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World Of Maps - A Global Success with Local Roots
 Brad
Green and Petra Thomas, World of Maps co-owners, credit OCRI's Entrepreneurship
Centre with helping to put their business on track for success. Brad, a
cartographer by profession, knew he had a great idea, but also realized he needed
professional advice. He took advantage of many of the Centre's valuable resources,
including:
- Attending numerous OCRI seminars while writing the start-up business
plan.
- Seeking professional consultation from the Centre's legal and accounting
advisors during the start-up phase.
- Gathering valuable demographic information from the resource centre
library.
- Meeting with staff business consultants to refine the business plan.
- Consulting with the Centre's experts during expansion and development phases
for validation of business plans.
- Seeking advice on specific questions, from lawyers and tax consultants
- i.e., whether or not to open a US bank account.
Specifically, Brad had this to say about the Centre:
"The Entrepreneurship Centre was a great resource
that every entrepreneur should use. The seminars which were available at the
outset offered the most value for me. It's not possible to have too much knowledge
- in fact, it's better to have too much so there are no surprises. This way,
you can prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Thank goodness for the
good information and advice available from the Entrepreneurship Centre - still
used and appreciated by World of Maps."
What were the concrete results of Brad Green's well-prepared business
plan?
- First year sales were on track with forecasts in the business plan.
- 1998 sales were double those of 1997.
- Gross sales for 2000 were approximately $1 million.
- World of Maps now employs both owners on a full-time basis, has 4 full-time
staff and 3 part-time staff.
- The store has gone from a 1,000 square foot facility to a 2,500 square
foot facility.
- World of Maps has deployed an e-commerce web site that has drawn
clients from a worldwide demographic. Its 24x7 capability accounted for 15%
of sales in 1999 and is growing.
- The commerce now provides links to World of Maps suppliers and inventory
systems
- Brad Green was invited to be a panelist on the Ontario Regional Roundtable
in June 2000. Brad represented the panel's "business-to-consumer"
success story and spoke to 300 SMEs about the "international trade implications
of e-business".
- World of Maps was a featured success story in an Entrepreneurship
Centre ad campaign which ran in the Ottawa Citizen, the Ottawa Business Journal
and several other local papers.
Background
 World
of Maps is a retail and mail order business located in Ottawa at Wellington
and Holland. The store's mission is to provide maps and travel publications
to anyone who needs them, anywhere on earth. World of Maps has shipped maps
to customers as far afield as Iceland, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan.
World of Maps is an authorized Regional Distributor for all Canadian government
maps and charts produced by the Canada Map Office (CMO). The store is also
a major distributor of Canadian topographic and aeronautical charts.
Brad Green, a cartographer, believed there was an opportunity to offer a comprehensive
selection of maps and travel books to governments, embassies, travelers and
other interested parties - all from a central, convenient and sole-source point.
World of Maps opened its doors in 1994 and hasn't looked back since.
For more information on World of Maps, please visit their
website.
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