With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1510895
F I N A L I S T Austin Tran C O - P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O , R A Y A C O M G R O U P n T H E K I C K O F F : Austin Tran was a second grader in Edmonton when he had his first brush with entrepreneurship—via selling his drawings of comic book characters to classmates for $2 each. Flash forward to 2004, a year after Tran graduated in electrical engineer- ing from the University of Alberta, and he had fully embraced the life of a business owner by building a printing company called Rayacom. "Digital printing was an emerging field back then," he says, "because printing was done through old mechanical presses." n A C T I O N P L A N : Bad news came with COVID—Raya- com lost major clients in hospitality and travel. The good news? Tran is a problem-solver. "I stumbled into Costco one day," he says, "and I'm like, Wow, this place is still super busy. We need to target this industry." So he bought equip- ment to convert printed paper into corrugated boxes and packages and started packaging goods for food manufacturers supplying to Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods and the like. One company ordered 5,000 boxes from Rayacom to try out. Their next order came in for 100,000 boxes, and then half a million. "To take on these larger contracts, it's about efficiency," says Tran. To put that into perspective, Rayacom purchased Chinese machines that pro- duce 100,000 pieces an hour instead of 10,000, effectively making it 10 times more efficient as a company. And Tran's knack for problem-solv- ing doesn't stop at work—he actually prefers replying to customers after hours. "Some customers respect you more and respond to you better when you message them at, like, midnight," he says. "We landed some accounts just through late-night messages." n C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Supported by a team of 75, Rayacom is a print, sign and packaging company with headquarters in Edmonton and offices in 12 other locations in Canada including Vancouver, Calgary, Richmond, Burnaby, Kelowna and Toronto.–R.R. F I N A L I S T Cory Wright F O U N D E R A N D M A N A G I N G D I R E C T O R , W I L L I A M W R I G H T C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E S T A T E S E R V I C E S n T H E K I C K O F F : Cory Wright appreciates good customer service—a background in the hospitality industry will do that. But according to Wright, your average commercial real estate brokerage doesn't foster quite the same, well, hospitality. "I think in commercial real estate, and maybe real estate as a whole, the customer service aspect kind of gets left behind," he says. "We're often dealing with people's largest assets they'll ever own; we need to understand that and take care of them." He founded his full-service commercial real estate brokerage Wil- liam Wright Commercial (William is his middle name) in Vancouver in 2013, with the goal of eventually expanding to seven offices provincewide. n A C T I O N P L A N : Instead of going all-in on primary markets, Wright chose to focus on secondary and tertiary areas—a gamble that paid off astronomically during the pandemic, as many folks chose to move away from big cities. " COVID amplified the livability and the population growth in those markets," recalls Wright. Additionally, he says, his brokerage really shines when it comes to aftermarket attention. "In our industry, a lot of people close the deal, get paid and you don't hear from them again," he explains. Through follow-ups, client events and local charitable initiatives, Wright ensures that his company remains connected to the community long after the ink dries. Management-wise, he preaches leading by example. Being the first one in the office and the last to leave may be an old-school cliché, but that's the way Wright rolls. n C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Wright's customer service-centred approach has resulted in a tremen- dous growth in clients (which he describes as "anyone from a large- scale developer acquiring land to a 300-square-foot mom-and-pop coffee shop"), in sales ("this year we'll prob- ably come close to $9 billion in total transaction volume) and in offices (the seventh William Wright Commercial Real Estate location opened in Parks- ville earlier this year). He's hit the goal he set a decade ago, and has plans for further expansion. In the day-to-day, his passion for the work remains: "I love putting deals together—no two are the same, so it keeps things very exciting."–A.H. Q & A DE S C R I B E YOU R DR E A M E M P L OY E E I N T H R E E WOR D S : Probably Tiger Woods. ODD JOB YOU ' V E H A D ? I worked for a landscaping company for one day. I shredded up an old lady's fake grass... I didn't get a call the next day. Q & A W H AT WOU L D YOU R C O - WOR K E R S S AY I S YOU R G R E AT E ST ST R E NGT H ? Being able to problem- solve, being loyal and being independent. W H AT D OE S S UC C E S S L O OK L I K E T O YOU ? The company is growing, the team is happy and we're creating a product that the world needs. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 43