Buy a Company and Build an Empire with Jamie Crozier

Talk to me a little bit about what that offer looked like and dude, were you scared?

Like, did it freak you out a little bit?

It did.

It.

I realized after the fact that I'm okay accepting risk.

And I think as an entrepreneur, you have to be okay with accepting some form of risk.

And you know, always there's ways to lower your risk and, you know, to lower an internal stress.

But I found out that I'm pretty good at accepting the risk knowing that I have only one person that I can blame and it's myself and.

But it's the same person that you can also believe in.

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more.

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Let's do it.

Welcome to to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 319 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Jamie Crozier.

Jamie didn't grow up dreaming of becoming a business owner.

He started in industrial sales, learning how to talk to customers, build trust and and grow accounts in Northern Ontario.

But in his early 30s, something shifted.

He realized he didn't just want to sell for companies, he wanted to build them.

That realization set off a rapid and deliberate transformation.

Jamie went on to acquire Thunder Bay Hydraulics, the very company he once worked for, and then expanded further by acquiring Custom Hydraulics and launching Atlas Elite Lifts vertically integrating manufacturing, engineering and product innovation under his leadership.

Today, he stands at the helm of multiple companies, shaping the future of hydraulic systems and custom lifting solutions across Canada and the United States.

But Jamie's story isn't just about ownership.

It's about stepping into uncertainty, navigating the brutal realities of Canadian manufacturing and building it anyway.

It's about making bold decisions in the face of tariffs, competition and risk.

And it's about discovering, often later than expected, that you are capable of far more than you ever imagined.

Jamie represents a new generation of Canadian entrepreneur.

Those who don't wait for permission, don't follow traditional paths and don't settle for watching from the sidelines.

They step in, take Ownership and build their future with their own hands.

Jamie, it is an honor and a privilege to have you on our stage today.

Thanks for coming.

Oh, man.

Thank you so much.

That's such a great intro, man.

Wow.

Well done.

It is, yeah.

It's very fitting, man.

It's very fitting.

We're both pretty much the same age.

Both started our entrepreneurship journeys a little bit later in life, and so I just kind of feel like we have that in common.

A little bit that, like, camaraderie of entrepreneurs.

But, you know, when we met for the first time, obviously.

Shout out to Zale Moranski for making that introduction.

Zale's been on the show a few times.

Awesome person.

Love that connection.

I love that relationship.

But he's like, kelly, I got somebody you need to meet.

And Zale is such a connector and obviously made this connection for us.

You two are both members of Founders Club, I believe.

That's right.

Such a.

Such a great guy.

Have the chance to meet with him in December as well.

And he, very much a connector, knows so many people, especially in the Toronto market.

But great, great guy.

Totally, totally.

But, yeah, you know, and then we had our first introduction conversation, and I remember kind of during that, just being like, man, like, this is going to be an awesome show.

Just first off on entrepreneurship, because I love talking entrepreneurship.

I love talking, taking that leap.

And we're gonna.

We're gonna speak a lot to that today, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of founders, they need that kick in the ass.

And we were talking about that before the show today.

That's right.

We all need that kick in the ass.

Right.

For me, it was, do you have a plan for the future?

Because your job is probably going away.

And it was like, oh, time to make a move.

Right?

Thankfully, I made the leap in entrepreneurship.

It's been a challenging road, but a fun one, an exciting one.

We've done a lot.

I've done more in the last five years than I think I did in the previous 20.

And that just is the.

That just is what it is.

It just really accelerates everything for you.

I've met so many incredible individuals.

This show, the greatest thing that comes from a podcast, it's not being known.

It's not the personal brand.

It's all of the connections you make from having them, all the interesting, incredible individuals who you get to have conversations with, you know, And I would say, like, the growth that I've.

I've been able to have.

And, like, I say, it's a learning experience every time I'M having these interviews with, with experts like you.

I'm learning, and it's being able to have those learning experiences every single week and those connections that have just been so powerful, so powerful.

And, and I always tell people when they're saying, well, I'm building a business, I say, well, you have to build a business, but you have to build the community that supports that business to you.

The community, I think, is the critical factor that a lot of people aren't talking about.

So true.

You know, the community is one of the most important things for me right now.

You know, trying, trying to support our local communities.

So I live in Thunder Bay and huge, huge advocate for local businesses, especially locally owned businesses.

And I, you, you know, we didn't know this, you know, 15 years ago, 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago.

Didn't know how important that community is, but it is ultra important, especially when you find people who are just willing to support you no matter what, and you support them no matter what.

And, and it's a, it's a very beautiful thing.

Well, and the entrepreneurship community isn't cutthroat.

Like, people seem to think, well, I think we have this, like, weird view that, like, everybody's out for themselves and doing their own thing.

And I would say I have yet to ask an entrepreneur for help and for them to say, no, go screw yourself.

I think every person I've ever been like, hey, I'm in this challenge.

What did you do?

They've always made the time to say, I've been there.

I've done that.

Here's what worked for me.

It might not work for you, but it worked for me.

And maybe you could try it.

And, you know, like, over the past year too, we've been building our own community called the Catalyst Club.

Probably seen it pop up here and there on LinkedIn.

Yeah, but the Catalyst Club is just that.

It's just entrepreneurship support community.

We got people from all walks of life, all sizes of business, all places in the world.

We have people from Germany inside Catalyst Club, people from UK inside Catalyst Club.

And so we're getting kind of that, like, vast experience.

