On Tuesday night, I spent the evening in a beautiful theatre in the Woodward’s building in Vancouver, for a Small Business BC event that featured Dragon’s Den executive producer, Tracie Tighe, Dragon Jim Treliving, and two businesses, that sealed deals on the show.  They each spoke about their experiences and what other hopeful entrepreneurs should know to be successful on the show, and in their business life.

The event left me feeling inspired and empowered to take a business idea and make something out of it. Though Jim’s story of his road to success was no doubt inspirational, I was impressed by the passion and dedication that the guest entrepreneurs, Holy Crap Cereal and Frogbox, invested into their business.

Jim Treliving is a successful Canadian entrepreneur and investor for 40 years.  Today, Jim is the chairman and owner of Boston Pizza International Inc. and part of the original ‘Dragon’ panel.  During his live segment, Jim mentioned quite often about the importance of managing great people  in order to lead a successful business.  This would explain why he invested into the owners of Frogbox and Holy Crap.  Below are the key points from Jim’s conversation with Tracie on what entrepreneurs should know when pitching their business in front of the dragons, but also has relevance in the real-world as well.

1. Always be prepared.  Be prepared to handle unexpected growth and move to the next level or be prepared if the business isn’t taking off.
   
2. Know your business, your market, and your numbers when you are pitching to investors.
   
3. Be confident with what you know but also know what you don’t know.
   
4. Be open-minded and have a good attitude.
   
5. People have high expectations when they start a business so don’t over-evaluate and  stick with what you know best about your business.
   

Doug Burgoyne is founder of Frogbox who is in the business of delivering reusable moving boxes and supplies and picking them up when you’re done moving.  What I admired most about his road to success are the following:

1. He wanted to be in a business with a bad reputation and was then able to take an idea as simple as plastic moving boxes and grow his business.
   
2. He focused on building his brand before seeking investors to help him expand his business.
   
3. He knew his numbers well and while he came across as extremely confident, he was honest and acknowledged what he didn’t know.
   

Brian and Corin Mullins’ road to success is a little different.  They were a semi-retired couple who wanted something that they could do together.  What started as a survival kit due to the ingredients’ 5 year shelf life, has since exploded into a cereal business now sold in 11 countries.  Holy Crap is not only the name of the cereal, it was also my reaction when Brian explained that they were selling 8 orders per second on the night their episode aired, which led to their hotmail address crashing and PayPal shutting down customer payments as they believed there was fraudulent activities going on.  What I admired most about their business venture are the following:

1. They did not spend a penny on advertising.  Their growing success came from their TV exposure.
   
2. They wanted everything made with the artisan feel so their products are mixed and bagged by hand.
   
3. Brian’s advice of “Frugal Innovation” which is to succeed by doing things on a budget and “Constant Improvisation” which links closely to what I mentioned above about always being prepared for unexpected changes and demands.
   

I had the opportunity to speak with owner Corin Mullins personally after the official Q&A to ask her how they managed to scale up quickly to meet their growing business demands after the show.  True to their artisan nature, she answered that she and her husband now have more employees to help them and will continue to hire more as needed.  According to Corin, they are still a little behind on their orders, but with some major website updates in the works, looks like they are ramping up to handle orders just fine.  If you are looking to purchase Holy Crap cereal, check out their new website or find a store near you that sells it.  As busy as they are with online orders, they are taking Jim Treliving’s advice to heart that they always “gotta keep stuff on the shelves!”

You can watch Brian & Corin Mullins brave the Dragon's below:

Looking to audition for Dragon's Den?  Check out: http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/audition/ to fill out an application online or find out when they're coming to a city near you!