The winners of the 2013 Surrey Women in Business Awards have some simple advice for fellow women thinking about starting their own business: just do it.
“You can’t be afraid to try new things,” said Jill Martyniuk, winner in the entrepreneur category and owner of Surrey-based home decor business Romancing the Home. “Maybe it’s not going to work. But unless you try, you’re not going to know.”
It’s a lesson Martyniuk has taken to heart. Looking back, she believes her decision to put aside a career in dentistry to open her interior design business was a turning point in her life.
“[It was] something that I had always wanted to do, but I [had] never really taken the step,” she reminisced. “I [was] too afraid. I stayed in a good paying job. Then finally I just thought: life is short. I need to follow my passion. I need to own my passion and see where it takes me.”
Today, Martyniuk pursues her passion at her retail location in the Ocean Park neighbourhood. She also runs a thriving home staging and interior design consultancy.
“It’s really exciting to see the wheels turn, and to actually see things happening,” she said.
Not that hasn’t been challenges along the way. “The thing is, there’s nothing certain in life. You learn through your mistakes, and you grow through your mistakes. One door closes, another one or two doors open,” Martyniuk said.
“We want to have it all. And it’s not that we can’t have it all – we just maybe can’t have it all at once.”
“I don’t know that I would change anything,” she said. “Because it has been this great journey, and I really have enjoyed the ride.”
Winner in the corporate/leadership category, Peggy White attributes much of her success to her team. As the general manager of Guildford Town Centre, White leads a team of 25 in her own office, as well as directing a security and maintenance team of about 75.
Also, the mall’s current $280 million renovation project has her meeting regularly with more than 350 contractors and tradesworkers on an ongoing basis.
“It’s quite a big team and we all work together. So the award [is] for all of us,” she emphasized. “It’s certainly not just Peggy here.”
Over the 25 years she’s been in the property management industry, White has come to identify team building as the secret to business success. “Surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing,” White said. “You’re only as good as your weakest link.”
She advises fellow professionals to hire top-quality people who are not only strong in their jobs but have the desire and the drive to succeed.
As White explains, it’s impossible to do your job well unless the people you manage do the same. “If you can hire [people who are] better than you, good for you,” she said.
Such an approach can help others avoid an error White made earlier in her career. “Some of us tend to overcompensate,” she said. “We work harder, longer, double-triple-quadruple check our facts to make sure we are crystal-clear. I worked really, really hard for many, many years, and I think often I worked harder than I needed to get the job done.”
Christine Trischuk, winner in the professional category, has owned her management consulting company Christine Trischuk Consulting for four years. She’s also the executive co-ordinator for the Valley Women’s Network, a networking and career development organization for women professionals and entrepreneurs.
The variety of this experience has taught Trischuk that the path to success is often a winding one.
“Success isn’t always so outlined out of the gate,” Trischuk noted. Instead of insisting on following a pre-set plan, Trischuk advises would-be entrepreneurs to keep their minds open and let their passions be the guide.
“I always try to tell people you should really try and do what you love,” Trischuk said. “I’ve seen a lot of women change their business halfway – they’ve gone to school for business administration or e-commerce and then decide they’re going to be a photographer because they love taking pictures. And they can be successful at it.”
Her experience coaching fellow women entrepreneurs has led her to appreciate the mental energy that it takes to be successful. “You really have to have that attitude, [that will] to just not be able to give up,” she said. “Because a million and one people are going to say no.”
For that reason, Trischuk believes it’s important for women to find a mentor early in their business careers.
“What you really want is somebody who’s going to set the bar higher or make you challenge yourself,” Trischuk said.
“Somebody who’s really going to be supportive, but at the same time a little bit more realistic – who [can] say when you’re going down a bad path or you’re spinning your wheels.”
Other winners of the Surrey Women in Business Awards were Wendy Bollard of Peninsula Productions Society in the innovator category; and Christiana Flessner of the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation in the not-for-profit leader category.
