You have an idea for a great product, and you’d like to make it in Canada, but you can’t source all the raw materials you need from within Canada. Have you considered importing them?

If you’re new to importing, the idea can be intimidating: where can you get the materials, what are the regulations, how do you protect your money and how do you get them here?

In this recording, WeBC Business Advisor Archana Samtani Singhania sat down for a conversation with women business owners who import materials or packaging for their products.

Watch this recording and learn:

• How to identify and source raw materials for importing
• Common mistakes to avoid when it comes to contracts, duties and shipping costs
• When and where to seek help

Facilitator: Archana Samtani Singhania, WeBC Business Advisor
Panelists:

• Allison Boulton, Founder, Aslin Canada Trading
• Toni Desrosiers, Founder & CEO, Abeego

About the Panelists

Allison Boulton
Sustainability Advocate #EnviroAlley, International Trade Advisor, SME Mentor
After living in China and the Middle East for three years, Allison returned to Vancouver to work as an International Trade Advisor with Small Business BC, and started her own firm assisting entrepreneurs grow globally. While abroad, she completed her MBA and worked as the China Director of Marketing and Trade Sales with an importer and distributor of North American beverages. Prior to moving overseas, Allison was the Director of Operations for a boutique Canadian winery with exports to over 20 countries.
Her enthusiasm for travel and for understanding how people live around the world has led her to explore over 30 countries. She uses this experience to help clients understand, not only the regulations of international trade, but also the country’s cultural differences that are so vital for businesses looking to succeed in the global marketplace

Toni Desrosiers
Founder & CEO, Abeego
Frustrated by plastic wrap for the last time, Toni Desrosiers took matters into her own hands. In 2008, she invented beeswax food wrap, disrupting the billion dollar plastic wrap industry and sparking the world wide trend for beeswax wrap. On a mission to Keep Food Alive, the Abeego team is rewriting the story on fresh food preservation. Hellbent on debunking the “airtight” myth, Abeego offers food wrap that protects and breathes, mimicking nature’s peel to keep fresh food for what feels like forever. Abeego is B Corp Certified, proudly made in Canada and uses pure Canadian beeswax to make Canada’s leading beeswax wrap.