That was probably what was going through the mind of Tom Brady last night as the Super Bowl came to an end. It is also something I have said to myself over the years as a fly shop owner. Well, if the plans we have in play at the moment continue on their current path we may end up having the opportunity for a fly shop “re-do” because we are another step closer to launching a second location. Stay tuned…

With the recent demise of the only fly shop on the Grand River we have been doing some ground work to determine if opening a second WILSON’S store in Fergus or Elora makes sense – and we are currently leaning very heavily in that direction. To that end we are now accepting resumes so if working in a fly shop is something that interests you please forward a cv outlining your fly fishing and work experience to Jim@CanadasFlyFishingOutfitter.com

As I sit at home battling the proverbial “mother of all chest colds” it is emails like the one we received this week that make all of the effort of running a fly shop worthwhile. It is always gratifying to receive words of praise and we thank Ken for taking the time to let us know what he thought about our hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek.

“I just joined your site & was totally AMAZED that u had a hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek. I have had a 35 foot trailer 20 ft. from the creek at a gun club for 23 yrs now & many members fly fish. I have taught many younger & older members how to fly fish (as I have been doing it for about 45 yrs) & taught my 2 kids boy/girl how to fly fish at the age of 5. I will shortly be ordering a few of your flies [and] will definitely be giving your address to everyone here & am sure they will pass it on to all their friends… I am very glad I found you! Ken”

If you would like more information on hatch charts for the Grand River, the Maitland River, the Saugeen River, the Credit River, the Nottawasaga River, the Humber River, the Boyne River Nd other fly fishing destinations in southern Ontario please go to the Members area of our site. It is free to join our Fly Fishing Club and we trust you will like what you find!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LMm2xBurbX0

I read a book a few years ago by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, entitled Winning and the message resonated with me as an entrepreneur. This may sound like a strange statement coming from the owner of a lowly fly fishing shop but our store is a business nonetheless and the message I read applies as much to us as it does to a multi-national corporation. Mr. Welch talked in the book about viewing business strategy as a living entity and explained that once a business determines the strategy it wants to pursue it has to hire the right people, seek out best practices, commit to continually improving the plan – and work like hell to achieve it. I took notes as I read the book and put them into a business planning document that I pull out on an annual basis for review to see if our fly shop is still on the right track.

The document I put together first asks about our current playing field: our competitors, the characteristics of their businesses, their strengths and weaknesses and who their main customers are. It goes on to explain how to analyze competition, our progress, our thoughts for the coming year and what we believe is our next winning move. Our winning move in 2011 was getting our online store live and it has thankfully started to add to our bottom line as planned. We have three winning moves planned for 2012 and while all are still in the works we know that if we pull off just one of them we will change the face of fly fishing retail in Ontario if not Canada. This is a very bold statement to make but one that we stand by.

We have been running a fly shop for almost 14 years. Let’s see if we can turn it into a business in the next 100 days…