Bruce Outridge

What They Don’t Tell You in School About Business

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Bruce

I often speak to youth groups about entrepreneurship and getting started in business. Not because I am as successful as someone like Richard Branson or other famous entrepreneurs, but often because of the business I started and my background. You can understand why when you look at the odds, high school dropout, starting an art business after a career in trucking, and then leaving a successful position at a large company to begin on my own without any kind of a real plan. A real recipe for success right? Now you’re thinking I am about to tell you what I wished I had done right, but that won’t be happening here!

Bruce is awarded the Road Today Trucking Ambassador of the Year award at the Road Today Truck Show in 2011

That’s because I wouldn’t change a thing. I feel I didn’t have the information I needed back in school to make the decisions I have had to make today. When I look back at my school days I don’t feel as though I was encouraged to pursue my talents or interests. In fact I found it the opposite, I was discouraged from drawing which I loved, I got in trouble for drawing on note books, and I wasn’t told how the information I was getting would help me later in life. There was no talk of business opportunities. There was no career days until you got to grade 12. I got 59% for an illustration mark in school and I don’t even remember taking the class. It wasn’t until I got into the work world and began a career did I start learning things that I thought would really help me. It was practicing my art on my own that got me to the level I am at today, and it was good instructors after returning to school in my forties that really encouraged me to follow my dreams and gave me the confidence that is required to move forward.

Today I spend much of my time encouraging others and offering information on the way it really is in the world. People can follow their dreams or make their own choices, but they need the right information. There is enabling someone and encouraging with the right information. I am glad to see that we now have career days beginning earlier at school. We need to let people know that there is hope in their lives even if there is a long road ahead for a career in that dream. I happened to fall into my careers and both involved my passions, but there are many that don’t know that is available. Let’s encourage and not enable, let’s give information and set people off into with their own dreams.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is an artist, author, consultant, and speaker located in Burlington Ontario and author of the books Driven to Drive, Running by the Mile, and How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps. For more information visit www.outridgeenterprises.ca

What’s Your Style?

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Bruce

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How important is style in your business? Do you have style? Do you need style? First you have to know what style is? In the art world many artists seek style, it shows independence, it shows uniqueness. Style can set artists apart and give them a leg up in their career above others in the same field. The problem with style is that it has so many components that it can take years to come to the table. For an artist, style can be a the way they use brush strokes, how they compose a picture and much more. What about business and entrepreneurs, how do you get style if you’re not an artist?

Every entrepreneur or business has a style, some wild and some drab. Like an artists style, a business has it’s own style. That style includes the operations, the product or service, the staff, customer service, and the equipment or talent involved. Styles include the type of marketing or networking that you do, how you deal with people, and the integrity of your company or brand. Do you stand behind your product or service? Do you focus on quality or quantity in your product line or service? What are the goals for your company, are you building it to sell, retire, inspire, or pass on to others? All of these decisions determine your style. The problem with style that I have found as an artist is that you can’t push it. It will come out on its own over time and when you look back after ten or twenty years you will see how you have built your business and the road that you traveled down with your business. So how do you start down the road of creating your style?

As mentioned the style will come on its own so don’t try to have a style, just be yourself. Build your business the way you see fit, treat people the way you would want to be treated, offer the best product or service that you can and you will see your style come to the forefront on its own. If you try to force style and be something you’re not, it will look phoney and your business will come off as fake and untrustworthy. Style is you or the brand of your business and is intertwined with values and integrity of the people or brand. I have found that doing your best will help bring the best brand and style to the forefront for your business. Enjoy your life and you will create a style that you will be proud of for the long run.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is an artist, author, entrepreneur, and speaker from Southern Ontario. He is the author of a number of business and leadership books for the arts and transportation industry. For more information on Bruce and his work please visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Starting in Business, Take Over the Neighbourhood!

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Bruce

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Have you taken over your neighbourhood yet? With the invention of the Internet and the world seemingly getting smaller due to ease of access, many entrepreneurs feel they need to come out of the gate with their new business on a global scale. You see it all the time on shows like Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank. The first statistic most new entrepreneurs throw out is that fact that there is 100 million people in the U.S. or the the health industry is one of the largest industries in the world. If you watch the investors on the show you can all see them roll their eyes and almost simultaneously everyone will say together, what are your sales? Maybe some products need to hit it big right out of the gate, but for most of us starting small is the best way to go.

