Shell agrees to take 30% stake in Bay du Nord ahead of 2027 decision
Shell Canada Energy has agreed to acquire a 30 per cent non-operated interest in the Bay du Nord project from Equinor, adding a new partner to the proposed C$14 billion …
Entrepreneur
Build with more confidence using practical entrepreneurship insights, resources, and guidance for the journey ahead. Whether you’re figuring out where to start, working through the realities of building something of your own, or looking for smarter ways to grow, you’ll find ideas and actionable advice to help you make better decisions along the way.
PC market drops more than 20% as component costs bite
Worldwide PC shipments fell by roughly one-fifth in the third quarter of 2026, according to preliminary estimates from IDC, Gartner and Omdia. IDC reported worldwide PC shipments of 62.7 million …
Canada loses 68,000 jobs as hiring weakens for second month
Canada’s labour market lost 68,000 jobs in September, marking a second straight monthly decline and pushing the unemployment rate to 6.5%, according to Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey. Employment …
Shopify automated policies now cover more store pages
Shopify has added broader policy automation to the Shopify admin, giving merchants a way to generate and maintain several customer-facing policy pages from store settings instead of writing each one …
20 problem solving quotes and the business lessons inside them
Most problem solving quotes look great on a poster and do very little when a client is upset, the numbers look wrong, and you’ve got an hour to decide what …
The dumbest apps ever made: 11 flops, fads, and stunts worth learning from
Most of the apps on this list became punchlines at some point. Some deserved it. Some got the last laugh, and a few cost their backers far more than any …
What changes as your business grows from $100K to $1B
Early revenue often feels like a test of talent. Then the same habits that got the business moving start turning into the ceiling. The revenue milestones below are a map …
Canada’s C$4.2 billion trade surplus was lifted by a tariff rush
Statistics Canada reported on Oct. 6 that merchandise exports rose 2.5 per cent in August, while imports fell 2.0 per cent. That widened Canada’s global merchandise trade surplus from C$787 …
AI’s infrastructure bill is catching up with the boom
As of early October 2026, the AI boom is confronting the cost of turning demand into buildings, chips, power contracts and cooling systems. A recent paper by Columbia Business School …
Shopify lets browser AI agents finish checkout with buyer approval
Shopify has moved browser-based AI shopping agents closer to completing purchases on behalf of buyers, adding checkout support to its WebMCP tools on September 28, 2026. According to Shopify’s developer …
ElevenLabs hits $22 billion as voice agents handle 15 million weekly conversations
ElevenLabs has doubled its valuation to $22 billion in a $300 million employee tender offer. The AI voice startup says its agents now handle more than 15 million conversations every …
Oil is moving again, but freight is keeping costs high
Recent shipping data cited by Reuters shows Gulf oil flows excluding Iran recovered to roughly 81% of pre-war levels in September. Reuters reported on Oct. 6 that oil prices ended …
Point-of-sale transactions: how they work and what to track
Checkout looks simple from the customer’s side: tap, insert, swipe, scan, or pay cash. For many small businesses, the point of sale can be a countertop terminal, tablet, mobile reader, …
The Ringelmann effect: why people try less when more people are involved
A bigger team can feel like the safest answer to a difficult problem. So why does the project with eight people sometimes move slower than the one with three? It …
What is seller financing? A practical guide for buyers and sellers
Seller financing can make a deal possible, but it also changes the risk profile. The seller is no longer just selling. They are lending. The buyer is no longer just …
Break-even analysis explained for small business owners
A business can feel busy while still losing money. Break-even analysis is a calculation that shows the sales level where total revenue equals total costs. At that point, the business …
Best font size for business cards: a practical print guide
Your business card should make your details easy to read in one glance. Use these font size ranges as a starting point. Card element Suggested font size How to use …
Weekly meetings that earn their place on the calendar
Most weekly meetings don’t fail in the meeting. They fail before anyone joins. Use weekly meetings for work that benefits from live attention: resolving blockers, making trade-offs, surfacing risks, assigning …
Commercial loan refinance: how to decide before you apply
A commercial loan refinance can improve cash flow, reduce interest costs, or give your business room to grow. It can also move today’s pressure into a longer, more expensive loan …
Small business finance management that keeps you cash-ready
Small business finance management doesn’t have to mean complicated dashboards. Finance management is the system you use to track money, forecast cash, control spending, meet tax obligations, and decide where …
Funding for small businesses in Canada: choose the right money before you apply
Funding gets easier to compare when you stop asking where to get money and start asking what the money needs to do. Before you fill out an application, write one …
How to fix your online reputation without making it worse
A reputation problem feels urgent because buyers may see it before they ever speak to you. This recovery playbook is for business owners dealing with bad reviews, outdated search results, …
Making an LLC: a practical guide before you file
Making an LLC is easy to start and surprisingly easy to do badly. This guide is written for U.S.-focused business owners, freelancers, consultants, ecommerce sellers, and side-hustle operators who want …
Digital out-of-home advertising: a practical guide for businesses
Digital out-of-home advertising can look deceptively simple: buy a screen, upload an ad, and wait for people to notice. What digital out-of-home advertising means Digital out-of-home advertising, often shortened to …
Selling a business: how to get buyer-ready before you list
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada cites 2023 survey data showing that more than 17% of SME owners planned to exit their business within five years. The strongest time to …
Xero price increases put small-business software costs back in focus
Xero is raising subscription prices in several markets and changing how multi-organization discounts apply in some of them. In the United States, Xero’s updated pricing took effect on October 1, …
