Retail

Innovative department concept housing over 30 Indigenous brands and collaborations with Indigenous artists

Chelsee Pettit was always passionate about fashion as a means of artistic expression. She is a member of Aaamjiwnaang First Nations but, growing up in Sarnia, ON, she struggled to keep her roots in her heritage while fitting in with white society. Seeing the conditions and lack of pride that has been instilled in many Indigenous youth, Chelsee became determined to create a better future through leading by example and showing them that they can maintain their cultural identity while succeeding in the modern world.

At 26 years old, she founded Aaniin Retail Inc., an innovative department concept housing over 30 Indigenous brands and collaborations with Indigenous artists. Her company acts as both an online platform and physical storefront in downtown Toronto – allowing her vision of connecting people from all walks and phases of life through creativity, education, artistry & business reach even further.

Despite having no college degree, but over 8 years experience in retail management – Chelsee believes that everyone has something unique to offer the world – thus providing hands-on learning opportunities for those looking to upskill themselves significantly. In her view, alternative sources of education and knowledge are vital to allowing youth to find their passions.

Chelsee is an inspiring leader and mentor whose mission is to give Indigenous youth the tools they need for success. Through her work, she has helped many people reach their highest aspirations, proving that anything can be achieved with enough determination. Aaniin creates a direct impact to the Indigenous economy by allowing a wide demographic to shop online and in store. Designers that she showcases range from individuals living on reserve to those in the heart of Toronto. Her fashion pieces are intended to start conversations for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people across Turtle Island – showing the world that we are still here and the future is Indigenous and bright.

In addition to her online and in-store platform, Chelsee is a frequent speaker at events, podcasts and panel discussions on the topic of unlocking the deep Indigenous economy and empowering Indigenous youth. She has hosted fashion shows and events to elevate and showcase her own creations and those of other designers. Chelsee has been awarded over $21,000 in small business grants from companies including MasterCard, American Express and Shopify.

Chelsee’s journey and success have been chronicled through features in a number of news sources:


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Get great on the areas of life you’re most passionate about

Growing up John Krik‘s dad was a pitchman. You could see him slicing and dicing at the country fairs, PNE or home shows throughout Canada. That business grew from shows to television or products being sold on television and then mass distribution in major retail stores like Walmart. John has followed in his father’s footsteps. He’s developed several products that have gone from concept to millions in sales all based out of his home office in Surrey, BC. This is where he conceives the products, brings them to consumer shows, proves the salability, develops a pitch and from there brings it to mass distribution via direct response television.


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Comment contribuer à la pérennité de la fromagerie artisanale du Québec

Quelques années après avoir travaillé dans le secteur de l’aviation, en 1999, Nancy et son mari ont eu l’étincelle pour démarrer un réseau de distribution pour les fromagers artisanaux québécois : Plaisirs Gourmets.

L’entreprise a d’abord démarré avec le fromage Pied-de-Vent des Iles-de-la-Madeleine et rapidement l’intérêt des artisans fromagers et négociants a conduit à la création d’un réseau représentant aujourd’hui une quinzaine de fromageries artisanales, 1 fabricant de fondue et un charcutier.


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Profits and Purpose with Jennifer St. John

Founder and Head Designer at MARNIE & MICHAEL, Jennifer St. John, has been involved in art and design since her earliest days. In 2020, Jennifer launched her business, along with a mission to start a mental health initiative and began a retail shop during the peak of the pandemic, taking a risk that has paid off. With an online shop and six retail locations, Jennifer creates and hand sews her own line of high end leather bags and accessories and devotes up to 15% of all profits to mental health initiatives. She just completed her first successful mental health annual fundraiser and fashion show, with proceeds donated to RVH hospital Foundation.

Jennifer’s mom was untreated and undiagnosed with mental illness for her first fifty-two years of life. Growing up in this very unstable environment with her sisters, no one talked about mental health and everyone around her was distracted by her mom’s unhealthy coping strategies. The only constant in her life was instability and shame. The name, Marnie & Michael, is in honour of her parents and her mother’s journey – now she is determined to be a part of the conversation and space that is changing the stigma!


