Foster surprised by Trend’s growth

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/11/2016 (3210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When entrepreneurs get into business, part of the process is predicting how the business might grow in five or 10 years. As there are many factors that affect growth, things sometimes don’t go according to plan.

However, some business owners are pleasantly surprised when they realize that their business has actually grown beyond their expectations. Pamela Foster is one of those entrepreneurs.

Foster bought Trend Collection and Bailiff Services 11 years ago. The business had already been operating for 20 years.

At that time, there were two people working in the local office.

“We’ve worked hard, but I am still a little surprised at how much we’ve grown,” Foster said.

“There’s such a big difference in the volume of work that we’re doing now compared to when we started. We now have 22 people working for us across the province and an office in Winnipeg.”

Trend Bailiff and Collection Services has three main services that they offer — bailiff services for repossessions and seizures, process serving of legal documents and collections for small businesses.

While most of their work involves dealing with negative situations, Foster said they use old-fashioned common courtesy to make things as easy as possible.

“We try to offer compassion and respect to the people that we’re dealing with, so that they are being treated kindly and with respect so it helps them deal with a negative situation more easily,” Foster said.

“It’s a kinder, gentler form of collection.”

The growth of the business meant they had outgrown their space within The Town Centre. So Trend recently moved to a larger space at 921 Rosser Ave.

The new space provides full access at any time of the day, better visibility and is more convenient for their clients.

For more information, call 204-726-0813 or visit tcbsbailiff.ca.

Joining Forces

Two locally owned companies — ProTELEC Alarms and Allen Leigh Security and Communications — have merged.

General manager Pat Madill and ag division manager Chris Sobchuk said the merger will allow the companies to grow and to expand into new markets with newly developed products.

“Customers will get better service, more options, more product to choose from and better overall service in ever marketplace that we cover,” Madill said.

“Basically, we want to do more marketing with the Precision Cam brand, which we started not that long ago,” Sobchuk said.

“We’re looking at getting into the U.S. market and setting up new dealers. As well, we want to bring more products to the market for our customers like our new remote watering hole system.”

Allen Leigh started in 1996 and ProTELEC has been in Brandon for more than 35 years. With the merger, the two companies will have close to 20 employees.

Staff at the ProTELEC office in Brandon moved to the Allen Leigh location at 545 Assiniboine Ave.

For more information, visit allenleigh.ca or protelecalarms.com.

Moving East

Zorzos Auto Sales just finished unpacking all their boxes. As of last Monday, they are officially open at their new location at 1530 First St. North.

With more than 20 years of experience in the auto industry, Jake Zorzos opened the pre-owned dealership in February 2013 as a sole proprietor at 1740 18th St. North.

After three and half years, Zorzos needed more space so they could move everything under one roof.

“To get a vehicle ready for sale, it’s not like you just buy it, put it on the lot and re-sell it. You have to inspect it, you have to repair it. In Manitoba we have to get them safetied and we clean and detail them from top to bottom. We wanted to be able to do all of this in one location,” Zorzos said.

With seven full- and part-time employees, along with selling pre-owned vehicles, Zorzos Auto Sales now has an after sales service centre, which is open to the public for service, repairs, maintenance or detailing on any type of vehicle.

To check out their pre-owned vehicles, visit zorzosauto.ca or call 204-717-9990.

Spend Local

Small Business Saturday (today) is a trend that started in the U.S. a few years ago after the introduction of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

It’s a movement that supports small, local independent merchants, a trend I think is worthy of following! #shoplocal #shopbrandon

Correction

Unfortunately in last weekend’s paper I had the wrong phone number for Champion Digital Santa Photos. The correct phone number is 204-727-6331. Sorry for any confusion.