Big prizes for big ideas

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Published on Thursday, November 3, 2016

Photos by Tony Eu. The two big winners from this year’s event. Left: Tim Wiebe, of Eden, won $4,300 from three prizes on his pitch for his business, Avion Harvest. Right: Kim Burgess won four prizes for a total of $1,300, for her pitch on Valley Art Therapy.

By Tony Eu

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

On Thursday, Oct. 20, hopeful entrepreneurs from the Neepawa and Minnedosa areas gathered at the ArtsForward building for the second annual ‘What’s The Big Idea?’ event.

The event is a chance for entrepreneurs to build connections with other individuals and organizations, as well as pitch their ideas to the public and a panel of judges for their chance to win cash awards.

This year, seven entrepreneurs stepped up to pitch their ideas, with four of them taking home prizes.

Morning business

At 9 a.m., the doors opened for the general public, at which point they were able to look at science fair styled displays for some of the business pitches that would be happening later in the day. At 10 a.m., the event started in earnest, with opening remarks given by Marilyn Crewe, the Economic Development Officer for the Town of Neepawa.

“I’d like to thank the entrepreneurs stepping forward to take the chance to pitch and our business development agencies around the room that are here to support, our sponsors, like Partners for Growth, Futurepreneur and Rotary. And of course, our communities that put cash and prizes on the table today that attract the entrepreneurs and just our communities in general, supporting local business development in our region,” Crewe said, welcoming those in attendance.

“Thanks so much for being here and being a part of What’s The Big Idea,” she concluded, handing the reins over to Vern May, the Economic Development Officer for Minnedosa and the Master of Ceremonies for the event.

The next two hours were filled with two presentations, one from RBC on business financing and one by Chris Warkwaruk, from Neepawa’s Farmery Brewery, titled, Finding your Unique Product, Marketing Beyond Manitoba.

After each presentation was a time reserved for questions. There were also refreshments served at several times throughout the day.

Lunch, which consisted of an assortment of sandwiches, soup, coffee, tea or Farmery beer, cookies and apple crisp, was served, followed by the event’s keynote presentation. Aaron Biblow, from Trend Lab Marketing, a company specializing in online marketing, gave his keynote speech on Mastering Digital Marketing to Grow Your Business.

Carlos Munoz, from Hey Brandon magazine, gave a presentation on Entrepreneurship as a New Canadian, bringing the event to its main event: the pitching parlour.

The main event

First up was the youngest entrepreneur in attendance, Kennedy Baker, a Grade 12 student at Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute and a resident of Neepawa.

“My business is Ken’s Kustom Kicks,” Baker opened, introducing her custom shoe business. The next couple minutes were taken up by personal introductions and how she ended up owning a business.

“I found a picture of these shoes that were one of my favourite hockey teams. [They were] hand painted and amazing, I looked for hours trying to find where I could buy these. I couldn’t find them, so I decided to make my own,” she explained. 

“When I ‘Googled’ to find custom shoes, I got Nike, Adidas and Vans all saying you can have your own custom shoes, so I thought that would be awesome. But it wasn’t so awesome, because they had specific designs to choose from and specific colours. There wasn’t much I could say. I got the one colour I wanted, but not the design,” Baker elaborated on the inspiration for her business. 

“That’s why I’m here today, that’s what makes me different and my business different. I take your idea, your vision and I draw and paint and I use my artistic skill to make the kind of shoes that you want. I want to make something so unique, that no one else will have it,” she added.

Baker’s starting price for interested buyers is $125, broken down into $33 for the cost of supplies, including the shoes, $50 for labour time and $42 that will remain with the company as a profit.

“The price may vary on the amount of detail and how much time it takes, but that will be decided once it’s done,” she noted. Other details that she covered during her presentation included risks involved, business cycle, marketing plans and why she would like money from the event.

“My start-up cost is $3,500,” Baker revealed adding, “If I leave here today with your assistance, I will be using the money towards inventory, workbenches and shelving.”

While Ken’s Kustom Kicks has yet to become incorporated, Baker noted that she was working towards that milestone. It was also revealed that she already has a potential contract deal, with none other than the Winnipeg Jets. Though a date was not mentioned, Baker will be meeting with a club representative and if all goes well, Ken’s Kustom Kicks could quickly become a very successful enterprise.

