In this episode, we explore what it's like to run a small business in Strathroy-Caradoc by talking to the owners of two local businesses: In a Jam and CommonWealth Financial. Listen to find out how they got started, how they grew their businesses, and what it is about Strathroy-Caradoc that creates the ideal environment for them to thrive. 

Debbie and Jeff McCallum are the owners of In a Jam in Melbourne.

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Patrick Sanders is the co-owner of CommonWealth Financial in Strathroy.

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• Facebook

Strathroy-Caradoc is a growing and vibrant municipality centrally located in southwestern Ontario, Canada, between Toronto and Detroit. We are a dynamic combination of urban and rural areas which provide opportunities for a range of business and industry.

• Economic Development website
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• Instagram: @strathcaradoc

Learn more about the Strathroy business community via the Downtown Strathroy BIA and the Strathroy & District Chamber of Commerce.

About the Growing Strathroy-Caradoc podcast

Strathroy-Caradoc is a place where people and businesses grow deep roots. With a population of 24,000 people. It would be easy to assume that Strathroy-Caradoc is a sleepy part of Southwest Ontario, but new residents and businesses—from independent shops to multinational power players—are flocking here. Listen to the Growing Strathroy-Caradoc podcast to find out why.

If you’re an investor, learn about our value proposition, key sectors, and available properties at investstrathroy-caradoc.ca.

The podcast is hosted by Michelle Samson and produced by Storied Places Media. Learn more about our podcast production services for economic development organizations at storiedplaces.ca.

I always describe Strathroy -Caradoc as the place

2

to do business in the area

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Michelle: welcome to the growing

Strathroy-Caradoc podcast.

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I'm your host, Michelle Samson.

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And I'd like you to join me as

we explore Strathroy, Kara doc.

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And what makes it a place where

people and businesses grow deep roots.

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Let's start with some basics.

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The municipality of Strathroy care doc

is 40 kilometers west of London, Ontario,

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just off highway 4 0 2 towards Sarnia.

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This municipalities largest community

As you might've guessed is Strathroy.

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There are some smaller communities

to Mount bridges and Melbourne

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and lots of rich farm land.

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With a population of 24,000 people.

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It would be easy to assume that this

is a sleepy part of Southwest Ontario,

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but Strathroy care doc is thriving.

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New residents and businesses from

independent shops to multinational

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power players are flocking here.

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You might be wondering,

what's attracting them.

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That's what we're

answering in this podcast.

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This first episode we'll explore what

it's like to run a small business in

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Kara doc, we'll do that by talking

to the owners of two local businesses

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in a jam and Commonwealth financial.

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we'll cover how they got started,

how they grew their businesses.

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And what it is about Strathroy

care doc that creates the ideal

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environment for them to thrive.

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Let's get to know our guests a bit better.

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We start with the owners of, in a

jam, a handmade jams, jellies, and

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preserves business in Melbourne, Ontario.

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Debbie and Jeff McCollum are a mother and

son team with very deep roots in the area.

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Debbie's family bought a

farm in the 18 hundreds, and

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they've been there ever since.

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Debbie/Jeff: My brother still lives on

the home farm so yeah, that farm's been

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in the family for probably 200 years.

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over 150 anyway.

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And then my husband's family have been

in that in the Dutton area for probably

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just as long, so we're pretty Scottish

and pretty I'm more familiar with the, uh,

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Dutton side of that, but yeah, they're,

the roots go back pretty much just as far

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Michelle: our other guest,

Patrick Saunders is the owner of

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Commonwealth financial, a financial

planning company in Strathroy.

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He was raised elsewhere, but has come

to embrace this community as his own.

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Patrick: I grew up in Peterborough

County out in the country next to

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my grandparents' dairy farm, So

I grew up wanting to be a farmer.

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So shortly after going to the University

of Guelph, my family decided to kind

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of wind up the dairy operation and my.

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Plans changed course a little bit.

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So if I couldn't farm then I

figured that helping other people

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farm was kind of a noble pursuit.

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I was hired on by a Farm Credit

Canada as an account manager.

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writing mortgages, approving credit, and

helping them build successful businesses.

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They said, we have a

spot for you in London.

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I said, that's cool.

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Where's London?

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And uh, so I happened to land in this

area and, uh, I was living in Ilderton

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at the time, just north of London.

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And that's where I met my

future wife, Stephanie.

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And, uh, she just grew up south of

Strathroy, so thus I kind of started

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hanging around the Strathroy area.

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after Stephanie and I were married,

this, this is where we wanted to

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live, and this is where I've been

in Strathroy for about 15 years now.

