Driven to Succeed...

I was hired to write a new business plan for Alberta entrepreneurs Ron Leclair and Bryan Cardwell. Already primed for success with a combined 30-ish years with one of the leading national companies in the auto glass industry, Bryan and Ron were ready to go out their own and opened Benchmark Glass & Mirror Ltd.

I got to know them both in the process of creating their business plan, and knew they had everything it would take to be a success in a very competitive industry. By the end of year one, sales revenues were already 30% over the projections we had included in the plan. Now, midway through their second year they have opened a second store in Edmonton with plans for a third location being developed.

Because my team and I are so hands-on in our relationships with clients, it is very gratifying to see them take the work we do together and use that as a springboard to even greater success. In 2009, Benchmark Glass has been nominated for the Business of the Year awards hosted by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce... Congratulations and best wishes for year three!

A Visit South...

I always have a hard time buying in to the concept of a recession when I get to work with so many visionary business leaders who are growing, evolving and reinventing products and services to continually reach even higher levels of success.

Take a look at the travel excursion company with two branch offices in Peru run by Canadian entrepreneur Victoria Harris and her business partner Carlos Ames.
http://www.aventuraquechua.com/index.html

Victoria has been operating Aventura in Peru for about 7 years, but happened to be in Lethbridge visiting family in January 2009. We had a chance to get together to brainstorm some marketing approaches for increasing Canadian awareness for planned expansion to the menu of adventures already popular with Japanese, European and American travellers.

In the meantime, I am keeping my fingers crossed that Victoria will request another consultation on marketing options for Aventura Quechua; a meeting which would necessitate a trip for me to Peru ... :-)

Business around the globe...

I had been hired for several fun and exciting projects over the last few years by business woman, financial planner and ag specialist Georgina Knitel but this request was really special. In September of 2008 Georgina was partnering with Roy Brewin to create an international division of his company, Rowland Seeds, which would be marketing organic and land reclamation grains to China. The team was flying out October 13th, which gave us less than 5 weeks to develop new branding, a new website, new video, along with all of their print materials and spec sheets including translations to Chinese.

The experience reminded me of being back in high school working on a school play; layouts and revisions flying back and forth through the middle of the night... pulling Roy in from the field to sign off on proofs or web content sitting in his truck on the highway at the mid-point between our office and his farm... a rush trip to Calgary to pick up business cards because we had missed our final deadline for the printer here....

All in all, it was an adventure that I wouldn't have given up for anything! And the finished results speak for themselves:
www.rowlandseeds.com

Special thank you's go to the specialists that came in under some very difficult circumstances to provide their expertise:
Allen Gibson of StarMedia
Blair Pomahac of Digital Eye Design
Mort of K2 Communications

What's new at Alberta Biz?

Hey there... My name is Colette Acheson. I am a management consultant based in southern Alberta, Canada and I started this blog to have a place where I can brag about some of the very cool things that my clients are up to.

I have been self employed (this go-round... :-) for five years now, and I have been lucky enough to get to ride along while my clients, mostly entrepreneurs and business start-ups, are creating some amazing successes here and around the world.

I hope that you will check back from time to time to read about new client experiences, and an occasional bit of business wisdom from me...

Best wishes to entrepreneurs everywhere!
Colette