Business in Vancouver's "How I Did It" feature asks business leaders to explain in their own words how they achieved a business goal in the face of significant entrepreneurial challenges. In this week's issue, Michelle Neilson, the Squamish-based partner and COO of McLean Meats, describes how the company became a virtual business. McLean Meats, which sells preservative-free deli meats, has no farms or processing facilities of its own and no office.
"Garth McLean [the company's founder] had a day job that was paying the bills and had a family to support. This was a business venture he was growing very grassroots. Garth was basically sitting on a wonderful business opportunity, but it needed a kickstart, so he said, 'I'll give you half the company; you can help me take it to the next level.'
"We got a line of credit from Vancity for $30,000 in 2003. Shortly after we launched our company, the avian flu outbreak hit. The second thing that hit us was the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak, and we were guilty by association on that. Deli sales across Canada dropped 30%. Then the recession hit. So it was a do-or-die time for us.
"In 2003 and 2004, we rented an office in North Vancouver but the overhead was too much. So we moved the office into Garth's house in 2006, and in 2010 we started to go virtual and [explored] GoToMyPC-type programs. On our office rental and front-end staff level, we're probably saving $200,000 to $250,000 a year. As technology became available, we were new adaptors.
"We went into a shared server in 2011, and in 2012 we went to a dedicated remote server. We do a weekly staff meeting with Skype. We use iPhones and BlackBerries. If I'm somewhere where there's no Internet, I can hotspot with my iPhone and synch it to my laptop, and I'm onto the server.
"We're also switching all of our CRM [client relationship management] system to a Sage ACT cloud-based client system, so our CRM is going from computer-based to cloud-based.
"We've enforced a mandate to get as many vendors on EFT [electronic funds transfer] payments and electronic email invoicing, so we've reduced our paper consumption by over 80%. That cuts down on your costs, and by going paperless, we make things more efficient. Payments are faster.
"We're a company of five full-time and 11 part-time contractors. We've all cut back on our driving by 60%, so you can imagine the fuel consumption saved by everyone. Not having to commute every day from Squamish frees up two hours of my life.
"When you have too much infrastructure and you get too vertically integrated, you have limitations. You can't adapt and change, and when you're pioneering you want to be free flow. Being virtual means you can pick up, move here, there, everywhere.
"We're profitable now. We had to pay taxes last year. We've seen double-digit growth in the last couple of years and have doubled our product line." •
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