XL Quality Industrial Services Inc. Q & A

…an edited interview with John Lake, President.

1. Do you come from a family of entrepreneurs?

No. My dad was an electrician. I come from a trade's family. His dad was a soccer coach. My mom's dad was a plumber.

2. How did you get from Australia to the Kootenays?

I got here totally and absolutely by default. When I came to Canada I was going to do something in the ski industry. I met my (now) wife and decided to come to Fruitvale to live, then I met Richard Exner. He was the previous owner of XL who offered me a job which I accepted short term.

3. When he decided to sell why did you decide to buy?

It was semi-altruistic thing and a semi look after my own butt thing. I was going to be out of a job and there was likely to be 14 other people out of work as well. So it worked well for all of us- including Richard.

4. What year did you take over?

2001. The business started in 1993 and they moved into this space in 1995.

5. Do you plan to expand?

I'm happy with the work force we have. I think it's critical mass now and it varies up and down from 11 to 16. If we take anybody else on it's casual. I like to stick at around 14 because I think that's a do-able thing. We know our volumes aren't going to change hugely.

6. Are you servicing clients outside the West Kootenays?

In exceptional circumstances; we have a client in Oregon that we make aluminum chambers for, but the Salmo Creston Pass and the Blueberry Paulson pretty much bound our clientele. We don't really go outside of that area.

7. When you first took over the business did you receive any support from the community?

Certainly - from Community Futures, huge support, and Marten Kruysse at the Economic Development Commission. Great support from our customers because they didn't know me from a bar of soap. It took a little while for me to get my credentials known and people started to trust that I was going to do the right thing.

8. What are your annual sales today?

About $2 million. Our results in the last four years have steadily increased to that amount. I'd like to sit at around that figure, there's only so many dollars each person can produce. I would like to double our space, but with about the same people I wouldn't expect the overall business to expand dramatically. It is a cyclical business, dependent on the big local companies, which is a challenge at times.

9. How does the community benefit from your business?

I employ a number of people & so the community benefits from that. We have estimators, office people, fabricators, welders, machinists and painters. Our payroll is about $450,000 annually. I think when you are dealing with companies like Teck Cominco, if they can source what they want locally rather than externally, it's an obvious benefit to them and to us. It's a symbiotic relationship.

10. How did you get to be the sponsor of the Rossland Bobsled Races?

I don't know. I inherited that. XL sponsors the annual bobsled race at the Rossland Winter Carnival. It's good fun. It connects us socially.

11. Does the community value your enterprise?

I guess so. I really hope they do. I'd hate to think that we were putting all this effort in & not have it valued. I don't hear any bad rumours. We're trying to create a really long-term viable business so that when I fall off the twig, or whatever, someone else can take it over and maintain it.

12. What characteristics do you think entrepreneurs need?

Tenacity & goals. When you are dealing with people and other companies and you have a goal or a dream you need to be tenacious because it's not going to just fall into your lap. An entrepreneurial bent is something that you don't learn in class.

13. What has being an entrepreneur taught you?

Reward is directly proportional to the risk that you're prepared to take. If you limit the risk, you limit the reward. And the reward doesn't have to be monetary. It can be whatever you want it to be. Success isn't necessarily a lot of money. It's to be able to live a life you're happy with. Another thing that I have learned is that you need to speculate to accumulate - that's one thing my dad taught me a long, long time ago; and there's always two sides to an argument no matter what you think.

14. Do you have to be good at managing people?

I've learned a lot about the way I deal with people. You learn as you go along. I think the main thing is to try & maintain fairness in your attitude to others & to let them do their job well.

15 What is your biggest challenge?

To maintain a steady workflow, which I guess, means keeping our customers happy.

16. What can the community do to foster innovation?

Vision is critical. I think given the right circumstances anybody with a vision and the will and the tenacity can make it in this town. I don't think too much has to be changed. It's pointless someone starting up a business when there's no market for it. You have to see a market, see an opportunity and then go for it, and probably risk something. But I don't see much needs to be changed, I really don't.