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Shepherd delivers keynote at Company of Women Event
February 25, 2009
On February 25th, the Company of Women gathered at Toronto’s Verity Club to discuss the challenges of growing a small business. Lisa Shepherd delivered the keynote address, “Growing Pains and Taking your Business to the Next Level”. Shepherd shared her experience in launching Mezzanine Consulting, a Toronto-based market intelligence and marketing planning firm that was named one of the Fastest Growing Companies in Canada in 2007 and 2008 by Profit Magazine. Shepherd shared the story of Mezzanine’s evolution from a student summer consultancy in 2001 to a leader in customer insight and market assessment for clients like HP, Intel, Bell, Rogers and Capital One Canada. Rather than focusing on all the right things that happened along the way and allowed the company to succeed, the emphasis of the evening was on the challenges that all new businesses face, and some of the mistakes that were made along the way. As Shepherd said, “So often it’s the success story that we hear and how companies get to the top. But ultimately there are many things that go wrong and companies must overcome in order to survive. I find I learn even more from hearing those stories, and want to share some of what I’ve learned in the last 8 years.” Shepherd encouraged the group to remember that, “growing a business is a few steps forward, a few steps back, the occasional big leap and the occasional tumble”. The Company of Women was begun by Anne Day eight years ago in an effort to connect women in business. The group has over 350 members and holds monthly meetings plus regular retreats, dinners and golf tournaments for women in various stages of their professional life.
