Looking back on the first year of her digital design firm, Iconic State Digital Agency Inc., Angie Yoo says the quality she needed most was patience.
“We were excited about the new venture, hoping things would kick into gear pretty fast,” she said. “If I can give a piece of advice to myself I’d say, ‘Have patience. Things will take longer than you think, but you will get there.’”
To say she is single-minded in her approach is an understatement: everything she has done to date is about going into business with her partner, starting with taking computer science at UBC for two years then switching to SFU applied science to study a course mixture of interaction and computer programming.
It was the perfect complement for a business that focuses on delivering digital media creations to a growing list of clients seeking to build a market presence through everything from websites to kiosks.
If things take longer, it’s because there is so much to learn in the first year, she says, like managing time. Her methods read like a page out of the late Stephen Covey’s best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
“We come in early, at 7:30 a.m., so we can have that hour and a half in the morning to really focus on tasks before we start getting distracted with emails and phone calls. We also schedule difficult tasks in the morning and knock them out rather than pushing them to the latter half of the day.
“We keep a task list organized according to priority and importance. We label our emails, we stay on top of our inboxes, and make sure we do not get bogged down with useless emails.”
For Monika Becker, defining her coaching business Clear Directions remains a priority as she enters her fourth year of business. She is now focusing on assisting both young professionals, whose enthusiasm she finds inspiring, and those involved in a family business.
“What intrigues me is that we are talking about two generations,” said Becker. “I see a very good opportunity to be part of that conversation.”
Becker is also focusing on the nuts and bolts of her small business, like finances and budgets.
“One of my biggest mistakes was to not have worked with my budget as closely as I should have. I now have a financial adviser, and I am going to talk to another one to get another perspective on things.”
As with many entrepreneurs, the past 12 years for Sarah Millin have been a living example of what happens when one door closes and another opens. A former business credit investigator, she lost her job when the company she worked for was sold in 1999. She promptly took advantage of a federal government retraining program for people collecting employment insurance.
The minute she got out of IT school, she was working full time in the industry and running her business, Make IT Work Computer Solutions, on the side for extra cash. The tough part came when she started working in her own business full time.
“It was difficult, and I know how I would change that now. I should have sat back and taken a long look at the business, done a business plan. If someone is switching from part time to full time I would advise them to do that.” She would have invested more time and money in marketing and networking at the beginning, as well.
The best decision she ever made remains setting out on her own.
“I love how much I have learned about business and myself on the journey, and I’ve met some great people with interesting businesses.”
She sees her ongoing challenge as getting her name better known.
“I’m a typical Canadian,” she laughed, “and I don’t like putting myself forward.”
