Local business veterans on surviving, thriving, and maintaining balance

The Business Advocate

Kawartha Lakes is home to many different types of businesses, many of which have been around for decades. These are proprietors who have a large collective knowledge of what it takes to keep things running year after year — and how others might replicate their successes and learn from their challenges.

As the community continues to grow, there will be increasingly more people looking to set up shop, whether they’re selling clothes, food, machinery, financial or legal services, art, or otherwise. All the things the town will need in increasing volume as more people leave the GTA for Kawartha Lakes’ greener, quieter and some would say less expensive pastures.

Three business veterans, from three different industries shared their perspectives and advice on running a long-standing business in the city.

The Peel family have owned Bigley’s Shoes & Clothing in Bobcaygeon for three decades, with the establishment itself being founded in 1911 by Charles Bigley. The 113-year-old retail store has survived both world wars, the 2008 recession, and more recently, a global pandemic that had many businesses around the world shutting their doors.

Sherry Peel, the current owner of the historical Bobcaygeon store, and her husband John, bought Bigley’s from John’s parents in 1992. Starting with a dream of expanding, Peel said she has managed to grow the business “from a small local shop to a beloved destination for fashion enthusiasts throughout Ontario.” But of course, the life of a business owner is not without its challenges. From exponentially evolving fashion trends and consumer preferences to the increased significance of online shopping, Peel noted having to adopt a more “agile approach” to their inventory, and even looks to her customers and employees for their input on buying decisions.

Through both the successes and challenges of growing from a single shop to a near block-long retail haven, Peel says “maintaining work-life balance is essential for my well-being and productivity, but not always easy to accomplish.” Travelling, spending time with family and friends, and even just taking some time to relax, all require effort to arrange within her busy schedule. While doing her best to set boundaries, Peel emphasizes the importance of finding harmony between life and work to “ensure that I’m recharged for both my business and personal life.”

Peel shared some advice she would give to her younger self and for the new generation of entrepreneurs, saying to “embrace failure as a steppingstone, rather than a setback” and that the challenges she’s faced taught her crucial lessons about adaptability and resilience. In addition, Peel emphasizes the roll of networking and building relationships in one’s own industry, stating that this “opened many doors and provided support when I needed it most.”

Similarly to Bigley’s, the Olympia, a Greek restaurant in Lindsay, has also been around for more than a century (118 years to be exact). The iconic establishment has only changed hands three times over the decades, being operated by multi-generational families, all of whom have been of Greek heritage.

The current owners, Nicki Dedes and her family, have run the Olympia for the past near 30 years. Dedes says “as operators we’re stewards… I may own it and pay the mortgage, but we’re really a community owned restaurant” and that everyone in Kawartha Lakes “has a piece of the Olympia’s history… they’ve celebrated here, whether its marriage, an anniversary, graduation, or a new job.” Recently, one family visiting the restaurant had five generations celebrating at the same table.

To keep up with the times, Dedes says they remodel and carefully curate the interior every few years and periodically update the menu, but the key to their longstanding success has been consistency.

“That’s the secret,” she says.

But running a restaurant is not for the faint of heart and requires so much more than renovating the space and adding new dishes to the menu. Dedes emphasizes, “if you’re in the restaurant business, that is a massive commitment of hours and of everything that’s involved in your being,” and that for her balance has been challenging. It took a global pandemic for the family to all be together under the same roof again, and this gave Dedes’ a new perspective on her priorities. She says the family has “made a few tweaks to our business so we can have more work-life balance.” But ultimately, Dedes admits, “if I didn’t enjoy what I was doing, I wouldn’t be doing this, that would be a deal breaker.”

Dedes spoke about the importance of perspective when it comes to facing challenges as a business owner. “Every challenge is an opportunity, I didn’t see that when I was younger, and now I do and it’s so fulfilling to have that mindset.”

Another long-standing business in the region, TS Manufacturing is owned by Ted and Evelyn “Ev” Smith, founded by Ted and his brother in 1972. In the past 10 years, the business has grown exponentially, employing more than 100 people in Lindsay alone, with dozens more working throughout the United States and New Zealand. The couple’s three sons also work for the business.

With such fast expansion comes some challenges Ev notes, from needing more staff to meet demand to the technology and systems required for efficiency and optimization of the business. “We’ve invested a lot of money to make ourselves more competitive in the industry,” Ted says.

Unlike the previous two businesses, the manufacturing facility has its own unique challenges with hiring.
“It’s tough to hire experienced tradespeople,” Ted says an example.

This dilemma is further complicated by location because many of these experts reside in British Columbia and Quebec, and as Ted notes it can be “tough to get people to come to Ontario.”

But once they do start working with TS, employees tend to stick around. Walking into the main building, there are plaques at the entrance commemorating employees who have made it to the five, 10, 15, 20, and 35-year mark with the company, a point of pride for the owners, who work to create a culture and environment of care that gives people a reason to stay.

To maintain work-life balance, Ev says the family has a rule.

“We try to maintain Sunday night dinners. There just has to be some point in the week where it’s not about work.” But even if this isn’t always possible, the couple says they enjoy working and sometimes life and work come together: “our sons are all here working in the company… we have lunch together most days.”

Ted shared advice he would give to his younger self and to others considering starting their own businesses, namely, he says, “you’ll never regret education,” and “be prepared to work very hard.” Ev’s advice emphasizes finding balance, saying, “there (can be) a lot of regrets putting in so many hours, while family time is suffering.”