Manitoba youth entrepreneurs develop their business acumen in mentor-led after-school program

Aishmeen Brar didn’t always know she wanted to go to business school.

But something clicked the night Brar and her team won prize after prize at an award ceremony for a popular after-school business program in Manitoba.

“Our team didn’t even have a chance to sit down. The next one’s being announced and it’s, again, us,” Brar said.

“That’s why I joined Asper School of Business. The moment we got that award, later on I got my acceptance (letter to Asper), and I was like, ‘great, maybe this is my path.’ JA really brought that to me.”

Junior Achievement (JA) Manitoba is a youth entrepreneurial organization that works with, and is funded by, businesses across Canada. Twenty-six mentors from partnering businesses devote one evening a week for 22 weeks – on a volunteer basis – to guide the students.

More than 250 schools throughout Manitoba participate in JA each year.

The now 19-year-old Brar went through the program twice, which she describes as giving students the skills to understand every aspect of business creation – from products to corporate structures and strategies.

The first time was with the company Nova, which handmade and designed wooden plant labels. Then came Colour Moi, a Winnipeg-themed colouring book that cleaned up at last year’s awards.

“Every single meeting, we would be motivated,” Brar said on the reasons behind the team’s success. “We would be like, ‘hey, we’re gonna win this. This is ours.’ We wouldn’t be like, ‘if we win this.’ It would be like, ‘when we win this.’”

Colour Moi won a bursary, company of the year, best website of the year, best trade fair booth, best shareholders’ report, and best innovative product.

“We were all crying, we were hugging, we did a chant,” Brar said.

That Colour Moi was so successful at the Junior Achievement award ceremony was no surprise to the organization’s president and CEO.

“Their marketing was absolutely terrific,” said Greg Leipsic, who has been involved with JA Manitoba for 12 years. “They were set up at St. Vital Centre (and) Kildonan Place, as we will be in the coming months. And their marketing on their booth was incredible. Their website was terrific. Their social media presence was great.

“I think it really connected with parents, because parents just thought, ‘I’m tired of putting an electronic device in front of my kids.’”

Leipsic explains most students often already have the “entrepreneurial bug” when they first sign up to JA. “Our job is to really jack it up,” he said.

“I think every year there’s always a number of students who say they’re going into law school or dentistry or they’re gonna be an electrician. And then all of a sudden they do our program and they go, ‘nope I’m going to Red River (College) or the U of M and I’m taking a business course.’”

Now a first-year student at Asper, Brar is no longer eligible to take part in a third year at JA. But that didn’t stop her from going back – this time as an advisor.

Brar is one of three advisors guiding the roughly 20-person team from Transcona Collegiate for their business Hears and Heritage – a multi-ethnic cookbook with family recipes from diverse communities such as Filipino, Indian, Ukrainian and Indigenous.

The 19-year-old says the idea first came about, naturally for a cookbook, around a meal.

“We were eating, but then at the same point, people were thinking, ‘oh I want to bring in something from my culture,’” Brar recalled. “And then we were like, ‘oh, how do you cook this?’ And then we were leaning into that idea of recipe books, and then people really built off it. They’re like, we want that home feeling, but then with all the diversity that Canada brings and Winnipeg brings in.”

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She says it’s a celebration of unique cultural backgrounds.

“We really hope that people connect with the team and then people connect with each other,” she said. “The moment you open the book, you see something from back home and then you’re like, ‘oh I remember making this with my mom. I remember making this with my grandma.’”

Manitoba family’s business success story

JA Manitoba success stories are everywhere in the province.

Take Lenny Baranyk, the president of Pratts Wholesale Ltd., who went through the JA Manitoba program when he was in high school.

“I think we went to Kildonan Place back then and had a trade fair and sold our picture frames which we made,” he told CityNews.

From picture frames to heading one of Western Canada’s leading food service distributors, operating a business has always been in Lenny Baranyk’s blood.

Pratts Wholesale was acquired in 1980 by Lenny’s parents, Leonard and Eleane Baranyk, who transformed the company and expanded to British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and the territories. Pratts now employs more than 600 people.

“My parents had the business, it was much smaller,” Lenny said. “So to go from the lunch room table to a board room table is a big difference over the years, but it was kind of the goal one day to be in business with my parents and be just like them.

“We started as kids playing in the warehouse back on 457 William Avenue. Back then it was 4,000 square feet with less than 10 employees. We went from eating candy to selling candy to where we are today.”

Eleane Baranyk tells CityNews it was always her late husband’s dream for their three sons to join the company – turning it into a true family affair. The sons each operate a different part of the business.

“The kids have worked with us and our employees helped us to get to where we are and without them, we wouldn’t be here either and everyone else that’s helped us,” said Eleane, the treasury secretary of Pratts.

“We’re fortunate, we’ve all worked as family to get where we are today,” added Lenny.

Eleane says she thinks about her late husband every day.

“He was a good husband, good father, he was a good friend to everybody at work,” she said of Leonard. “His belief in life was, if you’re doing well, try to help other people be successful, too. He always said never be greedy and be proud of what you are, who you are, but never feel that you’re somebody you’re not. Be yourself, that’s the most important thing in life.”

Manitoba Business Hall of Fame

The Baranyks’ success is being recognized by JA Manitoba this year, with Pratts Wholesale being inducted in the Business Hall of Fame – an acknowledgment of a company’s growth, leadership skills and philanthropic efforts in Manitoba.

But it’s not just the late Leonard and Eleane being honoured – the entire family is receiving the award.

“We were very honoured, surprised and very honoured,” Lenny said. “We thought for sure it would be my parents, which they deserve very much so. But for us as well, Jason, Jeff, myself, three brothers, we’re very excited.”

An induction gala is being held June 24.

“I’m very proud,” Eleane said. We’ve worked very hard. My husband worked very hard. It’s too bad he’s not here today to see where we are.”

Eleane credits the JA Manitoba program for sparking a real interest in business in the province.

“It takes time for people to get to where they want to go, but it’s an important step,” she said. “It gets them thinking, to start from the beginning where your life is gonna be. And it helps you and makes you think.”

Being successful in business is all about hard work, the Baranyks say.

“It’s like walking up that ladder,” said Eleane. “You’ll get there one day but it takes time, it’s not built overnight. It takes years.”

“Obviously study hard. Meet the right people,” added Lenny. “Never burn a bridge, you never know who you’re gonna run into the next day.”