SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS STORIES
As a new small business owner you might feel like you're all alone – especially when dealing with difficult challenges. I feel that way myself at times. And that’s when it’s important to look to other entrepreneurs. Small businesses in Canada are driving the new economy. Many of them have gone through the same hurdles and lived to tell, so if you're looking for small business advice, be sure to look at other entrepreneurs’ experiences to see what you can incorporate into your own business strategy. Reading about others’ successes can also be inspiring and help you look at your own business model in a new way.
Here are some of the inspiring stories I have come across that I find motivating:
1 - Be innovative in how you turn lemon into lemonade
Farmers used to just throw away chicken wings. Now they're on every menu. Old tires now make great playgrounds. And entrepreneurs are now turning rotting wood into a building material as hard as concrete called Beetlecrete - how's that for a business strategy?
People living in BC have been watching for years as mountain pine beetles devastate the forests around them - an alarming blight that's left acres of blue stained, cracked deadwood in its wake. Rather than letting all that wood rot on the hillside, graduate students at the University of Northern BC came up with an innovative idea: blend flakes of the wood with portland cement to create a new building material that looks and feels like wood, but is as strong as concrete. That's the idea behind Beetlecrete, which is a great example of thinking differently to turn a negative situation into a positive product.
2 - Keep your overhead costs low
If you're looking at your business growth strategy, take a lesson from security product distributor Panamsec Inc. which follows a “be small but act large” philosophy. As part of their business strategy, they've embraced the idea of outsourcing. For example, instead of renting warehouse space, they partner with another small company that receives and ships their products so they don’t have to spend money on their own infrastructure. This has allowed the new company to invest more money in marketing to grow their business while keeping overhead costs low. Read about their business philosophy here which revolves around an online marketing strategy, outsourcing their storage and focusing on being lean.
3 - Be nimble with your product line
It's important to have a unique offering and fill a niche, but that doesn't mean you can't add to the lineup and find new niches to fill. Especially in an industry where new products are always coming out and pushing old ones aside.
For example, keeping their product line fresh is a secret to the success of Quebec’s Targray Technology International Inc.
Targray started out supplying materials to companies that make DVDs and CDs, but then realized that with the world going digital, this was a shrinking market. So after some research into other industries where they could supply similar expertise, they started selling materials to solar panel makers. The expansion was such a success that, just three years later, Targray’s sales to the solar industry were generating more than half of its US$225 million in revenue. It's a lesson in looking at what you make or sell, and who else might be interested in it - and that's great small business advice.
4 - Go green - the smart way
Green building, green products and green lifestyle are hot sectors for consumers and business clients alike, and a lot of companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Kevin Royce, owner of Eco Building Resource in Aurora, Ontario offers up a few ideas entrepreneurs should think about if they want to develop a successful green business strategy.
Looking for more success stories to inspire you? Start your search here and here.
Cheryl Binning is a Vancouver based freelance TV, digital media and print writer, publicist and small business owner. She's been writing about business, entertainment, the media and communications for fifteen years, and isn't sure if the highlight of her career so far was interviewing Nick Nolte in his bathrobe, or meeting Alice Cooper at the Music Video Awards.
Follow her on Twitter @cherylbinning
