We (me, my wife and 2 children) came to Victoria on vacation in the summer of 2004 and fell in love with the city, its charm, parks, beaches, lakes, hiking/cycling trails, golf courses and choice of organic farms/foods.
About 3 days into the trip my wife and I looked at each other and said out loud what we had both been thinking, “…we have to move out here”. Toronto had experienced 27 ‘smog days’ already at that point, we could barely see the CN Tower from the top of the Bayview extension and our then 3-month old son was diagnosed with mild bronchitis.
We went back to Toronto, sold our house and 5 months later we were here. Just prior to packing everything up and moving I registered the URL and company name for BWEST. We had made the decision to ‘be west’ and wanted that to be the touchstone for the business.
Well one thing lead to another, as it has a tendency to do, and I ended up working at AbeBooks (the world’s largest marketplace for books) for a couple of years and then Suburbia Advertising (a leading retail branding agency). Always with BWEST in the back of my mind.
Now after almost 5 years in Victoria the opportunity presented itself to finally bring BWEST to life. With the help of the good folks at Suburbia the results have been pretty stellar already inlcuding; this shiny new website, a few great clients, a belly full of good-bye party cheesecake, a full-head of steam, and my first official day in business (July 1st) is a public holiday.
Another item checked off the bucket list.
3 thoughts on “Open for business”
Chris, congrats on making your dream come true – both personally and professionally. The smog is here waiting for you whenever you want to come back for a visit….I have a great view of it!
To Chris’s current and prospective clients – he is a solid marketer first and foremost. He will help lead you where you need to go, through digital, emerging media or otherwise.
Chris, Good for you ! I have been self employed in Europe for 14 years and it was great, hard work but I was my own boss and that is a wonderful feeling. Now in Canada after 19 years, I am looking to do something here as well, maybe we should talk one day about it. For now, just looking around and helping my kids adjust, won’t stay in Windsor long, just long enough to find out where we want to go and after some bonding time with parents and brother, we will head west as well. Good luck. Kind regards. Tomas
Tom,
So good to hear from you. We moved out here 5 years ago and the honeymoon is still fresh. It is simply beautiful.
Let me know when you plan to come out. There are a number of small airlines out here that I can put you in touch with. Look forward to getting our kids together as well…