CanadianSME Business Magazine February Issue

CANADIANSME ISSUEE 15 FEBRUARY 2020

Empowering Canadian Small & Medium Businesses EXCLUSIVE PC PARTNER

BANKING PARTNER

CISCO ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

KIRK SIMPSON

CO-FOUNDER & CEO OF WAVE

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Cisco Entrepreneur of the Year

Congratulations Kirk Simpson

Co-founder and CEO of Wave HQ For being the inaugural recipient of the Cisco Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Congratulations from all of us at Cisco Canada.

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WELCOME Welcome to the February issue of CanadianSME. 2020 is already off at a good start with success of our very first CanadianSME Business Expo which took place on January 20th 2020 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. With over 1,500 attendees who were business owners from a wide-range of industries, 45 exhibitors, 42 speakers, 7 panel discussions and 7 workshops, to say that the event was a huge success is an understatement.

The panel discussions were focussed on important aspects such as business leadership, digital transformation, women entrepreneurship, finance and investment, global business mindset and technology for SMEs. A few highlights from the event would be the opening remarks that were presented by our VIP dignitaries: Adam Vaughan from the Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Affairs, the Honourable Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria who’s the Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction and off course the Honourable Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Chair of Cabinet.

www.canadiansme.ca info@canadiansme.ca canadiansme canadian_sme canadiansme Publisher & Editor Shaik Khaleeluddin (SK)

Client Manager Sheliza Yacoob

Design Agency Acegraffix.design

Account Excutive Ellaine Petalco

Creative Designer Abdhesh Kr. Jha

Content Writer Mana Vakili

Webmaster Ashrafs

We are very pleased with the turnout and it inspired us even more to continue providing resources and expertise knowledge to Canadian small and medium sized business owners so that they can succeed.

Social Media Cmarketing Inc

Our February issue gives a more detailed look on the CanadianSME National Business Awards 2019 as well as all the important highlights and aspects of the night.

Contributors Craig Smyth Lissa Ricci Rick Moore Shiraz Siddique Nunzio Presta

Additionally, we also have important articles such as 2020 in Tech: The Biggest Trends Impacting Your Business this Year, written by none other than Lisa Ricci, Vice President of small business solutions at Cisco Canada. Shiraz Siddique also contributed with an article on Find your Voice, which gives a new side to leverage consulting and how to make your message come out clear to your targeted audience.

We also have interviews with Craig Smyth, engineering leader for Global Small Business Sales at Cisco and Rick Moore who is a Growth and Transition Advisor.

As always, we hope that you find the answers and knowledge you need through our issues so that you can further succeed on your journey as an entrepreneur. We hope you enjoy this month’s issue and look forward to bringing you more content in the future. Happy reading!

Photography The photos/images published in this magazine are either purchased or belongs to their respective owners

For Advertisements: info@canadiansme.ca For Distribution Enquiries: CMarketing Inc. 2800 Skymark Avenue, Suite 203 Mississauga, ON. Canada. L4W 5A6 416 655 0205 / 647 668 5785 MEMBER OF

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) ISSN 2562-0649 (Print) ISSN 2562-0657 (Online)

Published by CMarketing Inc. 2800 Skymark Avenue, Suite 203 Mississauga, ON. Canada. L4W 5A6 Copyright © 2019 CMarketing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

CanadianSME is also available on: The contents in CanadianSME Magazine are for informational purposes only. Neither Cmarketing, the publishers nor any of its partners, employees or affiliates accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of its contents. ® RBC is a registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under license. Cisco is the registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. The Lenovo logo is the registered trademark of Lenovo.

CONTENTS

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CANADIANSME BUSINESS EXPO 2020 INAUGURATION

37

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

Kirk Simpson

Co-Founder & CEO, Wave

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YOUR VOICE 13 FIND SHIRAZ SIDDIQUE

EXCLUSIVE CHAT WITH

RICK MOORE Growth and Transition Advisor

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BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR 2019

Shahrzad Rafati CEO of BroadbandTV Corp

EYE ON TECH

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HON. VIC FEDELI Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade

2020 IN TECH: THE BIGGEST TRENDS IMPACTING YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR

By Lissa Ricci, Vice President of small business solutions for Cisco Canada

CONTENTS

17

CANADIANSME BUSINESS EXPO 2020 INAUGURATION

37

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

Kirk Simpson

Co-Founder & CEO, Wave

11

YOUR VOICE 13 FIND SHIRAZ SIDDIQUE

EXCLUSIVE CHAT WITH

RICK MOORE Growth and Transition Advisor

34

40

BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR 2019

Shahrzad Rafati CEO of BroadbandTV Corp

EYE ON TECH

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HON. VIC FEDELI Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade

2020 IN TECH: THE BIGGEST TRENDS IMPACTING YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR

By Lissa Ricci, Vice President of small business solutions for Cisco Canada

October 2020 TORONTO, CANADA April, 2021 TORONTO, CANADA

www.smeexpo.ca

A MUST ATTEND EVENT

25 05 05

SPEAKERS Expert business speakers

WORKSHOPS Interactive workshops by industry experts

PANEL DISCUSSIONS Expert panel discussions

For exhibiting and sponsorship inquiries please email - sk@canadiansme.ca

The Biggest Gathering of Canadian Small and Medium Enterprises Be a part of the crowd as more than 2,000 business leaders, top executives and top Canadian SMEs gather at the CanadianSME Business Expo taking place on January 20th, 2020 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This is an event that you don’t want to miss!

SHOWCASE YOUR BRAND AT CANADIANSME BUSINESS EXPO 2020 - OCTOBER VENUE

PHONE NUMBER

Metro Toronto Convention Centre - 255 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2W6

416 6550 205 647 668 5785

EYE ON TECH 2020 IN TECH:

Photo Credit: Canva.com

THE BIGGEST

TRENDS IMPACTING YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR

By Lissa Ricci, Vice President of small business solutions for Cisco Canada

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mall and growing business owners must constantly evolve their business to stay ahead of customer demands, market conditions and pressure from competitors. Technology can play an important role in keeping your business at the forefront of innovation … and prevent it from falling behind.

So, what should you be looking out for when it comes to your small business? Here are the technologies you absolutely can’t ignore in 2020 and what they mean for you.

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Take another look at how your business is – or isn’t – embracing IoT The power of the Internet of Things (IoT) goes beyond making sure you can stream your perfectly curated playlist over the shop speakers, or track the temperature of your ‘fresh never frozen’ poultry. With the right solutions in place, you can simplify operations, save energy and improve security – whether you’re running a coffee shop or a small farm.

Over the next decade, we expect technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, AI, 5G and quantum computing to fully take off, creating a new wave of connected devices that can drive customers experiences and create a slew of opportunities for small business.

The time to adopt is now - only 36 per cent of SMBs are using or plan to use IoT solutions, putting you ahead of the curve.

What this means for you in 2020: This year, revisit your business’ IoT strategy. Don’t know where to start? Meet with an IoT vendor who can help you identify areas of improvement and then provide preconfigured, easy-to-deploy solutions that fit into your price-point.

Future-proofing your business’ network As IoT becomes ubiquitous, your business’ network will need to evolve to keep pace with the growing number of devices connecting to it every day. SMBs are increasingly dealing with shoppers who expect incredible digital experiences and customer service, while also trying to balance a complex ecosystem of cloud and web-based applications. From a tech perspective, that means creating an open, accessible network for improved in-store customer experiences and ensuring inventory management tools, scanners and POS systems can seamlessly connect.

What this means for you in 2020: Ensuring you have a strong and secure network that’s flexible enough to evolve with your business will be integral to your success. And you don’t need to do it alone.

Technology partners have the expertise, multi-vendor knowledge, and the personnel to help you build the network that will help you achieve your business goals.

Applications will be the key to better business analytics

Threat Hunting & Zero Trust: the new cornerstones to your security playbook Digital transformation, which includes the adoption of cloud, social and mobile technologies, continues to play a crucial role in business success. However, the introduction of these new technologies has also introduced new risks when it comes to the security of your business.

According to Statistics Canada, just over one-fifth of Canadian businesses reported they were impacted by cyber security incidents which affected their operations in 2017. This includes 19 per cent of all small businesses.

What this means for you: With data moving into more places, devices and clouds than most of us can keep track of, you need to get ahead of cyber threats by making Threat Hunting and Zero Trust integral to your security policies. Threat Hunting isn’t just about detecting malware, it also identifies weak links in your security environment that need to be addressed. And Zero Trust asks that you assume zero trust when someone or something requests access to your company assets. This will protect your workforce, workloads, and workplace from malicious devices and users trying to access your network.

What technologies will your business adopt in 2020? What these trends all have in common is that businesses – large or small – can’t afford to be complacent when it comes to technology.

CONSUMERS USED TO MAKE A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO USE A DIGITAL SERVICE TO CARRY OUT A TASK OR ACTIVITY, BUT THAT’S NO LONGER THE CASE. ACCORDING TO THE LATEST APPDYNAMICS APP ATTENTION INDEX, THE MAJORITY (71%) OF RESPONDENTS ADMIT THAT DIGITAL SERVICES HAVE BECOME INTRINSIC TO THEIR DAILY LIVES. THE USE OF DIGITAL SERVICES HAS EVOLVED TO BECOME AN UNCONSCIOUS HUMAN BEHAVIOR, ALSO KNOWN AS A ‘DIGITAL REFLEX.’

Consumers used to make a conscious decision to use a digital service to carry out a task or activity, but that’s no longer the case. According to the latest AppDynamics App Attention Index, the majority (71%) of respondents admit that digital services have become intrinsic to their daily lives. The use of digital services has evolved to become an unconscious human behavior, also known as a ‘Digital Reflex.’

What this means for you in 2020: As customers become more willing to share their data and digital habits with companies, SMBs will be able to glean important sales data and obtain valuable insight into customer shopping habits and buying trends. As an SMB owner, as long as you have the right applications, you’ll be able to use these analytics to provide customers with product information quickly, and share offers on the items they care about.

LISSA RICCI

Vice President of small business solutions for Cisco Canada Lissa Ricci is vice president of small business solutions for Cisco Canada. She is passionate about technology and how it can help growing businesses achieve their goals. See how our solutions can help your business at cisco.com/ca/smb.

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Q&A WITH

CRAIG SMYTH Engineering Lead for Global Small Business Sales, Cisco

By Lissa Ricci, VP of small business solutions, Cisco Canada

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On January 20th, business leaders, top executives and top Canadian SMEs came together at the Canadian SME Business Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Craig is Cisco’s Systems Engineering Lead for Global Small Business Sales, leading the global architecture strategy for the Cisco Designed portfolio, and was part of the event’s “Your Business and Technology: What’s Next?” workshop, where he discussed the future of business technology with Matt Sergeant, CTO of Ideal, and I.

