Will Andrew, co-founder of Elevate Sport Inc. and president of Toronto-based Trimark Sportswear Group
Sometimes the smartest move is to put your own ego aside. When Will Andrew, co-founder of Elevate Sport Inc., was seeking the active-wear licence for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, he realized that what the Olympic committee was really looking for was someone to take their brand and run with it.
The pitch paid off and Elevate won the contract.
"The way we went about getting the licence was counter to what a lot of other brands were doing," says Mr. Andrew, who also is president of an affiliated company, Toronto-based Trimark Sportswear Group. "People were coming in and pitching the Olympics committee around how their brand would be a great co-brand opportunity for the Olympics to work with. But it seemed that the past was riddled with brands that were making their brand first and the Olympics second. So when we actually pitched it, one of our key lines was, 'You don't know who we are and that's a good thing.'"
Mr. Andrew, 39, a marathon runner and father of two, recently was named a member of Canada's Top 40 Under 40, which recognizes the achievements of Canadians younger than 40. Ironically, he credits failure with teaching him the way to success.
Mr. Andrew began silk-screening T-shirts for friends in his Toronto high school and ran his first business, WAC Sportswear, out of his basement while he was an engineering student at Queens University in Kingston, Ont. That led to corporate contracts to put logos on garments. He simply absorbed the business side as he went along.
"I literally learned the fundamentals of accounting from the manual of my first software package just from reading, 'What's an invoice? What's a receivable?'" says Mr. Andrew. "It sounds silly, but it's how I learned it. I didn't have a formal education in business, so I had to learn quickly about business plans and bank lines."
During the early years of his business. Mr. Andrew built a factory in Canada and the business grew rapidly. But he hadn't focused on building a strong team and felt the impact of that mistake. The company was stumbling and encountering complexities such as the encroaching import market.
"At some point, I realized that the right decision was probably to shut down the plant and lay off 50 to 60 people at that time," says Mr. Andrew. "I couldn't bring myself to make that decision. I got caught in the emotions of the passion for the business and the people at the expense of the company as a whole."
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In the end, the company failed. Mr. Andrew says he learned more in the six months of that failure than in the nine or 10 years spent building the company.
"I brought a lot of those passions with me to Trimark," he says. "My manufacturing knowledge and understanding of the production process helped us a lot on the import side. I also brought a gratitude for the people I work with - for the senior management team and the people throughout the organization. I don't think that would have come naturally. I had to go through the process of failure to really appreciate that."
Mr. Andrew's advice to other entrepreneurs is to spend time with your employees and develop the culture of the business.
"As a leader, you're working to let them grow," says Mr. Andrew. "Inspire them to dream and stretch their goals, boundaries and possibilities.
"Realize that as you grow as a small business, the partnerships and people around you are really significant."