It only took Joanna Track two years to turn a business idea into a successful and profitable company. Now with nine full-time employees and thousands of loyal customers whose numbers increase daily, Sweetspot.ca tops the list of online guides to all things fun, fashionable and just plain fabulous across Canada.
The idea for Sweetspot.ca came about when Track, then an advertising executive, spent a year working in New York City. She didn’t know the city well and turned to the online guide Daily Candy to help find all the hot places to eat, shop and visit.
“When I moved back to Toronto, I realized that I didn’t want to do that [advertising] for the rest of my life,” says Track. “I also wanted to be my own boss.” Having always been an avid shopper and interested in what was new and hot, she brainstormed ideas similar to the New York guide, but was determined to create something distinctly Canadian. Sweetspot.ca was born.
A rough start
Despite finding an outlet for her passion for trend spotting, a sound business model and a thought-out plan, Track hit a big hurdle with her partner.
“I was more of the business side and she was the editorial side. Really quickly into it, she was saying, ‘This is a full-time job? I already have a job and I don’t really want to do this,’” Track explains. “At the end of the day it was better that it happened two months in, before the real emotional investment had begun.”
Working at 150%
So she went ahead on her own. For the first six months she continued her job as an advertising director, but with less responsibility and more flexibility. She feels very fortunate that she had built a good relationship with her employer so that she could share her plans with them and get their support in reducing her workload. It sounded easy, but it was very hard.
“I always joked that I was working 50% at Ogilvy and 100% at Sweetspot,” says Track. While her employer was very accommodating, she had worked there for so long that she still had a compelling desire to do the work of her previous full-time role. Since she still required a source of income, she ended up taking on a contract with another agency and worked on a project basis. “It was easier but still challenging; I did that for three months.”
Nine months had passed when she decided to devote all of her attention to Sweetspot.ca. “At this point the company was making money, but I wasn’t making money,” she recalls. Track withdrew her entire RRSP and when that ran out her brother started paying her bills. “After 14 months from when I started, I got my first paycheque.”
What kept her going?
“I really believed in it.” She recalls one telling moment during legal negotiations concerning what her partner would be paid for her initial time and investment. “I was sitting in my lawyer’s office, who happens to be my sister-in-law, and this is three or four months into this business, which had no revenue, 1500 subscribers…there was nothing, really to the naked eye. And I was going to have to pay this person a pretty significant sum of money, which I didn’t have. My sister-in-law looked at me and said, ‘Why are you going to do this? You don’t even know if this [Sweetspot.ca] will come to anything.’”
And that was when she just knew. Track knew that her company would be successful and found a way to scrape together the funds necessary to dissolve the partnership.
One of Track’s first words of advice to entrepreneurs is “not having a partner, not only from my own experience but I think it’s really tough.” She feels that most people get a business partner for the wrong reasons. “They think they need that person for the skills—but you can go out and buy those skills.”
Being “objectively passionate”
Belief in your product/service/business idea is paramount, but Track claims there’s more to it than that. “You also have to be passionate about it, but in a realistic way,” she explains. “Some people you see, unfortunately, have an idea and they just don’t get that it’s not that fabulous. So you have to be objectively passionate.”
It’s all about believing in your venture and yourself. Be objective about your own abilities so that you don’t get in over your head. Take a full inventory of your strengths and weaknesses before you get started or even to see where your current venture can do better. “You have to do a self-assessment. One thing I do know about myself is I’m not a writer. I don’t like writing; I was a math major,” Track admits with a laugh.
First a paycheque, then a stakeholder
A year after issuing her first paycheque to herself, Track was approached by Rogers Publishing. The woman who was sick of the corporate world and wanted to be her own boss was being courted by one of the largest publishing companies in Canada.
“I’d actually been approached by a number of companies to do this and for one reason or another it wasn’t the right thing. So when Rogers came, who’s the biggest, you’d think I’d be the most sceptical,” says Track. But both she and the prospective investor were straightforward about what they both wanted out of any deal. For Track, it was maintaining control of her company with its own office, exceptional staff and very flexible schedule. For Rogers, it was all about Sweetspot.ca hitting the right numbers. Rogers now holds a minority stake in the company.
“When people say that I’ve sold out, I don’t see it that way at all. For 2-1/2 years I’ve starved and worked really hard, I was tired mentally and physically,” she explains. “I feel very comfortable that I’ve managed to get the best of both worlds from this arrangement because they gave me what I needed.”
Spreading the word
In the beginning, Track relied heavily on encouraging her subscribers to tell others about Sweetspot.ca since she couldn’t afford advertising or a person to manage public relations. She advises entrepreneurs to develop relationships with the press and to promote their particular knowledge so that they may serve as an expert for upcoming articles or news segments.
It appears that most of Canada’s media are now using Sweetspot.ca as a resource. “If we run a story, we’ll see it appear in the Globe or the Post a few days later,” says Track.
That puts her in an envious position in what appears to be a short amount of time. But when Track adds up all the hours and resources she’s invested, she feels she’s earned her stripes—especially if they’re designer ones.
About Sweetspot.ca
Sweetspot.ca is Canada’s first online trend spotting lifestyle guide of its kind, keeping subscribers and visitors in the know and up to date on all things fun, fashionable and just plain fabulous in their city and across the country. For more information, visit www.sweetspot.ca
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