from the editormar 08, 2011 · wood use – 15 trees saved energy – 11 million btu’s less...
TRANSCRIPT
From the Editor
For everyone who had the guts to pull the trigger on starting a new business, this edition of Douglas is for you.
It’s our fourth annual 10 to Watch issue, in which we honour Greater Victoria’s top new businesses. But beyond that, it’s a celebration of entrepreneurship in general, and what it takes to venture that first huge step into the unknown.
The journey starts with a litany of questions.Is there a market for my product or service? Who is my competition?
What do I need to do differently from them? Where can I access start-up funding? What are my budgetary expectations? Where do I allocate my limited resources? Where is the best location for my business? And so on. Just answering these questions — and potentially hundreds more — via a business plan can be one of the most daunting parts of the process. And it all needs to be done before you even so much as think about staff, realtors, suppliers, or anyone else involved in the set-up phase.
You need to decide if going into business is right for you — because so many people go into it thinking that their idea is so good that customers will practically fall over each other lining up to get a piece. That can be the most vexing question of them all, because for every street of gold, there’s another one paved with broken dreams. The difference between the two often comes down to the finest of details. A business plan usually includes no less than nine or 10 essential elements. These range from a high-level executive summary to financial projections based on detailed market analyses. These aren’t the details I’m referring to.
What puts some businesses over the top while others languish or fold are harder-to-define qualities like innovation, passion, intuition, confidence, and execution. The businesses on this year’s 10 to Watch list have these in spades.
Some, like IKAN Installations (see page 46), boast an idea that, on paper, looks like a surefire winner: a business tailored to helping people assemble IKEA furniture. An idea whose time has come? Perhaps, but it still takes huge amounts of effort to go from plan to reality — to execute. On the other hand, you have companies like The London Chef (see page 48), which is shattering the mould for what a cooking school/catering service should look like and the services it should provide — it’s innovating, through and through.
When I think about these 10 businesses’ accomplishments, I’m reminded of a line from one of the finest movies I’ve seen in some time, the 2010 remake of True Grit, starring Jeff Bridges: “They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you. I am not paying for talk.”
A business plan isn’t just talk — a road map might be a more apt comparison — but without determined, sustained action (“grit,” you might call it), it’s not worth the price of the paper it’s printed on. You might be familiar with some of our 10 to Watch winners; others, not so much. They’re a diverse group, but they have one critical trait in common: they’ve walked the talk, and in doing so, they’ve gritted out their place in the market, positioning themselves for long-term success. Please join us as we honour them.
For an insider’s perspective on the relentless pursuit of entrepreneurial success, see Troy Fimrite’s guest column on page 68.
— Brian Hartz [email protected]
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editor Brian Hartz
art director Georgina Camilleri
editorial designer Jo-Ann Loro
associate editor Kerry Slavens
Production Manager Jennifer Kühtz
advertising Coordinator Courtney Swartz
Creative-technical Manager Jeffrey Bosdet
Contributing writers Steve Bokor, Ian Clark, Troy Fimrite, Andrew Findlay, Glenn Lindsey, Shannon Moneo, Keith Norbury, Jody Paterson, Wynne McAlpine, Alex Van Tol, Mike Wicks
Contributing Photographers Jeffrey Bosdet, Simon DesRochers, Gregg Eligh, Bob Hewitt
graphic designers Janice Hildybrant, Jordan Clarke
advertising representatives Jody Beck, Suzanne Gurnell, Cynthia Hanischuk, Alex MacLachlan
Marketing and Circulation strategist Danielle Smeltzer
administrative assistant Bev Madden-Knight
Contributing agencies iStockphoto (p. 14, 28, 56, 66, 68), Fotolia (p. 20 - 21), cartoonstock.com (p. 62)
To CoNTACT [email protected]
LETTERS To THE EDIToR [email protected]
To SuBSCRIBE To [email protected]
ADVERTISING INquIRIES [email protected]
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Douglas is published six times a year by
group Publisher Georgina Camilleri
President Lise Gyorkos
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4 Douglas