Amplify Your Business

Amplify Your Business ScaleHR

For Episode 183 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Jeff Waldman, the founder, and principal of ScaleHR. ScaleHR helps small to mid-size businesses scale their HR and People Operations through strategy and operations advice and resources, tech stack support and help, identifying value props, and growing leadership skills. They also help recruitment tech and HR startups build better solutions and software for their own businesses.To learn more, visit the ScaleHR website.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - In your experience, what are three things every entrepreneur needs to know?
03:11 - Where did you get your strong business acumen from?
04:27 - Can you tell us a little about ScaleHR?
09:48 - Can you explain what you offer in terms of tech stacks to your clients?
12:27 - With the more widespread acceptance of hybrid and remote workplaces, what changes from an HR standpoint?
16:19 - Do you think that, regardless of technology, the days of having that work-life separation are over now? 
19:47 - How do you support your team to navigate through working with so many different people with different personalities and beliefs surrounding work-life balance?
25:22 - If you could have had $1 million at the start of ScaleHR, what would you have done differently?
28:04 - What is your take on the entrepreneurial lifestyle? What do you love about it? What do you find most difficult?
30:12 - How do you manage the emotional roller coaster that comes with being an entrepreneur?
33:54 - If people wanted to reach out to you, how could they do that?
34:35 - Outro

Amplify Your Business BudSense

For Episode 182 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by David Thomas, the founder of BudSense. BudSense is a Software as a Service provider that offers branded, customized cannabis dispensary menus and digital signage that you can change as often as your inventory changes. They take the pain out of having to manually create store menus and tracking inventory with spreadsheets and a sharpie for crossing out sold out strains. Everything is fully customizable for whatever new stock you get in on delivery days to update and print paper menus and signage.
To learn more, visit the BudSense website.
 
00:00 - Intro
00:42 - What are three things that every entrepreneur should know?
03:17 - What is BudSense and what is the problem you’re trying to solve?
06:15 - When you say that the inventory changes by 5% on a regular basis, what do you mean by that?
08:45 - Is BudSense a SaaS with hardware included?
9:24 - In terms of BudSense as opposed to running brick-and-mortar dispensaries, what do you like about this business model?
12:28 - Does BudSense have an early mover advantage that’s going to play out in your favour?
13:38 - What is your biggest challenge, outside of just cost-benefit analysis?
15:36 - Is it a challenge for you to put your trust in team members after spending so much time micromanaging everything yourself?
18:18 - What would you say is the key to the success you’ve found so far in this space?
20:18 - Can you speak to me about the intentionality that you have around the culture you’re creating within BudSense?
22:06 - Can you explain to us how you fill the positions that you have available in your company?
30:26 - If you could write a letter to the you that was just starting BudSense, what would that letter say?
34:07 - What is easier now that you’ve been doing this for a while?
 35:48 - Did moving to Victoria happen before or after you figured out the whole work-life balance thing?
36:37 - Who or what inspires you?
40:59 - If someone wanted to get in contact with you, how could they do that?
41:44 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Partake Brewing

For Episode 181 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Ted Fleming, the CEO of Partake Brewing. Partake Brewing started in Ted’s basement (and garage) as a solution to his own problem of not being able to consume alcohol any longer due to a Crohn’s Disease diagnosis. From its meager beginnings in Ted’s house in 2017 to two manufacturing and processing plants - one in Toronto and one in Calgary - Partake has quickly become a household name for non-alcoholic brews. Partake’s Pale Ale even won the World Beer Award for Best Non-Alcoholic Beer.To learn more, check out their Online Shop or give them a follow on Instagram.
 
00:00 - Intro 
01:01 - In your experience, what are three things that every entrepreneur needs to know?
03:49 - Can you tell us a little bit about your Pale Ale?
05:42 - What is the process for removing the alcohol from your beers?
08:11 - Tell us the story of how Partake Brewing was born.
09:55 - So Partake started in Toronto and expanded into Calgary, and now you’re manufacturing in both provinces, right?
10:35 - Do you have any competitors in Canada in the exclusively non-alcoholic brewing space?
11:27 - Being the first in this category, did it make it easier to get penetration into distribution?
12:58 - Being in the non-alcohol beer industry, what does your distribution look like? Do you sell in more than just liquor stores?
14:32 - Are you finding that growth in your category of the beer market is growing at the same rate as the rest of the craft beers or faster?
17:32 - When you were first starting out, did you have enough foresight to understand all of the potential advantages - from a market standpoint?
19:52 - In the early days of Partake, what thought did you put into building a community around your brand, and how has that changed over time?
21:50 - Can you share with us any of the ways in which you continue to grow your community engagement as you’ve grown?
22:52 - Was it difficult for you, as a craft brewery, to expand your manufacturing and processing to two different locations on opposite sides of the country?
24:40 - What challenges would you be facing that other single-location craft breweries don’t face?
25:30 - With two locations on opposite sides of the country, are you now facing double the supply chain issues that many other businesses in Canada have been facing?
26:37 - If you could write your past self a letter, what would it say?
27:43 - Do “Thinking big,” and “keeping it simple” contradict each other, or are you able to still manage both philosophies?
28:32 - What is easier now, at this point in your journey, than what it was at earlier stages in your business?
29:32 - If you had $1 Million at the start of your journey with Partake Brewing, what would you have done differently?
31:43 - How did you manage to achieve such rapid growth with Partake Brewing in such a short period of time?
34:49 - Who or what inspires you?
35:45 - Where can we find Partake Brewing products?
38:17 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Chiwis

For Episode 180 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Sarah Goodman, the founder and CEO of Chiwis. Chiwis is an organic health food company that makes fruit chips. But these aren’t the dried fruit that you’ve come to expect. The fruit used to make Chiwis products is farmed right down the street from the facility where they are dried and made into chips. Meaning that rather than getting dehydrated fruit chips that are brown and boring looking, Chiwis fruit chips are dehydrated at the height of their ripeness, which not only allows them to retain their bright colors, but also their sweet flavours.To learn more, visit the Chiwis website at https://chiwis.co/ or check out their Instagram.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:57 - What are three key things that every entrepreneur needs to know?
06:02 - Can you tell me a little bit about your products?
16:04 - The way you chose to methodically do the research before launching Chiwis, is that something you learned from your previous experience in the tech industry?
18:45 - Why did you start marketing Chiwis the way you did right from the start? Why did you choose to not go to farmer’s markets?
21:32 - Why was it that Whole Foods jumped all over Chiwis, even though they’re not known for doing that?
26:17 - What are the biggest things that you’re able to draw from, from the tech experience you have that you’re able to apply to Chiwis that is different from what the rest of the food industry is used to?
31:46 - What are you doing, at this stage, to prepare for something that might be larger than your projection is?
36:06 - Is it fair to say that the critical thinking you’ve displayed in launching Chiwis comes from the bootstrapping you’ve done?
39:21 - If you could write your past self a letter, what would that letter say?
41:04 - What were some of the big takeaways from the speech given by Nike’s CMO that you were present for?
43:06 - If any of our viewers wanted to get in touch with you, how could they do that?
44:14 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Goodlawyer

For Episode 179 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Grant Lahring, a co-founder and Head of Growth at Goodlawyer, a software marketplace based out of Calgary, Alberta. Goodlawyer provides startup founders and other founders with specialized legal services enterprises that they can trust. Through Goodlawyer, startups have the ability to work directly with lawyers, rather than having to communicate through the firm and paying extra overhead and costs.
 
Goodlawyer are striving to elevate the legal experience for startups and entrepreneurs by offering transparency around pricing, knowing your price before you start, knowing your deadlines, and being able to talk to your lawyer whenever you want, not whenever they want.To learn more, visit their website at www.goodlawyer.ca 
 
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - What are three things that you think every entrepreneur needs to know?
07:19 - Can you tell us a little bit about Goodlawyer? What problem are you trying to solve right now?
10:41 - From a competitive standpoint, does Goodlawyer have many competitors out there that have a similar model?
12:00 - How did you get involved with Goodlawyer?
14:16 - Can you share with us a little about what it’s like coming in as a co-founder but not in the original founding group?
16:43 - How does everyone at Goodlawyer handle the idea of taking risks? 
18:52 - How do you approach conflict between partners at Goodlawyer?
20:58 - In your conversations with founders, have you found any common threads in terms of the skillsets that they bring to the table that differentiate the successful ones from those who struggle?
23:05 - From a personal perspective, what is one of the biggest challenges to the entrepreneurial life?
24:23 - What do you do to maintain your health - mental and physical - through all of the challenges and stress that being an entrepreneur brings?
28:00 - Do you have a favourite book, podcaster, blogger, or somebody that you admire and look forward to consuming their content?
30:46 - If you could write your past self a letter, what would it say?
34:09 - Is Goodlawyer self-funded, or have there been outside investors?
35:42 - If our viewers wanted to connect with you, what’s the best way to do so?
36:16 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Tradle

For Episode 178 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Blyth Gill, the founder and CEO of Tradle. Tradle strives to make parenting easier for parents of young children who tend to outgrow clothes very quickly, often before they’ve even had the chance to wear them. So instead of buying clothes, Tradle allows parents to have high quality clothes with the convenience of being able to return them and not worry about where they go after their children have outgrown them. They are keeping clothes in circulation as long as possible, reducing the need to always be manufacturing more clothes. 
 