Your role at Cisco has taken you around the world, supporting small and midsized organizations across more than 140 countries. What are the common challenges you’ve noticed growing businesses around the world share?

One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen has been keeping up with the changing technology landscape. The variety of devices connecting to networks is growing every day and keeping these devices secure requires constant attention. In the same light there is so much new opportunity for small businesses, and seeing the impact the right technology can have on a business is incredible – from uncovering sales customer insights to streamlining supply chains. Technology is playing an integral role in helping businesses succeed wherever they’re based.

New generations of platforms are also opening the door for small business. For example, just a few years ago, Facebook, Uber and YouTube were thought of as standalone platforms. Today, they’ve transformed into economic operating systems on which new business models are being created.

As a follow up, what are some of the common opportunities they share?

The barriers to entry in business have never been lower! Setting up functional systems and accounting for a company can be done in a few hours. You can recruit support employees globally, with various skillsets and at many levels, with Upwork and Fiverr. E-commerce has completely transformed supply chains to make them more modern and efficient. Unified core software

products have never been more affordable and feature rich.

resources for small business owners and often there isn’t enough of it in the day. A technology partner can give you the speed, reach and expertise you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Knowledge-based business have really been the beneficiaries of these tools.

Turning to Canada, what role can technology play to help our small and growing businesses overcome these challenges?

The willingness to learn how new technologies are impacting an industry is becoming an increasingly important factor in small business success. It may seem overwhelming at first trying to keep up with all the changes, but intuitive interfaces have made adopting and using technology easier than ever. Just look at the vast libraries of YouTube videos and how-to guides available online – you can learn how to use new tech in minutes.

That all sounds incredible. If we were to break it down, what is the first step you recommend for a growing business who wants to get more from technology?

Join or create a mastermind group of peer businesses in the same industry. That way you can collaborate together on technology strategies to help flatten your learning curve. You’ll see the rate of new ideas coming toward you will multiply.

What is the role of the technology partner in all of this? Why should a small business look to them instead of buying and installing their technology direct?

For example, after bringing a new technology into the business, optimizing the setup is a critical phase where an experienced partner shortens the implementation timeframe. Our partners have a strong network of IT subcontractors, so they can help deploy technology solutions wherever your business is based, no matter how remote, at a speed most small businesses can’t match.

You were at the SME Business Expo on January 20th, participating in our small business workshop. Can you share a little bit more about the workshop and what attendees learned?

Technology can be intimidating for businesses of all sizes. With this workshop, we wanted attendees to understand they don’t have to be an expert in technology to use it to transform their business.

We really focused on how growing businesses can make the most out of technology, simply and securely. Matt, the CTO of Ideal, illustrated that brilliantly through his own experiences with technology, including Cisco Meraki. We also discussed the common challenges and opportunities that come with adopting new technologies and had engaging conversations with audience members. It was a great event and I always love having the opportunity to connect with small business owners in person.

We know time is one of the most valuable

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RICK MOORE EXCLUSIVE CHAT WITH

RICK MOORE

GROWTH AND TRANSITION ADVISOR Rick has over 37 years of unique business experience. He has financed and advised companies big and small, both public and private. Rick specializes in helping owners and management teams get a handle on cash flow and their individual roles in driving the profitability of their business. With those building blocks in place Rick is able to help the business maximize its value when sold.

In his long career Rick provided start up capital and ongoing advice to companies whose market caps now exceed $3 billion CDN. He also co-founded a private equity firm and played a large role in raising investment capital and the acquisition of four portfolio companies. The first acquisition that Rick sourced won the 2017 Private Capital Market Association Deal of the Year award in Canada.

Rick is the author of the book Scale-Up to Sell. He is an accomplished speaker and contributor to CanadianSME Magazine and Business Edge Magazine Rick is a father of two and devoted husband. He is a two time Ironman Canada finisher and has competed in the New York and Chicago marathons.

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You have over three decades of expert business experience having advised and financed companies of several different sizes, both in the public and private industry. What would you say is the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs face?

Sadly, the biggest challenge most entrepreneurs face is staying in business longer than 2-3 years. The reasons are many why so many businesses fail, and many can be avoided with some simple steps in the beginning. First a business must have these traits to survive.

You MUST have a product or service that people want. Next, the price they are willing to pay for it makes it profitable for you to do so with an outstanding level of customer satisfaction. If any element of this is missing, you DO NOT have a business. You must test and validate your offering early with the mindset to fail fast and pivot if necessary.

If your idea has the attributes of success, then great, move forward.

If not, do the steps above and repeat until you find what works or exhausts it as a viable concept.

What advice can you give to small business owners when it comes to implementing strategies that can contribute to increasing the profitability of their business?

The first thing that I want to see is that systems are in place where the systems run the business and the employees run the systems.

I always say that “Systems Will Set You Free” and by that, I mean that your employees will be able to effectively operate the day to day operations. They will know all of the aspects of what makes the business run effectively, they will know their roles in making it run that way. If staff changes, as it inevitably does, the systems allow for changes to flow smoothly without interruption.

The by product of this is that you, the owner can work on growing the business and are not mired in the day to day. You also can take time away to enjoy the fruits of ownership. If you cannot do these things, then all you have done by taking the huge risk to start a business is to have bought yourself a job.

Having worked closely with entrepreneurs for several decades, what would you say is the most common mistake that business owners make that can seriously jeopardize the success of their business?

In my book “Scale-Up to Sell’ I talk extensively about the danger of an owner becoming too involved in the day to day running of the business. This results in what I call the “Owners Trap”. The signs you are in this trap are when every aspect of the business relies on your input, customers only want to deal with you, all problems and complaints come through you, you are the one required to close a sale and revenues plateau as a result. It stands to reason that you cannot take time off and have everything run smoothly.

It is very difficult to grow this way.

Where this really comes back to bite an owner is when they want to sell the business. Buyers are not interested in purchasing a company that relies on its owner to run it effectively day in and day out for the obvious reason that, as the main asset, you will not be around once you sell.

What business tip can you give to a small business owner who’s looking for an investor that can help them take their business to the next level?

The first thing I will say is to try to hold on to your equity ownership in your business. The first place most people look for investors is what I call “love money”. This comes from family and friends. It is easier to get and, because it is likely invested for personal reasons, it is often done without the rigor of due diligence that a normal investor would demand. This can mean that you may not actually have an investable business. The result of “love money” in a failed business is not so much that your friends and family will disown you, they most likely will not, but more so in the damage it will do in how you feel about failing them.

That can be a very tough position to be in. My answer is to first try to bootstrap the business, using the money you make to grow further.

This involves a slower approach but ultimately results in owning

your business outright, without the pressure of investors and bank debt hanging over you. If you are taking on an investor you must hire the proper professionals to make sure you are getting a fair deal for the money invested. Make sure to retain the services of legal, accounting , finance and valuation experts to guide you on this. You may only need one of these or all depending on the complexity involved.

What are the top 3 mistakes that entrepreneurs often make when it comes to making financial decisions and how can they avoid them?

The first that comes to mind is growth for the sake of growth and revenue for the sake of revenue.

If it is not profitable, and if it does not flow to the bottom line proportionately, then rising revenue numbers are just bravado. Do not sacrifice profit for rapid growth. The next is to be efficient with your labor costs. Make sure you are utilizing your workforce properly. Make sure your management team is being utilized fully and if not , look to them to fill any gaps required ,before hiring more staff. Last is, unless you have 10% pre-tax profit at a minimum you are on life support. This is what Greg Crabtree calls the new break-even.

Once there, do what you can to get that number to 15%, without taking on more costs. When you get to 15%, you can afford to hire more and expand, taking the number back down to 10% and do it again.

Slow and steady growth is the key.

I would like to add a fourth and it is key. When it comes to your pre-tax profitability and ultimately your sale price, you as the owner, must be paying yourself a market-based wage. If you do not, then your profit numbers are not valid and ultimately your sale price will suffer as a result.

What’s the best strategy that you believe all entrepreneurs should implement in their daily business habits to better manage the cash flow on their company?

Cash Flow is the oxygen of business.

You cannot go a day without it.

Revenue is vanity and profits only come when the business does not eat cash. The first place to look is at your working capital timelines. That

is, the number of days between when you pay a supplier and your customer pays you. Cash out vs. Cash in. We often see that business owners pay the supplier right on time (as you should) but let accounts receivable drag on without the same diligence to collection. A good place to start is by asking your suppliers to extend terms of payment by a few days. For your accounts receivable, get diligent about recieving prompt payment of money you are owed. These can go a long way to improving your available cash to grow the business.

Even small 1% increases make a huge difference. Try looking at what a slight increase in your pricing or payable days or small decreases in receivables and inventory days, will do for your cash flow and profitability. I run a model and I would be happy to do so for any business that wants to see their results for themselves.

On a final note, what has been the biggest accomplishment of your professional career? What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the fact that for my entire career I have believed in the dreams of entrepreneurs and business owners. I am very proud that I believed in them when others would not, because they were to small or too early stage. I worked with them, helped them access capital and advised them along the way. To know that believing in them resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs in Canada and resulted in great products and services being provided to consumers around the globe is very gratifying. I continue to work tirelessly every day to help business owners and businesses improve their condition and have great outcomes. It is what I get up every day. I discuss all the points in this article in detail in my book Scale-Up to Sell. To order your FREE copy please go to www.scaleuptosellbook.ca

Voice FIND YOUR

SHIRAZ SIDDIQUE While simultaneously delivering record-setting sales results in various Sales Leadership roles, Shiraz Siddique has been actively training, consulting and delivering keynotes for more than 20 years in both the Academic and Corporate world. His passionate and innovative delivery style allows him to navigate past the reality that most people want to learn but do not enjoy the traditional process of learning. Through easy to apply techniques and strategies, he helps companies generate the types of results they have always felt they are capable of.

ABOUT LEVERAGE CONSULTING

Frustrated after seeing poor ideas get adopted over far superior strategies, Leverage Consulting was founded on one question, “Why doesn’t the best idea always win?”

That forced a flipside question, “Why do my prospects consistently select us over the competition?”

Whether delivering group presentations or connecting 1:1, we work with Leaders, Salespeople and Entrepreneurs to grow their persuasion and influence. We guide our clients through the process of Calculating, Calibrating and Clearly Communicating their product, service or idea.

Our sessions are deliberately designed to challenge participants’ thinking. Our priority is to ensure the learning experience is connected, relevant and enjoyable.

