03-01 Getting Started
The ground work for a new business is laid early in life. Our father, John A. Bulloch, apprenticed in the woollen business in Belfast. He went to Canada in 1928, working for a year in the wheat fields of Saskatchewan to pay his passage. Father then worked for “Eatons” in Winnipeg in 1929, where he…
03-02 Small Business Basics
When father was planning his own retail clothing business he did a lot of early planning that started in 1931 when he was told by his boss that he would not be promoted if he married my Jewish mother. And it is one of those Small Business 101 realities that about two-thirds of small firms…
03-03 Taking in a Partner
He was my uncle, Jack Young and my father's partner. His wife was Aunty Ray and mother's younger sister by a year and a half. Jack and Ray were married in London England in 1933 and moved to Canada in 1939 when war threatened. In the photo, they are well dressed, and the reason is…
03-04 Personal vs. Business Goals
Family Businesses are almost always small businesses, but in a family business where family members are employed, personal goals usually trump business goals. The first salesperson employed by my father was his brother James. One had followed the other to Canada to get away from the stifling influence of their father in Belfast. Both headed…
03-05 Sumi Ebisuzacki
It was during the war that Dad leased a large area on the second floor at 734 Bay Street for his factory, and it was run by his brother-in-law Jack Young. The offices were at the back of the main floor area where customers had their try-ons. And there was a continuous parade of secretaries…
03-06 Wives, Mothers
As a student of small business, there are ample studies of the role of spouses in family businesses. In most cases, it is the story of a husband starting a small business and the wife working in the business while raising children. For our family, mother was a central part of our own Family Business…