Airdrie’s award-winning SMARTstart program has been pairing entrepreneurs with business mentors since 2014.
More than 100 people have completed the program. Entrepreneurs have opened businesses, grown their businesses and improved their business practices. Some participants also determine that their idea is not viable or that they don’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. SMARTstart also considers this a success.
SMARTstart is all about helping entrepreneurs realize their potential. Meet some of the program’s current entrepreneurs and their mentors.
Alberta Ortho & Dental Sharpening Inc. (Jodi McFarlane)
What is the inspiration for your business?
The inspiration for my business was while working as an orthodontic assistant I encountered dull pliers frequently that I knew were hurting my patients. And extra chair time resulting in the clinic running behind. It was frustrating to all parties involved. After some research I found that there are not many local sharpening businesses. Items either went to Ontario or the US. I have discovered there are a lot of other professions that require items they use daily to be sharpened as well. Recycling items that are not able to be sharpened is another avenue I am exploring at this time to incorporate into my business.
What are you most excited about learning?
I am excited to learn how to franchise a business. Since the inception of this idea it has greatly expanded and I am grateful to have the guidance of my mentor, Sid. Learning all aspects of owning and operating a business I find exciting.
Sid Van der Meer (retired, former owner of Northwest Equipment Ltd.)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
An entrepreneur is a person who has the desire, passion and ability to handle the financial risk to achieve their dreams.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Over the years I have learned so much from each entrepreneur that I have had the privilege to work with; (it’s great) now to drive through Airdrie and see these businesses in our community and helping our community.
Lotus Reproductive Health and Fertility (Rebecca McElhinney)
What is the inspiration for your business?
My inspiration for Lotus Reproductive Health and Fertility is from working in the fertility health sector. I found there should be more available information and resources out there for people going through fertility treatments. To also inform young women of preventative measures and to be more knowledgeable regarding their reproductive health and future fertility.
What are you most excited about learning?
I’m most excited to learn about marketing and management of a business. There are so many moving parts behind the scene in a well-oiled business. I want to ensure I am providing the best business to my future clients by running a knowledgeable business and sending out the right information successfully.
Dr. Melanie Beingessner (Blessingways Family Wellness)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
Long-term vision. It takes a long time to get a new business running successfully. I think that many entrepreneurs are looking for instant success and most of us take at least five years (or more!) to get our businesses running successfully. It takes time to learn how to run your business, reach out to the community and to build up a regular client base.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
I get to choose my life within my business. I can choose my hours, how we run the clinic and many great events that provide a fun experience to everyone who comes to see us. It is great to be able to take vacation when I want to, and to be flexible if family events come up.
Cybersecurity Services (Sergey Buryachenko)
What is the inspiration for your business?
Small businesses are a lucrative target for cyber-criminals. Customer personal information such as email addresses and payment details is valuable to hackers who can sell it or use it to commit a fraud. As a cybersecurity professional, I wanted to protect my family from a privacy breach by showing small businesses how to shield themselves from unexpected and costly cyber-attack.
What are you most excited about learning?
Of course, getting knowledge that makes me more content.
Don Dixon (Cangos)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
The ability to observe:
- What is happening every day in your business. How your product or service is affecting your customers. Is it positive? Could it be better? Be prepared to change if necessary.
- Your staff to identify strengths and weakness. Compliment when necessary and add training where necessary.
- To diagnose what is positive and what is negative about your business. Do more positive and eliminate the negative.
- The competition. What are they doing that you might emulate? What are they doing wrong – don’t make the same mistakes they are making.
- The market. What is happening today? What might happen tomorrow? Move to take advantage of opportunities that you have observed.
- Market trends to stay ahead of the competition. Subscribe to trade magazines to keep ahead of the curve.
- Observe and review your own values and goals. Are you happy with them?
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Finding a product or service that excites me and then moving forward to introduce it into the market. Market research. Reviewing strengths and weakness of the product and how it might compete within your market. Preparing product knowledge with sales approach and marketing materials to bring the product to market.
Oh Snap Photo Camper (Stephanie Rabel)
What is the inspiration for your business?
Oh Snap was created out of a passion for events, crafting memories and making others feel special. It has been such a rewarding passion project transforming this vintage trailer into the mobile photo booth that we affectionately named ‘Darla.’ I am most looking forward to seeing the smiles and memories my girl creates for any type of event.
What are you most excited about learning?
What I am most excited about being part of the SMARTstart program is to network with the other entrepreneurs but also build a solid foundation for my business.
Learn more about Stephanie here
Kelly Paisley (The I.T. Company)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
Mental toughness; the ability to keep trying after you have failed.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Freedom
Becoming Boundless Meditation Studio (Tamara Wheeler)
What is the inspiration for your business?
I was inspired through not only my experience as a stay-at-home mother but also through my healing journey.
I am an individual who needs quiet in my life but found a severe lack within my home environment. When I went outside the home I was limited as to where I could go to truly decompress. It seemed like such a large task to participate in what I required for self-care and really became a huge expense. As this world becomes more compact it is important to have community spaces where individuals can meet their needs outside of the home. So like a gym (where) you would go to work out, my business is a place of calm and quiet to exercise self-care and learn the art of stress reduction through meditation. Hence my business idea.
What are you most excited about learning?
SMARTstart is an amazing opportunity to truly explore what my dream will require of not just myself but also my family. I am most excited about gaining a more grounded approach to finance so that I can truly understand the workings of my chosen business model.
