Open For Business Montreal

What's This Podcast
About?

Every independent business in this city has two stories. The one on the sign, and the one behind the counter. This show is the second one. I'm Jason. I've spent 20 years in operations, and I run Pepper Consulting, a Montreal operations and leadership consultancy. Every episode I sit down with someone who built something here. A shop, a trade, a restaurant, a one-person agency, a contractor running crews across the province. People who started with an idea and grew it into something that actually works. And then I ask the questions nobody asks them in public. How did the first paying client happen. What did the good year actually cost you. What broke when you got busy. If you disappeared for a week, what would your customers notice first. The stuff owners talk about with each other at eleven at night, and never on a stage. Because here is what I've learned in 20 years: almost nobody is failing because they are lazy, and almost nobody is winning because they are a genius. The difference is the systems underneath. Who does what. What happens when somebody doesn't answer. How work gets from sold to done to paid. It is unglamorous, it is invisible from the outside, and it is the whole game. So these conversations go somewhere most business interviews don't. My guests talk about the month they took on more than they could carry. The client they should have said no to. The thing they still do themselves at midnight because they have never figured out how to hand it over. They are generous about it, because they remember being on the other side of it. Then at the end of every episode, I take one idea from the conversation and spend ninety seconds on it alone, for you. One pattern, one example, one thing you can change this week. No pitch. Just the fix. WHO THIS IS FOR If you run a business, you will hear your own in here, and you will leave with something you can use. If you are thinking about starting one, this is the honest version of what you are signing up for. And if you just love this city, you will never walk past these places the same way again. WHO IS ON IT Independent, owner-run Montreal businesses. No franchises, no chains, no corporate talking points. One owner per episode, so it stays a conversation and not a panel. Thirty minutes or so. Filmed. In English. WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW If you run a business in this city, or you know someone who should be in that chair, I would like to hear about it. Book a time: https://calendar.app.google/VT6pwKgEUjgrzW2Y6 Or write to me: hello@openforbusinessmontreal.ca Open for Business Montreal is a Pepper Consulting show. More on the operations side at jasonpepper.ca. Fix the system. Free the owner. #MontrealBusiness #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #BusinessOperations #MadeInMontreal

Podcast Copyright

2026 Jason Pepper