Better Group provides end-to-end business service solutions for its clients, including development services and business management, specializing in accounting, finance, and all levels of operations.
Our mission is to empower businesses to succeed by providing them with comprehensive and customizable solutions that meet their unique needs. We strive to deliver exceptional value to our clients through innovation, collaboration, and a commitment to excellence in everything we do.
Our values are that, in working together with our clients and partners, we can help build a more prosperous and sustainable future for businesses and communities. Our goal is to be the trusted partner of choice for businesses seeking to improve their operations, increase their profitability, and drive growth and innovation in their industry.
Tell us about yourself?
I grew up with a father who was an entrepreneur, and he and my grandfather helped set me up with my own business when I was as young as eight years old. I even needed to pay them rent!
Not long thereafter, I started helping my father manage some of his commercial property portfolios. By the age of 13, in spite of being my hockey team’s leading scorer, I was the only kid missing practice because I had to go to work. That was when business really started to become my passion.
I followed the common path as well, graduating from Brock University with a business degree, obtaining both honours and first-class standing. And while my degree has served me incredibly well, there is no substitute for growing up with business ingrained from a young age.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Be open. This is a mantra by which I’ve always lived. But the longer you’ve been around, the more you have seen, the more prone you might become to getting stuck in your ways. Don’t let that happen!
Because conversely, the longer you’ve been around, the more you realize how much more there really is to learn and that everybody has something they can teach you. Always focus on the latter. Be open, try to have time (and, most importantly, respect) for everybody around you, and good things will happen.
What problem does your business solve?
Many business owners and developers don’t focus on their core competencies, as they get bogged down in the day-to-day. Many other entrepreneurs are looking for growth or expansion, especially as it relates to development, but they don’t have the requisite time.
Better Group has both end-to-end business management expertise, as well as development competencies that allow owners to focus on what they do best. Whether a start-up or greenfield opportunity or a business that has been up and running for decades, Better Group’s management and financial acumen can make us a trusted partner that will help grow a business’s bottom line with less internal work and hassle.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
What inspired our business is right in our name – to do things Better. Too many service companies are about churning out numbers in an effort to maintain a bottom line. That doesn’t necessarily mean their clients are getting bad service, but it also doesn’t mean they are getting great service. Service companies often provide what is needed to meet a certain minimum threshold (be that reporting, legislative, etc.)
Over the years, we saw family, friends, and colleagues winding up in less-than-ideal outcomes, almost as victims of such services. That could come in the form of missed opportunities, stagnated growth, or just being stuck in a status quo.
In contrast, we strive to go above and beyond, to set our clients up for optimal outcomes and the flexibility to move and keep up with ever-changing times.
What is your magic sauce?
In its simplest form, our magic sauce is care. We genuinely care about our clients. We act on behalf of their interests as if they were our own. We care about our staff. And more importantly, when it comes to staff, we only hire staff who care and are passionate about their jobs; people are the most important asset in any business. When people care, they are generally happy, and this drives results.
At the end of the day, any business is results-driven, and when care is the underlying driver of results, results are generally positive.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Portfolio growth while making a positive difference. We want to grow, but we also always strive to feel good in so doing.
We want to help both the businesses and the lifestyles of our direct clients. By taking work off their plates and doing things Better, we give them peace of mind. We also enable other opportunities for them by freeing up time, and this allows for our clients to have pursuits of other professional or personal endeavours.
We also like to work with our clients to improve their communities. We have worked with one client, for example, to undertake some fairly significant initiatives with the Alzheimer’s Society in British Columbia, which we spearheaded directly. So, we look to our growth to have positive effects in multiple regards.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Managing a couple of major healthcare assets, it would be impossible not to mention COVID-19 as a significant challenge. Not only did we need to keep business going and weather the storm, as did the vast majority of businesses throughout the pandemic, but we had to be adaptive in the face of necessary but ever-changing legislation in the healthcare field. This legislation also varied from province to province, so it was a difficult but rewarding process.
The knock-on effects of COVID-19 have also been pronounced as well. And in those cases, not just in the healthcare field. Rising costs, interest rates, and recruitment challenges have posed hurdles for both ourselves and many of our clients across all industries. Flexibility and foresight have been key to persevering.
How can people get involved?
Check us out at our website, better-group.ca.