When growing your business, you want to work with someone you trust, and who gets you and your vision.
Someone who has been down in the trenches to build their business. That person, needs to be the right fit for your personality, as much as for the skills and expertise they bring to the relationship.
To give you a sense of how I am, and before I start telling you about the knowledge and expertise I gained on my professional and entrepreneurial journey, here are a few words from people who have worked with me:
Whats happening now?
I’m looking forward to continuing to expand and implement new ideas as the President and CEO of TBD Telecom By Design Inc. I’m also working on a project to launch shared office space in a variety of cities, the first one being in a northern city, which I’d love to see become a new center of entrepreneurship excellence in the region.
I would love to see more entrepreneurs thrive and take advantage of opportunities to grow their business, especially women owned businesses. To that end, I’m making myself available for coaching, consulting and workshops to share my knowledge and expertise. I look forward to finalizing my partnership with BDC.
What am I currently working on?
My main focus lately has been on rebranding and restructuring TBD Telecom By Design Inc. to refresh the concept of “Telecom”, and better represent what the company can do for our clients in the era of hyper connectivity. We are leaning towards the idea of “Keeping businesses connected to people, and keeping people and things connected to businesses”.
I’ve also been working on the geographic expansion of TBD Telecom By Design Inc. to 4 new cities in Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia). Now that the acquisition of space is done, my focus has shifted to building the remote teams, refining daily operational processes, and working out sales and managing teams remotely.
How I got there?
Now let’s get in the thick of what I have accomplished in the past 20 years as an entrepreneur and a business technology expert.
Entrepreneurship is rooted deep into my DNA. Even when I was a kid, I was already running my own babysitting business.
1995
Fresh out of school, I had a short stint in the corporate world selling mobile phones set-ups for Bell Mobility (yes, remember, the old ones, like in the pictures!). At that time mobiles were really expensive, and people had them installed in their cars. Even then, I saw something that wasn’t working efficiently, and I had to do something about it. That’s when I discovered how rewarding it is to work on successfully improve a process and develop tiered costs.
1997
I moved on to sell telecom services and solutions for Bell Canada. That’s when I got my first taste of helping customers set-up and optimize their telecom solutions. And at that time, there were no emails, so everything was done over the phone, by fax or mail. Taught me to get creative in communicating technical concepts to a variety of people with no visual support (we’re talking 50+ calls a day here)!
In 1998, I made the switch to being a business and training consultant on the Nortel networks for Fortune 100 companies in the financial services and insurance industry in the GTA. It was tedious learning the platforms for businesses and call centres, but I managed to set up and train thousands of users on those systems. I was even involved in setting up the predecessor of the City of Toronto 311 service, and prepare for 311 as we know it today.
In 2003, I consulted in a ‘Director of Sales’ capacity for the Canadian and International market of an IT/Telecom company. I found myself traveling and experience the Telecom industry abroad as I was in charge of the Caribbean and Latin American markets. I even conducted a business trade show in Trinidad.
In 2005, I was starting to get restless and itching to create my own company. Already pondering the challenges of women and mom entrepreneurs, I started coming up with business ideas to create communities and make resources available. First, it was through a newsletter called Fully Equipped; then it was through a conceptual website called Collective Mothering.
In 2008, I finally jumped into co-funding TBD Telecom By Design Inc. in Toronto, ON, my very own telecom company. After years learning the Canadian and International markets, seeing how the industry was disrupted over the years, how telecom technology evolved, and understanding my clients’ pain points when it came to their telecom solutions, I decided it was time to go fully independent. Since then, the business has flourished, we’ve just expanded to 4 cities in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia in addition to our Toronto office.
Having one successful business is great, but ideas keep coming to me, and I can’t seem to say no to great business opportunities. So, in 2012, I decided to expand on the Fully Equipped newsletter to create Fully Equipped Media Inc., a marketing company for women owned businesses looking to develop their online presence. And in 2017, I decided to acquire the company Plaza Signs.
Rome wasn’t made in a day, and neither was I. But with perseverance, and sparing no amount of energy, I built my empire from the ground up!
What about volunteering?
Well, now that I am in a position to, I like getting involved and giving back to the community. Here are some examples of what I’ve achieved with my volunteer work:
Liberty Village BIA
(Business Improvement Area)
Board Member 2019 - 2022
Board member 2014 - 2018
Chair of the Ambassador Committee (nominations, expansion & recruitment), and involved with the Animated Public Realm Committee (External Capital Projects & Outdoor Assets).
Achievements:
Establish HR Policy & Procedures (people first)
Establish engagement with members in the community
Establish Women in Tech meetings in Liberty Village (Sept. 2018)
Establish onboarding procedure for new board members
Judge for the new art benches contest – Fall 2018
WBE Canada
(Women Business Enterprises, Canada)
First WBE elected to join the WBE Canada Board of Directors
Chair of the Supplier Advisory Committee
Achievements:
Speak and facilitate discussions at 1st ‘WBE to WBE’ at the Annual 2018 Conference
Chair meetings with Supplier Advisory Committee members across Canada
Participate in panel discussions with President and members across Canada
Allies in Tech
Hosted a Live Stream Event in Liberty Village of MoveTheDialSummit for women in tech. 2nd annual event coming November 14th 2019!
Hosted 1 year of FREE monthly meet ups with a global reach.
