Josie Rudderham and Nicole Miller have big dreams for the small business they started five years ago in a house in Hamilton, Ont.
The owners of Cake & Loaf Bakery Ltd. – a million-dollar business that bakes goods from scratch using local ingredients – want to expand their main location to include eat-in and meeting spaces for baking classes and community events. They also want to build a customer relationship management program that can help them maintain the personal touch that's become a key part of their brand.
It'll take a lot of cash – at least $150,000 for the space expansion alone – to turn this wish list into reality. But there's no stopping Ms. Rudderham and Ms. Miller now; the business partners and former college classmates have won this year's Small Business Challenge contest, sponsored by The Globe and Mail and Telus Corp., beating out more than 3,300 entries.
Now in its sixth year, the contest awards the winning business a grand prize of $100,000, giving Cake & Loaf a big chunk of the capital they need to move their plans forward. The founders also will receive $10,000 to donate to their favourite charity. Full story.
Tundra Tank offers opportunity to Alberta's idle talent
Tundra Process Solutions Ltd., which sells and services industrial machinery and controls – and also does its own manufacturing – is currently furnishing a big, light-filled room in their south Calgary office. The plan: To invite engineers, tradespeople and other entrepreneurs to pitch their best project ideas to vie for workspace, mentoring and the potential of financial backing. Full story.
Suffering from a severe head injury sparked an unexpected career change
Diagnosed with a debilitating head and neck injury, I spent months working my way back from the chronic pain. But, I learned that pain doesn't just affect you physically; it affects you mentally and emotionally, too. I couldn't do the job that I loved. I had to defer my acceptance into the master's program. I had to put off my wedding. It seemed that my life was being torn away from me one piece at a time. That was much harder to treat. My mood plummeted, my motivation dissolved, and my recovery stalled. Full story.
Canadian smart sport bra maker gets $10-million to take on fitness giants
Montreal-based OMsignal hopes the funding round, led by Relay Ventures, will help it turn two years of development and a waiting list of 10,000 women into solid online sales for the bra, which uses silver-based fabric to read biometric signals including heart and breath rate and went on sale on Monday. Full story.
Toronto meal-delivery company Chef's Plate raises $6-million in funding round
Chef's Plate has raised $6-million in a funding round led by Germany's Acton Capital Partners, which backed one of the original startups in the e-commerce-based meal-delivery business, Swedish firm Linas Matkasse. Prior venture investors Emil Capital and BrandProject also participated in the financing. Full story.
More small business news from around the web
Pudo hopes its network of pickup and dropoff spots will slay online shoppers' persistent delivery hassles
Mississauga, Ont.-based Pudo Inc. is trying to minimize one of the few remaining pain points for online shoppers by creating a network of convenient locations where packages can be picked up and dropped off (hence the name "Pudo"). Most of these so-called Pudo Points are located in convenience stores, allowing customers to choose a nearby location where they can grab their package on their lunch break or on their way home from work. Full story.
Hootsuite opening Toronto and Sydney offices
Buried deep in a media release about Hootsuite achieving cash flow positive status last week was this little tidbit: the Vancouver-based social media startup would be opening offices in Sydney and Toronto. Full story.
B.C.'s film industry gobbling up industrial buildings across metro
B.C.'s booming film industry is making it difficult for other businesses to compete for space amid a pressing shortage of industrial buildings across Metro Vancouver, say commercial real estate experts. Full story.
Alberta restores entrepreneur training programs as unemployment rises
With unemployed ranks swelling, the NDP government hopes some laid-off workers start their own businesses as a way to ease an 8.4-per-cent jobless rate. A joint news conference was held Tuesday by the province's labour and economic development ministers to publicize the relaunch of an entrepreneur-training program — a program that had been cut by the Progressive Conservatives 18 months ago when they were in power. Full story.
Secrets of Canada's fastest-growing company
Cody Green didn't deliberately set out to change that when he took a sales job at a Hyundai dealership in West Edmonton. Fresh out of university, he intended to make a few bucks to support his musical aspirations, not to change how people purchased automobiles. But after a couple of years in the business (during which he relocated to Saskatoon), he realized there was a flaw in the prevailing sales paradigm, one that, as a natural problem solver, he couldn't let go. Full story.
Compiled by Sarah Efron.