Small Business BC – 7th Annual INSPIRE Celebration of Entrepreneurship
Date: September 29, 2016
Name: Small Business BC – 7th Annual INSPIRE Celebration of Entrepreneurship
Presenters: Tom Leavitt, Charles Chang, Darryll Frost, Bradford Cooke, Sunny Lenarduzzi, Alexander Fernandes, and Peter Higgins
October is recognized as the month of small businesses in Vancouver. Moreover, local entrepreneurs are willing to celebrate their contributions to local economy with others. Small Business BC forms a technology panel to discuss the insight on how technology drives their business. This presentation also features 2 major keynote speakers, Alexander Fernandes, the Founder of Avigilon Corporation, and Peter Higgins, the President of Purdy’s Chocolates, to discuss their road of success in their entrepreneurship. Passion in creativity and building community are the keys to build small business in Vancouver. In this presentation, entrepreneurs will inspire by success and experience from others.
Technology Panel Discussion
The panel includes Tom Leavitt, the Founder of Leavitt Machinery, Charles Chang, the Founder of Lyra Growth and Vega, Darryll Frost, the Founder of Central City Brewers and Distillers, Bradford Cooke, the Founder of Endeavour Silver Corp, and Sunny Lenarduzzi, the Radio and Television host from City TV.
There are some foundation components entrepreneurs need in any successful business. Cooke believes entrepreneurs need 4 things. First is the entrepreneur spirit. Second is the passion to build business. Entrepreneurs need to build business, manage the growth and go to expert to bring good management. Third is the innovate business plan and last is quality. Quality comes first because quality is the key building block for any business. Chang believes entrepreneurs need to get going on sales effort. They need to create sales and learn; moreover, entrepreneurs need to focus on topline. Frost believes structure is important. Entrepreneurs need to understand the importance of finance in incorporation. Lenarduzzi believes entrepreneurs need a strong 5 year vision that can impact the public. Entrepreneurs should outsource or delegate as soon as possible. Moreover, listening is the key because social platforms are full of clues and opportunities. Leavitt believes customer satisfaction is important. By knowing what customers want will be direction for the entrepreneurs.
Leavitt and Frost comment that it is important for entrepreneurs to establish a good relationship with the bank.
Comparing profit versus revenue growth, Frost believes entrepreneurs need to give time to scale first. Structure must be in place first. They need to build scale, then profit. Lenarduzzi shares entrepreneurs should aim for breakeven in first year. Leavitt believes net profit is important because without profit, there will be no retain earnings. Profit is everything because it drives everything. Therefore, retain is important, so entrepreneurs must invest wisely.
Personal brand is essential for entrepreneurs. Lenarduzzi believes with a great brand, it benefits all. It creates authority in industry space, and it also creates a strong competitive advantage. With the right social media strategy, entrepreneurs can reduce bad press because it ranks up with good information. Entrepreneurs must remember that people google them before they hire them for service. Cooke agrees with Lenarduzzi. People deal with people and brand is a step to success. It creates high accessibility and high engagement. Leavitt believes a strong brand brings people through the door. Chang believes it increases reputation and personal integrity. How people do something is how they do everything. Frost believes branding has three steps: create, evolve, and protect. Entrepreneurs need to recognized their physical brand. Hiring marketing team or having spokesman can help focus on branding.
System and process are important for entrepreneurs. Lenarduzzi shares she started as one to one, then she transferred to video answers and online courses. Cooke believes it starts with redefine and recognize what entrepreneurs are good at. They need to deliver online and tight up the focus. Frost suggests entrepreneurs not to start with ERP right away. Instead, they can use excel first to establish the foundation before enhance right away.
Leavitt suggests entrepreneurs to “stick to their knitting” first. Change believes people is the best advantage, so entrepreneurs must always prepare before delegate. Frost suggests entrepreneurs to prepare to take risks because if they do not try, they will never succeed. Cooke wants entrepreneurs to remember 3 words: passion, perception and persistence. Passion drives accessibility, perception creates awareness, and persistence allows entrepreneurs to keep trying. Lenarduzzi suggests entrepreneurs to look and check what is currently working. They need to hire people who are willing to learn, and face challenges.
Disruption is something all industries are facing. Chang believes entrepreneurs should think well and ask questions. They need to figure out what they can control, stop blaming and take accountability. Leavitt wants entrepreneurs to focus on current resources, diversify out and figure out what is coming. Frost believes if entrepreneurs think they will fail, they will fail for sure.
Chang comments sustainability is the driver in his market. As for mentorship, the panel agrees that mentees must be patient. Lenarduzzi suggests entrepreneurs to do research on the mentor and understand how they make money from business. Hiring family members can be difficult. Lenarduzzi thinks it is a great opportunity to create great relationship, but policy must be in place. Leavitt believes it is better not to hire people they know.
