MANJIT MINHAS

Co-founder and CEO of Minhas Breweries & Distillery

Barely old enough to drink alcohol, Manjit Minhas and her brother Ravinder wasted little time in building one of the bigger brewers in the craft beer wave that has swept Canada. Starting in 1999 as a Calgary-based sales, marketing and branding company focused on selling inexpensive liquor to commercial interests through her parents’ liquor stores in Alberta, Minhas Breweries & Distillery, as the name implies, is now a brewer, a distiller and, most recently, a winery. The latter business is one that failed the first time Minhas tried it 15 years ago, something she chalks up to relying on other companies rather than taking ownership of the process. The siblings have also split the company down the middle: she took the Canadian business, wanting to be at home more with her two daughters; he took the American side and the cannabis/CBD operations. “The decision has led to new challenges, which is nice, and new opportunities,” she says. “Just like anything, you can’t stay stagnant, otherwise you will get lost.”Although she is now a 39-year-old veteran who also has a high-profile gig as one of the Dragons on the Dragons’ Den television show, she remembers when she was young and had to fight for everything.

I grew up around the alcohol industry. My parents owned liquor stores in Calgary after the industry was privatized by Ralph Klein. I was 13 at the time they opened their first liquor store, and then they opened two after. They were very successful. I worked and I learned through osmosis about the business, about alcohol, about people, about management, a lot of different things.

I was very naive, very optimistic when I started the business, very much thinking that life is fair, and very quickly that proved to be not so correct. But optimism and a big ego definitely played a big role, as did persistence and grit, building a tough skin, to stick to it.

I really believe that leaders have to motivate, instruct and be disciplined of the people they are in charge of, but also themselves.

It’s important to communicate with yourself, to motivate yourself, because being an entrepreneur is not all good and unicorns, despite what it might look like from the outside. There are a lot of tough days. There are 350 tough days for 15 days of glory and in those 350 days you’re working with enthusiasm and passion, but you have to have a lot of discipline in order to do the tasks of the day. Not everything is inspired, not everything is interesting and exciting every single day.

I would never have thought that being an entrepreneur goes hand in hand with being a leader. It’s not something that you’re taught or told, but it definitely becomes a part of your job description.

A leader, and I definitely am, has to be decisive. You have to weigh the risks of the decision, have the facts in order to make the decision and then stick with it, for the most part. Once in a while you need to pivot, but for the most part, if you’re not decisive as a leader, you’re pretty ineffective.

If you’re looking for too much consensus and take too much time, it really becomes an important factor. At a certain point, you can’t let the debate continue.

It’s important for a leader to be charismatic in that they are well-spoken, approachable, friendly, have empathy, but also that they can speak to a group of individuals and inspire them. It’s something we not only look for in our politicians, but also leaders in our company.

I definitely believe in the power of negotiation, and not only because I am Indian and so my parents taught me when I was very young. Everything is bartered for in Asia. The first time I was exposed to it, I was in shock and awe that this exists and that the price shown isn’t the price paid and all the tactics that go around it.

Everybody just thinks only the price can be negotiated. Well, that’s not true. Lots of other things can be negotiated that can help the bottom line, but may not seem important at face value, such as warehousing, shipping, storage, payment terms, the list goes on and on.

I’m a very big goal setter not just in life, but in negotiations I say these are what I am willing to give up and these are non-negotiable. It’s important to put your foot into the other person’s shoes to understand what is important to them and what is not.

I’m always taking courses, always reading books, always coming up with new ways to negotiate, because you’re often negotiating with the same individual over and over so you have to mix it up to not only surprise yourself, but the people around the table sometimes, too.

Whether we think about it or not, we make so many decisions and negotiate so many minor things, even at home, all the time. We do that unconsciously, but if we did them consciously, it’s unbelievable how much more effective you can be.

We don’t know everything all of the time so it’s important to understand that it’s good to have an ego, but it can be detrimental at a certain point, too, and it’s important at times to set it aside in order for the greater

good or to let somebody else shine. A good leader can recognize most of those times.

Showing up and being the best researched, having the best product, being the best prepared for a presentation and doing all those small things that build confidence in the individual but also help build a reputation amongst your colleagues helps over time. That doesn’t mean it gets easier overnight, but it definitely helps you make some inroads.

Just because you have passion and enthusiasm for something doesn’t mean you know all the nuts and bolts. It’s so important to formally learn all those things.

A lot of growth happens when you are uncomfortable, and when you are taking on tasks and challenges that are outside your wheelhouse.

I believe in being prepared, doing research, over-preparing in a lot of cases, over-worrying, over-dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in order to not only have that pre-confidence, but to execute to the best of my abilities. Even if it doesn’t go as planned, I can say to myself that I did everything I could in my control.

I don’t take failure very well. I take it as a learning, but it always feels a bit abusive, especially when something is so public.

Over the past 20 years I have learned that you can have the best product or the best service, but without a great entrepreneur to run it and execute on it, it’s worth nothing.

I don’t like to just be the bank, I don’t like to just invest the money. I like to be a part of the growth because the exciting part for me as an investor is when they get the big sale, when they get the product on the line out, when it works and all those kinds of things get put together.

I also like to invest in things that I know as far as the business. It may not look like it. What do you know about the baby products, or fashion skirts? At the core, they’re all kind of the same as far as the procurement, manufacturing, marketing, retailing goes. Whether you retail at Hudson’s Bay or XYZ Liquor Store, the steps along the way are the same.

The definition of success, and the particular point in time, the different individual and the different product, is different. It doesn’t always mean you sold a million dollars’ worth of something. It can mean you made it work. Or you got it out to market. Or you were able to get legislation or policy changed. Or you improved somebody’s life. Or whether you even can make it in Canada and not overseas.

Nobody likes to fail. That’s not to say I’ve not had many, many failures, but you keep going because I am definitely an optimist and entrepreneurs have to be.