Boiling Point - Episode 120 - Scott Williams & Jayne DeMerchant and Taylor Printing

Local First

Show Notes

Local First

Introducing Jayne DeMerchant & Scott Williams and Taylor Printing

We have all heard the expression, “buy local.” Many of us make the effort to go local and it often means a better quality product and sometimes means a few extra dollars. However, beyond a few buying decisions how can we encourage local collaboration amongst businesses and a real “union” of local purchasing?

This week’s guests, Scott Williams and Jayne DeMerchant came up with a unique way to encourage business to work together in New Brunswick. Scott and Jayne are executives at Taylor Printing Group in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The printing moniker may be a bit misleading, however, as they are more of a communications company that offers printing as well as web based products, email campaigns, SMS marketing, and much more.

Scott and Jayne are big proponents of supporting local and they came up with an idea to do just that. A few months back, Scott came up with an idea to have a 24 piece puzzle where each piece would correspond with a New Brunswick business but none of the other businesses would know which other businesses were involved. Each business would develop clues to each piece and the group that could decipher the businesses first would win money to donate to a charity of their choice. Not only would this game introduce a number of businesses to each other but it would also give them an opportunity to network with one another, develop relationships, and support a worthy cause.

Check out this week’s episode of the Boiling Point to see how you can encourage local business working together in your region.

In this episode

We reach Scott going through customs and immigration and Jayne is in studio with us.
We learn about how Jayne and Scott began to work with each other through the Wallace McCain Institute.
We learn about Taylor Printing and how they have become a leader in Atlantic Canada.
Scott tells us why he opened Taylor Printing as Atlantic Canada’s first print start-up in 25 years and how it is different than his competition.
We learn why it is important to Scott and Jayne to support their local community and especially their local businesses.
We learn about Taylor’s unique puzzle competition.
Greg talks about the negative and incorrect mythology in Atlantic Canada where we feel that we need outsiders for quality work.
We are given the secret to a number of companies that took part in the puzzle competition.
Greg challenges our listeners to figure out strategies to encourage “local first”.
Dave is inspired by the idea of local companies collaborating for the common good.