21 Apr Why You Want to Outsource to an Entrepreneur
Why should you outsource to an entrepreneur? How will it make a difference to you? Your promotion? Your bottom line? I’d like to share a little story with you about how Repack Canada was born from its progenitor, The Freelance Portfolio, and why the qualities of an entrepreneur benefit the customer.
To put a real face to this real story, you will notice in the title page and dotted throughout this post are photos of the woman who started it all.
In the Beginning, there was The Freelance Portfolio
Entrepreneur Carol and baby Jennifer, circa 1982.
Once upon a time, there was a woman with three daughters. She was an incredibly hard working individual, naturally gifted with creativity and common sense and vast experience in illustration and graphic design. She thought, “why can’t I start my own business?”. With her own graphic design training and access to the talents of her friends — writers, typographers, graphic designers — The Freelance Portfolio was created in 1982. But more than this, Carol possessed The 7 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs : Tenacity, Passion, Tolerance of Ambiguity, Vision, Self-Belief, Flexibility, Rule-Breaking. Carol Levy, this entrepreneurial woman, would nurture and grow this marketing and graphic design company almost like a fourth daughter.
An Entrepreneur Grows With Their Clients
As a smaller more personal agency, Carol developed strong personal ties with the marketing teams of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Weston Bakeries, Molson, Ferrero Canada, Thomas J. Lipton, Unilever to name a few. Clever promotional concepts and turbo speed turnaround were her trademarks. All this while driving her daughters to hockey practice and working all hours. (And we wonder why she has a coffee addiction to this day???)
Carol with tray prototype – Repack Canada
In 2000 she had an existing client with a great need for a reliable co-packer. As fate had it, the co-packer she was doing business with was ready to sell and just like that, Repack Canada became Carol’s fifth baby. What started as contract packing of displays for pharmaceutical product soon expanded into all kinds of hand and machine assembly work – labeling, lot coding, shrinkwrapping, flowwrapping and so on for all kinds of clients.
Carol saw a need and filled it. She found a way to raise three children while growing two businesses and brought more trusted people on board to further manage and sell for both The Freelance Portfolio and Repack Canada. And yes, her daughters are grown and have joined in as part of this all women team. So that’s more or less our story.
A Team of Entrepreneurs
Carol – “Whatever it takes.” – Repack Canada and The Freelance Portfolio
The same values remain in both companies today. We are small by design which means we retain that entrepreneurial passion of hands-on, one-on-one service, and a whatever it takes attitude.
Sales promotion, branding, package design, display design, event planning, by The Freelance Portfolio. Co-packing, fulfillment, packaging, pallet displays, shrinkwrapping, by Repack Canada.
Looking for a team who still believes in loyalty? An agency that authentically cares to get your projects done on time and on budget?
Carol’s team represent two companies who believe so much in true blue loyalty that our motto for both The Freelance Portfolio and Repack Canada is “whatever it takes”.
NEWS FLASH:
This entrepreneurial team is launching a brand spankin’ new The Freelance Portfolio web site and we want to sing it from the roof tops! Coming up in May, a very fun and unusual Special Event will celebrate the occasion. What could it be?
So STAY TUNED – Announcements and Launch Date will be made via this blog and all our social media links (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest).
*Title page photo of Carol circa 1982, the year she started The Freelance Portfolio, Inc.
**The 7 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs – article by Joe Robinson, Entrepreneur. Published January 10, 2014.
