Women - we really do rock the world. Especially the business world.
Female entrepreneurs contribute 148 billion dollars a year to Canada’s economy. And every single day, more and more women are launching businesses: as of 2017, 20 percent of the small to medium-sized businesses in Canada were owned by women, a number that is likely a lot higher now.
And Canada’s tech startup scene is on fire. In fact, it might just be the boost this country needs to help it bounce back from the Covid-19 economic squeeze.
A recent report from the Innovation Economy Council found that, “The pandemic has accelerated the pace of transformation in the workplace, in many cases from years to months or even weeks. It’s speeding up demand for new tools to help people and businesses work, bank, shop, learn and interact online, while keeping hackers at bay. As this new world of work evolves and shapes the post-pandemic economy, technology will become even more important than it is today. The tech companies that provide these tools are already deeply entwined in every facet of the Canadian economy. Our supply chains, our just-in-time manufacturers, our retail sector and our energy sector are already highly dependent on innovative, essential and enabling tech companies…For the Canadian economy to survive, these essential companies need to survive.”
Do What You Love – the Rest Will Follow
For many of us in the Self Made Nation, inspiration comes from within. We know what we love, and we set out to build upon that. That’s exactly how Shannon Ferguson Co-Founder & CEO of FanSaves, ended up starting a tech startup.
A former competitive hockey player, she and her partner, Kris McCarthy, married their love of hockey (and sports in general) as well as her passion for sponsorship sales and digital marketing and launched a sports-focused mobile couponing platform, offering discounts and deals from sponsors. I spoke with Kris, initially, in late 2020 and then I wanted to circle back and learn more about the female brain power behind their company. Shannon & I chatted in early 2021. As you know, I brought them both back to the podcast a few weeks ago for my segment “where are they now?”
Here’s a bit of what Shannon shared during that chat from early 2021.
What FanSaves is about
“Since Kris and I started working together we completely revamped all the sales and marketing for the team. And it was that summer when we were selling sponsorship. And, you know, we had, we had also started dating, so we're dating. And we're working together. And we came home from both doing sponsorship during the day. And we both had been running into the same problem where business owners kept telling us they wanted more out of their sponsorship dollars, they didn't just want a rink board, or a scoreboard ad or a coupon in the back of the game day program. They were telling us they wanted more than the traditional inventory. And they wanted a way to actually bring people into their business and track the customer data. So one night, we just had our aha moment. And we thought, let's create an app. Both of us are non technical co-founders. But we're like, let's do it. And we created FanSaves, which started with giving sports fans discounts and deals from sponsors that have their favorite teams, so someone could download the app. And they could follow their favorite teams, and then get discounts from their sponsor. So it started with sports. But last year, we grew into many more verticals, Chambers of Commerce schools, really anything that has a sponsorship or membership base.”
Having a Vivid Vision
“I've always been a big dreamer. And I find a lot of people dream, but they never put their plans into action. They never set goals. And that's a big thing that we do. And I think it's also being persistent, because some people might give up when they're manifesting and things aren't happening. They just think, ‘Alright, I'm done with this. I don't have time, like it's been a year, it hasn't happened.’ And a great example of this is yesterday, we had this amazing league call with a league that we started, like we literally started manifesting this three and a half years ago, we had a map and we put little dots of all these teams in this league on this map. And it took three and a half years, but we finally had this call and it's finally happening. I think that, you know, those little things - when even when you don't want to do it, or you don't think it's going to mean anything, sometimes those things end up being the catalyst in the future that turn everything around. And I think, you know, being grateful for those moments, and seeing them and recognizing them is really important too.”
The Parallels Between Sport and Business
“Kris and I both grew up playing hockey - competitive hockey. He played seven years pro, I stopped after I got scouted to play in university. But I find a big part of how we make our vision happen is because we grew up very competitive from a young age. It was like, you have to put in the work, you have to show up and you have to go to practice, you have to get better. And when you lose, you have to be a gracious loser, and you have to go back and you have to practice harder, so you can win again. And I think that we attribute a lot of our success to our competitive nature and to growing up playing hockey and, you know, being part of a team and, and going through losses - heartbreaking losses - where you just, it sucks, but you get up the next day at 5am and make it to practice. And I think that I can really, really attribute a lot of that to our success and our resilience and our persistence and our ability to keep going.”
Overcoming Obstacles
“It's really easy to think when you're starting out that your business is going to grow really quickly, because this is how society and how everyone tells you what's going to happen. And you watch the Social Network, and you watch Silicon Valley, and you're like, ‘Oh, yeah, I got this.’ And, you know, we went into this, so bright eyed and bushy tailed, with all these really high expectations, and not really understanding that overnight successes are often 20 years in the making. And I think that, advice that I would give to anyone starting out is to just keep going. I think that it's really easy to get caught up in those unrealistic expectations and to feel defeated, really defeated sometimes when you're not there yet. I think that more people that are starting businesses need to know that this is normal, that this is the real part of business and the real test to success is not giving up when times are tough and when times are hard. Stay committed to the vision, and just keep plugging forward, build on your resilience, and be persistent, and have that vision going forward. It is a matter of patience. If you're patient and you allow yourself to keep pushing forward, then those things that you're envisioning actually have a chance to come true.”
If you’re an entrepreneur looking to exit, or you’re at the helm of a thriving business or startup, I would love to talk with you about your stories! You can drop me a line here.
Listen to the entire interview here: https://iamamillionairesonowwhat.libsyn.com/ep227-how-to-do-what-you-love