Mad Love Monday | Alyssa Berger - Infinite Landscape & Design Ltd.

Combining forces and best-fit backgrounds to build a company founded in creativity and functionality.
We spent our summers performing landscaping jobs and quickly fell in love with the work. After pursuing post-secondary education, we quickly recognized we both had not only complementary educational backgrounds and experience but also strengths.

Megan was the creative one; I was the functional one. We knew they had something unique to bring to clients: A realistic approach to landscaping that caters to our unique Alberta climate while providing visually appealing outdoor spaces. As the name implies, Infinite Landscape & Design gives clients a beautiful, usable outdoor space created for a northern climate and built to last a lifetime.

As young women in the construction industry, it often takes time to gain customers and trade partners confidence that we are able to design and construct as well as, if not better, than many men in our industry. As we complete more projects, we continue to impress and change the view people have about women in trades. We love the challenges that come with seasonal construction, it makes success all the more rewarding.

While the company is new & our family life isn’t demanding, we are able to put in long hours without worrying about work-life balance. Hopefully, putting in the hours early on in the company will provide us with the opportunity to take a step back once home life ramps up. Networking with like-minded women provides us with the opportunity to explore partnerships & create supportive friendships. YBB is a place where women don’t compete but lift one another up & we are happy to be a part of the community.

learn more about enhancing your landscape with all four seasons in Alberta

When planning for any landscape project in a northern climate, it is crucial to consider not only what the project will look like in the summer months, but also year-round aesthetic. Spending our warm summers outdoors is the obvious reason to have nice landscaping but what happens once the weather cools and the leaves start to change? We are still going to look outside and what better than to have a beautiful yard even once the snow starts to fall.  Let’s flip through the calendar and provide insight on how to maximize your property all year long!

Spring

After a conceptual design of your property is complete, we need to consider which plants will compliment your design and vision. When selecting plants for a project we have to consider plant size, shape, texture, foliage and bloom times. Springtime brings on lots of new colours that we missed during the long winter. It is the time and most plants tend to bloom bringing birds and bees back to your yard. It is important to select these blooms to be diverse in size and colour to get the most out of your landscape. Blooms come in many different shapes and sizes from the large bunches found on hydrangeas to the tiny flowers of forget-me-nots. It is important to choose a variety of sizes to add varying textures to your yard in addition to the diverse colours.

Summer

Short and sweet, Albertans need to make the most of our summer months. Although many plants bloom in the spring there are also lots that will bring some colour to your summer landscape. It is equally as important to find plants that will have varying colour and texture throughout the summer months too. 

Multiformity in your plants ensures balance amongst your project and creates more variance for the eye. We try to layer short pants in front of tall plants to create appealing depth. This practice allows you to use more plants in a design while also ensuring they don’t end up hidden from view. Height changes also translated into the winter months, but we will get to that later. 

Autumn…

Continue reading full post here.

Email Address info@infinitelandscape.ca

Website www.infinitelandscape.ca

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/infinitelandscapeanddesign/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/infinitelandscapeanddesign

Submission by Infinite Landscape Design

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Mad Love Monday | Aisha Turna - Fairly Dental Staffing

My name is Aisha and I am the Founder of Fairly Dental Staffing. I was born in Toronto and my family and I moved to Montreal shortly after. I was raised there until the age of 9, and then moved to Edmonton. My family is from Tanzania, Africa and my roots are traced back to India.

My interests include travelling, picking up new skills, and getting creative. I love dental hygiene and how much value I bring to patients by keeping their teeth in their mouths!

I'm a total people person. I went into the field because I didn't know what to do after high school but for some reason I wanted to study in Toronto where my home town is! My mom is a dental assistant and she recommended a program in Toronto specifically for Dental Hygiene. I hadn't even researched properly what the job entailed, I just got excited to move to Toronto and agreed to go! I was 19 at the time and had finished high school 9 months prior to going. Oddly enough, I was one of the younger students in class at the private school I attended.

Toronto is like my second home, I visit the city frequently. The city is very lively and I love the vibes.
I was a Temporary Dental Hygienist most of my career because I cannot stay in one office as I feel my growth is limited. Exploring different offices, meeting fellow dental professionals from dental offices, and meeting patients from all walks of life is very rewarding. It made me very happy knowing that I was referred to as "gentle hands" from my patients!

I was working with Dental Temp Agencies and gradually became self employed and worked between a few offices. I loved being independent and having a flexible work schedule. I wanted the flexibility because I love travelling! I've traveled around Europe, USA, Canada, and Africa. My next ventures will be India and Thailand, hopefully when COVID-19 clears up.

I graduated dental hygiene in 2012 and have been working since. I can adjust well to my surroundings and work with alot of dental offices in Edmonton currently.

The idea of creating an app came to me one day when I was sitting down doing my year end paper work. I had been so use to getting texts and emails for shifts and having to fill out lots of paper work per shift just to get paid. There would be times where I would get 15-20 texts a day just regarding new shifts! A few times, the  texts would get lost in translation between Temps/Temp Agencies and I would show up to offices with no shift or being double booked. Yikes! As I was putting together my year end paperwork, I thought to myself "wait a minute.. why isn't there an app for this?!" I began to write the idea down. I sat on this for a year and then one day it occurred to me that I wanted to take a chance at doing something I am passionate about before I leave this world! An invention of my own. And thus, Fairly began. Fairly was a random name I came up with. It made me think of the word FAIRY and FAIR. I love the idea of tooth fairies and I wanted to create a system in which the pricing is fair, the app is fairly easy to use; and  I combined them and that's how FAIRLY was created. Random. But it seemed to work! Dental Offices have a Web App in which they create shifts. Temps pick up the shifts with a Mobile App.

