EDMONTON — More than 150 participants took part in the 2018 “Business Start-Ups Road Map To Success” Conference, Feb.3, at the Leefield Community Hall, here.
Kris Salumbides, co-founder of Quality Sleep Care and Alberta Medical Supplies, shared their humble story when they decided to plan and start the business in 2014, growing the business from three staff to around 50 employees.
“It takes a lot of hard work and determination. Getting help from other individuals, learning from them and taking action, make sure you take action,” he encouraged the participants.
QSC and AMS started in Edmonton with two branches and have expanded to Calgary with plans to open new branches in Manitoba and British Columbia.
Salumbides said that his business partners have highly contributed to the growth of the company by taking care of the important functions as he handles the marketing department himself. The other directors of the company like Jesse Tallon handle the daily operations, Jacob Christian takes care of the finance department and Arvin Esponilla is the sales director.
Christian discussed with the participants the basics of starting a small business with emphasis on the structure of the business plan. “Business is not easy,” he told the participants, “yet it can be done successfully with the right plan.”
“Learn and don’t make mistakes,” said Christian pointing out that one should learn every aspect of running a small business and avoid the costly pitfalls.
Atty. Joseph Angeles of the Philippine Business Society of Alberta spoke on sole proprietorship, corporation, shareholder agreement and other legal areas of running a business while author Jeff Grandfield talked about negotiating commercial leases and renewals.
Tallon discussed how he handles the daily business operations, making sure tasks are completed with awareness on legislation that will affect the operations of the business and closely coordinating with the other departments.
Marvin Padernal talked about the basics of accounting and small business tax while business banking advisor Brian Bradshaw discussed the importance of business planning, small business and CSBF loans.
Philippine Consul Pamela Bailon, who spoke on behalf of Consul General Julius Torres, congratulated the organizers for the success of the event and praised the participants for taking the time to listen and learn from the various resource speakers.
She said more Filipinos in Canada are cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit and hopes that they will serve as economic agents to help improve the economic ties between the Philippines and Canada.
The event was organized by the Quality Care Group of Companies, composed Quality Sleep Care, Alberta Medical Supplies, CanPay Medical Inc. and Medicus Family Health Clinic and Pharmacy, in cooperation with the newly-formed Philippine Business Society of Alberta.
Salumbides hopes that the information sessions will become valuable to the participants and that they action in helping build the economy of the province and of the country by becoming business owners themselves.
IT professional and podcaster Kirk Lim lauded the organizers for putting together the event that would guide them to become entrepreneurs themselves.
“We learned a lot,” said Mayflor Cortado, who took a lot of notes during the one-day event.
Photo by Moses Billacura | Alberta Filipino Journal