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Supporting Staff for Success

Tammie Hunter was raised on Vancouver Island and as an adult lived in several communities around BC before settling in Nanaimo near her family. After exploring a few careers, she discovered later in life that being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding and engaging. She often says she wishes she had known what being a business owner was like earlier on in life.

As an artist she has had a very successful career selling her art in several galleries and art shows over the past 20 years. Since she started LegArt Apparel her art has taken a backseat. But she’s itching to get back into her studio to continue her lifelong dream of being a serious artist.

Tammie started LegArt Apparel in 2014. Since then, it has grown to be one of the top apparel companies in Canada in its particular style of clothing, mainly leggings. The company has grown from the original box of 100 pairs of leggings in the basement to over 4,000 pieces of inventory in a large warehouse and storefront in Nanaimo.

After almost 10 years in the industry, Tammie has gained much experience, having learned mostly through trial and error what it takes to be successful in the apparel industry. Through many ups and downs, hard work both mentally and physically, and learning with a team of dedicated employees and mentors she feels it’s time to implement an exit plan that will set her successor up for further success. The next three years will bring new challenges but she is up for it!


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The Importance of Defining Success with Krista Halliday

Krista Halliday is a serial entrepreneur on a mission to disrupt the brand ecosystem as we know it. Leading by example, Krista is focused on creating and supporting better products and building better brands that are led with purpose, integrity, and prioritize social good.

Krista is passionate about educating the everyday Canadian on their vital role in this eco-system, to challenge the norms and demand better of brands and retailers by using our purchasing power as leverage.

A daughter of a single mother from humble beginnings, Krista quickly learned the value of hard work and started her first job at the young age of 12. After University, Krista forged her retail experience at household brands including Revlon, Holt Renfrew, Rexall and Jarden Home Brands where she acknowledged a white space in the market – a need for experienced consultation that would help US and European beauty brands navigate the unique Canadian retail landscape.

At just 28 years old, Krista started her first company, Global Edge Brands based in Toronto, and grew it to be Canada’s leading retail and brand consulting company that worked with renowned brands such as the Honest Company, Disney, Nurtibullet and more. Maneuvering this male-dominated industry as a young female executive was no easy feat, and fortified Krista’s dedication as a woman-in-leadership advocate and supporter.

Now based in Hamilton, Ontario – Krista’s latest venture, Ray Management Group, was designed with the intention to support and create products that are led with integrity and prioritize social good. The team at Ray Management Group is responsible for major brand entrances to key retailers including Kristin Ess Hair and Hey Humans to Shoppers Drug Mart, Hairtiage by Mindy McKnight to Walmart, and Drew Barrymore Flower Beauty at Loblaws.

A serial entrepreneur gaining speed in the Canadian marketplace, Krista has leveraged her leadership, innovation and business prowess to launch three additional businesses in the last 5 years, greatly supporting the local Hamilton economy – Little Sprouts Daycare, Nest Coworking, and retail shop Luv La Vie, two of which have been nominated and won Readers Choice Awards 3 years running. With much more on the horizon, Krista is one to watch. This year, she is also the recipient of Hamilton Business Link 40 under 40.


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Purush Cannane is the king of upcycle, the bigger sister to recycling

Purushothaman Cannane (Purush) creatively combined his engineering skill, passion for solving environmental problems, and his drive to help vulnerable communities when he founded Greenii to create paper bags from clean waste papers such as newsprints, magazines, flyers, and brochures. Avoiding post-consumer paper in order to bypass the need for additional environmentally unfriendly chemicals and processes, he sources high-quality paper wastes from libraries, corporate offices, paper mills, flyer distributors, universities, and printing presses, offers employment to recently immigrated women or refugees, and has now sold thousands of carrier bags in Canada and the USA to replace single-use plastic bags.