We go beyond building successful training programs – we believe in building successful people through skill, confidence and presence. Ensure your idea wins in your next team meeting or client presentation. www.findyourleverage.ca

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Ego aside, I don’t always have the need to be right (would be fantastic though!) but I do have the need to at least have my thoughts heard. The need to be heard is universal and inherent in all of us and if we are disregarded, it can lead to frustration. It is easy to blame others and circumstances, but could we be contributing to our own frustration by neglecting to grow our ability to effectively communicate our thoughts and ideas?

Another contributing factor to feeling like our voices are not being heard, is rooted in your audience’s need to understand clearly. No one gets excited about uninspiring and unprepared ramble that does not move their heart and mind with the potential of possibilities. If you’re unprepared, be prepared that your audience will be unprepared to receive your message!

Here are Five Amplifying Techniques that will keep the attention of your audience and ensure your message comes across…

1

Preparation. It demonstrates to others that you care about your message and you respect their time.

Orchestrating your words can cut out clutter and infuse the clarity that most people desire. It creates structure to your message and allows you to build better stories that will resonate and last longer in the memory of your audience.

2 WIIFM. The FM radio frequency most people by default tune into is W.I.I.F.M. – What’s In It For Me! That’s not good or bad but represents a frequency that connects on their wavelength. Crafting our communication towards the personal benefit of our audience can elicit buyin quicker and keep people engaged longer.

3 Confidence. If you lack confidence in yourself and your content, so will your audience. Conviction instills a belief that activates assurance in others.

People are always looking for certainty in an uncertain world and if you can represent solid footing, chances are people will want to follow you and listen to what you have to say.

4 Roadmap. Use your words to generate mental maps for your audience. Most people will go along with you if they clearly understand where you are going. Buy-in regularly sounds like, ‘I see where this is going’ and confusion sounds like, ‘this isn’t going to end well’.

Asking people to take a leap of faith is telling them you do not even know where you are headed and sounds like a sleezy salesperson who says, “trust me – I know what I’m doing!”

5

Part of the Greater Good. In this market, there is a weight loss company for men whose slogan is, “If you could have done it alone, you would have done it already!”. Most people want to be a valued part of a team that suggests we are all-in, all-together. Making your team feel like their contributions matter, will make your message matter. Most people respond well to a well-timed pep talk – in other words, Inspiration creates Perspiration.

Consider baking these into your cadence of communication and your teams will seek out your voice more often.

If you want to step-up and develop the Confidence, Clarity and Certainty in your voice, it’s easier than you think. It just takes a measure of focus. You need to decide if your product/service/idea is worth it. You need to decide that your voice is worth being heard then set out to become the captivating communicator who wins the room more often!

Presenting partner

PC partner

Banking partner

From left: SK; founder of CanadianSME; Minister Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria; Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction; Minister Vic Fedeli; Minister of Economic Development; Job Creation and Trade; Adam Vaughan; Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families; Children and Social Development (Housing), Lissa Ricci; VP, Small Business Solutions, Cisco Canada; Colin McIsaac, Executive Director & General Manager at Lenovo Canada and Carmine Cinerari; President at Sharp Electronics of Canada Ltd

CanadianSME Business Expo 2020 Inauguration The inaugural CanadianSME Business Expo took place on January 20th 2020 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This event supports the small and medium sized business community of Canada, with proud sponsors like Cisco and Lenovo. This event marks the beginning of what it means when business owners and leaders from different industries come together to support one another.

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CAN AD I ANSM E B US I N E S S EXP O January 20, 2020 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre

07

07

AMAZING WORKSHOPS

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

1500+

45

ATTENDEES

EXHIBITORS

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

42

03

SPEAKERS

KEYNOTES

• • • • • • • • •

Lenovo Cisco nerds on Site Huddle Space IRCC Spire Iristel Telus CIBC Worker BEE PEO Leadership FedDev Ontario Cyber Security Nanopay Voice Connect Media Planet ESC Canadian Chamber of Commerce Group of One Cashback Word Leverage Consulting Ownr Cedric Millar Innovation Canada Brantel iTransform Pacific Global Shipper Bee OSME Privacy Commissionar CIBC The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman 3M Canada Revenue Agency / Government of Canada SBLR EPAC IKEA Canada IP Gold Vision Blue Cross WBE GLCC (Lgbt) Sprout Growers

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January 20, 2020

VIP DIGNITARIES O P E N I N G R E M A R K S G I V E N B Y T H E V I P D I G N I TA R I E S

HON. ADAM VAUGHAN

HON. PRABMEET SINGH SARKARIA

HON. VICTOR FEDELI

Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Affairs

Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction

Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Chair of Cabinet

The Honorable Adam Vaughan, Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Affairs gave his opening remarks followed by the Honorable Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria and lastly by the Honorable Minister Victor Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Chair of Cabinet

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Keynote Lissa Ricci

VP, Small Business Solutions, Cisco Canada, Lissa Ricci, the VP of Small Business Solutions, Cisco Canada, had a keynote about Cisco being the connection that empowers the Small and Medium sized business enterprises through their innovative products and services. She also talked about Cisco connect and Cisco design products and the benefits that this has for small and medium business owners in Canada.

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Keynote Colin McIsaac

Executive Director, General Manager at Lenovo Canada Colin McIsaac, the Executive Director and General Manager at Lenovo Canada, had a keynote on workplace transformation. He spoke about how the environment of the workplace is evolving like an IT system, whereby technology and telecommunications have become more prevalent and how businesses should adapt with this change. He stated the importance of how businesses should make growth initiatives a top priority in the workplace.

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Certificates of appreciation were presented to the supporters of CanadianSME business platform by Hon. Vic Fedeli

Certificate of appreciation was presented to Jitan Patel, National Sales Director of Lenovo Canada by the Hon. Minister Sarkaria

The panel discussion on Women Entrepreneurship was moderated by Tahira Bharmal, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Mentors Consult. She can be seen engaging the audience, along with other speakers including Maria Locker, Monica Kretschmer, Nancy Wilson, Shannon Ballard, Lina Khalifeh and Silvia Pencak.

Carmine Cinerari, the president of Sharp Canada who can be seen interacting with an attendee. Carmine was a part of the Business Leadership panel discussion at CanadianSME Business Expo.

The business leadership panel was moderated by Shiraz Siddique, Founder of Leverage Consulting. Among the panelists were Colin McIssac, James Meddings, Carmine Cinerari, Randall Smallbone, and Wayne S Roberts

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CANADIANSME BUSINESS EXPO JANUARY 20, 2020 More than 1500 business owners and leaders from different industries attended the inaugural CanadianSME Business Expo 2020 on January 20th, 2020 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

7 PANEL DISCUSSIONS ON: Business Leadership Digital Transformation

Biggest Gathering of Small & Medium Enterprises Organised by CanadianSME Business Magazine CanadianSME is a proud supporter of small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. We are excited to introduce the first ever CanadianSME Business Expo 2020 in Toronto. This trade show has been organized primarily for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Women Entrepreneurship Finance & Investment CEO & Founders Panel Tech for SMEs Global Business Mindset

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EXHIBITORS

Over 44 exhibitors from various industries took part in the inaugural CanadianSME Business Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Cisco and Lenovo’s booth can be seen below, who were the main sponsors for this event.

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EXHIBITORS

Exhibitors were eager to share their knowledge and provided friendly advice to the attendees, who came to show their support to the 40+ booths available on site.

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"Our vision is to empower Canadian small & medium enterprises" SK - Founder CanadianSME CANADIANSME MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2020 I

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Biggest Gathering of Small & Medium Enterprises Organised by CanadianSME Business Magazine CanadianSME is a proud supporter of small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. We are excited to introduce the first ever CanadianSME Business Expo 2020 in Toronto. This trade show has been organized primarily for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Biggest Gathering of Small & Medium Enterprises Organised by CanadianSME Business Magazine CanadianSME is a proud supporter of small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. We are excited to introduce the first ever CanadianSME Business Expo 2020 in Toronto. This trade show has been organized primarily for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Certificates of appreciation were presented to the supporters of CanadianSME business platform by Hon. Vic Fedeli

Certificate of appreciation was presented to Jitan Patel, National Sales Director of Lenovo Canada by the Hon. Minister Sarkaria

The panel discussion on Women Entrepreneurship was moderated by Tahira Bharmal, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Mentors Consult. She can be seen engaging the audience, along with other speakers including Maria Locker, Monica Kretschmer, Nancy Wilson, Shannon Ballard, Lina Khalifeh and Silvia Pencak.

Carmine Cinerari, the president of Sharp Canada who can be seen interacting with an attendee. Carmine was a part of the Business Leadership panel discussion at CanadianSME Business Expo.

The business leadership panel was moderated by Shiraz Siddique, Founder of Leverage Consulting. Among the panelists were Colin McIssac, James Meddings, Carmine Cinerari, Randall Smallbone, and Wayne S Roberts

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JANUARY 2020 EXHIBITORS PRESENTING PARTNER

PC PARTNER

BANKING PARTNER

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The CanadianSME Business Awards took place on January 28th 2020. We are very pleased with the turnaround of the event as it was extremely successful. The CanadianSME Business Awards gathered over 400 attendees including high profile guests, such as Rocco Rossi, President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Jackie King, Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the honourable Vic Fedeli, the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade of Ontario.

A celebration of Canadian entrepreneurship at its finest, the event was a night that celebrated and recognized the many achievements of successful entrepreneurs. Presented by top leaders in the Canadian business industry, the CanadianSME Business Awards recognized entrepreneurs in several different categories such as the Small Business of the Year, the Entrepreneur of the Year, the Technopreneur of the Year, the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Business Woman of the Year Award. More than just a night of recognizing top entrepreneurs for their hard work and success, the CanadianSME Business Awards was a great occasion for business owners to meet and mingle with other entrepreneurs. A fruitful networking opportunity, it was an evening that many entrepreneurs will not soon forget.

Whether they were nominated or among the lucky winners who took home an award, entrepreneurs had the opportunity to have their name and business gain visibility towards some of Canada’s top leaders and investors.

We at CanadianSME are strong supporters of the Canadian small and medium sized business industries and therefore have made it our goal to do what we can to help them have a successful journey. With that in mind, we are very pleased with the success that the CanadianSME Business Awards gained and are looking forward to the next one. Because a stronger SME industry means a stronger economy for Canada, we will continue to do whatever we can to contribute to the success of Canadian entrepreneurs.

Presenting partner

Exclusive PC partner

Banking partner

ÂŽ RBC is a registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under license. Cisco is the registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. The Lenovo logo is the registered trademark of Lenovo.

