Dreamers Interview Series – Guillaume Couture

This weeks I have the pleasure of hosting Guillaume Couture, nutritionist and owner of Equipe Nutrition/Team Nutrition.  I had the pleasure of meeting Guillaume before he launched his own company and I must say that his methods really helped me! 


Information about the giveaway will follow the interview



 Tell us a bit more about what you do?

After working as a nutritionist for other companies for 4 years, I decided to start my own nutrition consultation business called EquipeNutrition.ca (TeamNutrition.ca.) We offer conferences and individual consultations. Many need nutrition advice to help them with health issues, sport performance, or weight loss. We help those people find the key solution for their goals and ensure they achieve them.

Did you always know you wanted to build your own company or did that come later in your career?

I started thinking of building a business while in university. My uncle was my inspiration as he always told me about the benefits of either being an independent worker or owning a business. At first I did not have the confidence to start on my own. I feel it is important to gain experience first. Since gaining experience is mostly done through making mistakes, it is always better to make mistakes for someone else than for yourself.

What was most difficult in setting up EquipeNutrition.ca?  How did you overcome the obstacles?

From my experience, most businesses do not want you to make a life for yourself. Most will try and discourage you, and make it very difficult by making sure you cannot work on your own and for them at the same time. Without capital, you can’t start up, and not being able to make capital while starting up makes things extra difficult and stressful.

I needed to build the backbone of my business and build strong business relationships in order to ensure the success of my leave without getting into conflict with my employer. I did this for about 8-12 months by taking classes, meeting influential people in my line of business and saving in order to ensure I had enough capital to survive. I needed to be confident things would work out before making everything public and quitting my job.

What is your next goal?

We are now a small business with less than 5 employees. My main goal right now is to offer the best nutrition services around for companies either looking to offer the service to their clientele, their employees, or their sports teams. We already have many satisfied clients in Hockey Québec, UQAM, CPE McGill, Restoralax, Club Mansfield, MyoActif, etc.

What do you think is the quality most needed to follow your dreams and, in your case, become your own boss?

The first answer is perseverance. There are a lot of difficulties along the way. Most quit after the first or second big setbacks. However, perseverance does not mean to try the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Learn from your mistakes, and move forward. The second is to be great at what you do. Do not expect anything less than the best of yourself.

It is not easy to start up on your own; however the drive you get from achieving financial security on your own was well worth the risk for me.

What advice would you give to would be entrepreneurs?

Inform yourselves well on resources for new entrepreneurs. The government helps people with good ideas. Also, emphasise on good public relations. If you are not comfortable in meeting new people, public speaking, or have fun in promoting your service, get a partner that is. You might be good at what you do, but if you can’t communicate well, your project will most likely die.

Author and previous featured guest Marc-Andre Charron would like to know:

What is the scariest part of leaving a grounded, sure world and jumping into your own adventure. And how did you overcome that?

I have the philosophy that if I am not progressing, I am regressing. Thus I felt the need to try something new. I slowly built confidence in my work, and I planned everything ahead. I had calculated my risks, and found that any risk was negligible. With hindsight, I feel I was well prepared.

Our next guest is horror writer Brick Marlin, what would you like to ask him?

Horror novels seem to seep into your bones line after line. How do you make horror novels feel so real?

Giveaway 

For a chance to win a copy of Bien manger sans culpabiliser (French recipe book), leave a question for Guillaume in the comment section.  You have until Tuesday October 1st 11:59 ET to enter.  The winner will be announced on Thursday October 3rd along with the answers to your questions.  Best of luck!

You are a dreamer and would like me to interview you?  Drop me a line at scbecauseican(at)gmail(dot)com. I love meeting passionate people!