Not stopping yet, Purush has gone on to invent equipment (Semi-automatic assembly, first in the world to swiftly process newsprints, and magazines into paper bags) to facilitate growth in production volumes, and is expanding into box packaging as well. While handmade bags may continue to form a part of the product offering, it is the raw materials used that ensure bags will always remain unique. He even affords customers the opportunity to convert their unused, expired marketing materials and paper products into new packaging products for use by themselves or another environmentally conscious and creative business.


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Un restaurant complet 3 mois à l’avance depuis 2015 voici un des succès de Vincent Chatigny de Chez Biceps B.B.Q

Encore à l’école de cuisine, Vincent Chatigny commence sa carrière en 1998 au Laurie Raphael ou déjà, les produits locaux sont mis à l’honneur dans un cadre gastronomique.

Six ans plus tard, il quitte pour travailler, entre autres, avec les italiens ou il se découvre une véritable passion pour une cuisine traditionnelle simple, savoureuse et un modèle d’affaire axé sur la passion et la performance. Par la suite, un passage à la Boucherie de la ferme Eumatimi ou il approfondit ses connaissances autant techniques que sur le métier de fermier en travaillant étroitement avec (feu) Mario Pilon, un éleveur bovin devenu boucher. Des stages en France, cours de nutrition, Vincent à aussi enseigné durant un an à l’école hôtelière de la Capitale.

C’est au cours de ses nombreux voyages à travers l’Amérique du Nord dans le cadre de l’émission Bouffe en Cavale, une série qu’il a coanimée pendant sept saisons sur les ondes d’Évasion, qu’il a développé un lien étroit entre son style de cuisine, le contact avec le produit brut et l’engagement social d’un restaurant.

C’est ainsi qu’en décembre 2015, il a ouvert Chez Biceps B.B.Q, ou les produits locaux sont mis en valeur dans un environnement fortement inspiré par la culture B.B.Q. du sud des États-Unis. Une carte des vins originale, des bières de microbrasseries et un grand choix de whiskys nord-américain côtoient le fumoir artisanal texan de 1 000 lb fonctionnant au bois d’érable.


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To build a business successfully surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and let your ego go by the wayside

A fourth-generation entrepreneur and an iconic Canadian brand, Gillian Stein tells us what it takes to be the fourth generation to continue Henry’s success and speaks out about mental illness.

It’s clear that people truly do like a physical shopping experience. The important part is embracing both. The digital experience is a really important part of the customer shopping journey. So you need to make sure that you’re digital. But you also have to be physical, and for Henry’s the key is: what’s the value proposition?

We have setup the Henry’s Foundation in support of mental health. Our healthcare system is really not set up for mental health care. It’s a real challenge right now. When it comes to mental health, talk to somebody. The most important thing is to start talking.


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Faire des achats sans devoir passer à la caisse, le modèle d’affaires de Olivier Roy cofondateur de Leav

Olivier Roy a fondé à 16 ans sa première compagnie en production vidéo, où il a travaillé pour de nombreuses entreprises, gouvernements et personnalités pour les aider à porter leurs histoires à l’écran. À 20 ans, frustré de ne pas pouvoir payer sa facture de restaurant directement sur son téléphone, il a cofondé Leav. La mission était simple : gagner du temps et améliorer le service.

En pleine pandémie de 2020, la petite équipe de Leav pivote de la restauration et se lance dans la vente au détail en ouvrant le premier magasin entièrement sans caisse au Canada. Depuis, Olivier est fréquemment invité à parler de l’avenir de la vente au détail et de sa solution pour aider les détaillants à gagner face à la crise de la pénurie de main-d’œuvre.


Les entrepreneurs sont l’épine dorsale de l’économie canadienne.

Pour soutenir les entreprises canadiennes, abonnez-vous à notre chaîne YouTube et suivez-nous sur Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn et Twitter.

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