Advice from the Micro-Business Award Finalists: 2016 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards

The Micro-Business Award proves that small businesses can still have great impact and contribute to innovation in Canada. This award category honours small businesses generating annual revenues under $1 million (with a steady growth rate) in any industry and at any stage of business.

We’ve asked the winner of the award and the finalists in this category for their best advice for other entrepreneurs:

Finalist: Kim Hall, Physio2U

Physio2U is an innovative health-care company which provides in-home physiotherapy services, which are historically received in a private clinic, hospital or rehabilitation facility. People who suffer from injuries or diseases that limit their mobility and independence are often unable to get to a clinic or facility for treatment that they desperately need; with Physio2U, Kim Hall has helped people overcome the barrier to access of physiotherapy services by making it possible for treatment to be received in a location that is convenient to the client. 

Q: What did you learn in your first year of business? 

A: The small business community in BC is incredibly supportive and there are so many wonderful resources available to new entrepreneurs. No MBA’s are necessary in today’s day and age to be a successful business owner.

Finalist: Diana Goodwin, AquaMobile Inc.

AquaMobile is North America’s largest at-home, on demand swim lesson provider, with over 1500 certified, experienced and insured swim instructors in cities across Canada and the US who come to your home or condo to teach private swimming lessons in your own pool. They leverage their own proprietary tech platform to instantly match a certified and insured AquaMobile Instructor with each student based on age, skill level and time preferences, ensuring each customer has a five-star experience.

Q: What is the one piece of advice you would give to aspiring entrepreneurs? 

A: Focus. It’s so easy to get distracted along the entrepreneurial journey, but if you do one thing, and do that one thing very well, you have a much higher chance of succeeding.

Winners: Isabelle and Marie-Hélène Primeau, Premier Continuum Inc.

Premier Continuum Inc. (PCI) specializes in the field of Resilience, Business Continuity, Emergency Management, IT Disaster Recovery and Integrated Risk Management. Isabelle and Marie-Hélène offer the cloud based specialized software in addition to our consulting and training services to help prevent, prepare, respond and recover to any type of consequences that could deeply affect a business of any size, such as loss of premises, loss of IT, loss of key personnel / abnormal absenteeism and supply chain disruptions. 

Q: What do you wish you knew in the beginning?

A: We wish we had known that even as experts in risk management and business continuity, we had to learn how to take risks in business. While being conservative has provided stability and longevity, we should have taken more risks in the business, in particular in order to bring our software faster to the market.

The collective impact of our country’s female entrepreneurs cannot be overstated. The RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards is the premier national awards program celebrating the achievements of the most successful in this inspiring group. Now in its 24th year, over 120 women have been recognized for demonstrating excellence—from economic growth to social change, from local to global reach, across multiple sectors. We’re honoured to shine a spotlight on them.