Community Futures Program & Services | Business Boot Camp
Industry | Trades
Business Owner | Joey Eddy
Becoming self-employed and starting Joe Electric has been a whirlwind of learning for Joey Eddy over the past two and a half years. Moving from Vancouver to Kamloops with his wife at the end of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Joey entered a limited labor market in a new city. With encouragement from his wife and after a phone call with our Program Manager, Julie, Joey started the process of becoming self-employed.
Joe Electric is an electrical contracting company that helps homeowners and businesses solve their electrical issues. They deal with all aspects of electrical construction, including renovations, new builds, troubleshooting electrical faults, and much more.
“Community Futures helped me immensely by providing me a blueprint for starting my business,” Joey said. “By joining the Self-Employment Program, I was forced to sit down and study the electrical contractor sector in Kamloops as a whole and develop a business plan that would allow me to get my foot in the door and build my company. Most of all, the direction and help I received in the Community Futures Self-Employment Program gave me the confidence to believe I could make Joe Electric work.”
Working through the Self-Employment Program, Joey learned many aspects of becoming self-employed, like how to be a small business owner and what is required to successfully run a company, the second being the physical work. Being an electrical contractor entails continually learning and building on the knowledge of the trade. The main challenges for Joey were being put into unfamiliar situations and making mistakes along the way. However, the successes of self-employment outweighed the missteps, and by learning from the errors, Joey has grown and further developed his skill set in all aspects of being a small business owner and an electrical contractor.
“My wife Amelia encouraged me to go into self-employment and has helped me throughout the journey. Amelia’s computer literacy made going through the program and creating a website much easier,” he said. “I would also like to thank Jesse with Weymac Electric. Jesse continues to mentor me as another person who started their own electrical company and has been through most of the problems I face. He is always open to taking my calls; I greatly appreciate that. Finally, a huge thank you again to Community Futures Thompson Country for helping make Joe Electric a reality.”
When asked what advice he would give to others wanting to start their own business, “My first bit of advice is to take the Community Futures Self-Employment Program, although I am probably preaching to the converted at this point! Really what that means is to surround yourself with other people trying to go the self-employed route and with people who already have. Drawing on everyone’s experience and being able to have mentorship will provide a roadmap for how to become successful with your endeavors.”