Fairly has been successfully running for over a year now. I'm a one woman show bootstrapping my way through! I ran the business in Edmonton and now I am looking to expand to the rest of North America. I will start with major Canadian cities such as: Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto. If you are reading this and you are a dental professional, please join us by downloading "Fairly Staffing" on Google Play or the Apple Store.

It has been such an amazing journey going from being an employee to self contracted to a business owner helping people find work! I've built some amazing relationships in this past year and will continue to do so. I recently reduced the placement fees of the web app for Dental Offices from $35 to $25 a placement. In the dental field, everyone knows that getting a Temp can be quiet expensive and can take time. With the use of Fairlys technology, find coverage with a faster turnaround and let us do the work of finding the right Temp for your office. Using our built in review system, registration ID verification, and work experience - we will help you find the coverage you need at a low cost.

Save time and money and create a shift when you need coverage. Instantly, over hundreds of Temps will get notified at once and be able to pick up a shift quicker. Temps, get a peace of mind knowing that you will get paid much more than a typical Temp Agency because Fairly is a shift filling platform that does not take a significant chunk of your hard earned wages.

This has been such a lovely journey and I look forward to connecting with more amazing dental professionals and dental offices in the near future!

Email Address support@fairlystaffing.com

Website www.fairlystaffing.com

Instagram instagram.com/fairlystaffing

Facebook facebook.com/fairlystaffing

Mad Love Monday | Yuliya Cruikshank

Photo Credit: Nicole Constante

My name is Yuliya Cruikshank and I am the Founder of Epic Experiences.

Epicexperiences.ca is the online platform that specializes in unique experience gifts and adventure tours that bring excitement, fun and a “Wow!” emotions to any special occasion. We are on a mission to simplify gift shopping and provide a convenient gift-giving solution.

And my goal is to bring those positive emotions and precious moments to as many people as possible in Canada and beyond through Epic Experiences.

How many of you love Mondays? I love Mondays! I remember when I was working a 9-5 job and just the word Monday itself already made me feel unhappy, but once I became the Boss Babe it got a whole new meaning of how inspiring Mondays can be. Today I would like to share a bit of me, so let’s get going.

What inspired you to start your own business?

I have a bit of an old soul in me, I did realize earlier in life than the material things can make us happy only for a time being but at the end of the day the precious moments that we can cherish forever make us truly happy.

I launched Epic Experiences from my personal desire to give unforgettable gifts to my husband. I wanted to stay away from traditional stuff and would like him to experience something new on his birthday or anniversary that can leave everlasting memories for years to come. The personal reason was a push but the actual idea was bigger than that. I wanted to inspire others to live life to the fullest and experience something new, fulfill it with positivity and happiness that comes from experiences.

I love being an entrepreneur because besides being my own boss it opened up the new doors for me and let me discover new opportunities such as growing as a person and developing the skills that I even did know I had. I love to meet and be surrounded by other amazing entrepreneurs that are driven, inspiring and great to learn from.

I do have many quotes that I use on a day-to-day basis but these three had stuck with me more than anyone else: “Believe in what you do and do what you believe in”.

Life is not measured by the number of breath we take but the moments that take our breath away.

And for my personal life this one: “Life is short, break the rules, kiss slowly, love truly, forgive quickly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything.

Work-life balance is also one of the reasons I launched my company.

I love to have the flexibility to run my business on my own schedule and at the same time be there for my family.

Running an online business has its pros and cons and even I can find lots of positive moments in what I do but there is no secret that the online world can suck you in and you need to know when to unplug and turn the devices off. Having a break from what I do is very important and I do make it a priority for myself.

We all want to be happy, happiness drives our dreams. When chasing the dream remember to have time to enjoy ourselves (the ride) along the way.

“Work hard – party hard”, I had this sort of mindset since my university years and even I am not partying hard anymore these days... but you got the idea. I do take time off on the weekends which are usually dedicated to kids’ activities and the necessary time to recharge. And for me time, I like to have a lazy Sunday once in a while, it’s something that I started to do even before I was having kids and my own business. I like the idea of no need to rush to go anywhere that is time-pressured, I pretty much can stay in pajamas all day, cook meals, play with kids, just unwind or have a movie night with my husband when kids are in bed.

And during the weekdays, after a long day of work, I like to have supper together with my husband & kids where we can connect as a family, discuss how the day went, make plans for upcoming days and disconnect from our phones and just enjoy the company of each other. Just simple real moments can make a work-life balance for me a bit less stressful.

Did you ever have a time where you wanted to give up? How did you overcome this feeling?

Absolutely, I haven’t met anyone yet who won’t go through rough times of running a business. The most challenging time is to pass a 3-year mark. Once you hit this period the ride gets a bit smoother.

I do always tell myself that challenges thrown at us will make us stronger and tomorrow will be a new day. I did have a time when I allowed myself to step away from the business for a couple of days, sleep on it and just clear my mind and regain the motivation. Sometimes we can be just burned out and that is what tells us to give up. I do remind myself WHY I started my business in the first place and this always brings me back.

I also heard, we can have amazing talents and leadership skills but the most powerful skill you can have as a business owner is to never give up, period.

I would like to see more shop local initiatives so we can support each other. I would be happy to connect with like-minded boss babes to collaborate and learn from each other. Please feel free to message or comment on social media to start a conversation.  

Yuliya Cruikshank | Epic Experinces
instagram.com/EpicXPs/

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