Cooke identifies business starts with the right people. Leavitt comments if entrepreneurs offer to the same price to the same competitors, they will never make money. Therefore, they should always aim for premium pricing. The biggest challenge Frost faces is raise money not giving out too much equity. Chang agrees and comments that managing cash is an important lesson for entrepreneurs. The first job in startup is survival, so entrepreneurs should take the time to learn cash flow.
Lessons from Alexander Fernandes
Alex Fernandes makes a strong and bold statement in the presentation.
“Time is money; however, I cannot make more time, but I can make more money”
Fernandes believes to become the industry leaders, they need 3 elements.
- Advancing teams
- Technology
- Innovation
Fernandes shares some ingredients of a recipe for success.
Ingredient #1: Push yourself
Fernandes believes success is not for the faint of heart. It requires passion and desire. Entrepreneurs need to envision their goals by writing them down on paper with step by step plan. They need to constantly reading them. Entrepreneurs need to strive for excellence, but not perfection. They should deliver no matter what obstacles they come across. Entrepreneurs need to remain steadfast and maintain long term focus. When entrepreneurs focus on achieving goals, executing business plan and developing personal wealth, they will ensure wealth follows when business is successful.
Ingredient #2: Build and motivating an all-star team
Fernandes reveals 2 main ingredients for success.
- The plan
- Execution
Entrepreneurs need to look for “A” players and sold “B” with potential and ambition to become “A” players. When entrepreneurs combine “A” players and “B” players, it creates a winning team, which leads to success. Usually “C” players hire “D” or “F” players. Entrepreneurs must aware of carrot and stick and reward and consequence logics.
“100% of failure comes from internal, not external”
“Before hire someone, ask yourself, ‘Can you fire them?’ If not, do not hire”
Ingredient #3: Viewing your business as an outlet for competitiveness and winning
Fernandes summarizes there are only 3 ways to make money in business.
- Services
- Products
- Dreams
Whatever entrepreneurs choose, they must be better than competition. The differentiation comes in many forms, especially in innovation.
“Success is internal. If you fail, or succeed, it is internal”
Ingredient #4: Investing in innovation and product development
Based on statistic, every dollar entrepreneurs invests, they should expect to get 3 dollars back within 3 to 5 years. They need to focus on design the near future by anticipating and predicting technology evolution. Fernandes suggests entrepreneurs not to design based on state of the art technology and do not look too far ahead. They should expect and plan for setbacks, delays and the unexpected. For instance, if entrepreneurs do not have plan B or C, they will fail plan A.
“If your plan is based on everything going well, you will have a plan for failure”
Comparing young or experience, Fernandes believes entrepreneurs should hire people who are young and creative. To have an inspire team, entrepreneurs need to help the team find their career objective. They can promote within only if they demonstrate loyalty.
“Do you want to eat or eaten?”
Lessons from Peter Higgins
Peter Higgins shares the history of Purdy’s Chocolates. Richard Carmon Purdy founded Purdy’s Chocolates in 1907. The company went through war and depression period from 1907 to 1963. Charles Flavelle brought the company in 1963 and started to grow in shopping malls. In 1999, Purdy’s executes the ‘E’ Commerce sales strategy and began the Ontario expansion in 2004.
During 1965, Charles Flavelle created the Purdy’s Vision Statement.
“Purdy’s will be a place where people like to gather, as in a community, to work effectively at jobs they like and are challenged by, amongst people they like to be with”
Until now, Peter Higgins believes there are 3 core mission in Purdy’s.
- Fantastic chocolates
- Fantastic people
- Fantastic services
With these 3 core mission, Purdy’s is able to create Purdy’s moments for customers.
There are 4 values for Purdy’s.
- Never compromise quality
- Be customer obsessed
- Respect and support each other
- Make us better each day
Higgins wants entrepreneurs to think about these 3 questions. The first question is “what is your niche?”, the second question is “How can your team be stronger?”, and last question is “What are your strategic actions?”.
Purdy’s strategic actions comes into 3 parts: packing, services, sales. Traditionally, it is based on how fast they can pack; however, the strategy changed in 2010 because of changing culture. They are now focusing on 3 things.
- New shop design
- Create, go crazy, and invert
- Team to hire for passion and chocolate education
“Combine passion and knowledge is the customer connection”
The next evolution for Purdy’s is sustainable coca. The company will work directly with farmer by paying them premium. They will provide farmer education and increase living standards. The advantage Purdy’s chocolates give to people is “premium chocolate giving direct to customer”.