PROFIT BusinessCast

"The biggest growing pain for me was the loneliness of starting a new business," says Arlene Dickinson. The greatest challenge for a new entrepreneur is surrounding yourself with the right people—advisors and staff who will tell you the truth, even when you don't want to hear it.

Dickinson is familiar with startup pains. On this episode of the BusinessCast, the CEO of Venture Communications and dragon on CBC's Dragon's Den talks about overcoming growing pains when working to make your entrepreneurial vision a reality—and what she would do differently if she was starting fresh today.

The first hurdle is getting supporters on board in the early days, when your venture is just an idea. Ask yourself, says Dickinson, "What am I willing to give up to entice the right people to join me?"

Once you've launched, the challenge becomes delivering on those early promises. If you don't want to disappoint new clients, make sure you set your company's bar for success, says Dickinson. Because, if you haven't taken the time to make sure everyone in the company understands what "great" looks like, you will falter.

And what if you do disappoint a client? Dickinson talks about how to manage that relationship.

Launching a startup isn't just about the first year. "You've got a long runway ahead of you, and you had better be ready for it."

"There are two voices in my head," says Billy Hennessey. "One says 'grow, grow, grow;' the other says 'you're losing your baby.'"

Hennessey is founder of St. Party's Day, event and marketing company Oxford Beach's answer to St. Patty's Day. When Hennessey and his partners at Oxford Beach thought up the idea about three years ago, they resolved to create a brand even stronger than St. Patty's. "We said, ‘When we have kids, they will refer to March 17 as St. Party's Day,'" says Hennessey.

There was one hitch in their plan: they weren't big enough to do it alone. "We looked for a partner with infrastructure and reach well beyond ours," says Hennessey. And they found it in beer juggernaut, Budweiser.

While Budweiser certainly helped Oxford "tap" into a rich market, the agreement isn't perfect. Hennessey shares some lessons learned from his first experience partnering with a major sponsor, including his regret that they left some parts of the arrangement with Bud "loosey goosey."

Listen to this week's podcast for the rest of Hennessey's lessons about getting in bed with a major player.

Putting on an event for your clients can be an effective way to build a rapport, get useful feedback and show that you're a thought leader in your industry. On this week's podcast, Eran Farajun, VP of business development for Toronto-based software company Asigra, talks about his company's unique partner conferences. The only conference of its kind (Asigra is a backup service provider), it allows the company to test software it's developing and show clients they're open to new ideas.

Farajun shares three pieces of advice for any entrepreneur putting on a client conference:

1. Keep the audience's needs top of mind. "Focus on what it is that they're trying to get out of the conference. If you make it all about you, they see it as one big sales pitch," says Farajun.

2. Provide exceptional content. They come to see best practices, and they want to learn from each other, as well, not just from you.

3. Give them a good customer experience. Look at every detail, from the food to the venue to how your employees behave and engage with the customer.

The construction industry is one of the slowest to change. So, when Glassopolis president Jordan Richards managed to sell his niche product directly to the contractors who would be using it, he was flipping a deeply entrenched sales model on its head.

In 2007, after 100 years of selling specialty glass products to the hearth industry, Richards' company was facing the collapse of the U.S. housing market. With 90% of business coming from that market, the need to reinvent and repurpose their product was critical.

In this episode of the PROFIT BusinessCast, Richards talks about how Glassopolis teamed up with a German manufacturer, and has been able to sell architectural glass directly to glass contractors, rather than going through the big companies.

Richards talks about the market research Glassopolis did before getting started, innovation to its internal IT infrastructure, as well as their product, and overcoming cash flow issues.

Charles Plant, creative director at Material Minds, has spent most of his life helping companies improve their ability to implement strategies.

One day he realized something: nothing he did mattered if the company lacked leadership. "It's leaders that are holding back companies," he says.

In this episode of the BusinessCast, Plant talks to Robert Gold about the new approach this revelation inspired. In the knowledge economy, your return on investment comes from people. Plant says companies need to optimize their "return on people" in the same way as they optimize their return on investment in, say, the manufacturing of a product.

How do you become the type of leader who engages people and produces productive employees?

This show was recorded live at the official launch of CPA Canada's Program for Financial Literacy. Robert Gold spoke to a CPA Canada staff to find out why financial literacy is such a hot button in Canada right now.

With companies are cutting benefits and pensions, individuals are going to have to take responsibility for their own financial planning. But CPA Canada surveys show that the majority of Canadians don't know how.

Gold interviewed CBC New Morning's Heather Hiscox, who said, "Canadians aren't as financially literate as we like to think, and as we should be."

The CPA Canada staff running this program also weighed in on lessons they've learned that might apply to the entrepreneur looking to embark on a new project, from goal-setting to staffing.

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is innovating in a way that catapults you ahead of your competitors. How did Canada Goose do it?

This week, Dani Reiss, president & CEO of Canada Goose, talks about why the company is committed to manufacturing in Canada despite the higher cost and how they were able to capitalize on the demand for "real, authentic" products.

Read: Is "Buy Local" B.S.?

"We're a very entrepreneurial company, and part of what that means is being able to remain quick on your feet as you grow," says Reiss. "When you're small, you can change direction much more quickly. The more you grow, the longer your timelines get."

Reiss talks about how he finds the right staff to fit the company's culture, and they key to a successful transition plan when you're a family business.

Most entrepreneurs start their career with the dream of personal freedom. But if they are successful, they then find themselves in a situation very close to the one they sought to avoid by branching out on their own. Some secretly feel that the business has outgrown them; they feel overwhelmed and don't know which way to turn.

What are the causes of this feeling and how can business owners get beyond it?

Bruce Hunter, author of "The Success Cage", pitches his one-page plan to growing without the pain.

Ryan North set out to raise $30,000 on Kickstarter for his illustrated choose-your-own adventure version of Hamlet. Three days later, he had raised $380,000. Want to be like him? In this podcast, North covers the key steps to setting up a successful campaign - and a few common mistakes to avoid. Don Henderson, president and CEO of Interactive Ontario, makes predictions about how new legislation could affect lenders and borrowers in Canada. Plus, panellists discuss a new crowdfunding model that could change the way this fundraising tool works.

For every book that gets published in Canada these days, thousands more sit in a pile, gathering dust---and the ire of wannabe authors. In this podcast, Ultimate Publishing House partner Felicia Pizzonia explains how her company is addressing the failings of the time-honoured, yet antiquated, publishing model. Using a multimedia, multi-marketing platform and offering several sources of potential income for authors and publishers alike, Pizzonia demonstrates that, with the help of innovative marketing, social media and some fresh thinking, good books can still be profitable.