But the one universal thing is the willingness of leaders to help other leaders and so build that community.

People.

It is absolutely powerful.

And I kind of made a. I made a comment earlier this year around Christmas time, when I was writing all my goals.

I kind of made the statement that I think that 2026 will become the year of community.

And I think if nothing else, by the end of the year, every leader is going to find themselves in one kind of community or another.

Right.

Whether it's Founders Club or whether it's Catalyst Club, whether it's BNI or some of these other large network groups, I think you're going to see a gigantic shift of people looking to find community.

I agree 100%.

And it reminds me of an old Steve Jobs quote that said, you know, I never found anyone who wasn't willing to help me if I didn't ask.

And yeah, so I, like, I remember there was, you know, some old quotes where he was trying to figure out spare parts for an HP printer and you just phoned the company phone, the CEO said, this is what I'm doing.

And it's like, who are you?

But yes, I'm going to help you.

And you ask for that help and you try and be vulnerable in your position, people are there to help you.

Like you said, people view business as a bit cutthroat, but it is not like that.

And if you find a community who's willing to help you, it is, it is a really, really cool thing.

When I think about some of the stuff that it brings me the most joy or that brings me the most happiness is being able to help another entrepreneur, like, get over some sort of a hurdle or figure out a problem or I can connect them with someone else that I know who can help them.

That, that's like one of the, the coolest things that I can do.

The, the, the thing that brings me the most joy.

Yeah.

Yeah, I absolutely love that.

I, I never taught business development before I started a podcast.

I had a business development firm, Capital bd.

We still operate it, still do BD retainers and fractional leadership and all sorts of stuff.

But that was, the original kind of path that I was on, was like, I, I am a service provider and, and what I didn't kind of realize was that heading out here and teaching business development every week was that people were going to start to ask me to teach them business development.

As crazy as that sounds, Jamie, I never planned for it.

And so about midway through, I want to say, about a year into the bdp, one of our sponsors reached out, was like, hey, would you mind doing like a one hour talk with our team and just teach them business development as best you can in one hour.

And I did that talk, Jamie, and it just set me off on a completely new path.

I enjoyed it so much.

I had such a great time doing it that it kind of pigeonholed into okay, I think I like teaching.

I think I like teaching.

People.

And so that kind of pigeoned off into, okay, well what if I started doing coaching and put together a one to one coaching program?

Well, I did that and what I found was I get so much joy from teaching other people, more than I ever got in the service provider thing.

And don't get me wrong, I like providing services.

Like it's still a big part of our business, but it's not the most joyful part of my business.

Most joyful came from teaching.

So I, I resonate with that immensely.

So cool.

And you know, being able to provide support to, to someone else or another business who's, who's really trying to do something cool or innovative or, you know, hard and I can provide them with a little bit of support.

I, I think it's the best thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Well, let's get into it, man.

How did you end up on this path?

Who is Jamie Crozier?

How did you end up on this, this wild entrepreneurship journey?

Take us to the beginning.

It's really, it's really kind of a slow progression and not one that I would have ever thought that would have happened.

I started out of high school, I didn't really know what to do.

And so I was like, okay, my path is to go to university and I go to university and somehow I get a job out of university.

So, so I went, I went to the University of Ottawa.

I studied political science and philosophy of all things.

And, and out of there there are no jobs in political science or philosophy or not ones that are readily available.

And so my first job out of university was at a dollar store stocking shelves at a dollar store.

And I think I was about three months in and I said, this is, this is not for me.

This is not what I was meant to do.

It's, it's boring.

It's, it's monotonous.

It's.

I believe that I meant for something different.

And I started searching around and I came across an industrial sales position as an outside salesperson.

And I said, I have zero experience in sales, but I wanted something a little bit better than the dollar store.

And I reached out to them, interviewed them and they, they said, this is what the job is like.

Do you like talking to people?

Are you interested in commission sales?

And I said, I'm going to give it a try.

I like talking to people.

I like trying to, you know, make their lives easier or better.

And it was really cool.

And I, because of that opportunity, it got me thinking about sales.

It got me thinking about building a team.

I became A branch manager after that, after a couple of years in the outside sales world and I started building a small team and I found really great joy in building a business, you know, taking it from.

From ex sales and growing, growing that.

And then it brought me a lot of joy in building sales team, a salesforce and an operational team underneath.

And it was really, really cool.

And from there I got an opportunity to come to Thunder Bay Hydraulics and I started off as a operations manager and then as a.

As a vice president and then about a year and a half ago, got the opportunity to buy it outright.

And I haven't looked back since.

It's been.

Wow, it's been really cool.

Yeah.

I'm not sure I've interviewed a lot of people, Jamie, but I'm not sure that I've interviewed too many who have had that path, who essentially worked their way up and then eventually bought the business.

So I actually want to spend some time there today because I'm sure we have people listening.

And those executive roles, maybe they're VPs, maybe they're directors of operations, and maybe at some point down the line that that offer might slide onto their desk.

Talk to me about that.

Did you ever plan for that?

Was that part of the plan when you started at Thunder Bay Hydraulics?

Walk me through what led into the purchase itself.

It was, it was.

Quite honestly, it was never part of the plan.

When I first came on board, I think the plan, like, to be honest, I did not know what business ownership was when I first came on.

It was.

It was more like, hey, this is a cool opportunity to manage a team and to grow a business, which I knew how to do.

I knew how to grow a business and I knew how to build the sales force.

I knew how to get customers, especially in the B2B world.

