interviews skip. What the fit-out actually cost. Which month nearly ended it. What they would do differently if they started again on Monday. No highlight reels.
I am in a lot of these businesses anyway. Walking a kitchen to understand a fire risk, or a warehouse to price the racking, means sitting across from someone who built the thing from nothing. The insurance conversation lasts twenty minutes. The interesting part is everything else they tell you. Every interview follows the same five questions, so you can put very different businesses side by side and see what actually carries across.
The series runs on Instagram while I get the interviews transcribed. Written versions land here as they are ready.
The five questions
What did it cost to open?
Lease, fit-out, equipment, licensing. Real numbers, not a rounded figure that sounds good.
What nearly ended it?
The month the numbers stopped working, and what they did about it.
Where does the money come from?
The product or channel that pays the bills, as opposed to the one customers assume does.
What would you do differently?
The decision they would take back, in their own words rather than mine.
Advice for the next person?
For whoever is about to sign their first commercial lease in this city.
Want to be interviewed?
If you run something in HRM and you are willing to be honest about the numbers, book a time with me.
Tab two
NS Business Insights
What is actually happening to businesses in this province, and what to do about it. Commercial rents and where they are moving. What the Halifax Partnership numbers mean if you are the one signing the lease. Which industries are hiring and which are quietly shedding staff.
Plus the events worth putting in the calendar: Halifax Chamber sessions, Halifax Partnership briefings, industry association meetings and the trade shows where the people you need to meet actually turn up. Written for owners, not for consultants.
First pieces are being written now. If there is something happening in HRM you want covered properly, tell me and I will look into it.
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Know someone worth interviewing?
Tell me who they are and why. I am always looking for the next one.