My Best Mistake

Angie Sampson, owner
Company: Limetree Media Ltd.
What they do: Sell Adpads, a vinyl pad bearing advertising messages that can be laid on paved surfaces or floors
Best mistake: Forgetting what the company was supposed to sell

I started my first company five years ago. My partner and I worked together in the hospitality industry and we realized that golf cart (advertising) wraps were an excellent idea. So, for the next year, I travelled around to every golf course in Alberta, doing research and soliciting clients. We started selling the wraps and branched out into driving range divider advertisements.

But because we were a new company and really needed the revenue, we ended up taking on anything a client wanted us to do: website and graphic design, even window decals. We diversified too much because we, quite frankly, needed the money, and after four years we realized we weren’t as successful as we had wanted.

I realized I don’t like doing websites; I don’t like spending my time on graphic design. I wanted my company to be about unique products, things customers can’t get anywhere else. So, even though I had always said I would never leave my baby, my business, I handed it over entirely to my business partner and started new.

For the last year I have been developing contacts and now am the only North American supplier of the Adpad, a rubbery pad, made of bitumen and bearing advertising messages, that can be laid on paved surfaces or floors.

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