But business ownership was not on the top of my mind.

In fact, I didn't quite understand what it was.

And one day the owner and I sat down and he said, you know, I'm.

I'm not a young man anymore.

And, and I think that I, I need to start thinking of succession plans.

And he said, would you ever be interested in.

In owning Thunder Bay Hydraulics?

And I said, to be honest, I've never really thought about it, you know, because you sometimes when you're in those roles, you're.

You're really in the day to day, like, you know, getting customers and building teams and there's problems and, you know, all these things.

And so I never, I said I never really thought about it.

And, and So I took it home and, and I, and I came back the next day and I said, I'm really interested in this.

I'd like to learn more about, you know, what my, what my responsibilities are, what your responsibilities are, what my role is, how do I do this?

How do I do this?

And he, he spent a lot of time with me going through, you know, how, how to deal with a lawyer, how to deal with an accountant, what the business needs from an ownership standpoint.

And he was really good that way.

And.

Yeah, and, and I said, yeah.

So we started off with a small percentage.

Yeah.

So I, we started off with, with a small percentage back in 2023 and then we did the, the full thing in, in 2024.

So.

Wow.

Okay.

Okay.

I want to spend some time here because we haven't talked, we've talked to people who've done business acquisitions, but not in the same way that you did, not as an employee who turns around and buys the company.

So that's really cool.

There's a couple firsts here.

It's that the second first is we've actually never talked to anybody in hydraulics.

So I'm, I'm kind of interested to chat about hydraulics and manufacturing and stuff too.

I want to spend some time here because I think a lot of the value for our listeners are in the process of buying this business.

The steps you took, the lessons you had to learn along the way.

Because like you said, even when you go to business school, I'll argue you don't know how to run a business.

Like, there's really nothing like running a business to, to learn how to run a business.

And so a lot of entrepreneurs I speak to are really in that grind.

They're like, I know how to be an employee, I don't know how to run this company.

And that's, you know, I mean, and now you have to wear both hats.

Especially for a lot of entrepreneurs who are solopreneurs are just getting started.

They might have one or two employees, but they're wearing every hat and learning how to run a business at the same time.

And we talked about it before too, and social media now, which is the, what I say, the full time job nobody signed up for.

It's true.

So there's a lot to it.

But yeah, let's go back into the purchase itself.

So talk to me a little bit about what that offer looked like.

And dude, were you scared?

Like, did it freak you out a little bit?

It did.

It.

I, I realized after the fact that I, I'm Okay.

Accepting risk.

And I, and I think as an entrepreneur you have to be okay with accepting some form of risk and, and all, you know, always there's ways to lower your risk and, and you know, to lower an internal stress.

But I, I found out that I'm, I'm pretty good at accepting the risk knowing that I have only one person that I can blame and it's myself.

And, but it's the same person that you can also believe in.

Yes.

And really the best person that you can believe in is yourself.

And when I went through the process, it was very difficult, Kelly.

Like, very difficult process.

The business had been in the owner's family for 55 years.

Wow.

Is very difficult and a very emotional process.

You know, despite me knowing the business, despite me working for the business for five years, still very difficult.

You know, I learned a lot, which is why the second acquisition went a lot faster and a lot smoother.

But you know, I found out that you have to do it yourself.

As in like you have to go through the motions.

You have to build the relationships with your bank, you have to build your relationships with your accountant, you have to build those relationships with your lawyers because those are the things that will keep you through that process.

So don't, you know, my advice to people trying to do the same thing is don't rely on the relationships that the business has already because that will not serve you well.

Rely on the relationships that you forge yourself.

That, that is what's going to make that process easier and you will do very well if you do that.

Walk me through, you know, the purchase itself because I think a lot of people, especially in a similar position, they don't have that kind of money lying around to just buy 15 or 20% of a business.

Walk me through that portion.

For my case, we did a total share purchase, but I was able to use the value of the building and the value of the assets to, to finance most of the purchase.

So a lot of, a lot of small businesses are, small to medium sized businesses are sold with a VTB vendor take back clause.

So this, this ties the old owner with, with you, ties it to the success of the business moving forward and, and allows you some freedom from the bank and you know, allows you to meet your debt covenants.

So we did, we did something pretty traditional which is a deposit plus a vtb.

And then I used the assets of the business, basically, I. E. The building and I used that to borrow the money to give him, to give him the deposit.

And then we were able to Push out the VTB over five years.

So it's pretty traditional.

I did something very similar on the second acquisition as well, where basically we use the assets of the company to, to borrow against, give, give the owner the deposit and then tie a VTB to the success over that one was three years, I believe.

Okay, okay, that's amazing.

And actually the last conversation that I had regarding acquisitions also said that that is one of the better ways to go about doing it that you almost want to, you don't typically want to just buy a company right out and lose the owner and lose all that stuff in one go because you can end up in some real big trouble real quick and have no, no way to get help.

That's right.

And you, you want them on your side.

And you know, the bank wants to see that as well.

That, that gives, that gives your finances a little bit of comfort there because they, they want to know that the old owner isn't just going to walk away with the money and just leave the business hanging.

And so like I, I was in a better position than, than some people coming off the road.

I knew the business, I knew the customers, I knew, I knew what it needed.

I knew, I knew what had to let go.

And so like, you know, it was very good in that regard.

But the second acquisition, I didn't know anything.

And so like, you know that, that VTB is a huge component.

It shows the bank, the old owner is, has a vested interest in the success, the long term success of that business.

Amazing.

