Lutz Building Enterprises was born in February 2018, by Thomas Lutz, founder and owner and consummate artist, out of a strong passion for the construction industry and a solid conviction of autonomy and independence.

In the face of some very hefty challenges, namely the downturn in economy during the last couple of years, coupled with the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, Lutz Building Enterprises is growing steadily and marching forward in full force. They are even planning to expand their workforce by hiring one full time employee and one part-time.

This stubbornness in facing life challenges is due largely to the unwavering determination that Thomas has in making it a success against all odds.

This fact is summed up best in his own words: “I have built the business; it's growing and we're moving forward. Determination and sticking with it is what brought me here. I hope that's inspiring to someone.”  This is very inspiring indeed.

Lutz Building Enterprises provides a wide spectrum of market offerings to clients. They run the gamut from residential to commercial construction.

From interior renovations to painting, and from drywalling to flooring; as well as finishing decks, fences, even custom woodworking. They are flexible, agile, and open to almost any type of construction project.

In the world of business today, competition is fierce everywhere and anywhere. Of course, being located in a small city like Red Deer, this business fact of life is that much more prevalent.

This challenge, however, can be surmounted by being readily available to clients’ inquiries, questions, and requests. As well as being fair, accurate, and transparent with your prices.

As Thomas puts it aptly: “as long as customers know where you're at, you can do pretty well. But if the other guy has a little bit more time on his hands and can reply to phone calls and emails a little bit faster, then he's going to cut you out.”

In fact, it is this particular trait in Thomas that is giving him the strong competitive advantage over his competitors in the marketplace. Being honest with his pricing, having attention to details, especially those details that the client haven’t thought about during the planning process.

Thomas is always willing to explain the whole process clearly, precisely and point out things at the beginning so that clients know what to expect rather than being surprised at the end. It is operating with integrity and not taking advantage of people, whether they know a lot about renovations or nothing at all.

Being an ambitious entrepreneur, Thomas envisions the future of his construction business blossoming into a much bigger entity, having five to ten employees working full time, taking care of multiple renovation projects simultaneously with himself evolving into a project manager role.

Thomas ends his inspiring story with a potent advice to budding entrepreneurs:

“There's a lot of temptation to get a full-time job. But if you're really passionate about what you do, and you really want to build your business, you just need to power through sometimes, which is a lot of work, but the payoff of being your own boss, do your own thing, and build your own business is worth it.”

If elephants could jump, they would jump up and down with excitement of this marvelous Alberta business.

Jumping Elephant came about after a long and successful career with large agencies in the digital space. Sarah Kirkpatrick, founder and owner of the business finally decided to become her own boss and help small and medium size businesses market themselves online through the power of social media.

The genesis of the idea, however, happened long before that. With entrepreneurial blood running through her veins, inherited from her Mom who was also an entrepreneur. Origins of the idea began when Sarah was in school. She started helping family members and friends market their own businesses. This raw talent caught the eyes of some big digital agencies, who ended up hiring her full time. Thus, launching her successful digital and social media marketing career.

Today, Sarah runs a full-fledged and successful boutique digital and social media marketing agency with a cohesive team of sub-contractors doing many different tasks, such as blogging, social media content creation, web design, and digital marketing, just to name a few. She also works directly with small and medium sized businesses valued between $1.5 - $7 million in the capacity of a Fractional CMO.

Simply put, a Fractional CMO is having a ‘fractional’ marketing executive to help companies increase their return on marketing spend through digital marketing strategy, team development, implementation management, customer acquisition, and company growth. The business gets executive experience without the full-time cost.

This third pillar of their market offering was recently developed in response to a dire need in the small to medium size business world for specialized expert digital marketing services that go above and beyond the traditional social media support services, but without the full time expenses.

In terms of what challenges that could face startups and budding entrepreneurs in the online world, Sarah deftly advises: “get your email list started from day one, get some funnels in place, start collecting those emails, even if you're not using them now, you will want to use them in the future.” Sound advice indeed.

Jumping Elephant specializes in organic digital marketing. This includes, building digital marketing strategies for clients and building social media and blogging campaigns tailor made for their businesses. All that in addition to their excellent online courses on digital marketing, which can be registered for through their website.

The unique niche that Jumping Elephant has chosen, coupled with Sarah’s all-encompassing formal education and practical experience, in addition to the absence of costly overheads, all contribute to their competitive advantages in their marketplace.

Sarah’s dream five years down the road is to settle down in Victoria, BC by the ocean, while remotely running Jumping Elephant, which hopefully would become its own entity as an efficient engine running smoothly by a reliable and skilled team.
One final thought from Sarah is her recommendation to small business owners to take advantage of her free online course on how to optimize their social media channels.

Her last sage advice is:
“It doesn't take very long to polish your presence online and make it look that much stronger and more reputable for your audience, and it will make a measurable difference.”