How I Became an Entrepreneur and Launched my First Business

How does someone launch their first business? People tell me, “You must have been born rich” or “You probably went to an Ivy League school” and I just have to laugh. I’m no Rockefeller; I didn’t go to Harvard, and I’m still successful. It happened for me, and it can happen for anyone with the right drive.

I worked at McDonalds while I was in high school at the age of 14. I learned a valuable lesson - without risk, there’s no reward. When you work at McDonalds, you’re going to make $6.85 an hour (the minimum wage at the time). You’re providing a service, but you’re also a cost to the business. You’re not technically generating revenue and you’re certainly not capable of driving more revenue to yourself. McDonalds taught me many great lessons with many that I took away most being around how to work together as a team and be respectful to others within the work environment. I attribute some of my success to this work experience as it laid a strong foundation for me. When doing research I found that many other successful people worked at McDonalds including: Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, Comedian and Tonight Show host Jay Leno and Singer/Songwriter Shania Twain to name a few.

When I was 19, my brother roped me into selling ticket packages for the Yuk-Yuk’s Comedy Club pavilion at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The offer was 10 tickets for the price of two. The package had a few restrictions, but the tickets didn’t expire for a year. My brother offered me the opportunity to sell  with a couple of friends. I decided to try it and KILLED IT!. The average person would sell 10-15/day and I sold 40-50 a day. It was beautiful!  I’d approach everybody with the same pitch and within the ten day event, I made $10,000. This allowed me to buy my first car. 

I discovered that I not only was good at sales, but I loved it. With sales, it’s clear who is able to rise above the pack. Nobody needs to pat you on the back and tell you you're doing a good job. You know you're doing a good job. You certainly need to be coached and shown how to be successful, but you don't need a reassurance on how successful you're doing. You're either making good money and hitting the target or you're not.

Looking back though it was my Ad Agency experience that gave me the idea to launch my first Direct Sales business. Seeing the large amount of dollars that companies budgeted (most being in the 10+ million dollar range per year) got me excited to come up with a business concept that allowed me to compete with this type of advertising medium. The thought was that if I could get a small fraction of budget and show value maybe clients would continue to invest more with proven success.

I started thinking about the different ways I could provide additional value around verifying and quantifying results. “What if I can come up with an idea that can both act as an advertisement and actually produce results that acquires customers?” The Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) would be clear. Sales conversions could be tracked. That's when my idea of Direct Sales Force began.

I set up kiosks to advertise the clients’ product, and I placed them in high-traffic areas such as airports, shopping malls, trade shows, retailers, etc. I could prove to my clients what was working – the amount of sales was very clear. Clients started to give us pilot projects so they could test the concept to see if it actually worked. Looking back all of this happened very fast and in 2006 and 2007 we got recognized as being one of Canada’s fastest growing companies through the Profit Hot 50. The truth is, I took a risk, relied on my confidence, and drive, and it paid off as a successful business. 

I've since setup another two businesses which have been recognized as high growth businesses being recognized in both the Growth 500 in Canada and Inc. 5000 in the US.

As we approach hit the new year it is always around this time of year that I reflect on how the past year has gone. Running a business is certainly hard work, but one of the most important things that I have learned over the years is to schedule in some R&R time so the batteries can get recharged for the upcoming year. If not you will simply burn out.

It is my goal in 2024 to be more active on Linkedin so other aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from some of my mistakes and successes.

I wish everyone a great 2024 and look forward to collaborating and getting to meet new people.