Costarter Graduates 2021

Our Costarter program recently partnered with Confederation College and RBC to create Campus Costarter; a 3 month, business accelerator program for Confederation College students and recent graduates. In the spring and summer months of 2021, we ran 2 cohorts and had 7 graduating companies. We recently caught up with some of those companies for a Q&A session and here are some of their answers.

 

 

 

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First Cohort

GRADUATED SPRING 2021


 

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Kassandra Arsenault

Name of your business:
Konnect

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
Business Marketing

What made you want to start your own business?
I love watching business owners grow and flourish and I wanted to be a part of that process.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
My biggest challenge was taking the first step and trusting in myself. Starting a business can be a big risk.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
It helped me grow as a business owner. Providing me with opportunities to talk to industry professionals and learn about what it takes and how to grow a business successfully. It also provided me with networking opportunities and options.

What excites you about starting a business?
I am excited about working with great clients and being able to build my own schedule. I am not a morning person so working later at night has been a blessing.

What is next for your business?
Growth! My next steps are growing my client base and creating a few online courses to help a wide variety of business owners and other social media managers.

You can visit her website here: www.letskonnect.ca

 

James Cuglietta and Thomas Longworth

Name of your business:
Cedar Jet Branding

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
Both partners(James and Thomas) are recent graduates of the Interactive Media Development Program at Confederation College.

What made you want to start your own business?
It has become even more important for businesses to connect with their customers virtually since the pandemic. In light of this, we saw a great opportunity to utilize our skills and support small businesses in our community at the same time.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
Our biggest challenge through this has been making sure all the business technicalities were in order. Having very little experience with starting your own business can be difficult and seem overwhelming at times.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
The Campus Costarter program helped us to curb this challenge by connecting us with people that were very knowledgeable and experienced in business start-ups. It was great to hear other people's stories, and listen to them talk about the same challenges we were going through.

What excites you about starting a business?
What excites us the most about starting this business, is being able to do what we love and help businesses in our community transition into the digital market.


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Greg Rondeau

Name of your business:
Greenstone-Superior Landscaping & Greenstone Property Services Ltd.

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
I am going into my second year of the Business Administration - Accounting program.  I graduated from their 1-year Business Fundamentals Certificate program.

What made you want to start your own business?
Family - my son Lukas was going to be born in a couple months and I heard of the Summer Company program at the Thunder Bay CEDC.  I had always done that type of work growing up as a kid and thought it would be a nice way to pay for student loans & everything else.  Rather than build up a ton of student loan debt,  I wanted to leave my family something that could pass on to future generations.  I took business classes in high school and that stuff had always interested me.  I grew up around entrepreneurs on both sides of my family & I feel like that is a big influence on me.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
My biggest challenge was getting over the anxiety of failing or being overly/unfairly scrutinized.  Time Management was another huge challenge as I had to juggle being a stay-at-home Dad, as well as being a student and an entrepreneur.  I did not have much financially to start besides the Summer Company grant but it was a start.  Another struggle is finding those really great networking opportunities as well as a solid group of employees.  Luckily,  I had many mentors to learn from in my family & friends. 

What surprised you most about starting your own business?
I found myself getting less anxious & having a sense of pride in my work.  I was happy to see positive tangible outcomes for clients and myself.  It really got the ball rolling and influenced my family & friends around me to work with me on top of that.  It was very fun to get to pick and choose what our work week might look like & getting to do this type of property service work was really rewarding in the sense that people grew to know us, trust us and refer others to us to the point that the jobs we are getting today are pretty big!  This week I am happy to say the business started their first hardscape job for the Municipality of Greenstone in my hometown of Geraldton.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
The program helped give me great networking opportunities that allowed me to incorporate a business - Greenstone Property Services Ltd.  I was also able to buy some awesome equipment as well as marketing materials, social media advertising.  I was even able to use the NWOIC's Survey Monkey account to implement a survey & promotion/contest for the business.

What excites you about starting a business?
A business is in some ways like a baby, you want to see it succeed and it starts out small and simple and as it grows it can get to be complex, yet quite rewarding.  A business can be as involved as you like it to be and sometimes you think this will just be a side thing for some pocket money, the next thing you know, it's your career.

What is next for your business?
I would like to do some landscaping work & subcontracting for bigger construction companies in places outside of Greenstone, like Thunder Bay, Nipigon, etc.

If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any entrepreneur who would that be and why?
I would want to have dinner with my maternal grandfather, Ernie Abraham.  He passed away before I was born & he had a few cool businesses & I always wanted to meet him; provided my family could come with me!