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Red carpet at CanadianSME National Business Awards

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PC partner Lenovo booth

Tech partner Cisco photo booth

Certificate of appreciation for judging panel

Attendees at the CanadianSME National Business Awards

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R O CCO ROSSI

President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce

JAC K I E K I N G

Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

LO R I DA R L I N G TON

Vice President, Small Business, Strategy & Partnerships, Business Financial Services RBC Royal Bank

H ON . VIC FE DE LI

Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade

LIS S A R ICCI

VP of Small Business Solutions, Cisco Canada

J ITA N PATE L

National Director of Sales at Lenovo

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JUDGING PANEL 2019

The 2019 judging panel was presented Certificates of Appreciation by Hon. Vic Fedeli and Rocco Rossi

Lissa Ricci, Vice President of small business solutions for Cisco Canada

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Lori Darlington, Vice President, Small Business & Strategic Partnerships - RBC

Shannon Lewis, President, Canadian Media Directors Council

Charlie Regan, CEO of Nerds on Site

Roi Ross, VP of Small Business Solutions, TELUS

Silvia Pencak, President of WBE Canada

Miki Velemirovich, President - Cargo

Jackie King, Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Anne Toner Fung, Executive Director, Innovation Guelph

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Duncan Sinclair, Chair of Deloitte Canada and Chile

CanadianSME Editors Choice Award winner, Erica Hakonson

Rocco Rossi with SK

RBC Small Business of the Year Up to 10 employees-Top 1 The Logistics FACTORY Ltd

Dave Miller, VP of Product and Marketing at Danby accepting the award on behalf of Jim Estills, President and CEO of Danby, CEO of ShipperBee.

RBC Small Business of the Year, Up to 10 employees - Top 2 Maxxeon

RBC Small Business of the Year, Up to 10 employees - Top 3 Impact Drywall Inc.

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ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

Kirk Simpson Co-Founder & CEO, Wave In 2010, Kirk Simpson co-founded Wave, and has since guided the company to 400,000 active small businesses registered, 260+ people on the Wave team, and over $100 million in funding raised from investors around the world. Wave was acquired in June 2019 by H&R Block for over $537M – the 7th largest tech exit in Canada since 2001. Under Kirk, Wave has won numerous awards for leadership, culture, and innovation, including the Deloitte Fast 50, the KPMG Fintech 100, Waterstone Canada’s Most Admired CEO, and Great Place to Work Canada. In addition, Kirk has served as advisor to the Next 36, and provides mentorship to young entrepreneurs and startup visionaries.

The award was presented by Lissa Ricci, VP of Small Business Solutions for Cisco Canada

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SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR - TOP 1 UPTO 100 EMPLOYEES

JUICEWORKS EXHIBITS Juiceworks Exhibits began 20 years ago with a passion for marketing display fabrication and installation. Having built a wealth of market-specific experience, we’ve established ourselves as award-winning specialists with the in-house capabilities to create, manage and execute exhibit, event, interior, activation, tradeshow and display projects.

The award was presented by Jitan Patel, National Sales Director for Lenovo Canada

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SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR - TOP 1 UPTO 10 EMPLOYEES

THE LOGISTICS FACTORY LTD

With strong network, key alliances and strategic partnerships in Asia, Europe, North American, South America, and all major trading countries around the world, The Logistics Factory Limited provides seamless freight forwarding solutions and logistics consulting services for the growing small and medium size companies.

The award was presented by Lori Darlington, Vice President, Small Business, Strategy & Partnerships Business Financial Services, RBC Royal Bank of Canada

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BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR 2019

Shahrzad Rafati CEO of BroadbandTV Corp

Shahrzad Rafati is the Founder and CEO of BroadbandTV (BBTV), a media-tech company that is advancing the world through the creation, distribution, management, and monetization of content.

Shahrzad actively pursues ways to encourage social change and is a champion for equality in all forms. She is passionate about job creation, education, and advancing opportunities for women and girls. In September 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to represent Canada on the G20 Business Women Leader’s task force, a global initiative to drive actionable, measurable, and results-driven solutions to impact women’s economic empowerment.

The award was presented by Charlie Reagan, CEO of Nerds On Site

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Lenovo Small Business of the Year Up to 100 employees - Top 1 Juiceworks Exhibits

Lenovo Small Business of the Year Up to 100 employees - Top 2 DPM Energy Inc.

Received by SK on behalf of Juiceworks Exhibits

Lenovo Small Business of the Year Up to 100 employees - Top 3 Volanté Systems

Best Business Innovation 2019 iNKAS® Armored Vehicle Manufacturing

Best Team of the Year ReMAP Network

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Small Business of the Year Up to 50 employees - Top 1 Smedia

Customer Service Excellence - Top 1 F12.net

Small Business of the Year Up to 50 employees - Top 2 Canadian Mortgages Inc.

Small Business of the Year Up to 50 employees - Top 3 Eco Guardian

Customer Service Excellence - Top 3 Vendasta

Customer Service Excellence - Top 2 Safety First Consulting Ltd

Exporter Of The Year Laipac Technology Inc.

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Fintech Business of the Year Borrowell

The Fastest Growing Company - Top 1 Canadian Home Improvement Credit Corporation The Fastest Growing Company - Top 2 Kidcrew

Inspirational Leader of the Year Paul Downey CEO, Pliteq Inc.

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The Fastest Growing Company - Top 3 AlayaCare

Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year Bassem Ghali, CEO at Green Lotus Inc

Young Entrepreneur of the Year PAWEL SANDHU CEO, Cargo Country Group

Best Professional Services Award - Top 2 The Leadership Agency Inc.

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Best Professional Services Award - Top 1 Peninsula canada

Digital & E-commerce Business of the Year Top 1 Ignite Digital

Best New Business Top 1 Transformer Table

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Best Professional Services Award - Top 3 Macro

Digital & E-commerce Business of the Year Top 2 Array of Stars

Best New Business Top 2 Alexio

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Digital & E-commerce Business of the Year Top 3 Green Lotus

Best New Business Top 3 Albaslist

Best Place to Work - Top 1 DPM Energy

Best Place to Work - Top 3 Soapbox Received by SK on behalf of Soapbox

Best Place to Work - Top 2 Plotly

Technopreneur of the Year Cole Diamond, CEO of Coinsquare

Best Business Support Organization York Enterpreneurship Development Institute (YEDI)

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Business of the Year, 100+ employees Simply Green Home Services

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WINNERS OF CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019

ANNE GENGE ADRIAN SCHAUER

Founder & CEO, AlayaCare Adrian Schauer is the founder and CEO of AlayaCare, a home healthcare technology company that has grown to 350 employees in less than five years and is delivering its disruptive solution across the globe.

Founded in 2014, AlayaCare has provided the industry with innovative technology solutions to optimize the full care continuum for home and community care organizations in Canada, United States and Australia. AlayaCare’s purpose is to enable the care that we want our loved ones to receive at home rather than in a hospital or long-term care facility. By combining virtual care tools with the supporting software for in-person homecare, AlayaCare is leading the industry through a transition from fee-for-service to value-based care.

Winner: The Fastest Growing Company – Top 3

ALBA MANAJ Albaslist

Alba Manaj started her first business as Chartered Accountant in her native country Albania in 2000. 80% of the clients were construction companies.

Winner: Best New Business Top 3 50

CEO, Co-founder, Alexio Corporation Anne Genge is a Certified Information Privacy Professional with a specialization in healthcare. She also holds certifications for HIPAA Security, and PCI Compliance. With over 20 years of industry experience, Anne knows the challenges healthcare providers face with technology and securing patient data.

Winner: Best New Business – Top 2

SHAHRZAD RAFATI

Founder & CEO, BroadbandTV Shahrzad Rafati is the Founder and CEO of BroadbandTV (BBTV), a media-tech company that is advancing the world through the creation, distribution, management, and monetization of content.

Shahrzad actively pursues ways to encourage social change and is a champion for equality in all forms. She is passionate about job creation, education, and advancing opportunities for women and girls. In September 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to represent Canada on the G20 Business Women Leader’s task force, a global initiative to drive actionable, measurable, and results-driven solutions to impact women’s economic empowerment.

Winner: Business Woman Of the Year

Founding Partner + Managing Director, Array Of Stars

Winner: Digital & E-Commerce Business Of The Year Top 2

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Bryan Jaskolka has been the managing executive and visionary behind the CMI Group since its inception in 2005. Under his direction the CMI group has grown to include a mortgage brokerage (CMI), an underwriting division (CLI), licensed mortgage administrator (CSI), a real estate brokerage (CRI) and a mortgage investment corporation (MIC).

Winner: Small Business of The Year – Top 2

PAWEL SANDHU CEO, Cargo

ALISTAIR LEYLAND

Alistair lives at the intersection of technology, advertising and storytelling. As the Founder and Managing Director of Array of Stars, he spends his time leading an exciting team of futurists crafting the next chapter of interactive experience across telecommunications, real estate, healthcare and sports entertainment. At a hackathon at MIT, he led an augmented reality project that used hand tracking and machine learning to turn american sign language gestures into voice and text commands.

Alistair is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre and is currently enrolled in an upcoming healthcare incubator lab at MIT and Harvard Medical School

BRYAN JASKOLKA

COO, Canadian Mortgages Inc.

ANDREW GRAHAM

Co-founder & CEO, Borrowell Borrowell helps free people from financial stress. With its free credit score and report monitoring, automated credit coaching tools and AI-driven financial product recommendations, Borrowell empowers people to improve their financial well-being and be the hero of their credit.

Winner: Fintech Business Of The Year

As the CEO of Cargo Group of Companies, Pawel Sandhu is responsible for managing all facets of the business. Pawel has proven executive management and a solid track record over the past 7 years in growing the company from solely being a trucking company to one which provides logistics solutions across North America.

Pawel has been recognized as Top 20 Under 40 for Trucking Today's magazine, along with helping Cargo Group become one of the Top 75 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada 2019. He has been actively involved in several philanthropic initiatives giving back to the community along with working on technology startups targeting the logistics space.

Winner: Young Entrepreneur Of the Year

WINNERS OF CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019

EAMONN GLAVEY

KIRK SIMPSON

ANIL ABROL

President & CEO, CHICC

Co-Founder & CEO, Wave

President & CEO, Eco Guardian

Eamonn Glavey is a dynamic leader that takes a “constant and never-ending” approach to improving his professional and personal life.

Regarding Kirk, Enclosed are three headshot options (you can pick the one that works best with the other featured nominees) and here is Kirk's bio copy:

Before starting his own Company, Eco Guardian in 2004, Anil held several key leadership positions in finance, strategic planning, acquisitions and mergers. Over his 25-year career in various manufacturing industries in Asia, Europe and North America, Anil was recognised as a leader who thinks differently, brings out-ofthe-box solutions and is a firm believer that “successful people don’t do different things, they do things differently”

As President & CEO of CHICC, he sets the vision and strategy for the organization, oversees the day-to-day operations, manages stakeholder relationships, sets governance and establishes KPI’s for performance of all departments.

