CAPITAL BUZZ:

Here’s what Capital Ideas members took away from the June 19 panel:

“You really need to know how to run your own business before you can have others run it for you.” — Amin Ahmed, owner at EDMI Technology Consulting (edmi.ca) “Great leadership/growth wisdom from [Jay Downton]: ‘You have to learn to play the piano with other people’s hands.’ “— Hilary Anaka, external relations at Finning Canada (finning.ca) “Focus on working on versus in your business, so make that transition early in order to grow and not lose sight of the big picture.” — Justin Bertagnolli, program development for Finance For Good (financeforgood.ca) “Think big and go for it... If you make that a goal you’ll probably reach it.” — Agnes Fisher, real estate agent for REMAX Real Estate Centre (agnesfisher.remax.ca) “Eveline Charles says marketing and advertising works. She took a chance and invested and attributes growth to it.” — Alyson Hodson, partner and director of client services at Zag Creative Group (zagcreativegroup.com) “Anyone can run one store, the second one is where you see the lack in your systems and processes.” — Tanya Laughren, business development executive at Ignition Media (ignitionmedia.ca) “Balancing working on your business versus working in your business is so important, because you need to let your employees run the day-to-day activities so you can expand.” — Nikki Leonardis, co-founder of Visio Media (visiomedia.ca) “Work on your business instead of in your business if you’re trying to grow it. You can’t be in the trenches if you’re overseeing and trying to look at the big picture.” — Lisa Todd, business development and account manager at Urban Creative Co. (urbancreativeco.com) “The best advice I heard was to make your goals public. That resonated with me because if you don’t make your goals known, your skin’s not in it.” — Shamez Walji, University of Alberta student “What Dale said about growing fast and being a market leader right off the bat was huge for me, because I always thought you should build slowly... It’s really exciting to think about things in that way.” — Mei Yeung, business development account manager at Amplomedia (amplomedia.com)