What’s your favourite local business?
Daneff's Food Market in Geraldton, ON

You can visit his website here:  www.greenstonesuperior.ca

 

 

Second Cohort

GRADUATED SUMMER 2021


 

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Alessandra Pasqualino

Name of your business:
MRT Markers

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
Medical Radiation Technology

What made you want to start your own business?
Due to the uncertainty of shifts at the hospital, I had to find income another way without giving up my availability for call-in shifts.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business? (Financial?/Mentorship?/Sales?/Marketing?/Other?)
Financial, understanding the "business side" of the business.

What surprised you most about starting your own business?
The amount of time is required to nurture and grow your business.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
Financially, and gave me the opportunity to expand my creative ideas.

What excites you about starting a business?
A sale coming in is the most rewarding and satisfying part, shows you are doing something right.

What is next for your business?
Expanding product page with more general school/hospital supplies.

If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any entrepreneur who would that be and why?
Thomas Edison, not only a genius but created a business of research and development. 

What’s your favourite local business?
Dolce Cafe

You can visit her website here: www.mrtmarkers.ca

 

 

Jhon Falla

Name of your business:
EVA Bookkeeping

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
Business administration - Accounting

What made you want to start your own business?
Business is a world that I have been engaged in ever since I was in middle school. Family members, teachers, and other influential people in my life left a meaningful impression on myself at a young age. Which was what ultimately led me to choose a career path in accounting, business, and entrepreneurship. Finally, it was through trial and error that I landed on accounting/ bookkeeping for my business.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
As a sole proprietor in the professional and financial services industry figuring out my finances was not a huge issue for myself. While on the other hand, marketing my services which involves more use of creative thinking than rational and logistical thinking was my biggest challenge with starting a business.

What surprised you most about starting your own business?
In the early stages of starting a business, traditionally, you create a business plan and you try and estimate what it will cost you to start up the business. What surprised me was how quickly my business expenses started to add up, and I easily went over budget from what I initially estimated.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
The Campus Costarter program helped my business in many ways: they were more than just a funding program. The Innovation Centre, with all of its staff and team members, worked hard to understand, support, and grow my business. I made sure to let them know any time I had an issue or concern, and they were always there to listen and provide assistance.

What excites you about starting a business?
Starting a business excites me because of the challenges and opportunities that I experience along the way. I am able to face challenges head on and find new and creative ways to solve them. Moreover, I am excited about the opportunity to establish an ethical and sustainable business that makes a difference in the community.

What is next for your business?
What comes next for my business is growth. Whether that is providing a whole other service, hiring some fresh talent, or signing more clients I want to continue building the business with a creative and innovative perspective.

If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any entrepreneur who would that be and why?
If I could choose to have dinner with any entrepreneur I would have to choose John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford. Both businessmen were extremely successful people and revolutionized their industries.

What’s your favorite local business?
My favorite local business is Thai Kitchen & the Persian Man. Thai Kitchen has some great food and the Persian Man is inseparable from Thunder Bay.

You can visit his website here: www.evabookkeeping.ca


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Brayden Kirby

Name of your business:
Brayden's Lawn Care

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from?
I am currently in the business program

What made you want to start your own business?
I wanted to start a business that would get me outside (I like being outdoors) as well as I wanted to be my own boss.

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
The biggest challenge I faced when starting my business was Marketing. I struggled with putting together online ads and creating marketing material for my truck, trailer and website.

What surprised you most about starting your own business?
I was surprised at how many people would pay to get their grass cut or garbage hauled away.

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business?
The Campus Costarter program helped me with creating a website, designed logos for my business. The funding that they provided helped me purchase all the necessary insurance, equipment and marketing material I needed.

What excites you about starting a business?
I get excited about the fact that I have independence. I can create my own schedule and work on my terms.

What is next for your business?
Next on the agenda is to get the snow portion of my business mastered. I got the grass and garbage removal down, now I have to get the snow portion going this winter. Right now I am currently waiting for quotes from my insurance company for a tractor so I can get into landscaping. Next summer I also plan on hiring an employee or 2 and buying a second work truck to grow the business even further.

If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any entrepreneur who would that be and why?
If I had the opportunity to sit down with an entrepreneur, I would like to sit down with Henry Ford. I would like to sit down with him because, I want to know how he came up with the idea of building a big vehicle brand and how he made it through all the challenges they faced growing such a big company in the early years.