Okay, lead me into the custom hydraulics acquisition.

What, like first off, what made you decide that you're like, I think I need to look at acquiring this company and then walk us through the steps that you went through in order to acquire them.

It was a, it was a lot different than the first one.

So it, and I had to be very careful because it was, it was our main competitor in, in our small market.

So I, I had heard of rumor that this business might be for sale and that, you know, the guy, the guy was looking to retire, the owner was looking to retire.

So very gently and very carefully.

I gave him a call and I said, you don't know who I am, but I am wanting to know if you're interested in selling your business or at least in talking about it.

And I think it was a little bit reluctantly, but he said, okay and he said, come see me, but I need you to promise that you don't tell anyone what's going on.

And this needs to stay between you and I.

So I said, okay.

It's very.

Because the privacy part mattered a lot to him.

Yeah.

Especially as we were in.

In direct competition.

Okay.

And so I said, okay, no problem.

Didn't tell us all.

We had a really nice conversation.

He got to know me, I got to know him to know his business a little bit.

Although the first couple of question, first couple of times that we talked, it was kind of.

I was just feeling him out.

Who you like, who are you?

He was trying to feel me out.

Who are you?

Why are you interested in my business?

And I took it very slowly, and I really wanted to get to know him.

And I.

And I knew that he wanted to get to know me.

And I think I left it for three, three to five months, maybe three or four months.

And then I brought it back up and I said, do you want to continue this conversation?

And he said, not too sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, let's.

Let's continue the conversation.

So we met again, and he said, are you seriously consider buying this business?

And I said, I am.

If you really want to sell, I'm very interested.

So we, we came to agreement on the price very, very quickly on that one.

And, you know, we made it work from, from a financial standpoint.

And it was.

I had to be.

And I had to trust him a lot on this one.

So he shared some, some data on the business to make sure that it was financially viable.

But he also asked me to trust him a little bit because he did not want me to talk to any of his employees, and he didn't want me to go into the business because of the confidentiality.

And.

And so I trusted him a hundred percent because of who he was as a person.

Yeah.

And.

But it was a little bit of a blind trust, and it, it really worked out because he, he was a really great person.

And yeah, that acquisition went really, really well.

Very smooth, smooth process.

And, and obviously had learned quite a bit after doing the TBH one.

How important was establishing that trust up front?

Because I feel like buying a business is kind of like buying a used car.

You don't really know all of the ins and outs of what you're going to get.

Right.

There has to be some level of, like, I think this guy's legit.

Right.

Walk me through that, because it sounds like you really felt it out.

You got to know each other first.

How critical was that in the success of this acquisition?

Yeah, I think it was the most important part, to be honest.

You know, the finances matter.

They have to make sense.

The, the asset values have to make sense.

But.

But if you don't have that trust going in, all.

All the other stuff does not matter.

And, you know, those early days and having those conversations.

We met for coffee, I don't know, a dozen times.

I want to say.

And, you know, he's telling me about his kids, and I'm telling him about my kids, and, you know, my.

My family.

And we got to know each other on a personal level, and I think that was really critical.

And that came first.

And then we discussed the business after.

Yeah.

And.

And I think without that, you're.

I don't think it's going to work.

And.

And some people, you know, some people will say it's only about the finances, it's only about the assets, but it's gotta.

It's gotta work on a personal level as well.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

I always say, like, you know, I've been in business development a very long time, sales and BD at this point, nearly 20 years.

The.

The relationship or the conversation you have before the business is always more important than the business itself.

I always say, don't worry about the business.

If you're in a business meeting, you're gonna get there.

Like, at some point, someone's gonna be like, oh, we should talk about this.

But, like, you should never start there.

You should never start there.

And, you know, I mean, you're proving this right here where the relationship, the establishment of trust was the critical piece in allowing you to negotiate a deal

that worked great for both parties completely.

And.

And it's got to go both ways.

Like, I. I had to trust him, but he also had to trust me as well.

He's, you know, he's giving me his little baby that he's nurtured over the last 15 years, and he doesn't want it to.

I mean, of course he would like to get paid, but he doesn't want to give it to someone who's going to screw it up or, you know, damage the brand.

Damage the brand that he's tried to build over the last decade and a half.

And so I think that part was really, really important to him.

And.

And to me as well.

I love that you said that, and I love that it was important to you, because so many entrepreneurs that I've talked to, I've talked to some that are so successful, Jamie, they exited hundreds of millions of dollars.

Exits.

Right.

And immediately.

And there were other things, too, but, like, immediately felt extreme loss.

Extreme loss.

Like losing a friend or a family member.

Right, right.

Like, we become so connected to our businesses.

That they almost become like.

Like pieces of us.

Right.

And I think.

I think I talked to a lot of people, like, well, you can't allow that to happen.

It's like, well, yeah, but how can you not.

You poured your.

You poured your heart and soul into this thing to make it work.

Like, of course you're gonna feel connected to it.

And so, like I said, I've talked to people who've gone through incredible exits, by all accounts, made it.

They're.

They're set for life.

They're good.

But they still have to go through a grievance for the loss of their business.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

Agree.

100.

And so I love that.

Like, I guess all I'm getting on here is I love that you took it very seriously and that that that mattered.

How it happened mattered to you.

Building that relationship, showing the person that you know you do care and you do want this to succeed, and you're going to give it your all.

I think that's really, really important, and I commend you for it.

Thank you very much.

And like, it's super important for the success of the deal.