Winner: The Fastest Growing Company – Top 1

In 2010, Kirk Simpson cofounded Wave, and has since guided the company to 400,000 active small businesses registered, 260+ people on the Wave team, and over $100 million in funding raised from investors around the world.

Winner: Entrepreneur Of the Year 2019

Winner: Small Business Of the Year – Top 3

BASSEM GHALI Online Marketing Strategist | Philanthropist | Speaker Bassem is a search engine marketing strategist and speaker with more than 15 years of experience managing online marketing strategies for some of Canadian & International corporations including Canadian Tire, VistaPrint, Remax Canada, Egypt Air, Xplornet, Direct Energy and Toronto Star.

Demonstrated success in digital marketing has led to speaking engagements at marketing events around the world, and the honour winning the 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, presented by the Canadian Association of Marketing Professionals!

Winner: Immigrant Entrepreneur Of the Year

NICK A. IOZZO

COLE DIAMOND CEO, Coinsquare

A Toronto native, Coinsquare CEO Cole Diamond aims to build Coinsquare into a 21st century financial institution that disrupts how the financial services industry operates. He is a serial entrepreneur, now launching his third company, with a proven track record of taking companies from nothing to millions of dollars in monthly revenue. In 12 short months, Cole has led Coinsquare to 150 employees, 300k+ users, and $55M+ in funding, opening Coinsquare up for being in the conversation for Canada’s fastest growing company. Cole speaks on panels and keynotes regularly for the FinTech scene in North America.

Winner: Technopreneur Of the Year

President, DPM Energy Inc. The senior leader of our team and President of DPM, Nick has over 30 years of experience working in the utility sector.

He spent the first eight years working directly for local utilities, including five years running the design department for an LDC. These initial years not only provided a sound foundation of knowledge on fundamental utility principals but also formed the basis of the strong personal relationships Nick still maintains today with senior managers in the LDC sector. For the past three decades, Nick has focused his efforts on providing services to the utility and the private sector.

He has unrivalled experience in managing large-scale development and utility renewal projects.

Winner: Best Place to Work Top - 1

ALEX WEBB

Chief Executive Officer, F12.net Inc. Alex Webb is the CEO of F12.net, a Canadian IT services business he founded in 1996. Alex pushed F12 to become, in turn, one of Canada’s first providers of managed hardware-as-a-service, private cloud, and Microsoft Cloud solutions. F12 ranks among North America’s Elite 150 MSPs. F12’s purpose is to take the complexity and risk out of business technology solutions so that leaders can focus on what matters. Alex’s personal mission is to see that hardworking ethical business leaders thrive.

Winner: Customer Service Excellence – Top 1

MATTHEW GOULART Founder, Ignite Digital Inc.

Matthew Goulart is the founder of Ignite Digital, a Canadian digital marketing agency.

Through Ignite Digital, Goulart works with Fortune 500 companies and advertising agencies from around the world and has helped launch profitable and highly successful digital marketing initiatives for his clients.

Winner: Digital & E-Commerce Business of the Year – Top 1

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WINNERS OF CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019

ARIEL MASHIYEV

President, Juiceworks Exhibits

Ariel Mashiyev is the CEO of iLobby, a global leader in Enterprise Visitor Management.

The iLobby platform has become an integral part of day-to-day operations for Fortune 500 companies and major institutions such as Canada Post, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Scotiabank, Manulife, Pepsi, Netflix, CBC, and more. iLobby is trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide to track, manage, and monitor who is in their buildings. From data security to physical security, iLobby’s enterprise-level features make it easy to reach a high level of security and regulatory compliance in a matter of seconds, even in highly-regulated facilities.

An industry veteran, Jon founded Juiceworks 25 years ago, servicing the exhibit marketing industry as an installation technician. His passion and entrepreneurial spirit quickly took root as he developed a reputation for excellent service, reliability and quality workmanship. Jon credits those same values as the key to his success today.

Under his leadership, Juiceworks continues to thrive, growing at an exponential rate, with 70+ team members throughout North America, all of whom are aligned with these same core values.

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Winner: Small Business Of the Year – Top 1

Founder & CEO, Laipac Tehnology Inc.

JOHN ROSBY

Owner, Impact Drywall John Rosby is the founder of Impact Drywall Inc, a fastgrowing construction firm that specializes in insulation and interior system services.

His clients include some of the largest and most reputable residential home builders in Canada.

Winner: Small Business Of the Year – Top 3 Winner: Best Business Innovation 2019 I CANADIANSME MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2020

DR. DINA KULIK CEO, Kidcrew

Dr. Dina Kulik is a mother, paediatrician and pediatric emergency medicine physician in Toronto. She is the Founder and CEO of Kidcrew, a multidisciplinary clinic for children, providing a one stop for kids’ health. She is one of Canada's leading child health media experts, providing child health information to parents and the public through television, radio and print media and via her blog DrDina.ca and at Kidcrew.com.

Winner: The Fastest Growing Company – Top 2

MARIA C. PACINI AND DIEGO LAI

DAVID KHAZANSKI

CEO, INKAS Group of Companies David Khazanski is the Founder and CEO of INKAS® Armored Vehicle Manufacturing. As a seasoned veteran within the integrated security industry, he started the company as a local armored courier business with his wife over 20 years ago.

Today, INKAS® has become a global leader in the production of defensive vehicles specifically designed to protect human lives in law enforcement and peacekeeping missions, as well as high-risk civilians such as diplomats, political leaders, and dignitaries.

JONATHAN AUGER

CEO, iLobby

Laipac Technology Inc. is a leading company in the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) products and services. With the head office in Richmond Hill Ontario, Canada, Laipac was founded in 1999 by two distinguished Canadian entrepreneurs, Maria C. Pacini and Diego Lai, who continuously strive for product improvements and new ideas to bring the best-innovated products to the market.

Winner: Exporter Of the Year

DAN RADU

President, Macro Dan founded Macro to help companies create magical customer experiences through the orchestration of technologies, people, processes, content and data.

Dan and the team at Macro continuously strive to enable companies to elevate their customer experience with sales and marketing technologies in order to help them deliver effective marketing operations services and strategies on a global scale.

Winner: Best Professional Services Award – Top 3

WINNERS OF CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019

ERICA HAKONSON

Maven Collective Marketing Erica Hakonson, Principal and Founder of Maven Collective Marketing, is an award-winning entrepreneur, named Female Entrepreneur Silver Stevie Award Winner, MarCom Gold Winner, dotComm Gold Winner (X2), Standard of Excellence WebAward Winner, Summit Creative Bronze Winner and PRDaily Category Winner.

Hakonson is dedicated to strategically and maniacally delivering results to both her clients and her community, sitting as a Board Director for multiple not-for-profits and launching the annual Maven Collective Marketing Pay-ItForward initiative that supports female entrepreneurship, women's health, nature conservation, microlending and local non-profits.

MARY STRAZZERI PETER DONE

Group Managing Director & Founder, Peninsula Group Peter Done is Group Managing Director and founder of business services specialist Peninsula Group. Peninsula was formed in 1983 and began to provide professional services to businesses across the UK. The business is now a global leader in HR, employment law and health & safety consulting for small and medium-sized organisations and currently supports over 75,000 diverse businesses worldwide. In 2018, Peter was named as one of the best CEO's to work for in Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards.

JACK PARMER

Founder & CEO, Plotly As Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Plotly, Jack leads over 70 Plotly employees in building the best, fastestgrowing, open-source data visualization solutions that anyone can use. With every industry turning towards data to drive decisions, Jack is responsible for ensuring Plotly’s success as the opencore provider of democratic, collaborative data solutions for enterprises in any sector.

Winner: Best Place to Work Top 2

President, Safety First Consulting Professional Corporation

I started my career at a Local Union Hall representing injured workers with their Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Claims. I represented injured workers for the better part of 5 years. I then went on to work for a disability management consulting firm representing employers in Ontario. My success at managing employer claims and related costs provided me with opportunities to work for other clients.

Winner: Customer Service Excellence – Top 2

Winner: Best Professional Services Award – Top 1

Winner: Canadian SME Editor’s Choice Award 2019

IRENE STERIAN

PAUL DOWNEY CEO, Pliteq Inc.

JOHN SCHIRA

Director, Business Development at Maxxeon Inc. John Schira is the co-founder and director of Maxxeon, Inc. With over forty years of experience working in the Automotive Aftermarket space, he and his partner set out on their own in 2003 and started Maxxeon, Inc after a chance meeting at a cocktail party.

Though the co-owners knew one another in high school, they went their separate ways after graduation.

Winner: Small Business Of The Year – Top 2

I founded the engineering company, Pliteq Inc., in 2006 and have applied 25 years of engineering, manufacturing, R&D, and business development experience to ensure the success of our business based on recycled tire products.

I completed my Chemical Engineering thesis at the University of Western Ontario in 1991. I was a very early researcher in the development and use of materials from recycled tires and was focused on engineering such products.

Winner: Inspirational Leader of the Year

Founder, President & CEO, ReMAP Irene Sterian is a successful engineering executive and technology leader with a distinguished career in manufacturing. Irene presents significant accomplishments in engineering management and a pioneer of environmentally safe, sustainable manufacturing technologies. She is the Founder, President & CEO of ReMAP, a $50M+ not-for-profit tech ecosystem that accelerates the commercialization of innovations developed in Canada for the global market.

Winner: Best Team Of the Year

LAWRENCE KRIMKER CEO, Simply Group

Lawrence Krimker is the living leadership lesson of his motto: effort plus time equals results.

He has become one of the most accomplished and impressive business leaders in Canada, and he is just getting started.

Lawrence began his career as an entrepreneur at the young age of 16 when he started his first business while in high school. He went on to attend the Schulich School of Business at York University on a full scholarship and graduated at the top of his class.

Winner: Business Of The Year 100+ employees

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WINNERS OF CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019

MARSHAL FINCH

CEO & Founder, sMedia Marshal Finch is CEO & Cofounder at sMedia - a leading digital tech company for 650+ automotive dealerships across North America.

Marshal led sMedia to become the #30 fastest-growing company in Canada in 2019.

With his alignment, focus, and execution, sMedia became the #1 fastest-growing company in Saskatchewan that same year.

He is a remote-work advocate who completely bootstrapped sMedia from 3 people in 2011 to an international team of 70 today.

Winner: Small Business of the Year – Top 1

BRENNAN MCEACHRAN CEO and Co-founder, SoapBox

Brennan McEachran is CEO and Co-founder of SoapBox, winner of Most innovative workplaces '19, #1 Best Place to Work ’16, Young Entrepreneur of the Year ’15, Isadore Sharp Outstanding recent graduate recipient.

