CLINIC MORE THAN JUST HEARING TESTS
Audiologist offers followup care and helps clients remotely, Erin Petrow writes.
Karen Sharpe had been contemplating the idea of opening her own audiology clinic for quite a while. When the provincial Hearing Aid Plan was cancelled last July, she finally decided it was time to take the plunge.
Her clinic is one of only a few locally owned audiology clinics in Saskatoon. Sharpe says having that independence gives her the opportunity to care for her clients with a more personalized approach.
“The biggest part isn’t the test and the hearing aids. The biggest part is the followup care, because hearing aids are high maintenance and one size does not fit all — it’s not a cookie-cutter model,” she says.
Although it was “terrifying ” to open her own business, it all come together with help from her partner, Daniel Acton, who helped design and build the business’s interior and acts as a jack of all trades when something needs to be done, she says.
“The hearing loss part is really easy. I’ve lived and breathed it for 17 years. But having to run the front and doing everything from scratch was difficult.”
Because Sharpe has a doctorate in audiology, alongside myriad other certifications, she is able to do much more than simply dispense hearing aids. She can also diagnose why someone is experiencing hearing loss.
Another difference that sets her apart is her decision to embrace TeleCare, an app that works on iPhones and allows her to adjust a hearing aid’s settings remotely. It’s as simple as calling or sending a message through the app, telling her what the problem is; she can fix it right away through the app. That option has been extremely popular among people with mobility issues or who live outside Saskatoon.
“It’s perfect for the snowbirds,” Sharpe says. “When all they need is little adjustments, that’s all available without even having to leave your house.”
Thrive Hearing Solutions
Owner: Karen Sharpe
Address: 9-410 Ludlow St. Hours: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Website: www.thrivehearingsolutions.com Phone: 306-700-3446 Check Facebook
Born in Regina as an e-commerce brand, Uno Printing Co. has expanded into Saskatoon with a storefront operation.
“One of the reasons we want this retail location is so that our clients, whether it’s a clothing line or local designers and artists who print with us, can actually have a storefront to showcase their work,” said co-owner Blair Therrien, who left his job as a commercial pilot to join his friend and co-owner Mac Maclean in the world of commercial printing.
Maclean and Therrien provide the storefront exposure for all their clients in exchange for a transaction fee.
Printing-wise, the company can do it all, from large format printing like wall and window decals to business cards, posters and apparel. It also offers specialty details like raised foil and offset printing.
It’s also fairly safe to say Uno is the only print shop in Saskatoon with a very unique employee — a cactus named Jeff. Maclean says with a chuckle that Jeff is known to be a bit “prickly.”
The focus at the shop is to keep things fun and light.
“We’re trying to put a new spin on the idea of what a print shop is,” Therrien says. Maclean agrees.
“I know when you go into print shops it’s basically like a desk where they take your order and customize it,” Maclean says. “With us we are trying to show more samples by having everything readily available ... and even though we are entrepreneurs we don’t work for ourselves, we work for our clients — so we want to make it fun for them.”
The staff can do design work on site, but they also work alongside other design agencies and freelancers to make sure they get their clients’ vision just right.
“If it needs printing, we can handle it,” Maclean says.
Uno Printing Co.
Owners: Blair Therrien and Mac Maclean
Address: 124 Second Ave. N. Hours: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Website: www.unoprintingco.com Phone: 306-952-2866 Check Facebook and Instagram
Erin Petrow is a reporter at The StarPhoenix. If you have started, expanded or moved a small business in Saskatoon within the last few months, contact her at epetrow@postmedia.com Home- based and temporary businesses, as well as those without physical locations, will not be considered for publication. Follow Erin on Twitter @petr0w