Personal Advancement
Launching padOver the past two years, the Up & Running column has profiled 100 new entrepreneurs who work with Biz-Launch to build their ventures. Many readers have asked about BizLaunch, so today's column presents the story of this enterprising company. DIANE JANES |
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 [ 2006-10-11 ] |
Andrew Patricio (left) and Roger Pierce co-founded BizLaunch, Canada's leading small business training company.
BizLaunch www.bizlaunch.ca was started more than two years ago by Andrew Patricio and Roger Pierce. Both life long entrepreneurs with 16 businesses under their collective belts, Patricio and Pierce share a strong passion for helping small business owners.
Their company works with startups less than five years old, serving people who are thinking about starting a business, preparing to launch a business or currently running one.
BizLaunch was formed around its first product, a 30-hour comprehensive course dubbed theUp and Running BizLaunch Program. It teaches new entrepreneurs how to set a vision, conduct market research, raise money, understand accounting, market to customers andmanage operations. To date, more than 2,000 Canadian entrepreneurs have taken the program.
With 2.7 million small businesses operating in Canada and an estimated one million more to start up each year, Patricio and Pierce are tapping into a growing trend. "New small business owners need help putting their ventures together," Patricio says. "They crave expert startup advice from someone who has been there and done that already."
Known for his practical advice, Patricio has trained entrepreneurs around the world. He's got 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, worked with tens of thousands of startups and is the author of a best-selling startup book appropriately called Up & Running.
"We're basically offering the type of help we wish was available when we started our first businesses many years ago," Patricio says. "Our training helps new entrepreneurs to avoid costly mistakes by getting it right the first time."
Pierce has launched eight small businesses of his own and personally lived through "the good, bad and ugly" sides of self-employment -- experiences he openly shares with his company's clients.
The partners have grown BizLaunchby partnering with major corporations in order to reach a larger number of startups. One of those corporations, Staples Business Depot, recently contracted Biz-Launch to create and deliver free in-store seminars.
"We've proven that a small company likeBizLaunch can partner with a big corporation like Staples," Patricio says. "It's a great relationship because we're working together to help entrepreneurs."
Part of a national plan, Staples BizLaunch Seminars are now offered across the GTA. Seminar dates, topics and locations may be found at www.BizLaunch.ca.
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