Nancy Kelln (Unimagined Testing Inc. & Greenwood Rentals)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
Resilience. Anyone can have a business idea; it is resilience that turns that idea into a business!
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
My favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur is seeing dreams become reality.
Makers Studio (Tami Crawford)
What is the inspiration for your business?
The idea for “Just Flip It!” came as I watched my grandchildren try to sell toys they had outgrown. They had bought them with their own money so weren’t about to give them away. The enormous time investment from their parents posting on social media led me to think there must be a better way! The SMARTstart program has helped me confirm that, indeed, there is a need for a much easier, fun and engaging way to capture the value of goods we already own but would like or need to replace. “Just Flip It!” will help my grandchildren and all Airdrie buyers, sellers and “thrill-of-the-find seekers” realize the value of items we already own in a new and unique way.
What are you most excited about learning?
With the help of SMARTstart and my mentor Jennifer, I’m excited to build the Airdrie team, create the Airdrie “Just Flip It!” experience and spread the word that it doesn’t have to be new to be fabulous!
Jennifer Benner (Benner Database Designs)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have in order to be successful?
Excellent time management skills: this means that they need to know where their strengths are, when to delegate to others and when to let go of what’s not working.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
The ability to constantly improve. I am my greatest challenger and there is no limit on what I can achieve if I set my mind to it.
GT Promotions (Danny and Kimberly Goring)
What is the inspiration for your business?
We feel we can bring new approaches and techniques to the ever- developing world of marketing material. We really enjoy working with people, and the promotions industry has provided an amazing array of new technologies we are eager to learn. There is never a dull moment in our business. It is always a great feeling to create new and exciting products for individuals and businesses.
What are you most excited about learning?
We are excited to learn proper accounting techniques, forecasting, and approaches to sales and marketing. It is our intention to hire workers; any knowledge related to human resources and staffing would be of great benefit.
Wendy Bates (The Hair Lounge)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
Set goals, work hard and always enjoy what you are doing.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
The support of all the amazing people in my life.
Rival Axe Throwing Ltd. (Joni Daley)
What is the inspiration for your business?
The inspiration for starting Rival Axe Throwing was the heart for community and family. Creating a place people can come and experience a fantastic new sport while building friendships.
What are you most excited about learning?
We are excited about being part of SMARTstart at this very moment. This is giving us the opportunity to learn how to diversify and be sustainable during economic challenges. Times like these have also allowed us to press on with our mentors and the tools to grow into strong entrepreneurs.
Michelle Carre (The Carre Group)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
I believe entrepreneurs need a drive and desire that runs to through their core. It take a lot of determination to get through the challenges of entrepreneurship.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
I love that things are always changing and there are new things to learn all of the time.
Funky Petals (Patty Duggan)
What is the inspiration for your business?
The ability to deliver product that brings joy, love, thoughtfulness and of course my love of flowers is the inspiration of my business.
What are you most excited about learning?
I am most excited about learning new contemporary designs to give my customers a different choice of flower buying.
Heather Cowie (Airdrie Family Eye Doctors)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
Resilience.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur has allowed me to make a bigger positive difference to my community than I would have been able to do on my own, and I love that.
The Little Blind Company (Shala Heger)
What is the inspiration for your business?
I was inspired by my dad to become an entrepreneur. I watched him successfully run his local business, Airdrie Windshield & Glass, for the last 30 years and from that I truly found my passion for serving our community. After an opportunity arose with a window covering company back in 2016, I started to think more about starting my own window covering company, which goes hand in hand with all the window work my dad does. He was the one who inspired me and gave me the push that I needed to make that dream and reality.
What are you most excited about learning?
I’m excited to learn more about the financial side of running a business through the SMARTstart program. Sure, it seems like running your own business would be all rainbows and roses, until you are forced to sit down and crunch the numbers.
Heather Harke (Shoplift Deals Limited)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
The ability to creatively adapt. Everything else can be taught.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
That I get to set the tone of our work environment to be positive and collaborative with our team and customers.
Community Art Space (Tannis Smith)
What is the inspiration for your business?
I love the idea of a space for artists to come together; to share, teach and inspire all artists at heart! As well, a place for kids to make a mess while exploring what art has to offer them.
What are you most excited about learning?
I am most excited about connecting with other community members that share in my passion for art and collaboration!
Nadine Woitt (Mezzanine Hair Studio)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
I would say the No.1 quality needed for me would be patience and perseverance.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
And the best thing would be the amazing people you meet along the way.
Children Empowerment Workshops (Tendai Dongo)
What is the inspiration for your business?
I am a passionate learning experience designer for adult learners, and younger students. The inspiration for facilitating children’s workshops began after discovering that I was not alone in worrying about raising children in a dynamic world, where it seemed like half the time I was trying to catch up. As an adult I have easy access to self-development programs to help me successfully handle many social situations, but what resources are available to our children outside of the classroom? I would love to provide fun experiential learning to children. Penya means shine in the Shona language. I want to help empower and nurture young minds to be their best selves and shine!
What are you most excited about learning?
Invaluable mentorship, including how to market my business, and how to develop business partnerships.
Tracy Goodbrand (Irricana Kountry Kennel)
What is the No. 1 quality an entrepreneur needs to have to be successful?
Any entrepreneur has to be totally passionate about their business! That all-encompassing passion along with grit and determination will take them through the rough spots, especially when there isn’t much time for their home life and personal interests and hobbies.
What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
I love that I can pursue something that I am so passionate about! Running my own business allows me to take a deep dive into the industry and effect change for the better.