SoapBox is the first employee engagement platform designed for managers. It's an app that helps managers engage their teams through their most important interactions: oneon-ones, team meetings and company-wide discussions. It's trusted by over 30,000 managers at scaling tech companies like Intercom, Foodora, Wayfair and more.

SOSLAN TSOUTSIEV President - Reverse Manufacturing Inc. President Transformer Table Inc. Soslan Tsoutsiev presently serves as the President and is the co-founder of Transformer Table, a Montreal based commercial and manufacturing company that focuses on the development, innovation, production and commercialization of SMART products in the furniture and interior design industry. Soslan has over 8 years of experience in industrial design, engineering, product design/development as well as R/D.

Joseph Lee is the founder of Volanté. An entrepreneur at heart, his passion for developing innovative software has taken him into the hospitality industry.

He and a group of fellow University of Waterloo Computer Science graduates saw an opportunity to revolutionize POS by using modern technologies, and they created a software system that has now become Volanté Systems.

Winner: Small Business of the Year – Top 3

Winner: Best New Business – Top 1

Winner: Best Place to Work – Top 3

MARAT RESSIN

BRENDAN KING

Co-Founder and CEO Vendasta

JAMIE HOOBANOFF Founder, The Leadership Agency Inc.

Jamie Hoobanoff is Founder of The Leadership Agency, North America’s fastest growing recruitment partner of choice for the technology and startup community. The Leadership Agency helps build the most impressive companies of our generation, all while disrupting the status quo and helping companies make their best leadership and sales hires.

Best Professional Services Awards – Top 2

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JOSEPH LEE

Founder, Volanté Systems

JEFF HAO

President, The Logistics Factory Limited With years of experience in airline industry, logistics and distribution, and International Freight Forwarding in both China and Canada, Jeff Hao started The Logistics Factory Limited (TLF) in 2013. Leading a great team he built up, TLF sits #51 of the Growth 500 in 2019, becoming one of the fastest growing companies in Canada.

Small Business Of the Year – Top 1

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Vendasta provides an endto-end commerce platform to 20,000+ customers who sell digital products and services to more than two million small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide. These customers include marketing agencies, independent software vendors (ISVs), media companies, publishers, financial institutions and telecoms. The Vendasta Platform allows these groups to easily adopt new solutions from a marketplace of SaaS technologies that they can sell under their own brand to SMB customers.

Winner: Customer Service Excellence – Top 3

President & Professor at York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (YEDI) The York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (YEDI) is the top-ranked universitylinked accelerator in the world.

YEDI’s mission is to provide top-tier business education and mentorship to innovative entrepreneurs from any sector or industry in order to build and accelerate successful businesses and efficient not-for-profit organizations.

Winner: Best Business Support Organization

A QUICK RECAP OF THE BUSINESS FOR

SALE MARKET IN CANADA

F

BY NUNZIO PRESTA CEO at BizON

rom the little mom and pop convenience stores to larger manufacturers exporting goods around the world, small businesses are the backbone of our communities.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs inspire us daily, acting as the heartbeat of the economy and the creative engine for our future. With over 10,000 active users, BizON has a front row seat to helping small businesses stay open and thrive by finding them a new owner & leader who can carry their legacy and vision. We take much pride in this because keeping businesses and franchises in the micro market alive has a positive impact on our economy locally, nationally and even globally.

and generally better interest rates for financing, therefore looking to purchase or start their own business. Business owners may see lower profits but higher valuations due to potential decreases in interest rates and the ability for a buyer to finance more cheaply.

Nevertheless, the business for sale market performed strong in 2019 in terms of the number of deals getting done and the multiples that sellers were receiving (3-4x EBITDA). I’m optimistic that this will continue in 2020 with an average deal size of $550,000 CAD.

The state of businesses for sale in the Canadian micro market We define the micro market as any business or franchise looking to sell for anywhere between $1,000 to no more than $5,000,000. Research conducted by The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found that 47% of business owners intend to exit their business within the next five years ─ 8% within 12 months, and 39% in the next 1 to 5 years. Looking further ahead, 72% of owners plan to exit their businesses within the next ten years. To put this into perspective, over $1.5 trillion of business assets could be transferred to a new generation of business owners over the next decade. If all of this isn’t managed well, it could have a significant impact on jobs in many local communities and the economy overall. Moreover, if business owners aren’t creating sellable businesses, in addition to a valuable, organized and prepared businesses, this can put a downward pressure on exit plans and valuations as there will be a flood of competition looking to exit and sell.

From an economic perspective, Canada hasn’t been very vocal on whether 2020 will be stronger or weaker, therefore, looking south of the border for some sort of indication on whether projections of a weaker economy are a possibility. We tend to nod our heads and say yes. But why? This is largely due to the narratives around the impeachment of President Trump and trade wars, which can impact Canada. Keeping this in mind, if Canada sees a weaker economy (or even an economy that is stagnant) individuals may face job insecurity

As we dig into our data at BizON, we have a great view on the hotspots where most connections and transactions are occurring. Curious about the hotspots where businesses are selling the most?

Here are the top four: 1

Ontario

2

British Columbia

3

Alberta

4

Manitoba

Aside from home-based businesses or any business not tied to a brick and mortar, these 4 provinces see a ton of action. These provinces are not only seeing interest from local buyers, but also from potential buyers from out of province, as well as foreign buyers (outside Canada).

Looking forward to providing more insight on the business for sale market and the exciting world of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition.

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CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

ADEL BENNANI Alliance Zone Inc. Adel Bennani, Founder and Managing Director of Alliance Zone Inc, is originally from Morocco, and a proud Canadian since 2006. Alliance Zone sources, trades, and exports grains, pulses, cereals and bird food.

NOMINATED FOR - IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

TERESA SHAVER Business Advisory Centre Durham Inc. ROBERT & GERALDINE BROUWER Big Country Raw Ltd Robert & Geraldine Brouwer, owners of Big Country Raw are industry leaders in Canada’s fastest growing pet food segment, premium raw foods.

They opened Big Country Raw in 2012 with a commitment to produce a high quality affordable and convenient raw pet food diet.

Teresa joined The Business Advisory Centre Inc in 2012; - a non profit organization supporting businesses to achieve business success through offering advisory services, workshops and resources to entrepreneurs and business owners.

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD (MORE THAN 100 EMPLOYEES)

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

ANIL PEER Brevitas Consulting Inc Anil brings significant experience in the areas of program/project management, operations management, commissioning and qualifications, and continuous improvement. He has experience in management consulting, chemical manufacturing, software development, pharmaceuticals, and the oil and gas industries.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

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Barzin Bahardoust obtained his B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Science with recognition from association of Professional Engineers of Ontario in 2003, M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 2006 from University of Toronto, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus in materials interface design in 2012 from University of Toronto.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

MARGO CRAWFORD Business Sherpa Group

DIANA OLSEN Balzac's Coffee With a 25+ year history, Balzac’s Coffee Roasters has seen continued success serving exceptional coffee and providing unique artisanal experiences to its 14 café communities across Ontario.

BARZIN BAHARDOUST Canadian Plasma Resources Corp

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Margo Crawford is the President, CEO and founder of the Business Sherpa Group; an Ottawa based business solutions company specializing in providing flexible consulting services to small and mid-sized enterprises in the areas of HR, Recruitment, Executive Search, Finance and key strategic services.

NOMINATED FOR - CISCO ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

PAUL BILYEA Cardinal Fine Cabinetry Cardinal's fearless and tireless leader is a professional member of ACIDO (Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario) as well as an RSE (Red Seal Endorsed) licensed cabinetmaker.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

KIM ANDERSON Contrax VMS

CONRAD FERREL True Buch Kombucha True Büch Kombucha was Alberta’s first kombucha brewery when we opened in 2014. Since then, we have been leading the way for sustainable business practices and purpose-driven growth in the kombucha industry and the small business community.

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES

DEEPAK CHOPRA Clearbridge Mobile Over the past 15 years, Deepak has become one of the leading experts in the mobile market through various roles including entrepreneur, wireless executive, equity research analyst, and investor. As CEO of Clearbridge Mobile, Deepak leads a worldclass team of mobile experts that have created award-winning solutions for enterprise clients in media, telco, banking, and other industries.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES

NOMINATED FOR - FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Prior to working at Contrax, Kim spent almost 27 years at Accenture, starting in a junior role and working her way up, through the ranks, learning the business every step of the way.

NOMINATED FOR - RBC SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES

DAN HOLOWACK CrowdRiff Dan Holowack is the CoFounder and CEO of CrowdRiff. He works closely with industry leaders in travel, tourism and marketing to uncover the most cutting edge challenges and solutions for sourcing and scaling visual content to engage audiences. By day, he loves big data, user-generated content, and marketing automation.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PLACE TO WORK

DAVID U.K. Cue Digital Media

DAN DEMERS Cinchy Dan DeMers is the CEO and co-founder of Cinchy (www. cinchy.com), the global leader in enterprise Data Collaboration.

Dan spent over a decade as an IT executive with leading global financial institutions where he was responsible for delivering mission-critical projects, greenfield technologies, and multi-million dollar technology investments.

Kim Anderson is a typical Capricorn! – she will climb that mountain one rock at a time and if she falls, she’ll get back up and keep on climbing. Her working career has mirrored that climbing goat!

MARK WALLACE Cority

ANDREY OLINOV Complete Technologies At 14 years old Andrey started his first job doing IT in the summer months. Maintaining his work in the time free of studies, Andrey was successful in receiving his Bachelor Degree in Computer Science at the age of 20 university in Moscow. In August of 2009, Andrey moved to Saskatoon to obtain his Master’s degree.

Mark is CEO of Cority Software Inc., a Toronto-based, awardwinning, global SaaS company.

Under Mark’s leadership, Cority’s revenue has grown consistently at a compounded rate of 25-30 percent. The company has grown in employees from 29 when Mark started in 2003 to over 400 today. It enjoys an industryleading profit margin.

NOMINATED FOR - CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE

A 27-year media veteran, David U.K. is the founder and CEO of Cue Digital Media. Cue Digital is the online media sales agency that audience-first publishers trust to deliver cool and cohesive experiences for brands and the consumers who adore them. Their consumer obsessed philosophy has led to the development of innovative in-house products and solutions ̶ from content creation to amplification and distribution ̶ that are transforming the future of digital advertising.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

NOMINATED FOR - CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE CANADIANSME MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2020 I

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CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

CEDRIC GEORGE Custom Delivery Solutions Inc. Custom Delivery is Canada’s leader in Final Mile White Glove Home Delivery. We build customized end to end supply chain and delivery network solutions for National retailers throughout Canada.

