Start-up...TimeWise

Dateline: December, 2001

Is there a specific entrepreneurial "type"? If there is, I never considered myself to be one of them. I was content for twenty-odd years to work for other people until 2001. That year, I was laid off twice from two different companies due to branch office closures here in Sudbury. The first was due to an illness in the franchisee's family. The second was a direct result of 9-11. The second employer was kind enough to allow me to move the entire office contents to Oakville over Christmas (my last day was December 21st...ho-ho-ho); however they let me know that the fewer things they had to move, the better.

So, I pedalled my office furniture from suite to suite in our building. One neighbour, Ruby, stopped in to take a look at the counter unit and uttered the words that changed the course of my life: "You're so good at what you do. I don't know why you're not in business for yourself."
That is the exact moment when a thousand bells went off, along with several hundred pounds of fireworks. Why had I never thought of this before? I could do practically the same thing that I'd been doing for years, except I could operate as an independent business owner.

I frankly had little idea of what I was doing; nor did I fully understand what I was getting into. However, I leaned into what I was doing. I filied for EI (Canada Employment Insurance), just to be safe...as well as to get the benefits to which I was entitled. Then I headed to Ruby's office in search of my first client.