BCBusiness

B r i t t a n y W o n g PrinciPal , Bash + Fete age: 28 the story: Brittany Wong's entrepreneurial career launched at the age of 10, when she started a neighbourhood dog-brushing business. At 23, she was intro- duced to event planning as an intern at Brand.Live, where she worked on high-profile events ranging from the Olympics and Live at Squamish to the Celebra- tion of Light fireworks and the Grey Cup. After a stint with Mediaco, where she worked on Oprah's Western Canadian speaking tour, Wong launched her own company, Bash + Fete, in 2012. While B+F also has corpo- rate clients, Wong discovered a niche for producing and plan- ning bar and bat mitzvahs. "It's a three-day affair," she says. "I often find budgets for bar and bat mitzvahs are almost double or triple what the average wedding budget is." Beyond B+F, Wong co- founded the Vancouver chapter of the Shoebox Project (which collects small, useful items for women living in shelters), co-founded the Wish Gala in support of the Children's Wish Foundation, and co-founded the Lipstick Project (with fellow 30 Under 30 finalist Leigh Boyle), which provides free professional spa services to patients in hospi- tals and hospices. Markers oF success: Bash + Fete has grown from a bou- tique one-woman show to employ- ing four full-time and six part-time staff, plus 50 event vendors. Rev- enues increased five-fold between 2013 and 2014. —Felicity Stone J e s s i c a c r u i s e Founder and ceo, ViBes Fitness inc. age: 27 the story: Growing up with four brothers and playing golf in a town with very few female golfers, Thunder Bay, Ontario, native Jessica Cruise was used to being outnumbered—which would prove good training for the future entrepreneur. In 2008, armed with a diploma in golf course operation management from Victoria's Camosun College, Cruise took a sales job in Kelowna with a condo development company. On a whim one day, she decided to do a free trial workout on vibration equip- ment at a nearby gym. While she knew nothing about the technology behind the machines, the results surprised her: driving home the same day, she recalls trying to put her foot on the clutch "and my quads were shaking—they were so fatigued." She bought a month-long membership, fell in love with the machines and realized the business potential in crafting a customized workout where people would receive instruction from a personal trainer on using the highly efficient, low-impact equip- ment. "The machines were amazing," she says, "but the people running the gym were not training people on them; they were essentially just renting them out for 15 minutes." Less than a year later, the first Vibes Fitness opened in Victoria. Markers oF success: Relying almost solely on word-of-mouth marketing, Vibes Fitness now includes four franchised locations in Victoria and one corporate-owned studio in Vancouver. Cruise has plans to open more loca- tions in the Lower Mainland and eventually go nationwide, but finding the right owners is her priority. All of her franchisees are former clients, she notes: "We want people who love what they're doing." —Alix Drabek 3 0 u 3 0 "Arlene Dickinson. She's such a strong female role model, and I think she's creative and authentic" who insPires Me to succeeD FroM leFt: Jessica cruise, Brittany Wong, leigh Boyle 30 BCBusiness april 2015

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