Thai floods halt car production and strain air cargo
As of Friday, October 2, 2026, flooding in Thailand had disrupted vehicle production and air cargo. The Nation Thailand reported that Toyota Motor Thailand and Honda Automobile (Thailand) halted vehicle …
UPS and FedEx holiday surcharges begin with bulky U.S. parcels
Holiday parcel surcharges have begun at UPS and FedEx, but the first cost increase does not hit every U.S. package equally. Carrier schedules available October 1 show UPS demand surcharges …
Canadian small business confidence drops to 47.9 as costs and weak demand squeeze owners
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said its long-term Business Barometer index dropped nearly 10 points to 47.9 in September. The index measures 12-month expectations on a scale from 0 …
Google Ads adds unhashed IP address matching to Customer Match
Google Ads has added IP address and interaction timestamp matching to Customer Match, expanding the signals advertisers can send when creating first-party audience lists. The change is visible across Google’s …
Google is sending TPUs into orbit for its first Project Suncatcher test
On September 24, 2026, Google said a prototype satellite developed with Planet will carry Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) into low Earth orbit aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission. As of September …
FTC chair says AI developers may be liable for agent conduct
Speaking at Reuters Momentum AI Austin on September 25, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson suggested developers who instruct AI agents would be liable for harm caused by those …
U.S. diesel eases below $6.50 ahead of FedEx surcharge increases
U.S. diesel prices have slipped below US$6.50 per gallon after reaching a record earlier in September. AAA’s national average stood at US$6.4709 per U.S. gallon on September 27, 2026, down …
Global container index falls as Shanghai–Los Angeles rates rise
Drewry’s World Container Index fell 1% to US$4,468 per 40-foot container in its September 24, 2026 assessment, while the Shanghai–Los Angeles rate rose 2% to US$7,838. Shanghai–New York remained broadly …
Claude Opus 5.5 brings high-end AI at a lower price
Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, 2026, lowering the price of its high-end Opus model. The commercial question extends beyond benchmark rankings: whether more demanding AI work can …
Canada’s Productivity Mega Deduction makes purchase timing a tax question
Canada’s proposed Productivity Mega Deduction is now a timing issue, not just an Ottawa policy headline. The measure is not enacted law as of September 26, 2026. The key date …
Why Pepco’s new hub matters for retail inventory planning
For discount retailers, weak ocean shipping reliability is no longer just a procurement headache. Pepco Group is a current case study. Reuters reported on September 21 that the Warsaw-listed discount …
Google AI checkout is rolling out to eligible Shopify merchants
Google’s AI shopping push is moving from product discovery to direct purchase for eligible Shopify merchants. As of September 26, 2026, Shopify’s help documentation describes the Google AI Mode and …
Million-dollar tanker rates show energy’s new bottleneck is ships
Tanker freight has become one of the clearest signals of stress in energy markets. The latest Baltic Exchange weekly tanker report, published September 25, put the daily round-trip time-charter equivalent …
Ottawa’s labour-dispute bill puts Section 107 back in the spotlight
Canada’s proposed labour-dispute rules are now a live political fight inside Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, an omnibus bill introduced in the House of Commons on September 21, …
Meta’s AI hardware bet still has one unanswered question
Meta’s pitch for AI hardware just became more concrete. At Connect 2026, Meta introduced Muse Charm, a pocket device built around Muse, the company’s personal AI agent. Meta said Muse …
SoftBank sets $11.1 billion bond sale to fund OpenAI investment
SoftBank Group has set the terms for approximately $11.1 billion in foreign-currency senior notes to help fund the final $10 billion tranche of its OpenAI investment. SoftBank’s September 24 announcement …
How Quiznos went from around 5,000 stores to Chapter 11
Quiznos once looked like one of America’s great fast-food growth stories. What followed was one of the restaurant industry’s most dramatic franchise collapses. Quiznos began in Denver in 1981. The …
Bank of Canada warns new tariffs could pull Q4 growth below 1%
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that new U.S. tariffs could slow Canada’s recovery and push fourth-quarter economic growth below 1% if they remain in place. Speaking to the …
Holiday shipping costs are moving from forecast to invoice
Peak-season freight cost pressure is moving from forecast to invoice. UPS, FedEx and USPS have published holiday price programs that begin in late September or early October, while ocean, air …
Paramount-Warner settlement still needs court approval before merger can close
Paramount Skydance’s settlement with a 12-state coalition has moved its planned Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition closer to closing, but the deal is not final yet. California Attorney General Rob Bonta …
What Google’s EEA local business search update changes
Google has widened its European Search result units to cover local business queries, adding another surface where directories and direct local providers may appear for users in the European Economic …
EU’s €3 parcel duty is already changing ecommerce sales patterns
The EU’s new customs duty on low-value parcels is already changing cross-border ecommerce behaviour. Before July 1, many low-value ecommerce parcels entered the EU without customs duty if their value …
Google fined €403 million over location data processing in EU privacy case
Google has been fined €403 million, about US$463 million, by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission after a GDPR inquiry into how Google processed location data across several account and Android features. …
Amazon blocks Meta’s Muse as the fight over AI shopping begins
Amazon’s decision to block Meta’s Muse from shopping on Amazon.com raises an important question about agentic commerce: if an AI arrives acting for a person, does the retailer have to …
Alibaba’s Zhenwu V900 chip is only one piece of a bigger AI plan
Alibaba’s latest AI announcement is less about one accelerator than about control of the system around it. At its Apsara Conference in Hangzhou on September 22, 2026, Alibaba Cloud announced …