John van Velzen leaves a legacy of entrepreneurship in Markham
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ntrepreneurs born or made? Audrey Jamieson, daughter of long-time publishing entrepreneur John van Velzen, leans toward nature, noting that studies show entrepreneurs exhibit key differences from most people, such as a higher tolerance for risk, greater resilience and perseverance. All these characteristics, she notes, are evident within her family. Her father, brother and herself all built thriving businesses in the Markham area. As Jamieson recounts her family history, however, it becomes clear that nurture is definitely part of the mix. When starting out in sales in the 90s for her father’s company, Camar Publishing, the elder van Velzen asked her, “Did you sell anything today”. “Yes,” Audrey proudly reported, “I sold 3 classified ads”. He then asked her how many said ‘no’ that day. Again, Audrey proudly reported none. He responded, “Well then, you didn’t sell anything you just took their order.” Growing up in a sort of sales incubator
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Markham VOICE Winter 2020
probably helped Jamieson build an early career as a star sales performer, skills that she would then parlay into the rapid success of her own firm, Marketing Kitchen. “You can’t start a business without taking risks,” she says, referring back to those entrepreneurial characteristics, “and you can’t make a success of it without resilience and perseverance.” Her dad was a classic case in point. Bored with a very successful finance career with large companies such as Carling O’Keefe, van Velzen ditched it all for a chance to buy a small publication called This is Ontario. The magazine was a giveaway in duty-free shops that focused on travel and tourism, but van Velzen negotiated distribution in The Beer Store locations. Circulation sky rocketed from 35,000 to 1,000,000. Alas, so did the costs, and after 4 years of heavy losses, van Velzen was forced to pack it in. It didn’t hold him back for long. Says his daughter, “A good entrepreneur knows that
failure is part of the growing process. It gives you the insights you need to succeed, so you can actually look at it as not being failure at all.” The experience also fuelled van Velzen’s love of publishing, and he went on to work for Torstar’s Harlequin magazine division. It wasn’t long before he and colleague Phil Whalen offered to buy the division, to which Harlequin agreed. Camar Publications on Steelcase Road in Markham was launched in 1980. They soon had a series of titles under their banner that came to be loved by Canadians: Photo Life, Canadian Gardening Magazine, Canadian Workshop Magazine and Outdoor Canada. Van Velzen knew then that the most secure strategy was to rely on loyal paid subscribers rather than fickle advertisers. The company focused on maintaining consistent quality. The numbers grew, with some of the magazines reaching over 100,000 paying subscribers.