Alberta Venture teams up with Junior Achievement >
Michael Ganley is the editor of Alberta Venture. BizBeat takes a big-picture view of the provincial, national and international news affecting Alberta's business community. He can be reached at mganley@albertaventure.com and @MikeatVenture
In the business world, inspiration is best described as a catalyst. >
Highway 2 begins, appropriately, in a hamlet called Carway on the Alberta-Montana border >
Born near Naples, Carmelo Rago came to Canada as a 10-year-old boy to reunite with his father who had moved earlier >
Ryan Jackson
President, Canopy Canada
As a child in Swift Current, Sask., Ryan Jackson learned from his car-dealer father that selling automobiles was a good way to make a living.
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Albertans have a reputation for risk-taking, but is it justified?
It’s almost become gospel that Alberta is Canada’s entrepreneurial heartland. Where Ontario seems to be all about real estate and tax lawyers and Quebec Inc., a cabal of crony capital, where Atlantic Canada seems happy to be a bedroom community for Fort McMurray and B.C.’s out smoking behind the barn, Alberta is still seen as can-do country, the last best home of rolled-up sleeves and rugged individualism. >
Jill Kelland
Manager, social and vocational programs, Regional Mental Health , Capital Health
Being an entrepreneur in Alberta is no big deal. Bringing entrepreneurial business strategies into a big-city health authority and making them work with clients is.
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Holly Pshyk
Sales Manager, Wholesale division, Rocky Mountain Soap Company Inc.
Don’t tell the folks at Rocky Mountain Soap that offering flexible working hours invites sloth. Their star sales manager, Holly Pshyk, has helped raise the Canmore-based natural soap and bath product maker’s revenues to $2.5 million from $86,000 in five years, working from home in Edmonton between her mom duties to two children.
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Though they do different things, Alberta's fastest-growing companies offer a similar recipe for preparing for, managing and sustaining growth: match the right product to a big market, and find the right people to pull it off >
The prospect of a mid-life career switch may seem daunting, but it can be a rewarding experience. And there are ways to ease the transition
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