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Canwest News Service
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation provides startup financing, mentoring and online resources to entrepreneurs aged 18 to 34. David Aisenstat, President and CEO of Keg Restaurants Ltd., and winner of the CYBF Nation Builder Award honoring Canada's most accomplished entrepreneurs who've served as role models to youths, talks to Daryl-Lynn Carlson about how receiving mentorship inspired him to reciprocate, and what young people should remember first and foremost when launching their own business.
Q What would you advise young entrepreneurs to focus on when venturing out on to start their own business if they're only experience has been working for a larger employer?
A Whatever venture they're embarking upon has to be something they will love to do. Without the passion for what they're doing, they'll find that there's a lot more work involved, a lot more working parts than they could ever anticipate initially. So, first and foremost, you have to have a love for what you're doing in order to stick with it and have the patience to deal with all the complexities that are going to come up in the course of launching the business.
Q How did you gain a mentor to help you with your business interests when you didn't go through a formal program such as CYBF?
A My dad had started in the restaurant business a year before I was born and became very much a mentor to me, happily in a business that I've grown to love as well. I've also been lucky to have some other people along the way who were really helpful such as Ross Johnson of RJR Nabisco, who offered me a job I had no intention of doing [but which he took, and excelled through the executive ranks].
I also keep in touch regularly with George Tidball, the founder of the Keg and a pal of my dad's as well. So if you can find people who you can establish a dialogue with, and if what they have to say resonates with you and your way of thinking, these relationships can serve as a huge cornerstone to success.
QThe current economic downturn may seem like a deterrent to young entrepreneurs, so what advice can you offer in such a climate?
AI don't know that there's a better or worse time to launch a business. It is always tough to get financing to start a business at any time. But I really don't think the economy right now is a huge factor for young people starting out. If they have a good idea and want to pursue it, they can always find ways to do it and there might be financing available through sources they might not have even considered.
QWhat other ingredients are key to launching a business as a young entrepreneur?
AWell, very few things, if they're done well, are ever what they appear to be and to get beyond the romantic idea of Hey, this is a great business concept, " it will inevitably involve more thought and will be more complicated than people anticipate. So it's the ability to have an attention to detail and to recognize what those decisions may mean in the context of the overall business in the long term. For example, the restaurant business isn't brain surgery, but the rate of failure indicates it's not as easy as it looks to others on the outside. In running the business, it has to be an enjoyable experience, not a chore.
QThe Keg Restaurants bills itself as helping to mentor its employees to excel. How does this work?
AWe are in an interesting position in that a lot of our employees are young people and for many, it's their first non-home, non-school experience. So we don't just teach them the mechanics of the job, but also how to work with other people, often for the first time; how to engage the guests, and how to feel the pride of earning a paycheque. It's a position that we don't take lightly in mentoring young people through this experience to prepare them for the opportunity to give back in the future.
QThe Keg Spirit Foundation is involved with many organizations that facilitate youth mentoring. How would you sell the concept of mentoring to busy professionals?
AIt's a tremendous opportunity for people who are in a position to help young people understand what's out there in life waiting for them, and understand how they can make a difference in other people's lives. It's not difficult to do. You can certainly feel good being a mentor, and letting a young person know you're interested in what they're doing can make all the difference in their life. For young people, having a mentor interested in their life, it sure feels good for them to know there's someone (other than family) who cares about what they are doing and is helping to guide their future.
Financial Post
