Paul Kingsmith

news-archive-Cory-Medd.jpgFrom Wider Horizons magazine - Fall 2008

 

Owning your own business; it’s a dream for many that few will actually pursue. A lack of knowledge on how to get started, concerns about financing, limited real business experience and a fear of failure often snuff out the dream before it’s fully formed.

That doesn’t mean it can’t become a reality, so you shouldn’t shelve the idea. Perhaps you just need to gain a solid background in your chosen field to lay the foundation for your own business empire. Lethbridge College alumni can be found building businesses in a wide array of areas. While the kinds of businesses may be different, what unites them all is the decision to pursue an education through Lethbridge College that would give a solid base from which to develop the dream.

 

Cory Medd – Owner and President, Two Guys and a Pizza Place - Business Administration, 2003

Unfold the takeout menu from Two Guys and a Pizza Place and the selections call out like a carnival busker: creations, sensations and delights, and even a few monsters to challenge the stalwart diner. Lethbridge’s favourite pizza eatery offers everything from the classic Hawaiian to an exotic tandoori chicken pizza with apricot glaze.

Like the pizzas he helped create, Two Guys owner Cory Medd began from a solid, dependable base and moved on to the more adventurous and unique. A graduate of the Business Administration program at Lethbridge College, Medd first became interested in becoming a restaurateur while working in places like Kelsey’s and The Keg.

“I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant. I didn’t really think pizza but then my best friend and roommate had managed some Pizza Huts and he worked in a Keg. I was actually telling him to open a pizza place, saying, ‘You should open it, you should do it’. He was having meetings and doing all the things and I was coming up with ideas and menu items. I found myself doing it for him and then he said, ‘Why don’t we do it together?’ I was like, ‘Sounds good.’”

It wasn’t long before the business took off and the fledgling entrepreneurs found themselves at the head of one of the most successful and popular small enterprises in the city. Medd’s partner eventually sold out, leaving him to grow the venture. He was voted “Canada’s best pizza chef” by Canadian Pizza Magazine.

He also finished in the top 13 finalists in an international pizza championship in Las Vegas. Medd considers his education at Lethbridge College to be a significant contributor to his success.

“I had a good knowledge of pretty much everything it took to run a business. From the marketing end of it, people start using words you’ve heard at school and you’re like, ‘Wait, I’ve heard that word before.’”

Medd has been able to give back to the college community by giving speeches and presentations to the students in the Business Administration program, and he delivered the toast to the grads at their grad party. He is a much-soughtafter resource for prospective young entrepreneurs looking for business advice, and serves on the Business Administration advisory committee.

“It’s almost like, every year in September they must do a ‘Find an entrepreneur in town and ask him 20 questions.’ I usually do about 10 students a year, because they all get my name.”

Sharing his experience and business acumen is something Medd does readily and offers this advice to anyone thinking of following in his footsteps: “Believe in the product. Be organized and ready. We literally got a phone call and 30 days later we were open. Have a few months of money in your bank account. Learn to delegate because, once it happens, it becomes way easier and you can spend more time on the business, not in the business.”

Medd hopes to expand Two Guys and a Pizza Place to a second location in West Lethbridge and, possibly, a dine-in facility. He has also considered the possibility of developing the business into a franchise, but is somewhat reticent about losing his “guy next door” identity.

“I like being the local sort of mom-and-dad shop, sort of like a little cult following, you know? I like that; it’s part of the reason people come from out of town to be here.”

Medd reflects on his experience in Las Vegas and the chefs against whom he competed.

“They’re [in their restaurants] day in and day out. They’re just like me; they make dough and they make pizza and cook it and they’re there every day like me. Maybe that says something, you know?”

 

Tania Stilson - Owner, Uniglobe Travel - Travel and Tourism, 1996

The walls of Tania Stilson’s office at Uniglobe Travel display the photographic evidence of a lifelong passion for travel that has become a flourishing career. She gestures to the portraits of beaming faces in Jamaica and St. Martin and comments, “To me, when you travel, it’s always about the people. It’s what I remember.”

Stilson’s career goals have always involved a connection to people in some way or another. Though she has been the owner of Uniglobe Travel in Lethbridge for more than ten years, she traveled a rather winding path to arrive where she is now.

“I was registered in Broadcast Production right out of high school. I was 17 years old and only did half a semester of that. I joke that I was an early achiever because I quit college before I was 18.”

After leaving the Broadcast program, Stilson began working in a day care, then decided to continue her educational pursuits at Lethbridge College by taking courses in Early Childhood Education, Special Needs and Rehabilitation Services. Although she enjoyed the work, after five years she felt the need to move on.

“I really kind of wanted to make a change. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so I looked at the trends. . . my dad was a financial planner, so I was either going to go down the road of being a financial planner or travel. Which seems more fun?”

Stilson returned to the college in 1995 and completed the travel and tourism program. She got a job with a travel agency but stayed less than three months before deciding to open her own business.

“Talk about a leap of faith. I opened a travel industry with three months’ experience. I knew nothing; I balanced my checkbook . . . I was 25 and thought that was pretty good. I can’t decide if I was brave or stupid. My learning curve was unbelievable.”

Stilson credits her success as an entrepreneur to her eclectic educational background and a tough but flexible nature.

“I learned in this industry you absolutely have to be resilient. You name it, we’ve done it. We went through 9/11, we went through SARS, and we went through Canada 3000, which was one of our largest tour operators, just shutting their doors one day.”

The Uniglobe team also survived an office fire a few years ago but decided to forge ahead with business in the same location.

“So, that’s what I mean about being adaptable to change. Because I really wasn’t in the industry long enough before all that happened, to me that’s just my ‘normal’. But I love that; I love being an entrepreneur.”

Stilson’s advice for those thinking of taking on the challenge of entrepreneurship: “Be resilient; don’t let it beat you up. Sometimes you just need to take the leap and it’ll be OK. I really believe in the adage that the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

She also stresses the importance of keeping up with trends and continuing to learn and improve.

“I’m pretty committed to that. And love what you do. If this ever stopped being fun for me, I wouldn’t be doing it. So, I’m happy to be here at 7:30 in the morning because I’m excited about what the day is going to bring and that’s 12 years later. If you can do that, I think you’re doing OK.”

 

Fergus Raphael (centre) – Owner, Tangle Media - Broadcast Journalism, 2003

Fergus Raphael sets his briefcase on the table and temporarily disentangles himself from the electronic gadgets that keep him connected to Tangle Media, the tremendously successful business he launched three years ago.

When asked to describe what it is the company does, Raphael answers: “It’s things on screens. That’s basically what it boils down to. It’s a hybrid of a lot of traditional types of things I was very interested in doing. That’s why I called the company Tangle Media, actually. We can do logos, we can do brochures, we can do video production and we can do websites. Web production and information systems have become the strongest part of what we do. I still love to do video production and television production as much as possible.”

Raphael completed the Broadcast Journalism program in 2003 and was initially hired to do video production work with instructors at Lethbridge College. The projects kept him busy for about a year and a half, during which time he was able to develop a portfolio and to network with other people in the field.

Opportunities for freelance work began to stream in.

“As that freelance work picked up steam, it led to me starting my own business. It has grown into a more major operation than I thought it would.”

Tangle Media services a broad range of clients, including large organizations such as Lethbridge College and the Capital Health Region in Edmonton,
as well as smaller, independent businesses and individuals.

Raphael brings a personal interest and inherent talent to what he does, but acknowledges the important role of the college in helping him develop the skills and business sense to succeed.

“A lot of those technical skills I owe clearly to my time at the College. The way the broadcast program was designed, it was a very sort of entrepreneurial program anyway. Sometimes it was a bit like boot camp – it was really a sink or swim-type thing. It was getting past the ‘dog ate my homework’ type of excuses. You have to deliver, and if you don’t there will probably be consequences.”

The practical nature of the courses appealed to Raphael, who found a solid, real-life base in the activities he completed. “All the steps that are inherent in managing any type of business project were pretty much present in any type of work we had to do in the college program.”

Raphael’s words of wisdom to anyone wishing to start a business: “[Don’t] be looking for a quick fix. I would have been surprised to know just how much work it was to establish the business. It was really an all-day, all-night thing and I think the main thing is to be prepared for the work you’re doing and that there isn’t anyone else you can pass it off to.”

For Raphael, the payoff for all this hard work is the ability to pursue the types of projects and work in the way that best suits him.

“I guess with the risks comes an element of control and an element of doing exactly what you want to do. There are always a million things going on in the minute and you have to manage those. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think my favourite thing about the business is just enjoying the potential of it.”