Giving Thanks To Small Businesses And The People Behind Them
October is a month well known for many festivities.
Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate the harvest and gather with family for a delicious meal. Later in the month, both children and adults enjoy celebrating Hallowe’en too.
However, something BIG also takes place every October — and that’s Small Business Month.
Our economy consists of many small and medium sized businesses — every local community should celebrate and support these businesses.
Let’s thank these brave entrepreneurs for being courageous and having the perseverance to start and continue operating these businesses. Share their stories and your experiences with them — in person or on their social media pages — to help them grow.
Small Business Month is one way to acknowledge the hard and amazing work area business owners are doing each and every day.
It is also a reason to highlight the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Centre (read more information in the summary section of this article).
This centre plays an integral part in assisting small businesses with start-up and/or expansion plans. They provide professional advice as well as guidance for many new businesses, plus their help includes creative ideas and concept planning through to operation.
Biz X now explores several local family operated businesses in the Windsor Essex area. Some are relatively new and some have been around for many years.
A brief history is given of each and they all share what they feel are the keys to their success.
WHAT’S POPPIN’ POPCORN FACTORY INC.
In 2010, Jeff and Christa Gamble began an adventure in popcorn-making that started from a side hustle popping corn in a kettle at a local festival.
It is Jeff’s entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to his goals and organizational skills which are the keys to their success. Combine this with Christa’s background of 25 years in sales of Territory Sales Managing experience in Southwestern Ontario and Midwest, USA and the business is popping with perfection!
What’s Poppin’ was originally opened as a storefront at Moy and Tecumseh, and then later moved to the Walkerville area, now closed as of June 1, 2024.
The good news is the business has expanded and as of early September 2024 it can be found at a new factory outlet store located at 5320 Brendan Lane in Windsor.
Along with 12 employees, the husband and wife team proudly make quality gourmet popcorn, which is packaged to Canadian food industry standards. As they have grown, What’s Poppin’ is now a national brand with TJX Canada, and their products are stocked at Winners, HomeSense and Marshalls stores.
Interested in a unique gift?
The business also offers custom branding and packaging for the perfect gift, as well as seasonal packaging.
They are primarily a fundraising company and have seasonal forms for the seller to fill out. Any size school, company, organization or team can be supplied thousands of bags of popcorn for their event.
“Being a local family, Jeff from Walkerville and I am from Tecumseh, we take great pride in where we started,” Christa expresses. “From the kettle at the Bright Lights Windsor event, an item in the Local Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island gift guide and still to this day at the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market, we will always appreciate the support the local community has given us. Our pride in our product and the quality, which we will not waver from, allows us to support so many amazing events and movie nights in your home. It is our mission to not disappoint and to always feed your cravings with the best product possible. Thank you Windsor and Essex County for being our investors.”
To order online (popcorn choices include birthday cake, caramel, dill pickle, churro and more!) or to find out more about their fundraising options, visit online.
BETTER BLINDS AND DRAPERY
Opened in July 1994, Better Blinds and Drapery has remained in the same location at 2785 Howard Avenue, Unit 3 for over 30 years.
Mark Dudfield took over the Windsor company in 2014. Originally from New Zealand, he has a degree in business management.
He co-owns the business with his wife Katherine Messent. The couple have five employees ready to assist customers with all their window covering needs.
They offer full-custom, North American blinds, drapery and shutters. Award-winning customer service and comprehensive repair services for many common varieties of blinds and shades are the mainstays of this business.
As Dudfield explains: “We are a service-oriented business that happens to sell blinds, drapery and shutters. We have the awards to prove that we are very good at what we do.”
In terms of keys to their success as a small business, Dudfield feels Better Blinds and Drapery thinks differently than their competitors, which enables them to find solutions individually tailored to each customer (there is no one product that is right for every situation).
He mentions that they handle the “hard jobs” other companies can’t do, such as arches, skylights, drapery, working at heights on lift equipment, complex motorization and most importantly, they do all their own service.
A modern and current showroom is ready for customers and they build their own realistic sized displays to showcase their products. This allows customers to see how the product would actually look and work for their needs.
The company supports a wide variety of charitable organizations, which include (but not limited to): the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Kingsville-Essex Highland Games, Mocha Shriners and the Canadian Red Cross. They are also a founding partner in “A Scientist Like Her” initiative with the University of Windsor, encouraging young women to pursue careers in science.
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