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Michelle: So you were really like

not even familiar with the region.

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what were your first impressions

of Strathroy when you came here?

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Patrick: Yeah, my first impressions

was really how nice of a town it was.

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it was clean, it was vibrant,

and it had everything as well.

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uh, I mean, it had food, it had

recreation, it had professionals,

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banks, sports, medical, you name it.

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But Strathroy still had

that small town feel.

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To it because that's the, that's

the sort of thing that I was used

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to growing up and that's really

what I wanted to emulate when I was

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going to set down roots somewhere.

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So It was kind of the perfect balance.

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Michelle: 15 years later, his

impressions haven't changed very

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much aside from seeing the community

with more of a business perspective.

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Patrick: it's such an up and coming

community there's been a ton of new

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investment into here, you know, in,

in the parks and rec department and

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in the infrastructure of town as well.

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Uh, you know, there's been a lot of

new building coming in, so a ton of new

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houses have gone up and it's attracting

young families, lots of new businesses.

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As well and uh, just about any

type of food that you care to eat.

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You can find it in Strathroy And,

uh, you know, there's so many

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small businesses small businesses

really are hidden treasures,

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Michelle: I don't know about you,

but I love a business origin story.

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I just had to know how these two

small businesses got started.

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For debbie in a jam, wasn't something

that she started right away.

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Debbie/Jeff: come from a family.

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So sometimes I was in charge

of helping get meals ready

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or I help my mom can a lot.

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um, I have a diploma in, um, consumer,

consumer community studies, which is

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basically home economic technician.

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and after I graduated from that, they

kind of changed where you get jobs.

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And so I worked in a grocery store

for a while and then I cooked in

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a daycare for, 10 years or so, and

then my father-in-law passed away.

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So I went home to help my husband farm.

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He's a beef farmer.

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And I just wanted something

to do with my own.

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So I always canned a lot, so I thought,

now I'll start a little jam business.

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I think the first year I did like,

made 200 jars, went and picked all the

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strawberries and all the fruit and stuff,

and did some farm markets and stuff.

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some of 'em were like, well,

would you like to make jam for us?

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then it just kind of blossomed from there.

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Michelle : In a jam didn't just blossom.

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It kept growing and growing until

it outgrew Debbie's kitchen.

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She had a decision to make.

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Debbie/Jeff: I just started my home

kitchen and, um, you can kinda get

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away with it for a little while,

but if I wanna do this more,

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then I need an inspected kitchen.

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So I, we built a kitchen onto the house

and within five years it wasn't big enough

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.

So it's like, do you build more onto a farm that you're never gonna sell?

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'cause if you ever do wanna sell your

business or whatever, what do you sell?

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Right?

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So, um, I saw this building

had come up for sale.

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It was empty.

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it was close to home where it's only

like 10 minutes away from where we live.

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And so we said, well, let's,

this is the next jump.

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So this is, we bought, it took

about a year to, it was pretty

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much gutted when we bought it.

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um, we renovated it all.

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It's all in the wiring, new

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and basically the kitchen was in

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Since,

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Michelle : How big is the space?

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Debbie/Jeff: 50 by 120 something,

200 maybe, kind of thing.

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Yeah.

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So it's not, I mean, the retail part's

not terribly big, but that's not

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where we, that's not our business.

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Basically.

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It's the wholesale or the

co-packing for other, farmers.

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So other markets.

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Yeah.

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Michelle : oh, interesting.

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So And can you explain co-packing?

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Debbie/Jeff: somebody's

a strawberry farmer.

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They'll bring us their strawberries and

make it into Strawberry Jam for them, and

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then they'll take it back to their market

and sell it either with our name on it,

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or quite often with their own name on it.

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That's probably 80%, 90% of our business

is co-packing or wholesale For Patrick,

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his journey to buying Commonwealth

financial, wasn't straightforward either.

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Patrick: So Commonwealth Financial

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When she was kind of approaching the

end of her career, she approached

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Stephanie and I about working with her.

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With the option to purchase if

things had progressed well and

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honestly, we said no at that time.

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Uh, I mean, we had a new baby at home.

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Um, my job at Farm Credit Canada was

going very well, and, and I just wasn't

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interested in the career change Stephanie

eventually jumped on board about a year

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later, kinda, she was coming off maternity

leave with our first and uh, started

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working in the insurance department.

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I had moved on from working directly with

Farmers, and I was running farm credits,

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equipment dealer finance programs, so

working with the tractor dealerships

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and heavy equipment dealerships.

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my territory was Windsor to Kingston.

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And as north as Barry.