What’s your favorite local business?
My favorite local business is, Northern Turf. They supplied me with all my equipment that I needed to get my business going, and when I had an issue with a piece of equipment they fixed it quickly.

 

 

Rhiannon Angeconeb

Name of you and your business: 
My name is Rhiannon Angeconeb and I am the founder of JAYNA Beauty, an all-natural bath and body company based out of Machin, Ontario. I am a 25-year-old Indigenous entrepreneur, fiancée, and mother of two children – soon to be 3! I was born and raised in Sioux Lookout, Ontario and have attended college and university for a number of years. After spending the past 2 years researching, developing, and perfecting my body care formulations, I am enthusiastic and eager to start my new venture! 

What Confederation College program are you in or did you graduate from? 
I graduated from the Confederation College Pre-Health Sciences program in 2019. Currently, I am pursing my Bachelor of Commerce degree through Nipissing University. 

What made you want to start your own business? 
There’s an old adage “necessity is the mother of invention” and this is where JAYNA Beauty all started. When my daughter was born two years ago, my fiancé and I found ourselves struggling to find suitable products for our daughter's extremely sensitive skin and severe eczema. After spending hundreds of dollars on various over-the-counter products and baby formulated creams, only to have nothing work, our doctors' last resort was to prescribe hydrocortisone/steroid cream to soothe her skin irritations. This is when I went home and started doing my own research, in hopes of creating an all-natural, simple, yet effective formula. I quickly discovered my passion for formulating skin products focusing on the purest of ingredients. For the past two years, I have developed body care products for friends and family specializing in simple, pure, and non-toxic ingredients. My research has grown into an exceptional passion and obsession for creating all-natural, clean, cruelty free, bath and body products.  

What was your biggest challenge with starting a business?
My biggest challenge with starting a business has been finding the right balance between work, school, and my personal life. As a full-time university student, mother of 2 and expecting our third baby in October, juggling everything simultaneously can become pretty overwhelming if I am not careful!   

What surprised you most about starting your own business? 
I think I understood intuitively that it would be a lot of work. It was scary - I am responsible for marketing, accounting, business development, and every other aspect of my tiny, one-women shop. It wasn’t easy and it was an endless amount of work that could easily fill whatever time I allotted for it. But I kind of expected that. What I didn’t expect was that I would love it so much, nor take to it so completely and quickly. Like I was born to do it. Since the age of 14 I’d worked for others, doing a variety of jobs from retail to hospitality. I started my very first business at the age of 23, and I enjoy the struggles, the stress, the freedom, and the endless challenge. 

How did the Campus Costarter program help you and your business? 
Now, having completed the program, I feel that I have improved my business plan and sharpened my overall focus. I have gained new insights I hadn’t thought of, such as strategies for pricing, social media marketing, and financial modeling. I am also more eager than ever to be successful. All in all, the mentorship, fast pace, and opportunities to meet other entrepreneurs, have given me a new perspective on my business. Ultimately, as with any program, the benefits are equal to the amount of effort you invest, but I feel better about my chances for success, and now have even more tools to reach my goals. 

What excites you about starting a business? 
Each day is different. There's nothing stagnant about being an entrepreneur. There are always new business opportunities to explore, new ideas to think up, and new people to meet. Life as an entrepreneur is a constant rollercoaster and if you love what you do, it's a really fun ride full of new adventures every day. 

What is next for your business? 
It has been a long, bumpy, and time-consuming journey to get this far. Nevertheless, I am excited to finally announce that our official website will be launching in the fall of 2021! Stay tuned on our social media pages @jaynabeauty for more details! 

If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any entrepreneur who would that be and why? 
I have a lot of people that genuinely inspire me in the entrepreneurial realm. Some of them include Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jillian Harris, and Jeff Bezos. I think one of my favourites, though, is Oprah Winfrey. She combined a passion for what she does, the will power to get it done and the savoir faire to know how to do it with a genuine compassion for people. This is everything you need to be a success, and she certainly is that. 

What’s your favourite local business? 
One of my favourite local businesses is The Craft Revival, located in Thunder Bay Ontario. The Craft Revival was one of the very first seasonal markets that I attended as a new entrepreneur, and I have never looked back since! The Craft Revival brings together thousands of consumers by showcasing the amazing and diverse talent of local artisans across Northwestern Ontario. Needless to say, the work that is put into these markets is mind-blowing and should not be underestimated – the team behind The Craft Revival is beyond exceptional in what they do, and I am always eagerly looking forward to all of their events!