Nothing can love you as unconditionally as a pet can, and ensuring your pet has the proper care, including routine veterinary check-ups, proper grooming and hygiene, and ensuring your pet gets enough exercise. Kim Elsdon began her career as a professional pet groomer in 2002, and took her passion for pets and desire to run her own business to form The Pooch Playce Pet Grooming in 2014. What sets Ms. Elsdon apart from her competition is her compassion for animals and ability to take on more troubled cases that traditional big box store grooming services may choose to avoid. A trip to the vet or groomer's can be quite stressful for pets, so having a groomer with Ms. Elsdon's experience combined with her empathy for pets that can be a handful is invaluable to your pet. A traumatic trip to a groomer can change how a pet reacts to people, so as a pet owner, you need to select a service that provides expertise as well as compassion. Ms. Elsdon also sews in her spare time, and has combined her business with her hobby to create a line of pet clothing available to clients. Ms. Elsdon envisions a mobile grooming unit in the future, which will help with clients who own more "homely" animals like cats, or clients who don't possess the convenience of a vehicle. Additionally, the mobile unit will relieve the stress of traveling to

Communication is one of the most fundamentally important aspects of any business. Without effective communication, customers can become alienated from your services due to confusion or a lack of confidence instilled by poor word choices. For Jill Ellis-Worthington, writing was always at the heart of what she did, but it was not until a shift occurred in the publishing industry that she realized that her talents could help her become an entrepreneur. A veteran of over 25 years in the publishing business, Ms. Ellis-Worthington has written for a variety of publications distributed all over North America. She started Write.On Communication Services 5 years ago with the goal of breaking free of freelance and developing a company that was focused on helping businesses communicate effectively. Write.On has recently expanded beyond their initial 3 pillars of Feature Writing, Media Relations, and Public Relations & Communications to introduce Communications Coaching. Many individuals and businesses would rather invest in employee communications training than constantly outsource tasks, and effective communications coaching can provide. http://writeoncommunicationservices.com/ https://youtu.be/OSXF9wCEsl8

DJ Focus (Adam Vandenakker) has been on the decks for over ten years, bringing the party to weddings, clubs, and special events around London. Thanks to his older brother Charlie (owner of Vanrock Sound), Mr. Vandenakker got to learn the art of live mixing at an early age. While many dismiss the role of a DJ as nothing more than a human iPod, a skilled DJ can really make a difference when it comes to keeping the party going. Anyone can play a song, but live mixing of popular tracks, reading the crowd, and blending in songs that progress well together are something that you can only learn through experience. The key lesson that Mr. Vandenakker attributes to his success and longevity in the business is the advice given to him by Charlie: take any gig you can get, otherwise someone else will. This lesson can be applied to any sort of business. Vandenakker notes that he isn't the most expensive DJ in the city, but that isn't necessarily indicative of quality. His slightly lower price point also makes his services accessible to a wider variety of clients; weddings are expensive, and some couples have very tight budgets. Mr. Vandenakker believes that taking every gig and delivering a stellar performance is crucial, because the word of mouth generated as a result will guarantee business for years to come. Let that be a lesson to any aspiring

  http://youtu.be/Kpy5SzRMoGU Amy Stevenson never thought of herself as an entrepreneur, but being exposed to the lifestyle through her two sisters-in-law, she is incredibly grateful that she decided to take the plunge. Being a mother is a full-time job, so for a mother to also engage herself in developing her own business is no easy task. Whoa Mama! is an event planning company that runs mom-to-mom sales events, where "mamas rent tables and sell their gently-used children's items to other mamas". Being a mother herself, Ms. Stevenson can relate to the hardships associated with being a mom, and a Whoa Mama! event not only gives mothers a chance to make some money on the side or purchase a wide variety of children's items, but it also gives mothers a chance to connect with and learn from other mothers. Ms. Stevenson states that her key piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to be open to teaching, both as an entrepreneur and a mother. New information and education is constantly being generated, so to be successful in either of those fields, it is beneficial to be open to learning something new!

