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Photo: Aly Thomson
King of his castle
By Aly Thomson | Sep 3, 2010Josh Robinson was barely an adult when he started his first business. Four years ago, at 18 years old, he cobbled together $5,000 in funding for a cotton candy and popcorn stand. The Waterfront Development Corporation Limited (WDCL) accepted his proposal to set up shop on the boardwalk and operations began in the summer of 2007.
Since then he’s gone from selling blue and pink cotton candy to serving up pizzas, wraps, donairs and salads at a full-scale mini restaurant just a few feet from his humble beginning inside a wooden kiosk dubbed “The Sugar Shack.” At the same time, he also completed his bachelor of commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University.
It all started with an idea. Robinson needed to make money to pay for his university tuition. Rather than finding a part-time job, he started a business.
But it wasn’t easy. After talking to the Halifax Regional Municipality multiple times, who said he’d never be on the waterfront, Robinson turned to the WDCL. “There was some hesitation,” he says. “After talking with them in several meetings, they knew I was the real deal and that I was going to run this business.”
Jennifer Angel, director of operations for the corporation, said although he was young, Robinson presented a strong enough business plan to negotiate his way onto a small area in front of the visitor information centre. “It’s a competitive process to get these vending locations,” she explains, adding that Robinson’s age made him stand out. “I can say relative to some of the other proposals we receive his was certainly at the top of the pile in terms of professionalism and business analysis.”
Robinson built The Sugar Shack, a six-by-six-foot shed, with his father Dave, painting it yellow, red and blue. He fastened bags of cotton candy to a thin string using colorful clothes pins. A small music player sat beneath the main table. He operated for three summers, employing eight or nine people, mostly friends. “It was nice to start something from scratch and call the shots, see what I could do with it,” he says. “It just felt right from the beginning.”
But he had bigger things in mind.
He began to formulate plans for a pizza joint shortly into his second year of twirling cotton candy. He liked the atmosphere of the waterfront and knew he could rely on a steady flow of customers. He also knew firsthand that if you were buying a quick lunch on the boardwalk, you’re either eating fried seafood or a bag of his popcorn. He wanted to offer alternatives.
At the start of his final year of university, Robinson compiled a rough business plan and asked his auditing professor, Kevin Doucette, to give it a read.
Doucette wanted in.
He became Robinson’s mentor for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation Program which provides coaching, business resources and start-up financing. “You’ve got to commend the guy, a young student working his way through university and wanting to take it to the next level,” Doucette says.
Eventually Robinson realized he was a few dollars short and Doucette invested. Their student-teacher relationship morphed into a business partnership. Robinson’s most nerve racking business endeavour to date was pitching Waterfront Pizza and Wraps to a board of 12 entrepreneurs including bank executives, lawyers and representatives.
That meeting was Robinson’s final hurdle. Robinson secured a three-year lease on the waterfront. He also secured the funding he needed to purchase all new equipment including a fridge, freezer and a state-of-the-art pizza oven imported from Chicago that cooks his eight-inch personal panned pizzas in 3.5 minutes. It’s the only one of its kind in Halifax.
The 15-by-15 foot kiosk is sandwiched between two other vendors and overlooks the seascape of the Halifax Harbour. On a typical sunny day, thousands of people stroll by his order window. Robinson said since opening in early June, Waterfront Pizza and Wraps has met and, in some cases, exceeded his projections.
He credits the success to hard work. “The first year I ran the Sugar Shack, I basically ran it myself,” he says. “I was down there every day. In the same sense I’ve been here almost every day at this place. It’s a busy life to have, but that’s what I signed up for.”
The freedom to be his own boss is the payoff. “I feel like I’ve got an upper hand for the rest of my career,” he says. “I hope to be doing this for the rest of my life, and that’s been my plan since I have been young, to run my own place. I don’t really enjoy working for other people… I’ve just always enjoyed having the control over my career.”
It seems like things have gone quickly for a young businessman but Robinson just sees it as one step in a bigger plan. “I’m just trying to do it step by step,” he says. “As they say, crawl, walk, run. I think I’ve got a lot more to do than this place right here. But I’m definitely happy with how it’s turned out. I’m not going to stop here, that’s for sure.”
Awesome good luck in the future
Clearly Josh has the initiative and imagination to make things happen. In an area that fosters entrepreneurship, it’s not luck that he also ran into receptive managers and a great prof who helped him in a variety of ways!