The
entrepreneurial spirit translates across cultures.
Contributed By:
GUEST WRITER
Entrepreneur
Source: Entrepreneur
Darko Dodig fled Sarajevo with his family to escape the chaos of
the Bosnian War. When they
arrived in Canada in 1996, he was in fifth grade.
Fast forward to 2017. Dodig is the proud owner of Wisevu,
a thriving web-design, development and internet-consulting agency based in
Mississauga, Ontario. The company's ongoing dedication to gaining exposure
for the Canadian business landscape has been monumental for many small
companies.
The entrepreneurial spirit already was strong in Dodig's family
before they set foot in North America. His father owned a restaurant in
Medugorje, and his grandparents operated a vineyard.
“I think if parents want their kids to become entrepreneurs,
they must show them that entrepreneurial spirit by leading by example,” Dodig
says. “When we arrived in Canada, the government provided us with financial aid
until my parents found work. Originally, my father found a job in a factory but
later went to school to become a certified financial planner.
My mother worked part-time while she studied English, then opened her own
business called Prestige Décor.”
What are some of the biggest
differences between Canada and Bosnia you’ve noticed from a marketing
perspective?
"In Bosnia, word of mouth was the main form of advertising.
In Canada, online marketing has become the standard of business growth."
What made you decide to get
into online marketing?
"My mother’s business wasn’t doing very well at first. She
was primarily advertising with fliers, newspaper ads and magazines. After
a few years, her friend built a basic website using Microsoft FrontPage and
showed me and my brother how to manage it. This project is what made us fall in
love with online marketing. We went on to study computer engineering and
business marketing at Humber College. Upon completing our program at Humber, we
went on to York University to study business marketing for another three years.
Throughout our studies, we were heavily involved in web development and
SEO."
When did you decide to start
Wisevu?
"Shortly after we finished school. We were taking a few
online classes and reading countless articles on digital marketing to learn
everything we could. Within a year of implementing our mother’s website, her
business was booming. This is when we realized that we would start Wisevu.com,
offering the same services that helped our mother's business succeed, to other
local businesses who were in trouble."
What has been your most
fascinating project?
"Our favorite project has been our mother’s business: Prestige Décor.
"We were able to take her struggling company and give it
exposure it deserves. Now, it’s become one of the most successful window
treatment stores in the greater Toronto areas. We did all this while we were in
York University Business Marketing program. We used Prestige Décor on every
school project we could in order to come up with strategies to make our
mother’s business a success. This allowed us to get input from our experienced
professors and develop a system that would allow us to not only help our
mother but launch our own business, Wisevu Inc."
The United States and Canada
seem similar on the surface, but actually are very different. What are some of
the big differences you’ve noticed as an online marketer?
"We have noticed the local online market in Canada
-- which Wisevu.com specializes in -- is much more competitive than
comparable U.S. markets. Additionally, Canadian websites are much more
up-to-date than our American counterparts. It seems that Canadians have
embraced the online market and have started investing heavily into online
marketing due to the fact that Canada’s per capita internet usage is fourth in
the world, while the U.S.A. is 13th. Although this provides us with an incentive
to sell to the U.S., Wisevu’s specialization is on the local Canadian market.
This has given us a competitive advantage over other web agencies.
"Due to the drastic decline of the Canadian dollar,
Wisevu’s costs have increased in 2016 and 2017 by about 25 percent when
compared to 2015. Since around 80 percent of Canadian exports are to the
U.S.A., we are very dependent on the U.S. dollar. We have been forced to cut
down on outsourcing work to the United States as well as other countries. Also,
we try to keep the dollar within Canada as much as possible, even if it means
paying higher wages to Canadian workers. At Wisevu, we use PayPal to pay for
many transactions. Just recently, the Canadian dollar was $0.70 compared to the
U.S. dollar on PayPal. To put this more into perspective, for a $7,000 USD
transaction we would pay $10,000 CAD. This makes a big difference to our bottom
line!
"Despite these market uncertainties, Wisevu is happy to say
our clients have remained satisfied and loyal. Our company is steadily growing
each year. This is thanks to our focus on the Canadian market and working with
local business owners to implement the most effective, local online-marketing
strategies available."
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