I believe it is important to explore the lens of male entrepreneurs who share with us their stories and deep dives into their Canadian Side Hustle journey. I had the pleasure of interviewing a dynamic young Career Professional and Entrepreneur, Alvin Meledath living in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada.
Since moving to Canada from India and as a recent graduate, Alvin Meledath has made many career pivots including working with Bell Canada and Royal Bank. He currently serves in Tech Client Experience at Softchoice and Customer Experience at Wonsulting. He is very passionate about helping others find opportunities and therefore co-created Customer Buds to uplift the next generation of Client-Focused Professionals to provide them with mentorship and access.
We had a great discussion about the need to access great talent in Canada and across the Globe. In addition, we talked about how young talent, i.e. University Graduates, have limited knowledge and insight into the true nature of the varied entry level Sales roles whether it be In-Bound Sales, Out-Bound Sales; Business Data Analytics; and/or Customer Success to name a few upon finishing their studies.
Sales is both an art and a science and is an integral part of business growth since it can make or break the company’s bottom line. As we know it, choosing the right talent is a critical ingredient to grow and scale your business especially when it comes to selling your products, technologies or services. Any start-up or established business needs to have a strong ability to source great talent who directly aligns to their specific needs. Kudos to Alvin and his team on their new venture which will help with gathering young international talent all in one spot to provide easy access to fantastic and talented human capital!
Three questions which I pulled out from our very lively discussion that has some great golden nuggets were:-
Question: Why should an Entrepreneur be focused on building and scaling their business?
Golden Nuggets from Alvin:
Every business is unique and has its own journey and timing for everything. As a Founder, one should focus on their own company journey and work on the various challenges that are unique to their company therefore:-
1. Embrace failure;
2. Nothing will be perfect in the first go;
3. Allow for opportunities to make mistakes;
4. There is always a unique way to learn something so be open to learning from others; and
5. Do not compare your side hustle with others instead be kind to yourself.
As usual, my guests are very insightful and provide some great gems. I believe it is very healthy to examine competing companies with similar products and services however, one must be cognizant not to compare to a point where you are changing your business model to be like the competitor. Every company must have their own formular and a clear differentiating factor to compete and succeed in business today.
Question: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are working on their Canadian Side Hustle Business?
Response: Focus on your path, give yourself grace and be kind to yourself along the entrepreneurial journey.
Question: As entrepreneurs just starting off, how can we embrace failure?
Response: Being able to embrace failure as a new start up should be common place. Getting things perfectly right from the get-go is highly unlikely because there are so many unknowns during the early stages of a company.
Question: What is your favourite book?
Response: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Now that you have a good taste of our conversation, I would encourage you to listen to the full episode above since there are some super golden nuggets for you to take with use and apply as you wish. Right now, it is important to us all to think about contributing to building back a better Canada. Let us build back our communities during the pandemic times and give hope for the future.
The Canadian Side Hustle Business Podcast with Producer and Host Irenia Roussel, was designed for you to give you the inspiration and tactical advice you need to succeed in business. There will be no sugar coating on the hard steps. You will need to hear this to help you stay in the long game. Believe me when I say : “you need to have staying power to be successful in business today.”
Every week, we will bring you some key tactical business insights to help you grow and scale your Canadian Side Hustle Business. Feel free to send in a direct message with your feedback at here. Your feedback is important to us because this is how we can make this even more relevant as we build this platform for you!
We are currently booking guests for “The Technostarter Podcast.” If you are an amazing human building great technologies to help the human race, we want to hear from you and amplify your story. Also feel free to nominate an amazing human. This podcast is a tribute to women, young girls and boy. Connect with us here today!