Tradle helps parents have a convenient clothing system of constantly circulating clothing for their children, while also helping brands keep their items in circulation as long as possible. It pushes brands to make clothing more durable and last for a long time. It’s the opposite of the new fast fashion trend while focusing on sustainability and durability, and taking some of the stress out of new parenthood.To learn more, visit the Tradle website or check them out on Instagram.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - Can you tell the audience what you think three key things are that every entrepreneur should know?
03:52 - In terms of your business and your experience right now with Tradle, can you speak a bit more, what have you experienced from the ecosystem of small business support we’re seeing in cities across Canada?
05:30 - Tell me a little bit about Tradle. What problem does Tradle address?
07:26 - How do you address this idea of fast fashion, and manufacturers not wanting to create long-lasting pieces as it doesn’t benefit them if people aren’t coming in to buy more pieces?
08:49 - How does Tradle differ from clothing rental models we’ve seen cropping up recently?
10:29 - Can you talk to us a little about how the revenue share business model is going to work for Tradle?
15:02 - How does Tradle’s value prop differ from what parents have already been doing in the hand-me-down economy?
17:48 - If you could write a letter to yourself from before you started your entrepreneurial journey, what would that letter say?
19:52 - As an entrepreneur, how do you prepare for the roller coaster of emotions, challenges, ups, and downs that entrepreneurship brings?
 21:58 - If you could go back in time, and do some things differently in terms of your entrepreneurial journey, what would you do differently?
24:29 - Have you been able to embed your core values into your own company culture yet?
25:16 - Do you have any plans right now to try to incorporate your core values into your company culture?
27:17 - What does success look like to you? How do you define success?
28:46 - If someone wanted to connect with Tradle, or with you directly, how could they do that?
30:45 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Edmonton Unlimited

For Episode 177 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Catherine Warren, the CEO of Edmonton Unlimited. Edmonton Unlimited has a singular purpose: to unite a globally recognized innovation community in order to create jobs and contribute to Edmonton’s enduring economic vitality, resiliency, and identity. They do this through connecting both established businesses and startups with the resources and programs they need to learn, grow, scale, and thrive in a supportive and innovative community.
 
Whether you’re a student with a business idea or an established business looking to scale, Edmonton Unlimited has the resources to help you achieve those dreams.To learn more, visit the Edmonton Unlimited website, and stay tuned to Amplomedia for more information about Launch Party 13, happening this Thursday!
 
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Can you tell me three things that you think every startup entrepreneur should know?
03:41 - If a startup comes to Edmonton Unlimted and takes advantage of all of the resources you have available, do you then connect them to this broader range of services offered to Startups in the City of Edmonton?
4:55 - How do you define a startup?
6:48 - How many organizations do you work with at any given time?
7:42 - Is there a cost for businesses to participate in any of the programs at Edmonton Unlimited?
9:24 - Can you tell me about the event you are hosting on Thursday night?
11:52 - What are the different challenges startups versus established businesses face?
15:19 - From your perspective, what is it that startups generally get wrong from a marketing perspective?
19:43 - How would you encourage a business to not get caught into too small of an echo chamber when they’re doing social listening and customer outreach?
23:14 - Do you have a sense as to how many startups there are in the Edmonton region?
27:09 - Could you list two or three businesses that have come through your doors that have made a profound impact in Edmonton?
31:13 - What is the best way for people to learn more about what’s happening with Launch Party 13 and everything else going on at Edmonton Unlimited?
32:45 - What excites you most about the position that you have as the CEO of Edmonton Unlimited?
34:47 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Business Link

For Episode 176 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Paul Cataford, the executive director at Business Link. Business Link is a government-funded non-profit that offers business advice, business plan reviews, market research, networking events, workshops and webinars, and helps with government grants to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Alberta. For 25 years they’ve been working with small businesses and entrepreneurs to help them get up and running or provide advice and a push in the right direction to those who’ve become lost in the overwhelm.
 
Two of the newest programs that Business Link has become involved with are the DEP and the CDAP. The DEP, or Digital Economy Program, helps small businesses learn to operate in the digital age by teaching entrepreneurs how to use the tools available to them to launch eCommerce websites, put their businesses on the map, and build a thriving social media presence. The CDAP, or Canadian Digital Adoption Program is a micro-grant of $2400 to help entrepreneurs and small businesses deploy eCommerce capabilities.
To learn more, visit Business Link today.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - If you could give three pieces of advice to entrepreneurs, what would they be?
02:43 - How long have you been in the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
06:11 - Can you tell me a bit about closing your business?
13:23 - What role is Business Link going to have in supporting new entrepreneurs and the growth of existing ones?
17:37 - What do you think are some of the key things that are going to help businesses become more resilient?
23:30 - If you could bend the ear of our next premier, what would you advocate for in terms of programs or tools to help support entrepreneurs?
30:56 - How do we get information about these programs and the kind of advice you give to the right people who need it?
34:47 - How do we reach the people who work full-time jobs but also have their own side hustle?
40:40 - Outro