<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Kia](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
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The Korean automaker, which entered the Canadian market in 1999, believes it will reach new <\/p>\n
I\u2019m out for a walk right now because it would be hard to sit for this interview; I\u2019d rather move around. I actually have my assistant schedule my calls for when I\u2019m in the car, because I think differently when there\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n
When I go on vacation, I ask my assistant to change my password on my email and social media accounts, so I\u2019m not distracted away from my family.<\/p>\n
I also tend to drink a lot of coffee, which has a similar makeup to some of the medications they give adults with ADHD to help them focus.<\/p>\n
Why did you want to go from one brand to many?<\/p>\n
With my ADHD brain I was craving a new outlet for my creativity. We were looking for another business for many years, and in 2010 I happened to get my house painted. I got some referrals from friends and the first few places I called were very mom and pop, needed days or weeks to finish, and were not very professional.<\/p>\n
Then I called one guy who came in a shiny van, wore a uniform, and said he could paint the whole house in a day. I didn\u2019t think it could be done, so I put him to the test, and after I came home at the end of the day to an immaculate home freshly painted from top to bottom, I bought the company.<\/p>\n
And then a few years later the same thing happened when I tried to get my gutters cleaned and struggled to find someone who could bring that professionalism, but there was one company that was doing it. After meeting them we merged, and I eventually bought Shack Shine.<\/p>\n
What about the fourth business?<\/p>\n
We went into the moving space thinking we could consolidate home services, and after eight years we realized the business just didn\u2019t have the happiness factor.<\/p>\n
When junk disappears, when your home gets painted or cleaned, you\u2019re excited by the transformation. Moving is a stressful experience, even when it goes well. It\u2019s a tough business, and we gave it eight years to try and fix those problems before throwing in the towel and selling it at break-even.<\/p>\n
It was a challenging time, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to us.<\/p>\n
How so?<\/p>\n
One day there may be a fourth business, or a fifth, and now we know we\u2019re looking for an industry where our customers feel good about the work we\u2019re doing for them.<\/p>\n
We learned that no matter how much money we could make or how much we could grow, we can only operate what I would consider a \u201chappy business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where did this appreciation for failure come from?<\/p>\n
As my career grew, I realized I\u2019m good at learning from failure. In fact, I wrote a book about it, \u201cWTF?!: Willing to Fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of our franchise owners come to us saying they always wanted their own business but only pursued it after they got laid off or some other seemingly negative change in their life.<\/p>\n
People don\u2019t often choose entrepreneurship \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s scary, it costs money, there\u2019s lots of risk and no guarantees \u2014\u00a0but every successful entrepreneur starts somewhere, often after some kind of failure. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Not at all. These things go in cycles, and the numbers are lower for good reason; it\u2019s been easier for people to find good jobs.<\/p>\n
When I was in that McDonald\u2019s drive through, I couldn\u2019t find a summer job, and I was forced to create my own. Everyone fears AI, and there are some scary parts, but the opportunity is yes, people will lose their work, but they\u2019ll be forced to think differently. The biggest periods of innovation, if you look back in world history, have all come out of challenging situations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easier today than ever to start a business thanks to the internet and AI and the ability to reach people. It\u2019s easier to run my business today at $750 million in revenue than when I was at $1 million, thanks to technology.<\/p>\n
What about tariffs?<\/p>\n
We are affected by them, but I try not to think about those macro things I can\u2019t control.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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For Yahoo\u2019s Jon Finnie, continued success as a \u2018digital guide to the internet\u2019 is due to the <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a company I invested in on Vancouver Island called Mint Cleaning, and they used the tariffs as an opportunity to tell a story about Canadian pride in the media. Their business has doubled since appearing on Dragon\u2019s Den less than a year ago, thanks in part to the tariffs.<\/p>\n
Had you invested in companies prior to joining Dragon\u2019s Den?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m lucky I was seated next to Arlene; she gave me lots of advice and coached me through it.<\/p>\n
How did you end up on the show?<\/p>\n
I applied for season one, and I know now I wouldn\u2019t have had the time to dedicate to it.<\/p>\n
By the third time I applied I felt like it was something I really wanted at this stage of my career; I want to take what I\u2019ve learned and help Canadian entrepreneurs learn from some of my failures.<\/p>\n
My second season premiered this week, and I\u2019ve loved every minute of it, because I feel like I can make a real difference. I\u2019ve also had the chance to learn from the other dragons.<\/p>\n
I recently had lunch with Jim Treliving of Boston Pizza, he\u2019s 84 years old, and he\u2019s still very active in his businesses. I realized that\u2019s what I want; I want to also be 84 years old, with that big smile, still involved in building a great business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people look at Canada\u2019s trade war, innovation slump and economic uncertainty as significant challenges. Brian Scudamore sees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-168077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}