NOMINATED FOR - CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE

SAM MACDONALD Deep Trekker Water is our life force so it’s no wonder Sam Macdonald set out to engineer a lifestyle surrounded by it. An admitted boat bum, Sam has always been curious about what lies beneath the waves of the Great Lakes which surround her home in Southern Ontario, Canada.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES

DR. DAN ROSEN D1g1t An internationally recognized quant and fintech entrepreneur, Dr. Rosen is the CEO of d1g1t Inc. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Mathematical Finance at the University of Toronto and until 2017, was the first Director of the Center for Financial Institutions at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences.

NOMINATED FOR - FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Aly Dhalla is the CEO & CoFounder of Finaeo. Aly spent his early career as a financial advisor.

Intrigued by the way technology was shaping financial services, Aly decided to join an employee benefits startup as the first employee.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES, FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

CARINNE CHAMBERS-SAINI Diva International Carinne Chambers-Saini is the CEO and co-founder of Diva International Inc., a multi-national corporation that manufactures the DivaCup, sold in over 40,000 retail outlets and in 29 countries.

Carinne founded Diva in 2001 with her mother, Francine and they became advocates of women’s health and disruptors of a male-dominated industry.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

JENNIFER AND WESLEY FARNELL Eight Ounce Coffee

CAMERON HAY Dispatch Integration Cameron Hay is the CEO and co-founder of Dispatch Integration, a data integration and workflow automation company with offices across Canada and sales in Canada, the US and Europe.

He has an engineering degree from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

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ALY DHALLA Finaeo Inc.

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Eight Ounce Coffee is a local success story - a company that started as a maternity-leave project - quickly disrupting the specialty coffee industry in Canada, giving it convenient access to the products and equipment it was lacking. We have given cafes and lifestyle stores selling coffee equipment access to world-class niche products and a new avenue for sales.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

HOWARD KRUGER Flagship Courier Solutions Howard Kruger is the founder and President of FlagShip™ Courier Solutions, a leading online discount shipping solution for SMBs across Canada.

Howard’s entrepreneurial drive and vision on bringing together technology and his deep-rooted passion for customer service, helped transform the courier business in Canada for small businesses.

NOMINATED FOR - CISCO ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

JAMES GRAHAM GuildOne Inc

PETER KALEN Flexiti Financial Peter Kalen is one of Canada’s most seasoned retail credit executives. He brings over 22 years of experience in the credit industry working for companies like Canada Trust, Citibank, PC Financial and Sears Financial, where as Executive VicePresident of Financial and Home Services he managed one of Canada’s largest retail credit card operations.

NOMINATED FOR - FASTEST GROWING COMPANY

POURIA GHODS Giatec Scientific Inc Dr. Ghods has more than 15 years of experience working in several civil engineering projects related to inspection and condition assessment of reinforced concrete structures including bridges. He has extensive knowledge of concrete industry and has developed a strong network through interactions with the leaders in the construction industry.

James Graham co-founded GuildOne Inc. in 2001 and has since been innovating the energy industry by delivering complex data management and business intelligence solutions to the market.

NOMINATED FOR TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

STEVE VINCIC Kavin Group Steve Vincic is the Co-Founder of the Kavin Group and division lead of KTMR. Steve serves as the company’s Executive Vice President Operations and Contract Management. Steve oversees all aspects of the company’s domestic and US customer service relationships, the contracting process as well as corporate strategic planning.

NOMINATED FOR - FASTEST GROWING COMPANY

NOMINATED FOR TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

NICOLAS BEIQUE Helcim SAM MOD Freshworks Studio Inc. FreshWorks Studio is an award winning organization that works with Fortune 500 companies, enterprises, nonprofits, entrepreneurs and the public sector to build powerful and highly functional apps for web, iOS, and Android using technologies including AI and VR. NOMINATED FOR - FASTEST GROWING COMPANY, THE BEST TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD, SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES

NITIN JAIN GJG International Nitin Jain is the president of GJG International. Nitin has a proven track record of developing excellent systems and processes to systematically handle various aspects of manufacturing.

GJG International is an ISO9001:2015 certified company that helps small to mid-sized companies manufacture OEM mechanical parts and products.

NOMINATED FOR - RBC SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES

Nicolas Beique is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Helcim, a payments company that makes it faster, easier, and more affordable for businesses to get paid.

Passionate about programming since a young age, Nicolas launched a series of companies, including a web design firm, a 3D sales platform, and a local social media website before turning his attention to his idea of an online credit card processing company with a built-in shopping cart.

NOMINATED FOR -

MO KAPOR Kavin Group Mo Kapor is the Co-Founder of the Kavin Group and division lead of KTL. He serves as the company’s Executive Vice President of Business Development and Sales. Mo oversees all aspects of the company’s domestic and US marketing and sales activities.

Previously, he was Head of Operations for Magna International, where he launched the Porche Panamera Plant in the European Union and managed warehousing and distribution facilities in the Czech Republic.

TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR, FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR, NOMINATED FOR - FASTEST SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR GROWING COMPANY AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES

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CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

RAHIM MADHAVJI Knightsbridge Rahim Madhavji brings a number of years of private equity and investment banking experience to Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange Inc. Most recently, he worked at TorQuest Partners, a $550 million Canadian private equity fund, where he focused on leverage buyouts, expansion capital investments, and existing portfolio company investments.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

LIFT & CO. Lift & Co. (TSXV: LIFT) (OTCQB: LFCOF) is a publicly traded technology company modernizing the cannabis industry. Lift & Co. enables consumers and businesses to explore, understand and make better-informed decisions around cannabis with consumer data insights — through a first-of-its-kind CPG-like data analytics platform called Cohesion — as well as consumer-driven product reviews, industry and consumer events, and retail education.

IRINI MIKHAEL AND HALIM MIKHAEL Lullaboo Nursery Irini Mikhael and Halim Mikhael are the founder and Director of Operations of Lullaboo Nursery and Childcare Center Inc. (“Lullaboo”).

Irini graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree and worked for 4 years as a Professional Engineer for an international organization. And Halim Mikhael a professional CPA, CMA Finance manager at a blue ship global organization.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES SHAWN ALLEN Matrix Mortgage Global Founder & CEO of Matrix Mortgage Global, Shawn is a seasoned entrepreneur with vast experience in mortgage financing, real estate, data warehousing, technology, marketing & product development.

IULIAN SERBAN Korbit Technologies Inc. Iulian Serban is the co-founder of Korbit Technologies (www.korbit.ai), an EdTech startup aiming to democratize education through intelligent tutors powered by AI. Serban’s vision of a personal AI tutor for everyone will help young professionals to learn faster and better in a cost-effective way.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR, RBC SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES

RAY DEL COGO Lightenco Ray is a co-founder and CEO of Lightenco, an Ottawa based company seeking energy savings to fight climate change.

With a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and a M.Sc. in Digital communications and technology from Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden, he has developed experience as a cost reduction and design engineer in the electronics market, in global sourcing and enterprise startups.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

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NOMINATED FOR - BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

NADÈGE NOURIAN Nadege Patisserie Nadège Nourian is the chef and owner of Nadège Patisserie in Toronto, Canada. Since the opening of her eponymous shops in 2009, Nadège has delighted Torontonians with modern dessert creations. Showered with numerous accolades from critics, the press, and the blogosphere, Nadège is clearly viewed as a game changer in Toronto’s pastry scene.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

LAURENCE COOKE nanopay Laurence is the founder and CEO of nanopay Corporation, a technology company that offers business-to-business payments and liquidity management solutions to businesses and financial institutions. Active in the payments community, Laurence is a member of the Payments Canada Stakeholder Advisory Committee, FinPay and the US Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force.

NOMINATED FOR - SMARTEK TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD, INSPIRATIONAL LEADER OF THE YEAR, FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

CHRIS ZAVODYUK Optima Windows and Doors Being one of the youngest Canadian entrepreneurs, Chris has built customer service oriented business Optima Windows and Doors. Chris has taken sales and marketing experience form a corporate world, learned from mistakes of some companies he worked for prior founding Optima.

NOMINATED FOR - RBC SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES

SILVIA PENCAK Woman Business Enterprises Canada (WBE) Silvia Pencak is the President of WBE Canada, a Canadian non-profit organization certifying women-owned businesses and opening the doors to corporate & government supply chains under supplier diversity programs across North America.

Silvia is a highly experienced, successful and well-regarded business leader with significant global experience.

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

ERAN HENIG Platterz Eran Henig is a seasoned product development expert with over 15 years of experience launching and scaling teams, defining technological solutions, and driving innovation strategies.

Henig is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where he holds a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science & Economics, and of the prestigious Next 36 program, where he won the Outstanding Venture Award.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

SHAWN FREEMAN TWT Group Inc.

DAN BELHASSEN Neovation Dan Belhassen is a microlearning evangelist, obsessed with using technology to improve teaching and learning. Dan and the Neovation Learning Solutions team are headquartered in Winnipeg, and provide eLearning consulting and systems to hundreds of organizations across many industry sectors.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES, SMARTEK TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Born and bred in Calgary, Shawn founded TWT Group with the goal of making IT easy instead of infuriating.

He has expanded his IT skills to several Calgary non-profit organizations, including Boys & Girls Club of Calgary, Youth Central, Kidsport, and Meals on Wheels, to name a few.

NOMINATED FOR - CISCO ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR, SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

YISHAY WAXMAN Platterz Yishay Waxman is an entrepreneur, investor and start-up advisor. He has been in the mobile and digital space for over 25 years, traveled to more than 85 countries, and sold platforms and solutions to more than 350 operators worldwide.

Most recently, he was the cofounder of Jumptap, Inc., a widely recognized advertising network in mobile advertising, HQ in Boston, which he scaled to $100m in revenues with more than 300 employees.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

AL MANJI Quest Audio Visual Inc Al Manji founded Quest Audio Visual in 2003 on the principle of being flexible to our client’s needs.

Every event is different, and Al believes that through being flexible you can work directly with a client to achieve the goals of their event.

Through Al’s leadership, Quest Audio Visual has been a five-time Canadian Business Growth 500 Company and most recently, Quest AV was named to The Globe & Mail listing of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

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CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

FATIMA ZAIDI Quill Inc. Fatima is the co-founder of Quill the world’s first one-stop marketplace where podcasters can find pre-vetted expert freelancers who will save them time, improve their podcast quality, and help grow their audience.

NOMINATED FOR - YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

SONYA MELOFF Sales Talent Agency Sonya Meloff is Co-Founder of Sales Talent Agency, Canada’s largest and most respected sales recruitment company.