You know, without that, it likely would not have happened or would not have happened as smooth as it did.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I think the other side, too, is that you weren't just anybody being the other side of that conversation as well.

Like, I think, you know, anybody can approach business and say, like, are you interested in.

And they're not.

Be that same level of.

Well, you're my direct competition.

Right.

I think to the fact that it was your biggest competitor also gives you.

You know, I have to give you props as well, because it sounds like the way that you handled it was the best way to handle that particular situation.

And I think that situation, simply because of the nature of who you both were, could have made the whole deal much, much harder.

Yeah.

Do you have anything to kind of say to that specifically?

Because I think.

I think, like I said, anybody could approach a business and say, like, oh, you're selling your business.

Let's have a con.

But it's a whole nother thing to approach your competitor.

Yeah, that's true.

And, you know, maybe.

Maybe I'll go back to what we were talking about before it started, which is I was maybe a little bit naive and a bit bold to even approach him, but I was.

I was extremely sensitive to the stuff that he wanted to keep confidential.

And.

And, you know, as you're.

As you're buying a business, you want to know customer lists.

Employee lists and, and all this stuff.

But I knew that he was unable to give up that information.

And so I trusted him and I trusted him to, I trusted his word.

And without that, I think it would have been really hard to do, but I was extremely sensitive.

And he said, hey, I can't share that information with you.

And I said, I know, I don't expect you to, but I'm going to trust you.

And we had those conversations.

And he said, yes, you have my word.

Everything that I'm telling you is true.

And it worked out really, really well.

But it just wouldn't have happened if, if someone would have pushed hard or you know, say, hey, in order for me to do the deal, I need to find out X, Y, Z.

It just wouldn't have happened.

But yeah, I was extremely sensitive to those things.

Yeah, no, amazing, Amazing.

One of the questions that I kind of have for you is what, like, what was scarier bought?

Like the moment you bought the business or the realization of all the responsibility that just landed on your shoulders, that it's not just you, it's not just the company, it's all of these employees as well.

Talk to me about that.

Yeah, it's interesting.

So I, I go back and forth on this one.

So I, I love the pressure, to be honest.

And I think, you know, the pressure helps you do really cool things and really bold things and without, without the pressure, you just kind of are milling about.

So I, I, I, I really like the pressure and it pushes me to do some really cool things.

The part, the part that actually scared me during the process is that the fact that it might not happen.

And, and I know that people say, you know, you should take your, your emotions out of it whether it happens or not happen.

You know, you put, you put your best foot forward.

But, but I was really tied to it and I had already, you know, my mind was already thinking in a post acquisition world, okay, how do we do this?

What are, what are the things that we can do to improve processes and that type of stuff?

And then I started thinking, well, what if it doesn't happen?

And I was very scared at that point.

But the realization after the fact that it's yours and you do have those, those responsibilities, I think it's two things.

It is scary and there's always risk, risk to it.

But you know, having having those responsibilities pushes you to do really cool things.

People always ask me, what is the best thing about entrepreneurship?

And like I said, my journey into entrepreneurship so far is five years.

So like we celebrate Five years.

I'm excited about it.

Me too.

Congratulations.

But.

But, yeah, like, I. I would say that if I look back at entrepreneurship, the biggest, best thing that was given to me was the proof that I could do it myself, that I didn't have to rely on an employer to sustain my life, that I could sustain or I could sustain my life.

I think, you know, you talked about it briefly in the beginning, but the independence, the ability to make that choice, the ability to say, yeah, it's scary, but I can control some of these outcomes and I can influence what's going to happen if I look back at entrepreneurship with all the benefits.

And yes, there's been money, and yes, there's been this podcast, and yes, there's been a lot of fun along the way.

But the greatest gift of any entrepreneurship journey is the fact that at least at one point in your life, you were able to prove to yourself that you could look after yourself, truly, without.

Without the help of others.

And I kind of feel like while, yes, you still need your community, you still need people to support you, per se, but that's all business.

It doesn't matter what size, what level you need that community to help you.

But what I would say is this, is that before I was an entrepreneur, I think I would have been very afraid that, like, oh, well, if I lose my job, like, I'm always relying on an employer to help me.

Right.

Entrepreneurship cuts that tie and shows you that you absolutely can do it yourself.

And I think that that's a game changer.

You can never.

You can never go back to that person you were.

There will be a clear line in the sand from the time that you weren't an entrepreneur to the time that you were.

And what you gained.

And what you gained was independence and the ability to, for the first time in your life, truly depend 100% on your own ability.

100% agree.

I love that so much.

I'll also say it.

It's a work in progress.

You know, like that.

That is a daily battle, weekly battle where, you know, one day you can say, I have the confidence to do this, and I know that I could do it a hundred percent.

And then the next day, something really crappy will happen.

And then you're in your mind, you're like, wait a second, can I really do this?

And.

And then.

And then it goes back.

And.

And so, like, that confidence is really hard to be consistent.

But.

But you're right.

I mean, you being an entrepreneur is so cool because.

Because you have that independence and you rely on, on yourself.

It's that, that part's really neat.

And I'm not gonna say that there aren't really hard days.

There are really frigging hard days.

My, my old boss growing up, amazing guy, Selvin Adar.

I always showed him out.

He taught me so much, so much in my time working for him.

He used to say, Kelly, you know when, you know you're an entrepreneur, like you know when the real moment is.

And I said, well, what is it?

He'd say when you wake up at 2am and you are scared shitless about making payroll?

And I was like, fair enough, fair enough.