http://youtu.be/lizCX76HNEQ http://www.advancedcompositestraining.ca/ Early on in his career as an aircraft maintenance engineer, Wilson Boynton never thought that he would become an educator, but when he and his colleagues encountered numerous challenges repairing aircraft manufactured with advanced composites, he saw an opportunity to become one. When Mr. Boyton completed his advanced composite repair training back in the 1980s, the only available training centres were in the United States. Upon his return from training at UCLA, Mr. Boynton decided to pass on his expertise and passion for aircraft repair and he started Advanced Composites Training. The only school of its kind in Canada, ACT offers training to aircraft maintenance engineers on all things advanced composite. What is an advanced composite? Any man-made material bonded with a high-strength resin to give the polymer a relatively high level of strength. Think carbon fiber. Most modern aircraft are manufactured with advanced composites, so the extra level of training that Mr. Boynton's facility provides gives a distinct edge to all graduates. Mr. Boynton admits to some tough times during the early days of his business, and the one lesson he would pass on to fellow entrepreneurs would be to remain in control of your vision for your business. Only you can truly grasp what you are trying to achieve through your business, so retain that control and stay focused. ACT has been in business since 1992, so Mr. Boynton's advice certainly has

http://markyourterritory.ca/    http://youtu.be/Gj6r90_7I4M Many of us have experienced it before: there is a change in management at our job and it affects our job satisfaction, workplace culture, and even our career trajectory. Crystal Carter experienced this very same situation, but instead of accepting the less-than-desirable situation or avoiding it entirely by simply quitting, Crystal used the management change as an opportunity to launch her freelance sales generation business, Lead Dog. Lead Dog is a natural evolution of Ms. Carter's experience in sales and marketing. She began her freelance business by retaining a few old contacts from her old corporate job, and she built her business from there. Starting with a few freelance projects, Ms. Carter soon expanded enough to turn her freelance lead generating and marketing skills into a bonafide small business. Lead Dog has now been in business for over 11 years. Ms. Carter cites her most important tools as customer databases, LinkedIn, and picking up the phone, the latter of which has become somewhat of a lost art in today's world. It all depends on who your client is: sometimes social media or email is the best way to engage, but if your client is a bit more "old-fashioned", such as those in the trades or manufacturing sector, a phone call may get you much farther than an email ever could.

Jewelry can tell you a lot about the person wearing it. Among the expressive of all of our possessions, jewelry has long been used to convey status (such as a wedding ring), organization (such as an engineer’s iron ring), or simply to convey wealth. Jewelry can also be used as an artistic expression of one’s personality, which can be achieved with an extravagant necklace or a subtle, yet elegant bracelet. Custom jewelry takes that level of personalization to a whole new level. Susan Dinner, a graduate of the nationally-renowned Ontario College of Art & Design (more commonly known as OCAD), honed in on her passion for design and eye for detail and decided to start designing her own line of custom jewelry eight years ago. Major events can help put our lives in perspective by causing us to expand our focus. Susan attributes the time in her life when she became a widow that shifted her perspective and made her realize that she should follow her passions and make a living doing something that makes her happy. Ultimately, our lives are a constant pursuit of happiness, and that is a big part of what being an entrepreneur is. Susan recognized that what made her happy was creating beautiful pieces of jewelry, and also the looks on the faces of satisfied customers when they don one of her creations. Susan takes her passion for jewelry and helping

Whitney Sanders is a Dental Hygienist that has started her own business called Sensational Smiles. Thanks to a new law she can run her own business without being attached to a dentist. Find out more about Sensational Smiles at http://sensationalsmiles.ca http://youtu.be/ahzE0bSyyGE

I just love reconnecting with my SEB classmates.  Jim shares the same vision for our city of London, Ontario as I do.  One that is united and organized with great community spirit.  However, Jim's niche of expertise is the music industry.  With his vast experience he noticed an opportunity to combine all the music events, concerts and venues into a convenient website that could help to promote a large population of local talent.  Have you checked out AllStage.ca yet?  Next time you are looking for something to do in London, check their events calendar :D   http://youtu.be/TfXQFLla3Og http://allstage.ca/ Listen to the Audio here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/londonpreneur/mccormick.mp3 Right Click here to download the .mp3 to your favourite device.  

I first met Susan at a London Mompreneur Empower lunch. She had passion and was not afraid to share it!  She has taught me that "what other people think of you is none of your business".  How often am I debilitated by what others think of me or how they will judge me.  It was a major obstacle I had to overcome to create this podcast and then to move up to vlogging. But here those words reassures me every day.  There is a bigger purpose for me to serve and what others think of feel cannot keep me from becoming the person I am meant to be. http://youtu.be/h5viDMiGFoQ Show Notes                                  www.susan-brady.com Bob Proctor  & The Secret "Progress is better that perfection" ~ Susan Brady "You become the average of the 5 people you hang around with" ~ Jim Rohn http://traffic.libsyn.com/londonpreneur/Susan_Brady.mp3 Right Click here to download the .mp3 to your favourite device.