Manjit Minhas may be allergic to dogs, but that didn’t stop her from investing in a company that makes matching ugly Christmas sweaters for pooches and their owners.
“I have to like the product,” said Minhas, co-founder and CEO of Minhas Breweries, Distillery and Winery, and an investor and cast member on the CBC show Dragons’ Den.
Minhas, 38, also known as the “Beer Baroness,” was the keynote speaker on Thursday at the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce’s 13th annual Biz2Biz Expo.
Minhas started the brewery business when she was 19 with her brother Ravinder Minhas. They began in Alberta and have grown to create and produce more than 90 brands of beer, spirits and wine in Canada (from B.C. to Ontario), the U.S. and 18 other countries at seven manufacturing plants, including facilities in Calgary and Monroe, Wisconsin.
As they grew the business, Minhas explained it was important not to grow too fast and have a calculated-risk approach that also involved researching what was selling and what customers wanted.
“Just like in any business, you have to stick to creating a couple of things and doing them really well and getting known for them – not to try and service everyone and every whim and every desire.”
“Nobody ends up with a product and a company from where they start. The core should stay the same, but you do have to react to consumer demands and the market place you’re in.”
-Manjit Minhas
As an investor, one thing she wants to see is an entrepreneur with “passion and grit” and someone that can manage the ups and downs and “pivot often.”
“An entrepreneur that will be able to get through the challenges, because trust me, being an entrepreneur, there will always be challenges and failures,” she said.
“Nobody ends up with a product and a company from where they start. The core should stay the same, but you do have to react to consumer demands and the market place you’re in.”
Besides the character of the entrepreneur, Minhas also want to see numbers that make sense, especially the entrepreneur’s valuation of the business.
“Math is important to me. Do the numbers work? Because you can make a fabulous product, but if you can’t figure out the cost of it and margins, how the distributors make money and everybody along the way, especially you as the entrepreneur make money, you’ll never last,” Minhas said.
In terms of pitching an opportunity to an investor, Minhas said that entrepreneurs need to understand what an investor can offer beyond money.
“What do I normally invest in? What am I an expert in? What can I help you with? Not just money, because that doesn’t go far enough. You’re going to burn through that pretty fast,” she said.
In addition to the dog and owner ugly sweater business Funky Tails, Minhas has also invested in an oatmeal company. Once again, personally, she doesn’t like oatmeal, but she liked the husband and wife team behind the product.
“They had all the numbers going for them. They had a great business plan set in motion. I definitely knew the retailers that they wanted to be in with and had a great relationship with them already,” she said. “For me, it was a great investment in a company and people that I really liked.”
Over the years, Minhas has learned the value of mentorship, both as a mentor and as someone who has received mentorship and has learned from failures and challenges.
And, along the way, one skill that she’s learned and continues to practice, and feels that every entrepreneur should also have, is negotiation.
“That has definitely made me successful,” Minhas said. “I start from a place knowing that everything is negotiable.”
Related: Biz2Biz Expo in Charlottetown attracts more than 2,000 people
