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Sep 8, 2020

Welcome to another edition of “I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?”

 

AND welcome to September! 🍁🍂🍁

 

LinkedIn has been my ‘go to’ lately, to connect with business leaders and entrepreneurs.

 

And one of the first people I met there was Emile Salem!

 

With 40 years of business acumen under his belt, he now runs Ottawa’s Collab Space - a coworking space focused on networking and mentorship.

 

We talk:

 

💥 The highs and lows of serial entrepreneurship.

💥 Lessons learned from wins AND failures.

💥 And the power that comes from partnering with like-minded people.

 

We spoke in July, and while the news cycle spins like a top these days, the fundamentals of entrepreneurship don’t change.

 

I hope you enjoy his story.

 

 

Emile Salem’s family immigrated to Canada with four kids in tow. Emile and his twin sister were born and here, and all the children had a strong drive to succeed. As he jokingly says, he’s been self-employed since the age of four, when he was subcontracted to help his brother on his paper route. His earnings? Ten cents and a bag of chips every Friday.

 

By age seven, Emile wised up to the fact his brother was bringing in the big bucks in this deal. So, in true entrepreneurial spirit, he staged a coup, took over the paper route, and has been a serial-entrepreneur ever since.

 

Passionate about the art of doing business, of taking an idea and growing it into a sustainable revenue generating company, he soon realized the “after” – the running of a perfectly healthy business year after year - bored him to tears.

 

Over the next 40 years (and 40-plus businesses!) he turned revenue streams and profit development into an art form across a variety of industries, and developed a cross section of successful business platforms and sales strategies for numerous business leaders.

 

Helping small to mid-sized businesses and start-ups succeed drove him to launch the Collaborative Business Community in the west end of Ottawa called Collab Space. As he says “Collab Space engenders the philosophy that we are all stronger together. Members appreciate the exceptional level of education and structured collaboration…and benefit from the strength in numbers by sharing ideas, resources and solutions.”