An episode of childhood heartbreak led to a winning business plan for one Tseshaht First Nation member at the annual Aboriginal Best of the Best competition.
Naas ii cu wak Lisa Watts, who is a cultural support worker with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Quu’asa program, travelled to Toronto for the event, which took place from March 3 through March 5. The last of nine presenters in an all-day Dragon’s Den-style slugfest, Watts claimed second-place honours for her retail business proposal, “Wide and Wonderful.”
Last fall, Watts took part in the Aboriginal Best training program for aboriginal entrepreneurship, along with 20 other Nuu-chah-nulth members. To complete the program, she had to come up with a business plan. And that was when she remembered a piece of advice she had received about 10 years ago.
“I was told, ‘If you want to start a successful business, you need to solve a problem,’ so I asked, ‘What problem would I solve?’” Watts said.
For Watts, finding fashionable shoes in her D width has been nearly impossible. And she knows she is not alone.
“At the age of 10, I found out I couldn’t have pretty shoes. I was going to a wedding – the first big celebration of my life. I went to store after store, and what I walked out with was a pair of my grandmother’s shoes. And I hated them. I lived like that most of my life, looking for shoes and coming out with ugly shoes that I didn’t like. And that is the passion behind my idea. I want to help others not feel that pain.”
Watts said she was advised about the training program through the Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation. Students completed 12 modules over six weeks, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and all day Sunday, under trainer Caledonia Fred.
For Watts, who puts in a full work week, much of it on the road, it was a grind, but as a person who believes in life-long learning, it was also exhilarating.
Under the Aboriginal Best program, the finalist typically proceeds to the Best of the Best competition in Vancouver. But this year, the event was held on a national stage, even though all the contestants came from B.C., according to organizer Bruce Lacroix, president of the Canadian Centre for Aboriginal Entrepreneurship.
“We were asked to bring the event to Toronto as part of another national conference and summit on aboriginal entrepreneurship [I Do Business],” Lacroix said.
While there was some question about why only B.C. competitors were on hand, the answer was simple: there is nothing else like it in Canada. That could change, Lacroix said.
“We had a lot of interest in it. We were the showcase of the conference. People came up asking, ‘Can we bring this to Ontario, to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia…?’”
Watts said while there was a sense of competition during the fall training period, there was also a spirit of mutual support and cooperation. It was actually one of the students who suggested the name Wide and Wonderful when she put forward her concept of a “wide-only” shoe store.
“That’s how it started out, but it grew,” Watts said.
Watts had never needed corrective lenses, but in recent years, she has come to require reading glasses. And she discovered it is as hard to find fashionable eyeglasses frames in wider sizes as it is to find fashionable shoes.
“So I decided I would put wide fashions in my store: shoes, sunglasses, clothes and accessories. That’s how I started, because of not having a selection.”
Watts said it was a “huge honour” to be selected by her fellow students, and the next few months were a juggling act of her day job, maintaining a family and putting together a business plan.
“I was working, living and breathing the plan until the day I left. I didn’t know where I was going; I only knew Bruce Lacroix. I found out I was actually in Mississauga until the day we did the presentation (Monday).”
There were nine contestants drawn from across B.C. Each one had a plan, a PowerPoint presentation and financial package.
“We ended up getting to know each other and we were all running on nerves,” Watts said.
While some contestants made changes right up to the moment they faced the judges, Watts arrived with a plan and stuck to it, with just a few tweaks.
Dragon’s Den regular David Chilton, who was a feature speaker at the conference, had been scheduled to be on the panel, but was unable to commit to the full day, which involved four presentations and evaluations in the morning followed by five in the afternoon. In baseball parlance, Watts came in as cleanup hitter and knocked it out of the park.
“The main prop I used, other than my PowerPoint, was myself, simply because I am a wide person. I showed them my wide feet, my wide wrists, my wide face and my wide smile.”
After a full hour of spirited debate (normally about 15 minutes), the panel awarded Watts second prize. Unlike the TV show, however, Aboriginal Best of the Best winners are not immediately connected with wealthy investors to put their plans into action. Watts said that is less important than the lessons she absorbed in the Best of the Best process.
“I discovered how much work it is to create a business,” she said. “It’s still in the dream stage, but I see how this can work.
“If I can get my plan out there I can be first-to-market with wide-only fashion accessories. It’s about self-confidence. I found that out when I was 10 years old.”
Lacroix, who is of Metis descent, describes himself on his Web site (www.ccae.ca/) as “a terrible employee working with others.” In today’s stressed economy, creating your own future through entrepreneurship may be the only way to succeed, he believes, especially for indigenous people who hope to live and work in their own communities.
“Sometimes there just aren’t the jobs, and sometimes people are not suited for those jobs,” he said.
In many ways, the growing movement to foster and promote entrepreneurship among Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples is a return to traditional practices, Lacroix said.
“Years and years ago, there certainly was entrepreneurship in the aboriginal community. They just didn’t call it that. Indigenous people traded extensively between nations.”
