Date Published: Autumn 2003, page 16.
Title: Small Business is Big in Calgary.
Publisher: Arch Magazine, University of Calgary Alumni Magazine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. www.ucalgary.ca, written by D.Larraine Andrews, BComm '77. Photos by Michelle Mah

"A spirit of entrepreneurship helps U of C alumni build the economic fabric of the city"

Ask Ryan Mitton, BSC'01, if owning a small business was always in his plans and his answer is quite definate. "Absolutely not! When I was a kid, I was going to be a baseball player, then an orthodontist, then an accountant, then a geologist." He eventually settled on geology but changed his mind when he left his job to travel the world and stumbled across an idea he felt was "bulletproof at first glance." When Mitton walked into an overseas shopping mall full of grinning mannequins with blue, pink, and purple hair, he not only walked out with bags of cothing, but one of the mannequins. He realized the colorful models created a fun mood in thhe store that put smiles on the faces of staff and customers--making them more likely to buy.

Mitton recalls, "I decided to take the plunge when I did my first market study consisting of 45 stores, and 43 out of 45 said they wanted [the mannequins] in their store. It was a pretty easy decision after that." His company, BigSmile Mannequins, is the exclusive world distributor for the eye-catching models. Since his first sale in February 2003, revenue has increased 25 percent each month and markets have expanded to include Japan, the U.S., Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Fiji, and the U.K.

Mitton feels fortunate to have started his business here. "Calgary senior businessmen are exeedingly supportive of young entrepreneurs and express this support in funding plans, right down to being available for one-on-one tutorials if you ask for them." And even though his training was in geology, Mitton believes, "The subject matter of your degree is sort of pointless in the world of business. From personal experience, it seems it's more the lessons you learn while earning that degree, and how you adjust after learning the lesson, thats more important".