A decade of connections

Times Reporter   

  

Wheatland Business Women (WBW) held an evening to celebrate 10 years of making connections on Oct. 6. The guest speaker Tonia Jahshan, founder and president of Steeped Tea Inc., was the keynote speaker of the evening. 

“Tonia was just the perfect fit, she epitomized everything we stood for, the goal setting, the ambition, the drive, the balancing the family and your own personal desire to succeed so she was just the perfect fit,” said Jill Crossland, one of the WBW founders.  

Crossland founded WBW with Eliza Hogan of Community Futures Wild Rose, who provided the initial resources and funding to get the group going. Hogan also bought on board Jeanine Jameison.

“I found Tonia to be really inspiring and real, one of the things I enjoy about her is how grounded she is, and (when she speaks about) the truths of just the basic things, setting goals, having a passion about something all those things I know really work for helping somebody grow their business and follow their passion and vision,” said Marcy Field, chairperson for WBW.

Jahshan spoke of how she and her husband Hatem began their company. They had taken a trip to Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia and discovered a cream of Earl Grey loose-leaf tea. Tonia was immediately in love, and purchased some to bring back for everyone at home. Things grew from there; she began hosting tea parties, and within six months was up to 20 parties per month. She decided to turn it into a direct sale company, following a Pampered Chef, or Tupperware sales model. 

Again the business seemed to grow and take off. In 2012 Jahshan was wondering what was next, and decided going to the U.S was the next step she wanted to take. When she saw Dragons Den was auditioning in Hamilton, Ont. she felt like that was the best way to break into the U.S. market. She made a specialized tea for each of the Dragons and pitched the idea to them, asking for $250,000 for 20 per cent of the company. The Jahshans were given three different offers, something that is rare from the Den. Since then the business has grown even more, and it has taken the family a year to do in the U.S markets what they had accomplished in five years in Canada. Steeped Tea is currently ranked #17 as the fastest growing company in Canada. 

Jahshan was also the last speaker for the WBW the group has officially dissolved as of the Oct. 6 event. 

“It’s quite an honour and privilege to be their last speaker, I hope I ended it on a good note,” said Jahshan. 

“I was going to do it anyways (speak for the WBW) before I knew about the tour, but I knew that I was going to be coming out here anyways to meet the consultants so it kind of collaborated with my five-day tour I’m doing out west.” 

The plan for her is to keep focusing on the growth the company is going through. She has the U.S to tackle and plans to start doing some tours there. 

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done, we never made the big noise but I look at the women in this room and I know where they started and where they are now, I know we had a little bit to do with that,” said Crossland of the dissolution. 

Though the group is no longer active, there is one last thing they want to do, and that’s hold a business town hall meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21 from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Days Inn & Suites. The event is open to all current and potential business owners who want to figure out what the business community could use next.