Software developer, professor and entrepreneur. These are just a few faces of a woman who left Brazil to make her history in Canada. In the past 4 years, she graduated at the college, opened 2 companies, closed 1 and sold another, and is currently working as a Software Engineering Manager and as an advisor of her former company. The “no’s” that she listened to never stopped her to move forward. I talked to Marcia Stipanich and this is a little bit of her story.

“The actual purpose was to study, but I actually came, you know, to start a new life here.

I had several different positions inside of the IT area. So, my idea was not to change, and that’s why my company was also a technology company. I already sold the company, and the company was technology and I am still inside of the technology field.

I studied at Humber, I did Entrepreneurial Enterprise. I have a diploma. Actually, when you start college in Canada and you have a little bit of a background, you know, somewhere else, you feel like you can do more. So I decided to open my own business. And my business was a B2B only. And the whole idea was we were a distributor of home and hospitality technology. And were not. The company is still there, and still selling and still doing that.

We would provide, for our customers, the products in a cheaper price. Obviously they could, you know, put a price on top and sell it for more and make profit out of it. And also, we would train them how to use and install the products, so they would be with that stamp, you know, that they have the knowledge of installing that product. It would be sales plus trainings.

I decided to sell once I notice we were going to be in loop. Right? Sales every month, go after customers, you know… put invoices on, receive money, and keep going in this loop. It’s not something I am good at, you know… keeping in loop. And knowing myself, I was not going to be happy in this situation in the long run. So right now I am kind of an advisor per sei. I speak with them, you know, I am beside the company. I feel like my baby grew and I sent, you know, it to the university. That’s… you know, it is not close to me anymore but it is there, and it’s growing, and it is gonna grow even more and more.

Here we are multicultural. So, here we have several different mindsets you can reach. And this is the beauty of Canada, because here you can have equality in all the levels, and then sex, race, whatever you think about it is gonna be equal. So it is more fair for everybody, and is also good because people can afford things. So, I really believe the whole market helps a lot, you know, for the environment of having entrepreneurship here.

Being a foreign is a challenge. Because, when you a foreign, you are not used to the weather, you are not used to the language sometimes, you are not used to the culture.

FCBB has, you know, the perfect match for whatever you need in terms of the network, networking, because if you need for example a lawyer, if you need, you can obviously, you can go on Google and find, right? But having FCBB to intermediate this relationship, is gonna bring, you know, bring you someone that is already filtered. Is someone that has reputation. Is someone that has background to give you, to provide you whatever you need.

And you are gonna have with no effort, you know like, the minimum efforts I would say, you know, a great result and faster. This saves a lot of time. Obviously when it saves time, it saves money. Saves a lot of frustration, especially for someone who is new to the country and needs a new business, things for the new business. So, I believe it saves a lot. Time is money, and if you are opening a business, you don’t have, you know, a much of time. You have to be efficient in whatever you do.

And it’s gonna be awesome by the end! However, be prepared, because it’s not easy. And especially when you are in a new country, you gotta be brave! Just, you know, make some plans, be realistic to yourself, be realistic to the challenges you are gonna face, because they are big. And they are bigger than you can imagine because you are in another country, in another culture. And you are gonna face everything and learn everything. So, the regular learning curve is like this, your has to be like this because it’s a new country. So, I just say, when you get there. Oh my God! That’s great! So, go for it!”

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official view of the FCBB.