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II-WKTWW'Wy. Wyn. 2013 Putting out the Dinner Plate Local service aims to take the headache out a planning staff meals Elam Entrepreneurship runs in the may 23~year-old's family. Her parents Cathy and Jerry have run a busi- t might be a cliche to suggest ness in the Ottawa Valley for Ioneofthelobsofanomceintern docudesmndshesatatthedlnner istogetthecoflee. table as her mom went through But when University of Water- the invoices loo grad Megan Summers was fln- There are no stars in her eyes ishing up the her final co-op work when it comes to what makes a term lat year. the job of otganiz- successful business â€" just a lot of ingtheFrldaylunclmforthestalf legworkandhardwork. at the marketing company she 'For a long time i wanted to worked forofienfellonherdeak. start my own business. i didn't “They brought in free meals on know it was going to be so soon.” Fridayanditwasacoolperkofthe said Summers. “But now is the job. and it made everyone feel .. timeto do it. appreciated and you all came "’ “it really took away the glamour together and talked.” said Sum- . : of entrepreneurship, and I didn't mers “Every once in a while. as the have any false pretenses that it was - junior person in the office. [had to going to be quick money, It’s a lot do some of the ordering . . of hard work. and maybe one day 1 "When you had 40 hungry faces ’ for ’ - , will have all that." looking at you at noon, and y0u’re % Summers has also benefited the most junior person, it's .. .. from the support and mentorship nervewracking about where to 115"" “ ' she's received from the Waterloo order from and what’s the cool :2; ',“"fl“ Small Business Centre at Waterloo spot?” e I? City Hall. it helped answer the But after getting kudos and fig questions all fledgling businesses congratulations for some of her . ». need answered. while matching selections, she started thinking groggy. her up with services and mentors there might be a business oppor- Rt}: ‘, 1. to get her off the ground. tunity to provide a similar service “I. . 5» «a «Riki iii; She was also clued into the to a wider clientele W‘ " Canadian Youth Business Founda- “l really felt that this could be a *K "I” ’ tion and she received some fund- full-time job." said Summers “This Megan Summers, founderofolrm Plate, will take the hassle and the guess won: out of planning staff lunches ing to help set up an office and a is a problem that other businesses and other value-added services companies offer to their employees. She’ll make the arrangements and put website for the service. The site is might have. and I found that [ was businesses in touch with upâ€"and-coming restaurants as well as established hot spots. set to 80 beyond beta testing this spending a lot of time each week ”mm” week, doing that instead of doing some- up lunches and delivering them on good fit locally. with Google and planning their catering schedules Now it's all about making the thing related to thejob. time for companies that are offer other high-tech companies setting for the week. while giving new connections. Juggling so many ~So I started looking for solu- ing employee Iunchesas a perk. up shop and perhaps extending restaurants the foot in the door dinner plates has been a challenge. tions to it, and like all great busi- Free lundiesare particularly big some of the corporate culture they need to reach new customers. but Summers said she's excited by ness ideas i looked at other marâ€" in the high-tech sector and places north of the border. if people like them for lunch, they the opportunity, kets for what they were doing" like Google and Facebook are With more than 1,000 highdech might just try them for dinner. ‘Sometimes it feels like you're That's when she started a busi~ known for the spreads they put on companies in the region there “The restaurants that are doing running downhill,” she said. “l'm ness called Dinner Plate. it got it's for their employees might be a potential market for this are doing something new and run ofl‘ my feet right now. but that’s official launch in December. and The service is seen as a way to similar services, and she has since innovative and they want to get the line. Summers has been getting it up to both attract and retain talent in a set up 8 office in the Treehouse word out.” said Summers. “It‘s real- "These first few months and speed ever since. matching higily competitive employee pool. facility in Kitdiener, an offshoot of ly hard because it's so competitive first couple of years will be a lot of companies and willing restaurants it also shows a company’s appreci» the Tannery project in the restaumnt industry, so we're work. We got my finger in a lot of in a mutually beneficial relation- ation for its employees ”The idea is to fineâ€"tune it then helping them. pies. But I think it will grow as the ship. “It's funny because when you spread out.” said Summers. “i do "Especially smaller spots They understanding of it grows” She heard about a similar pro- say ‘corporate logistics service’ it have reallybig ambitions for it.” can plan cash flow and plan pur- For more information about gram in the US. referred to as sounds so boring. but it describes The other benefit is to the par- chasingin advance, and it ends up Dinner Plate. email catering logistics services. The itsowell.’ said summer ticipating restaurants. it gives being a cool marketing megan@dinnerplate.ca or visit the niche service takes care of setting The sentice also seemed like a them a little more certainty when opportunity too.” website. www.dinnerplate.ca. , s V _ P------------------| 5‘ . v ,, ,, nâ€"o-uuu l g ‘ '9 :' g g .n u--am-i . . , t .r if 3 _ 2 1‘ a; ud-na-uls: ' t‘ 3 ’ f _~-- . : . v * oI--.I-- I . ‘ -‘ .1, ' 1 --mam : lNSTALLATlON KlT : t .893... We...“ Q .79 . 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