GEW: On the Road – Tarah’s Highlights from Vancouver

For Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) this week, we have sent three ambassadors across the country to report live from the road as they visit Canadian entrepreneurs, small businesses, community partners in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and attend GEW events. Yesterday Tarah was on the road in Vancouver, British Columbia for the day. Here is a recap of her day and some of the ‘ah-ha’ moments she had along the way.

Tarah’s day started off at the Futurpreneur Vancouver office with a team meeting with some of the Futurpreneur staff.

Next she was off to a flag raising ceremony at Vancouver’s City Hall with Deputy Minister, Andrea Reimer.

Then Tarah checked out the calming and restorative health space at Honey And Garlic Health Studio, a local entrepreneur.

After the visit it was time for lunch, she headed over to the fab vegan eatery Chomp (must try the Chomp sliders if you’re visiting) with yummy gluten free cheesecake provided by Fairy Cakes for dessert.

Tarah’s Key Takeaway: Chatting with Cera Rivers, Founder of Fairy Cakes, who explained to me that she is passionate about making tasty treats that everyone can eat – because no kid should have to show up at a birthday party with a bag of grapes. Her advice to entrepreneurs: “Love what you do and be prepared for the long haul.”

Then afternoon tea and macaroons at French Made Bakery (try the tier mi su, coconut and pineapple flavoured—the owners fav).

Tarah’s Key Takeaway: Co-founder of French Made Bakery, Catherine Introligator, shared the secret to running a successful business with your spouse: “It’s all about communication”. You can watch the interview on Periscope here.

Next she headed down to the Spring Activator where she chatted with Founder, Keith Ippel, My Green Space Co-Founders, Michael Moll and Harp Dhinsa, and CEO of VanHack, Illya Brotzky.

Tarah’s Key Takeaways:
1) Keith Ippel founder of Spring Activator answering the question via Periscope: “What is your fave type of financing?” His answer: “All of them”. At the idea stage, he shares his favorite type of capital is friends and family, at the launch stage, his favorite type of capital is debt, and at the growth stage, his favorite type of capital is equity. You can watch the interview on Periscope here.

2) Michael Moll & Harp Dhinsa, Co-Founders of My Green Space, sharing the two things they believe all entrepreneurs need to be successful—persistence and confidence. You can watch the full interview via Periscope here.”

Finally, Tarah ended her day at The Keg in Yaletown for the Entrepeer Experience, where they heard from Reid Hemsing, President of The Two Wheel Gear, and Futurpreneur entrepreneur.

Tarah’s Key Takeaway: President of The Two Wheel Gear, Reid Hemsing, shared his marketing success and failures at the evening’s Entrepeer Experience event. His success—a video he created that featured the lifestyle his customer would have, rather than talking all about the product. His fail—too much money spent on Google AdWords campaigns. You can watch more of what Reid had to say via Periscope here.

Overall Tarah’s biggest lesson from the day was: “If you are going to follow your dream and build your own business it is really important that you do what you love, believe in your ability and never give up.”

Tarah’s next stop is Calgary, Alberta! Follow along today (November 17th) at @FuturpreneurAB on Twitter.

Note: Periscopes are only available 24 hours after they were published, so some of the above links could now be offline.