Self-employment
ESL: A language of successFor some, running a business is second nature. For others like Cheryl McCarron, second language is business. CARTER HAMMETT |
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 [ 2005-10-19 ] |
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Cheryl McCarron opened the ESL Shop last May and hasn't looked back. "My customers have been my greatest teachers," she says.
Since opening last May at its Dundas and Bloor location in Toronto, The ESL (English as a Second Language) Shop has been gradually gathering speed as a responsive distributor of all things second language, and filling a need for both ESL teachers and students.
A few years before opening, McCarron was working as a book representative for an ESL publisher and "teachers would ask me, 'where can I go to see materials?' There seemed to be no real choice, so when the opportunity presented itself, I just jumped into it," she says.
The ESL Shop's shelves are amply stocked with materials that include grammar books; dictionaries; testing materials; books on listening, comprehension, job search, idioms and pronunciation; among others. The shelves also actively promote Canadian history and short stories. "There are several markets within ESL and each market has very specific needs," she says.
Those markets run the gamut from kindergarten to Grade 12 through Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC), adult education, and foreign students at private language schools with both teachers and students requiring learning materials.
McCarron is quick to acknowledge that teachers have been very helpful in terms of identifying resources. In the process, McCarron has discovered a "treasure trove" of smaller suppliers she can tap into in order to deliver her products. "My customers have been my greatest teachers," she says with a grin.
McCarron actually began her own professional career as a French teacher in the 1980s at a maritime school before she was hired over the phone as a French instructor for a school in the Okanagan Valley, B.C. "I knew I was jumping in feet first, but I thrive on that kind of pressure," she says with a laugh. That free-spiritedness presented itself once again in 1990, when McCarron and a friend went on a six-month vacation to Japan.
She came home seven years later.
While in Japan, she found work as an ESL instructor, then as a book representative, for an ESL publisher, a position she continued upon returning to Canada in 1997. While visiting teachers, she noticed an increased demand for a retail location where educators could browse and compare instructional materials. That's when the concept for the ESL Shop was born. She eventually found space, spent six weeks renovating the store to its current, funky look and opened last spring. She hasn't looked back.
McCarron admits she's still on a steep learning curve while she develops her inventory and administrative procedures. She's also busy conducting outreach to settlement services and the ESL community. "I'm learning on the fly!" she says.
More than a bookstore, the ESL Shop offers job search workshops, a matching service for ESL tutors and serves as an occasional meeting space for ESL teachers. Additionally, McCarron plans on launching a web site (www.eslshop.ca) to showcase her products and services in the fall.
Her approach to growing her business is perhaps unconventional. Whereas many business owners follow their five-year plans and growth cycles to a T, McCarron prefers a more organic approach.
"It's the idea of building community, learning and multiculturalism that appeals to me," she says. " I like the idea of providing service and value, so I just go with the flow, see what happens and try not to force anything."
ESL Shop is located at 2233 Dundas St. W., Toronto. Phone: 416-535-8882.
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