Nick Noorani Website

August 9, 2006
As a new immigrant and an entrepreneur, I have frequently been asked, what is it like as a new Canadian starting out as an entrepreneur and doing business in Canada and I have to say for me personally, it has been a heady ride.
The Canadian Immigrant Magazine - Canada’s first magazine for all immigrants.
My relationship with entrepreneurship has been long and varied. My wife, Sabrina, and I migrated from Dubai where I owned the largest call center in the country. I also headed an ad agency. Dubai is this fabulous city with great lifestyles and a tax free income. So I am often asked, why did you come to Canada? Here’s the unofficial version. I felt guilty after spending ten years living in a tax free country – not paying taxes, so I decided to come to Canada and do my penance. (in paying taxes!)

But seriously, I fell in love with Canada and Canadians and decided to make this beautiful country home. I had traveled extensively – in fact Canada is the fourth country we’re living in, but the challenges of being an immigrant here threw me. So many questions and while the answers were there, one had to go through a maze to get to them! So my wife and I co-authored a book – Arrival Survival Canada. The book is available on amazon.com and is now in its second edition. After five years in Canada, life was pretty good for the Noorani family. I was Director Global Advertising for an internet company and my wife Sabrina worked for a forestry company. For all immigrants, buying a house is the ultimate achievement, and that happened for Sabrina and I in July 2003. One month later, we were both laid off!
Amazingly that was the moment that TCIM was born, in my dreams anyway. Officially launched in April 2004 The Canadian Immigrant Magazine changed the media landscape for Canadian immigrants and newcomers. The magazine addresses issues that immigrants face when they first arrive as well as ongoing issues they may have as they settle in to Canada.
Many immigrants are also entrepreneurs, and we share many of their stories and success stories, include Hanif’s, on our pages.
From my own experiences as an entrepreneur, and from learning from others who have preceded me, I have realized that although entrepreneurship can be hard, backbreaking work, it is also at the centre of it all, based on a few fairly simple principles. I call these the 10 gems to successful entrepreneurship
Collect them all, for that ultimate treasure — success, independence and perhaps the ability to make a difference along the way.
1. The Vision. Envision your future path in the present moment. Create a crystal clear blueprint or picture of what your company will look like in the coming year. Great organizations begin with great leaders and every leader has bold dreams and is a visionary. Once you surrender to the power of your vision, success begins to chase you. Helen Keller once noted, “I’d rather be blind than have sight without vision”
2. Determination and Focus. These are the most critical attribute. Like all entrepreneurs, sometimes I lose focus and chase something new and shiny. If I had a dollar for every time I thought the magazine would fold, I would be a millionaire! I REFUSE to give up! Remember immediately before a great victory, one will often experience some form of difficulty. The key is to maintain your focus and keep on believing.
3. Marketing/promotion – strategic alliances – from the beginning, we created alliances with partners like Channel M and later News 1130. Now, if you play with the Michael Jordan’s, you are bound to improve your moves! Additionally, I treat all my suppliers like partners – I often take time out to tell them how they are a part of this change we are making in people’s lives. And I am always marketing the magazine. Whether it is by sponsoring events, or giving away copies at trade shows and career fairs.
4. Community focus. Giving back is a daily theme at The Canadian Immigrant Magazine office. I volunteer my time on several boards and encourage employees to follow suit. We also run the Lilian To Scholarship awards for immigrants in association with Ashton College. Some of the communities we are involved in are the YMCA, New Westminster Community Development, Vancouver Multicultural Society and Ethno Business Council.
5. Employees – No one person can put out a magazine every month. We started small and still have the original editor and art director with us. We have now grown to nine part time and full time employees. Our employees are empowered with the vision and mission we have set out. The team spirit they display is amazing and I am truly indebted to the many nights they have spent in creating a product we are all hugely proud off.
6. Mentorship – we are the sum total of the five people closest to us. Surround yourself with people you admire – a lot will rub off! I started my magazine and approached 12 people I believed were luminaries in their field. Of the 12, 11 agreed to be part of a Management Advisory Board I created. I go to them for advice depending on their particular expertise. As for the 12th, I’m still working on that one!
7. Positive thinking is worth more than a line of credit! I gotta be honest. I do have down moments. But I have more up moments than down. And at the end of the month or year, it will be the up days that carry you through depending of course on which one is more. What I do is I go to my five people – remember, we are the sum total of the 5 people closest to us – and I bounce right back!
8. Believe in yourself. Seriously, I have met some brilliant entrepreneurs who have zero faith in themselves and their product. So guess what happens? They quit! Take a few minutes out every week to pat yourself on the back. And be proud, you are a winner!
9. Networking. I think of it as grass roots advertising. From day one, my first advertiser was someone I met at a networking event.
10. THINK! In the noise that will ensue in your entrepreneurial journey, take time out to hear the silence and think. Amazing results will follow! I isolate myself for 1 ½ hours every day just to think – and like I said – it has produced amazing results.
Finally, I am a very lucky man to have a wife who shares my passion and vision and willingly spends sunny weekends at the office doing paperwork!
In your journey in entrepreneurship, I wish you all success and that ultimate treasure you’re seeking!