Savvy grapes
Every day is different for Debbie Trenholm, accredited sommelier and president of The Savvy Grapes, a wine marketing business based in Ottawa. As a sommelier, Trenholm is similar to a keynote speaker, providing guests with insights on each wine, the winemakers, the winery, grape varieties and recommended food pairings. She is a popular guest at company parties, fund-raisers and conventions.
Trenholm turned her passion for wine into an official business in 2003. The business may sound unusual, but it calls for the same planning and diligence as any other venture. Trenholm's days begin at 8 a.m. with her behind her desk in her renovated basement-office, complete with wood-burning stove, networking, returning calls, arranging meetings, invoicing and, if there is a wine and food event that night, doing all the preparation work for that.
She just launched The Savvy Collection, a home-delivery program for Canadian wines, so she's busy getting the word out about it. "Every day is different," says Trenholm. "Sometimes the week starts one way and then changes by the end of the afternoon." This week the plan was to build a new website, until she got the call that would force her to put the site on the back burner: The Savvy Grapes was recognized as a finalist for the New Business of Year by the 2005 Ottawa Business Achievement Awards.
Of course, at 35, with a 15-year career spent climbing the corporate ladder in the high-tech industry and time spent building other people's businesses under her belt, Trenholm is no newcomer to success. The difference is now she is building a company from the ground up - and it's all hers.
Trenholm, who majored in international business and minored in French, went straight into high-tech two days after graduating from university. It was full steam ahead with increasing responsibility and a lot of travel, particularly to Europe and its impressive wine regions. "I was the UK sales and marketing director for a high-tech firm and spent every other week over in England, with Europe at my doorstep," says Trenholm. She started exploring, visiting wineries in Germany and France. That's when she discovered her keen interest in wine.
In 1999 she became an accredited sommelier. "I didn't want to order the house wine everywhere I went," says Trenholm. "I wanted to understand and appreciate what I was enjoying." Around the same time, Trenholm decided she wanted to become more intentional with her path. "My career started quickly. I never pondered what I really wanted to do." So she enrolled in an executive MBA program at Queens University in Kingston, Ont., and enlisted a career coach to help her find a new direction.
She also decided to test the waters before leaving her well-paying job. Trenholm began hosting wine tastings for friends and various business functions on the side. "I enjoyed sharing my passion with people who were interested," says Trenholm, who also started putting money aside for the transition to entrepreneurship. "There was no risk to me, and I was able to see whether it was something I really wanted to do."
Benefits of taking a break
It was. Still, it wasn't until after she completed her MBA and then took a much-needed break in the summer of 2003 that she decided to start The Savvy Grapes. She worked in a winery in Tuscany, Italy, for two weeks and attended the Women's International Network Conference in Switzerland, where she met a number of women from around the world who were also exploring career changes. "I had my eyes open to opportunities where I could get involved in other businesses. What I found was that all roads led to the wine industry."
The Savvy Grapes is in growth mode, and while Trenholm is not yet pulling in the same income she once was, her lifestyle has not suffered - she's planning a sailing trip to the Bahamas. And, of course, she is a finalist for New Business of the Year. "I am putting everything I can into the business - time, energy, money," says Trenholm. "It's great to see others value it as well. I'm thrilled."
Foodie to food mogul
It's been a crazy week for Margaret Sarrasin, founder of MJ's Fine Foods. She and her staff of 57 recently moved into a brand-new 46,000-square-foot building in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto. In just five years, MJ's has grown from Sarrasin's kitchen to a commercial bakery supplying more than 3,500 stores across North America with Santa Fe Flatbread Co. and Margaret's Artisan Flatbread. With $7.1 million in sales last year, even Sarrasin, 66, is blown away by her success. "My goodness. I'm an owner. I just bought a condo - and I had only ever rented. This business has changed my whole life," she says.
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