And I had that moment and I was like, oh, okay, I'm there, I made it.

But it's, it's just so funny.

There's no, like, there's no escaping the fear moments.

I think, you know, with that level of responsibility of building anything, there's going to be moments of fear.

But yeah, it definitely is that ability to say that like yeah, you have your scary moments but you step up and you get it done.

And every time you get it done, like you said, work in progress.

Every time you get it done, you get one more check in the I can do it column instead of that's right, I'm failing column.

That's right.

I, yeah, it, it, it really is a work in progress.

But I, I love it.

You know, Walk me into Atlas Lift.

So at this point you have bought two companies and then you decided, well, hey, maybe I can be a founder too.

It sounds, it sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it?

So it, the reason was we wanted a really cool brand to, to be customer facing.

And so we, we've been building actually sizzle lifts at Thunder Bay Hydraulics for quite some time.

Okay.

But, but I realized pretty early on that our product didn't fit.

What was what the market wanted?

Like, you know, we're building this in industrial, these crazy industrial scissor lifts and, and, and we're putting them in basically mansions and so it's, they're very design forward.

Everything else in the house is specked in from, from the lighting to, to the bathrooms to the faucets to whatever.

And everything fits within the house.

And then we install this like crazy industrial piece of equipment.

And I'm like something, something doesn't work, something doesn't fit.

And, and so we created this brand called Atlas Elite.

And it's really meant to for beautiful architecture, forward car parking solutions.

And I think that this is one of my favorite things and you know, the projects that we get to work on are so incredible.

And I'm really fortunate to be a part of some of these really cool house builds all across the country.

And we get to work with really great people on that side.

That sounds awesome.

So.

So you actually build lifts that allow people to essentially like, either either put their car in their home or like, is it like better car storage for their garage?

Walk me through it.

Yeah, it's an incredibly niche product.

So most of our installations, the customer wants to move a car.

It's multi level parking.

So you want to move your car from ground level to a basement level.

We have a really good solution for that.

Okay.

We're.

We're working on some other, you know, higher end car parking solutions.

So, like, storage more than car moving.

So.

But most of our customers, they will pull in on the garage on ground level and then they have basement car parking spots where they park all their show cars.

Let's call them.

Yes.

So our lifts take them from ground level to basement level.

Okay.

And if I want to put it in my bedroom, you can do that too.

Hey, totally.

You know, you know, it's nothing quite like falling asleep with your car in your room with you for safekeeping.

It is a crazy trend, Kelly.

You know, we've had customers call us recently and say, hey, I want to.

I want to park my car in my living room.

I want to display my car in my living room.

And I, and I.

It still baffles me, you know, but.

But we can do it.

It's no problem.

And I, and I go back to this.

There's a really cool hotel in Germany, and I can't remember where it is, but they.

So you pull in to the hotel, and in order to get to your hotel room, you pull your car onto the car elevator, and the elevator will actually take you and your car up to your hotel room.

Wow.

It's one of the craziest concepts that I've seen, but it's really, really neat.

I freaking love that.

I, as a dad of five, yes, please.

I want to park my car in my hotel room.

And also if you want to park your car in your living room, power to you.

I think that's incredible.

If you got the money to do that, absolutely do it.

That sounds super cool.

No, that's amazing.

Walk me through maybe some of the differences that you found in acquiring a business that already had customers, already had a reputation to having to build one from the ground up.

Walk me through that.

Yeah, it, it is like a hundred times harder to found your own company than it is to buy one because you have no, you have nothing, you have no reputation, you have no brand, you have no customers, you have nothing.

It's a lot.

Yeah, it's really, really challenging.

So, you know, like, you know, kudos to all those people who have started from zero, you know, like, like we did with Atlas, but you know, those who didn't have other businesses, it's extremely hard.

The thing, you know, again, it's about building relationships and it's about working with really, really good people.

So at, at the start you were trying to work with anyone and everyone and it just, you know, it didn't really go that well.

So we, we had to try and figure out, okay, if this is a high end brand.

We're trying to go after really cool projects.

We need to work with the best of the best.

So when once we kind of frame that in our minds, I think we started doing a little bit well, a little bit more well.

And yeah, so that, that was really hard lesson to learn at the start.

Yeah, yeah, it is, it is hard to build something from nothing.

Absolutely.

And I, and I think people get it in their head like, oh, it's going to be fast.

Pretty much everything in business is slow, people.

Everything.

You think it's gonna take longer than you thought, but it'll be worth it, but it's gonna take longer than you thought.

And so I always find like, you know, when people ask me that, you know, how long does it take to do something?

I say, look, don't worry about how long it takes.

It's consistency over time.

It's what are you doing every week to make it happen, not how long it's gonna take.

Because I don't know what you do.

My crystal ball is very broken

screw.

I think, you know, four or five years ago we thought that, you know, we'd get market share in Canada, you know, within a year.

All these other things, we'd release new products.

We do this, we do this.

None of that happened in a year.

None of it.

Some of that stuff is still ongoing now and it's, it's very slow.

But, but you're right, I mean, you have to be consistent.

What are you doing every single week to make those goals happen?

And so long as you're, you know, pushing forward and having that progress, it's, it's good.

Now we have to lead into the harder part of this conversation.

Take me into the current US trade situation.

The tariffs, the steel.

And you know, I imagine that with a lot of the products you're making the U.S. was probably a pretty big customer.

Yeah, you know, 90% of our car lifts were going into the U.S. and, and so it's been challenging, you know, for ever since March 2025.