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I loved my job But I was traveling every

back road in Ontario and I felt like I

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was missing out on the first few years I.

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Of my daughter's life and

that did not sit well with me.

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and eventually I accepted

the offer as well.

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So, after three years of working at

Commonwealth Financial, we worked out a

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financial package and a transition plan,

and Stephanie and I took over ownership

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Michelle: Unlike Debbie, Patrick didn't

have to build a business from scratch.

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However, that doesn't mean that

it wasn't without complications.

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Patrick, as he mentioned, had

a transition plan to make sure

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that it all went smoothly.

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Since there was going to be a period of

overlap with the original owner and he

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was buying the business with his wife.

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He also wanted to have a partnership plan.

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As an advisor and as someone who has gone

through a business transition personally,

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He highly recommends thinking about

these things before they become an issue.

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Patrick: any.

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Business transition is difficult and,

and I don't care who's involved in that.

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It could be family, it could be best

friends, it could be total strangers.

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Everyone looks at the business

today and the business in the future

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through a different lens because

we're all at different stages of life.

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oftentimes it's not the hard issues

like the money that are holdups

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or the major talking points,

it's more of the soft issues.

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You know, what happens in

the case of dishonesty, what

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happens of the case of divorce?

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What happens in the case of disability?

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What happens in disinterest as well?

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One partner wants to leave and

the other partners still want

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to be a part of this as well.

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So if you can kind of.

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Move through those talking points,

you know, it, it's an extra layer of

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complexity when you have family involved,

not just, you know, aunt to niece and her

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husband, but also for Stephanie and I.

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You know, talking about, well, what

happens in the case of a divorce?

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You know, it's not just who gets

the kids on weekends, it's, we have

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this business to deal with as well.

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We have employees.

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So it's, uh, it got into a lot of deep

conversations, but I believe that we all

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walked away from the business transition,

satisfied because every single person

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in it was committed to its success.

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Marilyn did a fantastic

job through the transition.

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She stood behind the decisions

that were made even when they

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weren't her own, and that's a tough

thing for a business owner to do.

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She communicated with the

clients early and often.

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This was the plan that she was on board

with this and that she lets Stephanie

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and I be the face of the company as well.

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So when the founder of the

company is excited about it,

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it rubs off on everyone else.

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Michelle : Like Commonwealth financial

in a jam is also a family business.

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Debbie makes the product with some

help from her sister and her son.

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Jeff is managing the office.

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But unlike Commonwealth financial,

Debbie and Jeff readily admit to not

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being as thorough about planning.

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It's Patrick.

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Debbie/Jeff: we get along good.

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So yeah, we've managed so far.

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We, my daughter works her dad

farming, and my son works with

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me in the kitchen here, So in

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Michelle : It's probably way too early

to say, but like, do you think this'll

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be sort of a generational business?

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Like do you think it'll keep going?

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Debbie/Jeff: Whatever.

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I guess he decides he wants to do.

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Maybe she says she's

gonna die at the stove.

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we're not planners.

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We're a reactionary family.

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I, I say that sometimes it's,

uh, you want succession planning.

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Well, there isn't any here.

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Not yet You deal with it when

it has to be dealt with, so,

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No plans to retire yet anyway.

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Yeah.

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Debbie has been added for 20 years

and neither she, nor the business are

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showing any signs of slowing down.

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Earlier we heard about how Debbie

scaled up her kitchen, but she still

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makes her jams the old fashioned

way and a big pot on the stove.

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Michelle: She recently gave some thought

to scaling up to a commercial sized kettle

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Debbie/Jeff: we looked at it this year

actually, and it's like, um, no, I

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can do it just as fast as a big pot.

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I have three pots on the stove and you

just circle them through and you can

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pretty much do it almost as, as quick.

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happy with, you know, the small pot

that only makes 12 jars at a time.

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Right.

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It's not a good day, like strawberry

Jam and I can do 300 jars in a day.

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So that's not bad.

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You start getting the bigger pot,

you, your, your taste changed.

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Like, ' the long you cook it, it's

gonna change the flavor of it.

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Right.

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So it's gonna just, bit of

a brighter, fresher taste.

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Yeah.

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More of that fresh from the field.

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Picked it's a smaller batch, um, trying

to preserve the best of the season.

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And we get a lot too, because it's small.

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They'll say, oh, this tastes

like my grandma made wanna

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stay with that part of it too.

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That it's, it's brings

back memories, right?

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That it tastes familiar,

it tastes like home.

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So, yeah, like I said, you get bigger.

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You're just a, you're just,

you're just Kraft or you're just

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Smuckers or whatever kind of thing.