Baker was one of the four prize winners, taking home the $300 award from the Minnedosa and Beautiful Plains Credit Union for the best overall idea.

Tim Wiebe, of Eden, introduced his company, Avion Harvest, describing it as a small company based out of Eden. “We wanted to bring some non-processed, dried peas, beans, lentils and flax seed that’s all grown in the area,” Wiebe said of his company’s goal. Avion Harvest incorporated in January of this year, but they already have products in 23 different Co-op food stores across Manitoba. “We just got accepted into Save-On-Foods, which is a part of the Overwaitea group. There’s three new stores coming in Winnipeg,” Wiebe added.

So far, his company has sold 270 cases of products, at an estimated value of $35 per case. Combine his company’s success with the three prizes he won, worth $4,300 ($500 Neepawa Chamber of Commerce, $1,800 RM of Rosedale and $2,000 Neepawa and Area Development Corporation) and Avion Harvest seems ripe for success.

“I’m doing a presentation today on Valley Art Therapy,” introduced Kim Burgess. Valley Art Therapy is a business based out of Birtle, run by Lori Boyko, at which Burgess is currently doing an internship. She is looking to give their new office, in her hometown of Minnedosa, a bit of a boost. Burgess works with the school system as a guidance counselor, but has been working towards moving into the private sector for quite some time now.

She spoke at length about her efforts to make that conversion, as well as what art therapy really is.

“We do supportive counseling, but every session that a client would come to, we would have some form of art that would take place,” Burgess explained, “That could literally be fine arts, painting, drawing, colouring. [Or] clay, collage, sand tray.”

Going into further detail about sand tray therapy, she said, “Sand tray is a form of therapy where you have objects that you use that can represent parts of your life and you have an opportunity in a contained, safe space to play it out, move them around, sort of bring it to life and ideally, move through whatever issue or situation you’re working through.”

Burgess remarked that while sand tray therapy works great for kids, it also works really well with adults. 

As far as the business itself, Valley Art Therapy’s Minnedosa office has had office space in the back of Inspire Art Studio, which was opened by one of last year’s winners, Marlies Soltys, for about a month. Burgess’ goal coming into ‘What’s The Big Idea?’ is to help get the Minnedosa office up and running, with all the supplies and materials needed for art therapy, as well as help pay for yearly fees that come with being a private therapist.

The predicted start-up cost for a year ends up at about $6,000 for the office. In addition, the yearly fees end up at around $6,000 as well. Luckily for Burgess, she won a total of $1,300 from four prizes: a $250 gift certificate for the services of Trend Lab Marketing, $250 Minnedosa Chamber of Commerce, $500 RM of Minto-Odanah and the $300 prize from RBC for the best pitch of the day.

The last winner of the day was The Queen’s Eatery, based out of Rapid City.

Run by Kelly Spurway, The Queen’s Eatery is the restaurant operating out of The Queen’s Hotel. Lianne Christie, from The Queen’s Hotel, represented Spurway during the pitch, which was the shortest of the day.

“The Queen’s Hotel has been based out of Rapid City since 1902, but you’ve seen hotels die, all over our communities and part of the reason that they’re struggling is that you need to make money and you need a good restaurant,” stated Christie.

She went on to mention that Spurway is currently operating on equipment from the ‘80s and that the cost of the new equipment needed is around $9,000.

The Queen’s Eatery ended up winning the $1,000 prize from the Minnedosa and Area Community Development Corporation.

While four entrepreneurs won at the event, that left three entrepreneurs empty handed, at least money-wise. Paul Emmer pitched his idea of ‘Get It cards’, card sets designed to explain difficult concepts and ideas in a simpler way, using metaphors and stories, while Allison Emmer, his wife, pitched their family’s own spice blend, called Paul Spice. Roland Liwanag, an individual new to Canada himself, pitched his company, IDD Careers Canada, which is a business designed to provide aid to international students in acquiring their student visas and specifically, in bringing their families with them and providing support to those who make it.

Though they didn’t take home any cash, they did take with them valuable knowledge and connections.

While the judges deliberated the pitches, two of last year’s winners, Darryn Cameron and Marlies Soltys, shared with the crowd their experiences, successes and what they’ve learned from a year of business.

Both Crewe and May were very pleased with the whole event, noting that the event has definitely grown since last year, with more pitches, more agency participation and most importantly, more community involvement.