You know, the only, the only thing I can say is our customer relationships have been very good and we've had some really long term customers and they understand what's going on.

And so we were very upfront here.

Here's the, here's the situation, here's your situation, here's what we can handle on our end and here's unfortunately, here's what we're going to have to pass on to you.

And we also got a little bit more strategic in where we were sourcing steel, where we are sourcing materials in order to build them.

So we got, I mean we learned a couple lessons so we, we actually build them differently for the US market than what we do for the Canadian market.

Okay.

So that's been pretty neat just, just where we source our steel.

And then, you know, ever since last, I think it was April, we put a renewed focus into the Canadian market because of the, because of the tariff situation.

So recently we've been, we've been pretty successful getting back into the Canadian market where we might have been a little bit neglectful in the past because you know, everyone loves selling in US dollars and it's, it's a big market.

There's a lot of stuff going on.

But renewed push back into the domestic market, which, which has been really cool to see.

Yeah, amazing.

Like has there been a, and this is, you know, I mean I'm, I'm putting you a little bit on the spot here.

But it's more so that I just want understand what this means because I don't get to speak with a ton of manufacturers.

One of our biggest sponsors is Hyper V Technologies.

They build vacuum trucks and they ship them around the world.

The United States used to buy like 80% of their product.

Yeah.

And so like that hit until they got it figured out.

And they did get it figured out.

So let me just give them a kudos.

They did a great job.

They did get it figured out.

They're back to selling to the US and all as well.

But that's awesome.

There were some moments there where me and Colin, the, the, the President have become very good friends over the years and there were, he's the most optimistic person I've ever seen and there were moments when I saw him get really, really dark and he's like, I, I'm really scared.

Like I'M genuinely scared for the future of what we built here.

And so, so I, I want to chat with you because I, I know that that's got to be incredibly scary.

And I think we got to talk about the realities these, these tariffs, these challenges with our biggest trading partner across the border are serious, and they're having major impacts on businesses.

What did it mean, like, what happened to you guys?

Like, has it been significant or have you been able to really turn this thing back around?

That's a, It's a great question.

So this has happened before in, in 2019, I think.

And so ever, ever since 2019, we started writing tariff.

Tariff clauses into contracts.

You know, potential.

Okay, so we're a little bit smarter the second time, but still, it, it, it affects your customers.

And so, like, it.

We were in the same position as, as he was in that, you know, all of a sudden our products got 50% more expensive.

How can, how can the customer handle 50% more?

And there were some very dark days early on in those conversations, and it was like, why?

Let's just close, you know, let's close that division.

We're going to not manufacture sizzle lifts anymore.

We're going to stick to our local market on the core services, and.

Because they just wouldn't have been competitive.

But, you know, lengthy conversations with, with some major customers in the US and, you know, they, they were the ones actually that kind of reassured us and said, we're with you guys.

You know, we're.

We're with you for the long haul and, yeah, we want to see you succeed.

And, you know, even, even so far as to say, you know, they, they apologized for their own president and all this stuff happening.

And, and so that was really cool to get.

I, I guess the commitment on the customer side is really, really neat.

Yeah.

And, and so that was helpful.

And then, you know, and then it was a disaster again when we got our first tariff bill.

And how are we going to pay this?

How are we going to, you know, negotiate that with our customer?

And, you know, so there was some like, you know, weird, weird dark days early on.

But, you know, to, to have those really cool customer relationships early on, that was, that was really helpful.

Walk me through, man.

Yeah, walk me through that.

Like, walk me through that.

Like, what.

When you get a tariff bill, what does that look like?

It's a lot of money.

And, you know, it's due basically immediately.

So we were handling all the freight.

And I know it's not the same for every manufacturer, but so we were the one Actually handling the freight.

This is something that we've been doing for our customers for a long time.

So basically, we would get it from our shop into the customer's location in the US So because we were handling the freight, it's our responsibility to pay the tariff bill.

And I know that's not the same for every manufacturer, but that's what we were doing.

And so I would get the tariff bill.

So the first thing that I do when I get it, I call my customer and said, hey, this is what's going on.

I want to be open and I want to be honest with you.

And I say, we expected this, but here it is in, in, in reality, I said, I have to pay this.

And so, you know, the first one I believe I just paid, but the second one, we actually split it.

And so our customer was willing to, to take on half of that cost and, and build it.

And then we started building it into contracts moving forward on, on an expectation of, you know, because it's all based on, we built steel products, so it's based on steel content.

So we could, we could make some pretty good predictions on products moving forward.

Yeah.

So we started building it into contracts, and then we would negotiate.

Hey, steel content came in a little bit higher, a little bit lower.

And, but, you know, if you have strong relationships and you have people willing to work with you, I think, I think that there's a way to work it out.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're essentially partnering with your customers, truly.

Exactly, exactly.

And if you can't, I mean, if you can call them or if you don't feel appropriate calling them, I think there's probably something wrong there because, like, I had, I was like, this is my situation.

You know, I, I could do this, I could do this, or we could try and work together.

And so, like, having, having that open honesty, I think, was critical during that time.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Well, this has been a really, really great conversation, Jamie.

I have to say that I, I, I look at what you're doing, and I'm a little bit awestruck of what you've been able to achieve in such a short period of time.

So I just wanted to give you, like, a gigantic shout out to Congratulations on all your success.

Congratulations on all you've done in no time at all.

Like, what is that from the point of view, acquiring this company to today?

