We are closed as of March 3, 2021.Fred Lamb/Globe and Mail
Rob Czernik is a 2022 Michener Deacon Fellow and a contributing columnist for the Globe and Mail.
The first few weeks of owning the boutique were tough financially, but I had high hopes that Boxing Day would turn my fortunes around. I was used to customers rushing through the doors of Pier 1 Imports, where I used to work, to buy discounted home goods. Currently, I run Habitat, an interior design store located in Cornwall, Ontario. – The profits are mine. Hopefully enough time will pass before we correct course.
Instead, December 26, 2013 was a gray, snowy day as shoppers braved the cold to head to chain stores on the outskirts of town and dilapidated shopping malls down the street. Ta. I spent the day mostly alone in the store wondering if I really knew what I was getting myself into. I didn't become an entrepreneur by fantasy. I've been planning this for five years. This includes working for several retailers to gain experience, creating a business plan and sales forecasts (both of which are considered realistic enough to secure funding), and a commitment to diligence and risk-taking. It involves examining your desires. Still, checking these boxes wasn't enough to prepare me.
Advocates of entrepreneurship tout working on your own as the “great leveler.” This is a career path that anyone can succeed in if they have enough courage and the will to succeed. Admittedly, this was part of the appeal for me. I was able to quit a traditional 9-to-5 job and carve my own path with a group of like-minded and witty mom-and-pop businesses. That's what the articles and podcasts I read online and the case studies I read in college prepared me.
What's missing from this equation is a real discussion about money and privilege and how they lead some entrepreneurs to very unique experiences, even if they follow similar paths. be.
I tried to improve my property, found friends to run the shop, and took different approaches to generate revenue. In my case, the urgency was heightened because my monthly rent, loan payments, and start-up costs were beyond my budget. I always used a line from Coolio's song, “If I don't work, I don't eat.'' My counterpart had a more relaxed demeanor. When I tried to rally the troops to open on a Sunday afternoon when my target customers were off work, a prominent store owner quickly popped my idea balloon. They said opening for $300 in sales wasn't worth the effort. They figured that number out of the air, but at that rate, four Sundays would result in Habitat's monthly rent. Since this person had the luxury of fully owning his own place, he could easily take the afternoon off that afternoon.
Why is starting a business in Canada so difficult?
Another time, I heard from a disappointed customer that the same new business had closed early on a sunny Saturday. I later learned from the owners that they were not willing to sacrifice the pleasant weather for work, regardless of whether they were working or not. I used to believe that an entrepreneur's growth mindset, or hunger to maximize income, is not only part of a business owner's DNA, but also the driving force behind their mission. I realized that this was not the case and became worried. I once imagined having someone to share my marketing costs and efforts with and help boost my business, but I quickly realized that many people didn't feel it was worth it.
A local executive once described what I witnessed as the difference between someone starting a business and someone running a company as a hobby. This distinction was unprecedented and revealed an inconvenient truth. Some companies cannot survive on profits alone. That's only true if you believe that everyone has an equal chance to become an entrepreneur. Most people can prepare themselves for success by developing aptitudes and specific skill sets over time, but at the end of the day, these are not the most important factors in remaining a going concern.
Although it may not be obvious at first glance, there are many privileges that make some entrepreneurs successful that cannot be duplicated by those with wealth, connections, or different backgrounds. For some, this is due to the benefits that come with being a legacy business: a great reputation, a strong customer base, and long-term credit terms with suppliers. Some may enjoy paid off student loans, mortgages, and cars. Some may benefit from family relief or a high-income partner who can keep the household afloat even if business deteriorates. Additionally, some people may be able to withdraw funds from their home equity, investments, or retirement savings when an emergency arises, instead of thinking about taking out a mortgage. There is nothing like this, but I never thought about how it would affect my destiny.
A famous academic paper that I first learned about after starting my own business suggested that such privilege leads people to entrepreneurship in the first place. David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald write, “The probability of being self-employed depends largely on whether a person has received an inheritance or gift,'' and “What is an Entrepreneur?'' ” he wrote. I had neither of those things, but this knowledge changed the way I looked at my colleagues and helped soften the blow of what was about to happen.
The habitat barely lasted until summer. Sales were far below even my most conservative projections for this to continue. I tried to save my dream. I moved further west to Brockville, downsized and rebranded. Thinking creatively and bootstrapping to turn dimes into dollars didn't improve my fortunes.
Some people wonder if I didn't give the business enough time, but without enough revenue there is a limit to how far you can go with it. Looking back on his 15 months owning the store, he says that if he had the resources to invest an additional $50,000, he could have survived both personally and professionally, but that money It became a sunk cost and I couldn't access it. Some business owners do that. They achieve this by dipping into savings, borrowing, or liquidating enough assets. I don't hate them, but I'm angry that this isn't being discussed as openly as it should be.
One of the consequences I endured was blaming myself for not being as successful as my colleagues to an unproductive and frankly unkind degree. I had drunk enough of the entrepreneurial Kool-Aid and believed we were all in the same boat, so my failures made me fail in ways others did not. I meant that. Over time, we found this to be too harsh and ignored the fact that some entrepreneurs secretly profit from other factors.
Blessed entrepreneurs have reflected this to me in conversations, ignoring the rift between us. They suggest improving my fortunes by trying a more positive attitude or envisioning a brighter future. Other suggestions included applying for more lines of credit and being asked if he had a wealthy uncle he could visit at least once.
When I tried to raise the issue, it didn't go beyond that. People like me at the bottom of the entrepreneurial spectrum were more open to them, but my relatively affluent colleagues didn't want to participate in these conversations. They don't offer advice or even acknowledge the existence of challenges. This is just a delusion, and not everyone can afford to be delusional. Instead, I had to manage the crisis myself in real time.
If I had a better understanding of inequalities in entrepreneurship, I would have been more prepared for the challenges I would face and would have had less anxiety lingering over my head. Today, 10 years later, I don't think there's as much discussion about these realities. There is too much focus on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, rather than focusing on the challenges and inequalities that shape managers' experiences and can impact their success.
As it turns out, that day 10 years ago when I worried about the future of my business was not in vain. By March 2015, I started putting together a new life. The business was closed, the keys to the storefront were handed over, and parts were sold off bit by bit. It should be important to talk more openly about how entrepreneurship is not a completely level playing field, but one where certain privileges can make the difference between businesses like mine thriving and failing.
Once an entrepreneur makes up his mind, he is not afraid to take the plunge. I've been playing out scenarios in my head for the past 10 years, and I realized there was nothing stopping me from taking a moonshot. That's why being more open about the inequalities that exist in the so-called “Great Equalizer” won't do much harm. In fact, if we understood them better, we would all start from the same starting line and would not take our failures so personally, instead of thinking that we were just abnormal and unlucky. There probably wasn't.
I think it will be difficult to sell. This is not to say that this topic is invalid, but because it may be considered too negative for some people and destroy the myth that it is self-made for others. On the one hand, such an argument would be almost radical, contrary to prevailing attitudes. I can't think of anything more appropriate for an entrepreneur.
