It was on a plane returning from San Mateo, California in November 1970, where I had discussed the possibility of cooperating with the U.S. National Federation of Independent Business, regarding critical decisions being made about the proposed Canadian Federation of Independent Business membership and field operations structure. These decisions would remain unchanged for almost ten years.
The CFIB was a new beginning and a new voice for small business. But in reality, it was a combination of the political action machine put in place by the Canadian Council for Fair Taxation and the sophisticated sales or field operation of the National Federation of Independent Business. A letter of congratulations was received from the former Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker.
My first challenge was to find someone to help me install a field operation in Canada, and I sought the support of a colleague from Ryerson who was due for his sabbatical in January 1971. His name was Raymond J Sherk, a WW2 Spitfire pilot who had been shot down three times, and who had also escaped from German prisoner-of-war camps three times.
We began to develop the structure and support materials using funds left over from our White Paper tax fight and figured we would have functioning salespeople in place so that by November 1971, we would generate enough cash flow to break even financially. The reality? By November our cash reserves would be gone.
But we did not break even until April 1972, and the period from November to April was the most difficult in my life. I started selling memberships on Fridays to help cover my salary, and when I had a bad day, my father would slip me $200 out of his own pocket. At 3:00 am one morning, restless and not sleeping, Mary asked me what was wrong. I remember saying, "If we could just figure out how to get our weekly membership revenues up to $2,000 a week, I believe we will have created something viable.”
The following morning, I called Wilson Johnston, the president of the NFIB, and told him that we somehow could not hire District Managers who could make a living. He told us to drive down to Cleveland where they were holding a hiring campaign at one of their Divisions. Most importantly, he said to pay attention to how they do it and copy their procedures exactly. This business, he explained, is specialized, and success is in the detail. We did what he told us to do and recognized the errors we were making in our selection process.
We started again, following the American recruiting, selection and training procedures carefully, and within three weeks we reached our break-even point and never looked back. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business was not just born but thriving, and a new voice for small business gave entrepreneurs everywhere in Canada new hope and a voice in changing laws that govern business and the nation.
Many Canadians are dismayed by the political culture of the U.S. and their attitude towards guns, women’s rights, capital punishment and similar policy issues settled in Canada decades ago. But if you ever need help, there are no people on earth that are more generous and unselfish than Americans.