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Michelle : It's worth preserving

the flavor because in a jam

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can get high quality produce.

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They're in a prime fruit growing region

and they make the most of that fact.

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Debbie/Jeff: We buy as

much local as we can.

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So yeah, it doesn't always work.

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It'd be perfectly local.

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Um, we do carry the Foodland Ontario logo

on things that we are able to put that on.

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Um, trying to be conscious of quality and

local produce as much as possible, and

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probably in that order, sometimes local,

some things are hard to find locally

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of the quality that we're looking for.

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but other things are really easy to find

locally, like strawberries, blueberries,

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raspberries, easy to find local and

happy to support their market for sure.

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Michelle: Relationships are

a key part of any business.

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in a jam works very closely with

those markets building mutually

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beneficial relationships to

receive the best quality produce.

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Which makes the best quality preserves.

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For Patrick, one of the relationships

that he pays a lot of attention to is

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his relationship with the community.

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Every year, he allocates

a portion of Commonwealth

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financials profits to giving back.

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The people of Strathroy paradox.

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See and appreciate that.

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Creating a positive

cycle for his business.

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Patrick: so our business is very

active in the community in a number of

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different ways We run a free parking

day at the hospital on giving Tuesday,

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right at the start of December.

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We run a food booth at the

Alveston Rodeo and donate the

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proceeds back to the food bank.

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We do an annual donut day where we

hire the donut diva food truck and

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just hand out bags of mini donuts.

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all of this is just done to

put a smile on someone's face.

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Michelle: And so by supporting the

community so much, do you feel that

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support back from the community as well?

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Patrick: Yeah, absolutely.

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We do feel it.

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And, and I mean we feel it, um,

number one, because we feel it's a

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big part of bringing new people in

the door when they see us out in

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the community, when we can talk with

them and we can kind of find those.

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People that recognize what we're

doing and we get referrals

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from those people as well.

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Uh, you know, hey, I saw you

supported this community event.

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Had to tell my neighbors about it.

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By the way, they want to

come see you next Tuesday.

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So, it's a great big

circle and everyone wins.

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Michelle : Over their years of

operation in a jam has built a

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strong customer base of regulars.

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Many of them are locals, but Debbie and

Jeff say the retail shop doesn't only

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have to rely on the local market because

there are lots of buyers traveling

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through who are willing to drop in.

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Debbie/Jeff: A lot of people from

the Chatham area come through.

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because they're, a lot of 'em

are going to into, um, London

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for appointments and stuff.

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They don't like the 4 0 1 drive and

they like, it's kind of a halfway

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stop and they can pick up some stuff

and yeah, And local people too.

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It's just a little bit of everything.

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Yeah.

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We have a variety of

customers come through.

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I would say there's a wide

swath of different demographics.

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You have, uh, some of those older

generations coming in that maybe used

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to can themselves, but don't have, you

know, aren't able to or don't want to do

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that effort anymore, but it still tastes

like what they used to make at home.

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Um, there's products like chili sauce

that some people are like, this is how my

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grandma used to make it, and we get some

younger people coming in at Christmas.

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We have gift baskets and stuff,

and it really drives a lot of

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sales at Christmas as well.

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It's a busy and then people that want

local, I mean, there's a lot of, uh,

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local push right now, which is really

great that, uh, the consumer market is

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looking at valuing locally made products.

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And, uh, we do have a lot of people

that come in just because it's local

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or it's fresh or they know, we also

have a large variety of products.

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So if you're looking for obscure jam

that you can't find in the store, there's

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a good cha Well, I mean, depending, I

still get a few requests that are like,

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oh no, we don't have that one, but.

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You have a wider variety of

jam flavors in our store.

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Michelle : what are your top sellers?

325

Debbie/Jeff: Strawberry, raspberry,

blueberry, black current.

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Pickles.

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Lots of pickles.

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Yep.

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Dill, pickles.

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Uh, chili sauce sells really well.

331

Chili sauce sells That.

332

Sells well.

333

Yeah.

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Some very dedicated, uh,

SEIL marmal egg customers.

335

Yep.

336

Yep.

337

red pepper jelly sells well as well.

338

Yeah, the basics are always

probably our best sellers.

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Both in a jam and Commonwealth financial

are small businesses that are thriving.

340

I wondered.

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Is there anything about Strathroy Cara

doc, That's contributing to their success.

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Here's Patrick's response.

343

Patrick: I always describe Strathroy

Caradoc as the place to do business

344

in the area, and it was something

that I noticed fairly early

345

on in, in my time living here.

346

Strathroy had everything to do business.

347

It had all the major banks.

