“I truly do believe that entrepreneurship is about solving people's problems,” said Minhas.
In our seventh episode, our host, the co-star of Dragon’s Den, sits down and chats with leader and entrepreneur Erin Bury. As CEO of Willful, Bury leads a company that helps simplify end-of-life planning, making it easy for Canadians to protect their family by creating a legal will online.
Bury is also a former Financial Post columnist and CTV News tech reporter who advises multiple start-ups, serves on the board for Save the Children Canada, and is co-chair of the #Tech4SickKids initiative for SickKids Hospital. She was also named one of Bay Street Bull’s “2021 Women of the Year” and was one of Marketing Magazine’s 2012 “Top 30 Under 30”.
In our podcast episode, Bury shares helpful advice and encouragement to other would-be entrepreneurs, while also demystifying many of the misconceptions and hesitations associated with end-of-life planning. Minhas asked Bury why she feels there’s hesitation among women to create and have a will.
“One of the first reasons is a lot of women are not making these decisions alone,” said Bury. “They're sitting down with a spouse to create their will to talk about things, like who would the guardians of our children be, and they don't always have buy-in. We hear all the time from women that their spouses are so reticent to discuss this – ‘I don’t want to talk about death, Oh, stop bringing that up’ – and so they just put it off themselves.”
However, Bury says that a will is an individual document, like a tax return.
“You don’t need to wait until your spouse decides they have their butt in gear for you to actually get these things done,” says Bury. “So, it's really about taking charge, as an individual to put an estate plan in place, even if your spouse is very reticent.”
Before co-founding Willful, Bury began her journey as an entrepreneur while on an excursion with some friends in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
“It all started with a visit to a winery, as all great ideas do,” said Bury. “We looked around and there were all these stretch limos driving people around to wineries. I thought ‘all the wineries are so close together, and other places like Napa and Niagara have bicycle wine tours, why are they not doing that here [in Prince Edward County]?”
That thought led Bury, and two friends, to start The County Wine Tours, a company that offers bicycle wine tours.
“That was my first leap into starting my own business,” said Bury.
That entrepreneurial first step eventually led to her co-founding Willful.
“As an entrepreneur … when you’re someone who works your butt off, it’s really nice to work your butt off for your own company,” she said.
You can listen to the full episode here or on your favourite podcast streaming app.
Learn more at ig.ca/women.