I am a firm believer in starting local and expand as you are able and comfortable. I do think you should stretch your wings once in a while and take chances if the benefit is there. Taking on the world before you have even sold to people in the neighbourhood is the same as taking your new boat out on the ocean before you have tested it in the lake. There may be lots of water out there,but the lake has smaller waves. When we started our art business in 2003 we did just that, we worked our way up with the same system. We started selling our products and services to people we knew in the neighbourhood, then we expanded our reach to the local community, we then moved regional to to a certain limit. Today we still work primarily in our Province, but we are steady and busy. Could we offer more by expanding further? Sure we could, but what most people forget is that to expand takes more money and time. It’s the same as that person who dreams of getting their product into a big box store, they dream of the millions they will make by having their product on the shelves. Usually they are seeing the footprint of the store in their community. A store like Walmart however, has stores across the country and getting a product in that store may mean a large purchase order, but you also have to be able to create and stock the product. It may cost you millions to get the product in the store in the first place. As they say on the shows, do you have distribution, manufacturing, etc?

So before you jump the gun and plan on taking over the world, you may want to start by taking over your neighbourhood. Get some sales, listen to what customers are saying about the product. Refine the product in your local market before launching on a bigger scale. We have had products succeed and fail, we have had products that we have shelved and refined. The process is ongoing and it is much easier to make changes in small markets than in larger ones. As I always say focus on the quality of your product and not the quantity of product and you will be better off. Now get out there and take over your neighbourhood, your customers are waiting.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur and author of the books How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps, Running by the Mile, and Driven to Drive. More information can be found on his website at http://www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Living Your Dream Starts with a First Step

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Bruce

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Do you want to do what you love for the rest of your life? Do you want to achieve

Bruce Outridge

that success you have been told is just beyond your reach? The truth is that there is no easy path in life. Hard work, dedication, and persistence will help you get to the destination you are trying to reach, but you have to take the first step. Failing or succeeding is not the problem because most people don’t get out of the gate. There is nothing scarier than business, I get that, I was terrified when I first started and many entrepreneurs will tell you that the feeling never really goes away, no matter what level of success you have the cards could turn against you and it may all disappear in a heart beat. Focusing on what you want will help you stay true to the direction that you want. I remember telling my father one time when I first started my business that I had finally done it, I had finally got on the scale to riches. Of course I was at the bottom of the scale and people like Richard Branson were on the top of the scale, but at least I was on the scale. That hasn’t changed to this day, I am still on the scale, I am slowly moving up and achieving the goals I set out for myself and one day I will be at the top end of the scale.

What’s the secret? There isn’t one, you just have to do one thing, you have to get started. If you are forty today and are thinking about a new career but afraid it will take to long to achieve, then think again. Assuming you would retire at 65, even if you took five years to complete any training required you would still have a twenty year career in what you love to do. Do something you love and you may never retire. To make that first step is the hardest thing to do, but those that take that first step, keep their head down, and move towards their goal eventually find the success they seek. Failure is part of that road to success and helps make us stronger than if we flew through life without any problems. So find your motivation for success, find your calling, and get on the scale.

About the Author
Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant and author of the books Driven to Drive, Running by the Mile, and How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps. To learn more about Bruce and his business visit www.outridgeenterprises.ca

What’s in a Name?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Bruce

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Naming your company is one of the most important decisions that you can make and when starting out as an entrepreneur we often don’t give it as much thought as we should. We may think a great name comes from the product we plan to sell or the service we plan to offer, but is that the best way to name a company? We all do this and many times it is from the excitement of getting things going for the new venture. I did the same thing when starting my first company Bruce Outridge Productions. I just thought about the art at the time and am now glad I didn’t name it Bruce Outridge Illustration or something similar. Now we offer a variety of services from cartooning to graphic design to video production. I was smart enough not to block myself into a corner. By using my name and then “productions” it leaves the meaning wide open. The important thing to think about is that your business will develop and change over time and the name that works for your business today, may not work for your business tomorrow.
This came to mind the other day when I passed a truck on the road. The name made me laugh because the company was named “Smokey and the Bandit Trucking” and for any of you from the 70’s will remember the popularity of the movie of the same name. Other than it being a funny name for the trucking company and a good laugh for those onlookers it may or may not be hurting that company. The company was was pulling a trailer for a well renowned pizza corporation, you may be wondering why that is a problem? Twenty years ago a name like “Smokey and the Bandit” would show the company will do anything to get the job done just like the movie, a benefit right? The industry has changed and now that same name would show that the company is reckless and dangerous on the roadways. I am not saying the company is reckless, but in the industry that may be how others feel.
The point is that you should think long term when naming products, services, or a company so that if the industry you are in changes the name you have chosen will stay relevant. A cute name may seem cool at the beginning, but make you look ridiculous as a business later in life. Think long term and you will stay ahead of the curve.
About the Author
Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant and author of the books Driven to Drive, Running by the Mile, and How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps. For more information visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca