{"id":438,"date":"2015-11-15T17:47:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T17:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=438"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:34","slug":"guelph-alumnus-scott-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2015\/11\/guelph-alumnus-scott-duke\/","title":{"rendered":"From the lakes in Ontario\u2019s cottage country to the airwaves in B.C., Scott Duke is finding entrepreneurial success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story by Andrew Vowles<\/span> | Photography by Keri Knapp<\/span><\/p>\n

When Scott Duke moved across the country to small-town Revelstoke, B.C., he had a clear plan: snowboard 100 days of the year.<\/p>\n

To put that plan into action, he needed a job. For Duke, who first ventured into the world of entrepreneurship as a teenager, this didn\u2019t mean working at the local coffee shop or ski hill; it meant starting a business. He quickly established his sixth startup company, Duke\u2019s Dogs, a hot dog cart in the downtown area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a way to earn enough money to comfortably support myself while working minimum hours that didn\u2019t conflict with snowboarding during the day,\u201d says Duke, B.Comp. \u201905. \u201cIt also had low overhead, high margins and didn\u2019t require staff.\u00a0I still think of it as one of my more successful ventures \u2014 it achieved everything it set out to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was seven years ago. Today, Duke, 33, is still based in Revelstoke, but he\u2019s moved on from the hot dog cart. He\u2019s now the owner of Stoke FM<\/a>, a radio station he started in the basement of his house, and a property management company. He\u2019s also a city councillor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m into whatever I can learn,\u201d Duke says of his business strategy. Since graduating he\u2019s also run a jet-ski rental business, a boat-cleaning company and a wakeboarding camp. Not everything worked out: a snowmobile rental company was a flop but still a learning experience.<\/p>\n

Many entrepreneurs create a business based on their passion or interest. For Duke, the product or service he offers is secondary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m passionate about is finding voids in the marketplace and figuring out ways to fill them.\u201d<\/p>\n

DUKE’S KNACK<\/strong><\/em> for spotting an opportunity goes back to his teenage years in Mississauga, Ont. Seeking a better alternative to his local high school, he settled on an arts school. He wasn\u2019t particularly artistic, but he did see an opening in the music program, where few students played the saxophone. After a year of intensive classes to learn the tenor sax, he applied and got in.<\/p>\n

His first business was Fleece It, a project he started with other students in his entrepreneurship class. They made fleece gloves, hats and scarves, and Duke did the majority of sewing and production on his mother\u2019s sewing machine.<\/p>\n

In high school he also discovered software programming, which he enjoyed. Most diehard computer science students he knew headed for the University of Waterloo, but he liked Guelph\u2019s location, size and culture. \u201cIt has a small-town feel but it\u2019s not a small-town school.\u201d With a tech boom going on, companies were plucking students out of computing programs almost before they could complete them. Within the first year of Duke\u2019s degree, that boom went bust.<\/p>\n

But he gained other benefits besides learning how to program. Duke says Guelph taught him how to continually learn and the importance of social interaction. And he found something else while on campus: a way to combine his longtime love for the outdoors with a budding passion for entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

\"quote\"<\/a>Duke was five years old when he started waterskiing on Georgian Bay \u2014 he switched to wakeboarding at 12. Into his teens, he realized that keeping up watersports would take equipment, which required money, and \u201cprofits are better than wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his U of G studies, he started a painting outfit in Muskoka, Ont., which grew to include 25 employees. \u201cThe work was never for work \u2014 it was to learn and support a fun habit. The only way to make money and have free time to wakeboard was to run something of my own,\u201d says Duke, who also learned about the stress of entrepreneurship when he landed in the hospital with an ulcer.<\/p>\n

After graduating, he opened Basecamp, a wakeboarding camp on Muskoka\u2019s Lake Rosseau, and ran it for five years. By the time he sold the business, it was the largest wakeboard facility in North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m of the thought that you\u2019ve never \u2018made it,\u2019\u201d says Duke. \u201cI\u2019ve just lived my life always doing what I wanted to do. There was a time I wanted to own a successful wakeboard facility. After I accomplished that goal and learned all I could from it, there was no reason to continue running the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

During those years, he began spending winters skiing in the British Columbia interior. In 2008, he moved to Revelstoke, a former railway town that has become a winter sports destination and is home to about 8,000 people. \u201cI came out here for the lifestyle \u2014 same as any decision I ever made in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

AS AN OUTSIDER<\/strong><\/em>, Duke spotted an opportunity. Revelstoke had a commercial radio station, but he saw room for a community-based alternative. Not that he had any experience in radio: as a student, he wasn\u2019t even involved with Guelph\u2019s campus station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of someone running a radio station and you think of someone passionate about music,\u201d says Duke, whose station bio gleefully highlights his lack of radio and music credentials. Despite his musical taste being \u201cgeneric,\u201d he saw a gap in the marketplace, and after some research, knew he could fill it.<\/p>\n

Stoke FM began in his basement \u2014 he funded its startup costs by holding concerts, and raised the necessary $10,000 after three events. To get it up and running, he had to learn about equipment and operation, which included bolting a 17-metre antenna to his house. He also had to navigate the strict regulations of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, and Industry Canada. After just four months on the air, the business broke even. Stoke FM stayed in Duke\u2019s basement for two years, where he picked the music and hosted a morning show, until earlier this year when the station moved to a downtown office space. It now has five employees and owns 85 per cent of the market share. But Duke doesn\u2019t count it as a success quite yet.<\/p>\n

\"U<\/a>\u201cThe first cheque I put in the bank from a radio advertiser gave me a great feeling of accomplishment,\u201d says Duke.\u00a0\u201cBut those feelings are always temporary because running a business has daily ups and downs. For instance, today I have three ad sales calls and I have to sell all of them to ensure we have enough cash flow this month to make payroll in eight days. The day I hand off a fully operational station to a new owner, I\u2019ll consider the business a success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke also operates a property management company with his partner, Eve Northmore. It started as a vacation rental business, but he saw a development boom coming to town. Revelstoke Property Services now manages 160 units, both residential and commercial, and also includes a cleaning company.<\/p>\n

Being an entrepreneur in a small town can have its challenges: staffing shortages, limited resources and a small customer base. But Duke says less competition is a big benefit. Where some see obstacles, Duke sees opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s nice about a small town is they\u2019re like Petri dishes: you can do something here, test it out and then scale it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAST FALL<\/strong><\/em> Duke won election to city council. From its blue-collar roots in rail and logging, Revelstoke has become a tourism magnet with more resort properties. \u201cI really like it here,\u201d says Duke, who has created a hobby farm in the backyard he shares with Northmore, complete with chickens and daily fresh eggs. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I can save the town (from development), but I can be a part of making it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Duke launched yet another new company to buy and sell other businesses, and he\u2019s taking continuing education courses through York University and the International Business Brokers Association. He says his biggest challenge is concentrating on a single career path, but thinks the business brokerage could ultimately be his main focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think biting off more than you can chew is really the only way to grow,\u201d he says of his growing portfolio. \u201cConstant learning and the application of new knowledge is truly the key to success.\u00a0I think most people understand this, but they\u2019re too nervous to practically apply what they\u2019ve learned or they\u2019re too lazy to learn in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Duke\u2019s pursuit of the ideal lifestyle, he may not be snowboarding 100 days of the year, but his priorities are the same: work hard at what he loves, play hard as much as he can and choose the path that\u2019s right for him, even if it\u2019s a more difficult one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ride my bike to work and I can go skiing on Canada\u2019s highest vertical mountain during my lunch break,\u201d he says. \u201cYesterday I did a business deal in the gondola going up to the top of the mountain to have coffee. Although I have to piece together many smaller ventures to total an income that\u2019s equivalent to one decent-paying managerial job in the city, it\u2019s worth the trade-off many times over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen live to Stoke FM<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

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