Are we talking literally like three years, four years?

Yeah.

So it's been.

Yeah.

And I was an, I was an employee for five years before that.

Right.

So.

So I have some Experience and a little bit of knowledge.

But thank you very much.

Some, some days I don't feel that and I feel like I'm going at a snail's pace.

But I really appreciate those, those kind words, Kelly.

Acquiring two companies and founding another in the, in that timeline, dude, is unbelievable actually.

And I, and I always say this, if you can do that in three, imagine what you're going to do in 10.

Sometimes I think about that and it's a little bit overwhelming, but it's also really, really cool because, because I do often feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace.

I'm like, what are we doing next?

What can I do next?

What are we on the lookout for?

Where are we doing business next?

What's the next product?

So sometimes I can get a little bit impatient and I have to slow down a little bit.

But then why am I trying to slow down?

Let's just keep going.

Absolutely.

Well, that's it.

It's like a shark.

You got to keep swimming.

Nemo says it best.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming.

Bring us into Thunder Bay Hydraulics and custom hydraulics.

Let's, let's bring everyone into what you're doing there, a little bit into Atlas lifts and then you know how they can get in touch with you, to work with you.

Yeah, for sure.

So Thunder Bay hydraulics, you know, it's kind of core service is hydraulic pneumatic cylinder repair.

So we have some pretty cool customers local to Northern Ontario, mostly mining and forestry customers.

So, you know, really natural resource based and we provide, you know, expert repair services for those two industries.

We also do a little bit of work in construction, but it's, it's primarily the natural resource.

Same thing for custom hydraulics.

It's a, it's a really cool, small, efficient team there and they focus mostly on forestry work, but also a little bit of mining work as well.

And so, you know, we kind of, we're getting more into, you know, sharing resources and that type of thing.

We had a gentleman leave for trade school last month and we were down on machinists so we ended up sending a machinist from over at this company.

So we're starting to share resources now, which I think is really, really cool.

But yeah, we, we aim to be a value added service to a mining or forestry maintenance team and we provide really high quality cylinder repairs and we do them really, really quickly.

We understand the value of downtime for our customers.

And so, you know, our job is to reduce lead times, reduce downtimes as much as we can.

And so that's kind of our mission there.

And we've tried recently, we're trying to come up with a really good transparent repair process.

So if I understand, you know, legacy repair businesses, they're, they're kind of old, they're dark, they're dirty.

You don't really understand what's going on.

You know, you send, you send a cylinder in, you send a pump in for repair.

You have no idea what's going on.

And so we're, I was making a, a comparison to Domino's Pizza.

Okay.

So you, if you order a pizza on the Domino's app, you get, you get everything.

You know when that pizza's going in the oven, you know when they're putting on the toppings, you know when it's being delivered, you know, who's, who's it being delivered to?

And that's for $20 pizza.

So I wanted, I wanted to do a very similar thing to be as transparent as I could in the repair process.

Here's the day that we received it.

Here's the day that it's being disassembled and inspected.

Here's the day where you get the quote, here's the day that we start repairing it.

Here's the day that it's being shipped out.

And so I, you know, we spent a lot of time coming up with this kind of process and how it works and the value add for the customer.

So.

Wow.

Yes, we need more of this.

I love transparency.

Give us transparency.

That's amazing.

Bring us into Atlas Lifts as well.

Obviously you are making this equipment, you're installing it across North America.

But bring us just briefly into who is your ideal customer for Atlas Lifts?

Yeah, any, any custom home builder, any architect, any architecture firm across the country.

We love working with high end single home families.

We recently started getting into higher end condos.

So multi level parking solutions.

For, for high end residential condos, we have a really cool solution where we've built a very high speed unit and you know, increasingly the world is getting faster and faster and faster.

Legacy solutions would take, you know, two, three minutes.

And we found a way to get it down to less than a minute of travel time between levels.

So we spent a lot of time in development there.

Our goal is to solve problems and to make sure that the product fits the space.

So what, we're really focusing on those two things.

But yeah, any, any custom home builder, any architect, we'd, we'd love to work with you.

Amazing.

I, I actually had the pleasure of interviewing Yasushi Oki earlier on in the show, like I want to say in like the first hundred episodes and he runs Green Violin here in Edmonton and they primarily do infill projects and, and he was kind of saying like these houses, these spaces we're working with are getting smaller and smaller and smaller and yet we're expected to put these, these homes on them.

But there's no street parking.

Like there is no parking.

And I remember thinking, oh my goodness, I need to connect because these houses are going to need somewhere to put a car.

That's right.

We, we do win in those scenarios because there's no room, there's no, there's no room for a parking lot.

There's no room for ramps to get to a.

There's nothing.

And so, and then we can put in some really cool solutions for multi cars as well.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Jamie, this has been absolutely incredible.

If people want to find you or they want to talk with you, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

That's a good question, Kelly.

You know you can, you can go to.

It's either thunderbayhydraulics.com or custom hydraulics.com you could reach out to me personally.

Jaycroziernovayhydraulics.com or jcrozerustomydraulics.com ca apologies.

No, either one is fine.

Amazing.

And I'll make sure that both of those are inside of the show notes for anyone listening who wants to get a hold of Jamie.

It has been incredible to meet you, Jamie.

You're doing exceptional.

I look forward to seeing what comes next from you.

Thank you so much for having me on, Kelly.

That was great.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Until next time.

You've been listening to the business development podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.see you next time on the business development podcast.