Launched in 2007, Sales Talent Agency has worked with over 1,500 companies across North America to help them make their best sales hires.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

CARMELO MARSALA Spray-Net Inc

SIMON WESTLAKE Sonar Software Simon is the co-founder & CEO of Sonar Software. His leadership in the development of Sonar, an industry leader in ISP billing and operational support system (OSS) solutions targeting the fixed wireless industry, has been essential in its phenomenal growth.

Carmelo Marsala is the founder and CEO of Spray-Net. Carmelo founded Spray-Net at the age of 23, after having earned his Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Concordia University's John Molson School of Business and operated his own student painting franchise.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

KATHERINE HOMUTH Sheertex

MIKE POTTER Rewind.io Mike Potter is the co-founder and CEO of Rewind, the leading cloud data backup provider.

Rewind is trusted by over 20,000 businesses to protect their data on platforms such as BigCommerce, Shopify and QuickBooks.

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 100+ INNOVATIVE COMPANY

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Katherine Homuth is the Founder and CEO of Sheertex, the Y Combinator backed startup behind the world's first pair of unbreakable pantyhose designed and manufactured in Montreal. She is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor.

Katherine has founded and sold two businesses; ShopLocket, a pre-order platform, was acquired in 2014 by PCH and Female Funders, an online education program for female investors, acquired by Highline Beta in 2017.

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS INNOVATION

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BOGDAN RAIC AND MAX GAJDEL Stan A.I.

KIMBERLEY LANGEN Spirit of Math Kimberley has over thirty years of diverse experience in the education industry as a teacher, head of academics, international speaker and consultant for both public and private sectors.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

Bogdan Raic and Max Gajdel are the Co-founders of Stan A.I. The founders have more than 14 years of residential property management experience having come from the largest property management company in North America, where they both worked in senior roles. Bogdan studied at the University of Ottawa, and Max graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR, SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

VICTORIA LENNOX Startup Canada Victoria Lennox is the CoFounder, President and former CEO of Startup Canada, the national rallying community supporting and giving a voice to Canada’s 3.5 million entrepreneurs. She is an innovation policy and program architect, ecosystem diplomat, and an angel investor passionate about fostering equality, hope, peace, and prosperity through entrepreneurship.

MONICA GOMEZ The Concierge Club

LANCE MILLER AND MATTHEW ALSTON Surex Lance Miller and Matthew Alston are the co-founders of Surex, an online insurance company. Starting out in the small town of Magrath, Alberta, Lance, and Matt sought to offer a new way for customers to obtain personal insurance and to provide an exceptional experience to customers along the way. The two worked together to turn an idea into a business. Surex is now one of Canada's fastest-growing online insurance companies. Miller and Alston attribute their ability to overcome obstacles to their tenacity, bootstrap mentality, and problem-solving abilities.

NOMINATED FOR - FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

IAN SCHNOOR The Marquee Group

TONIA JAHSHAN Steeped Tea Steeped Tea began in a basement and became a multi million dollar Profit 500 company. That road to success had its fair share of twists and turns, ups and downs and many points along the way where passion was challenged by doubt.

Perseverance, commitment and focus are at the core of what Tonia believes not only kept her on that road, but helped her inspire those around her to stay on it with her.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

Monica Gomez is the Founder and President of The Concierge Club, Canada's premium experiential marketing and events agency.

Gomez is a visionary and perfectionist who is intentionally hands-on with all projects. From overseeing business development, sales, ideation, client relationships, budget management and onboarding, she does it all with passion and heart.

TARIQUE AL-ANSARI Paystone Tarique Al-Ansari began his career in the tech industry when he made the decision to leave Western University's software engineering program to start his own online food court. Running a business drew his attention to the challenges small business owners face when accepting electronic payments.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PLACE TO WORK

Ian started the business in 2002 to provide Excel-based financial modeling training to professionals in the financial community. Ian has built The Marquee Group into a leading provider of financial modeling training, consulting and accreditation.

Over the years, Ian has taught thousands of business professionals and university students in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

HELEN STEVENSONA The Reformulary Group Helen Stevenson is Founder and CEO of Reformulary Group Inc., a healthcare company that helps people and organizations make sense of medicine, both prescription drugs and medical cannabis. The company built an evidence-based formulary that helps plan members make smart drug choices through its DrugFinder™ app and can save money for organizations. The company launched Cannabis Standard™, a platform that provides evidence-based product recommendations for consumers.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

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MARIE CHEVRIER The Sampler App Inc Marie Chevrier, is the Founder and CEO of Sampler, the leading platform helping brands like L'Oréal and Nestlé deliver samples online and gather the insight they need to build oneto-one relationships with their customers. Sampler has reached over 50 million consumers globally in 24 different countries and its most notable clients include CPG industry giants Unilever, Pepsi, and Henkel.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

FATIMA & AMNA SULTAN Two Sisters on a Mission Fatima & Amna Sultan are 10 and 8-year-old founders of Two Sisters on a Mission and authors of the book “Anything is Possible”. They have faced the Dragons in Dragons’ Den (season 14) and inspired thousands through over 40 keynotes in major conferences and business competitions. Their speeches are not about their accomplishments but rather the idea that anything is possible if you care enough about your purpose and are willing to take action on behalf of those that need your help.

Canada’s Youngest Social Entrepreneurs are on a mission to make a real difference.

JOE GAGLIESE AND MATHEW MICHELI Viral Nation Founded in 2014, Viral Nation was one of the first dedicated agencies in the field of influencer marketing. The Toronto-based agency quickly expanded its services to include an award-winning creative team and a full suite of modern marketing services. Executing global campaigns for brands such as Microsoft, Crayola, Energizer, Twitch, Tencent, and Match.com, Viral Nation has managed to scale its business 300%-400%, year over year, with no outside investment.

NOMINATED FOR - YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR, FASTEST GROWING COMPANY

GABRIEL TUPULA Big Bang ERP

NOMINATED FOR - YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR GEOFF CLARKSON UTComp Inc.

RON GLOZMAN Chisel AI Chisel’s AI platform is the evolution of Ron’s text summarization and redaction app. Today, the company is focused on helping commercial carriers, brokers and reinsurers chisel away at the millions of documents sitting in their data stores and data lakes to gain access to trapped business insights.

NOMINATED FOR -SMARTEK TECHNOPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

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CATO PASTOLL Lending Loop Cato is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lending Loop, Canada’s first peer-to-peer lending platform.

Cato previously served as the Executive Vice President of a medium sized software consulting business.

NOMINATED FOR - CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE, FINTECH BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

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Geoff founded UTComp in 2008 to provide engineering and inspection services for industrial equipment made of composite materials in the oil and gas, chemical processing, mining, pulp and paper, and many other industries. His insatiable curiosity and inventor’s mindset have made this company a global leader in delivering innovative solutions to improve the performance and safety of composite assets.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Gabriel’s cumulative experience is in information systems, software development and internet marketing allowing him to be a creative problem solver and a results-oriented project manager.

NOMINATED FOR - BEST PLACE TO WORK

NAHEED KURJI Cyclica Naheed Kurji is the President and CEO of Cyclica, a Torontobased biotechnology company that leverages artificial intelligence and computational biophysics to reshape the drug discovery process.

NOMINATED FOR - STARTUP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

CANADIANSME NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS 2019 NOMINEES

JAMES BOETTCHER Fiasco Gelato Fiasco Gelato has built a strong culture of freedom and empowerment, backed by an unforgettable experience and relentless passion. By staying true to the mission of ‘Enriching people’s lives’ James has led his team to becoming the first and only Canadian ice cream company certified as a B Corporation and is available in more than 2800 retailers across Canada.

MITCH COHEN Moresby Group Mitch is a serial entrepreneur, and was recognized early on as one of Bloomberg Businessweek's top 25 entrepreneurs under 25. Mitch has also worked at McKinsey & Co., where he was a part of the transformation and procurement practices.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

HARRY WADHWA Canadian Flatbeds Ltd When Harry immigrated as a young man to Canada he never dreamed that this business that started in his house would become what it is today.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD UP TO 50 EMPLOYEES

STEVEN USTER FundThrough Steven Uster is the Co-Founder and CEO of FundThrough, a disruptive force in the specialty area of invoice financing.

NOMINATED FOR - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES JAMES CIESIELSKI Rewind.io James Ciesielski is the cofounder and CTO of Rewind, the leading cloud data backup provider. Rewind is trusted by over 20,000 businesses to protect their data on platforms such as BigCommerce, Shopify and QuickBooks.

YANAL DHAILIEH Peace Collective Peace Collective is a Canadian Lifestyle brand aimed to make a difference worldwide.

Our garments are for those who are product AF in themselves, their beliefs and where they call home. That's why with every garment sold we're product to donate 5 school meals to a child in need.

KRISTEN GALE The Ten Spot in 2006, with a desire to start her own business and a perceived gap in the current spa/salon service offerings, kristen decided to open up toronto’s niche beauty bar and “anti-spa” on the hip strip of queen west. her first 10spot® beauty bar filled the need for beauty services offered in an environment that combined the efficiency of low-end nail salons, with the top quality standards of high-end spas. THE TEN SPOT® quickly developed a cult following and has become one of canada’s beloved brands, in part due to kristen’s quirky humour and commitment to excellence.

NOMINATED FOR - NERDS ON SITE BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD, SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD - UP TO 100 EMPLOYEES, INSPIRATIONAL LEADER OF THE YEAR

NOMINATED FOR - YOUNG ENREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

NOMINATED FOR - BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 100+ INNOVATIVE COMPANY

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Big Savings For Small Businesses Canadian Chamber of Commerce members now get access to Freightcom’s online shipping solution, giving them exclusive shipping rates to help grow their businesses and reduce their bottom line.

Click. Ship. Save.

Freightcom has automated the shipping process to bring you a hassle-free shipping experience. Simply enter the details of your shipment, get instant quotes and book your order. Your shipping labels, customs forms and invoices are generated automatically!

Preferred customer service Businesses reported losing billions of dollars annually due to poor customer service, which is why Freightcom offers a dedicated team that will consult and assist with any of your shipping needs.

Get the best shipping rates All the rates provided from national carriers are prenegotiated on your behalf, meaning less work for you and bigger savings. Enter the details of your shipment and all applicable carriers, service levels and pricing options will be available to you immediately.

Everything in one place Spend less time on the phones or logging onto different carrier sites to compare prices and track your shipments. Freightcom’s online platform allows you to quote, book, track your shipments and pay your invoices in one convenient spot.

Contact your local Chamber for your Chamber Member Discount Code and sign up today at www.freightcom.com/chamber.

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Keep your business humming by keeping up with the latest technology.

Wherever you take your life’s work, and wherever it takes you, we’re here to make sure technology works as hard as you do.

Visit cisco.com/ca/smb to discover our solutions.

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