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It had a high quality

of financial advisors.

349

It had accredited law firms, it had

top accounting firms all of the kind of

350

background pieces that go into running a

business were all available here in town.

351

And I, I mean, on top of that, it has,

builders, it has real estate agents,

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manufacturing, medical strathroy I

just learned was a regional hub for

353

business and a lot of our small towns

kind of filter into Strathroy as a

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place to come and do business because

it's pretty much a one stop shop.

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So personally, five years ago,

the lease on our office space was

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expiring, and we had the opportunity

to kind of reimagine the business

357

and where we wanted to operate.

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You know, did we want to

move closer to London?

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Did we want to go to Kmca?

360

Did we want to go out to the smaller

towns outside of Strathroy as well?

361

We really had no other clear

number one choice but to want

362

to be in Strathroy still.

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So we ended up buying the

building that we're in right now.

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We renovated it to our standards

and we've really never looked back.

365

So through that process, we used

local real estate agent, we used a

366

local builder, we used local tech

and IT guys used local electricians.

367

So my opinion of the quality of

business, Strathroy is fairly well

368

founded and it's stress tested as well.

369

And again, when we were going through the

business transition to have our lawyer

370

and corporate accountant and everyone just

down the street from one another, it was,

371

it really aided in the transition and the

ease and efficiency of doing all of this.

372

Michelle: you guys are part of

the Strathroy Chamber of Commerce.

373

Um, uh, has that been valuable for you?

374

Patrick: Yes, it has.

375

Uh, the Chamber of Commerce has

been a very valuable resource

376

for us for a number of reasons.

377

Firstly, it's the opportunity

to connect through and with

378

other businesses in the area.

379

What I've found before, and I

did not appreciate this before, I

380

was a business owner, it can be a

bit of a lonely island at times.

381

Because lots of people are employed, fewer

people are self-employed and, and that's

382

not, uh, one is better than the other.

383

But being a business owner

comes with a lot of challenges.

384

So, you know, it, it's really great

to connect with other business owners

385

to put your heads together on, how

do we work through these challenges.

386

Michelle : In a Jan has different

needs than Commonwealth financial,

387

but Strattera care doc provides

what they need to here's Jeff.

388

Debbie/Jeff: I mean, really at

the end of the day when We're

389

working here, we're looking at a

spot that we can, produce things.

390

So it's like convenient

as far as finding produce.

391

We have a blueberry farm just down the

road, strawberry Farm, just down the road.

392

So we can pull fruits and vegetables

in that are local pretty easily.

393

We're just between the

4 0 1 and the 4 0 2.

394

So accessibility to getting, uh,

things to us isn't that hard either

395

just down the road from London for

supplies, which is convenient as well.

396

Um, And then our customers

are mostly within the county

397

or the neighboring county.

398

So our customer base is here as well.

399

So it's really convenient that way.

400

I mean, we work with the health unit

locally and they're, they've been

401

great to work with that way as well,

as far as if we do need something,

402

they're easy to reach out to and yeah.

403

Michelle: So, what does the future have

in store for these small businesses?

404

In a jam is at capacity for wholesale

customers, but does plan to keep

405

tweaking their product lines to

draw in more retail customers.

406

As for Commonwealth financial, Patrick

is eager to continue their steady growth.

407

I asked him if he saw growth

potential within the local market.

408

Patrick: Absolutely we do.

409

And, and you kinda look at,

well, Strath Care doc has been

410

growing itself quite a bit.

411

You look at the new developments

and housing and you look at.

412

The businesses that want to come into

town and, and to employ and, and I mean,

413

you look at the average median household

income in Strathroy, it's almost $72,000.

414

that's great income to run a household on.

415

You look at the median age of about

44 years old, while these people are

416

in their prime working years, they're

saving for their kids' education.

417

it's such an up and coming.

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town that we absolutely love being here.

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Michelle: Big, thanks to Patrick

Saunders from Commonwealth financial

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and Debbie and Jeff McCollum from

inner jam for sharing their stories.

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More information on both businesses

can be found in the show notes.

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If you'd like to open your own small

business in this community, visit

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invest Strathroy dash Cara doc.

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Dot CA.

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Next time on the growing Strathroy

Caridad podcast, we're talking to

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insiders at two of Strathroy paradox,

fastest growing manufacturers.

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I'll be asking them why they've

chosen to do business here.

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What's keeping them and all

about their growth plans.

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Follow us on apple podcasts, Spotify,

or your favorite podcast platform

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to make sure you don't miss it.

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Growing Strathroy, Kara doc

is produced by storied places.

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Media.

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Thanks for listening.