Marla Kott is a Chartered Accountant and Chief Executive Officer of Imprint Plus. She was the 2013 winner of the WeConnect Canada WBE Ambassador award, the 2012 winner of the Bank of Montreal Global Growth Award, and a 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist. Marla’s relationship with Imprint Plus began a $20,000 angel investment and a personal bank guarantee, needed to keep a 7 year old start up afloat for a childhood friend. When the bank called the loan in 2000, she gave up her Chartered Accounting practice, moved across the country to Vancouver, British Columbia, and became the full time CEO of Imprint Plus. Marla arrived to face an unproductive management team, thin capitalization and a balance sheet that sported a debt of $700,000. In the thirteen years that Marla Kott has operated as the CEO of Imprint Plus, she has built the company into a thriving international exporter of name badge systems with a goal to becoming a category leader in this niche market. IP operations head office is in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company also has offices in Florida, Ontario and the UK. Imprint Plus has been listed in Profit Magazine’s as one of Canada’s top 100 women owned businesses for 7 consecutive years. The company today has over 35,000 customers in 75 countries.
I have been a delegate and speaker at many, many, many conferences but this one is I have to say is the best I have been to. When I first looked at the itinerary I could not wrap my head around why you would choose such world wide speakers to talk about things larger than us small businesses but it wasn’t long after the speakers began on Wednesday evening that I became so deeply inspired and then even more so as the next two days passed.
Little Fish Big PondInspiring, amazing speakers, I learned many new things, great energy.
Super organized, great energy, variety and well attended.
One of the most worthwhile conferences I have ever attended. I can’t wait until next year!
Tim & Sharon GloverOwners,Light-Core Inc.Thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learnt so much from amazing thought leaders, high quality panel speakers. It is refreshing to see that as we continue to grow as women entrepreneurs we are impacting the quality of lives of ours, our family and the community at large. Thank you for putting together an exceptional conference that can have a far larger reach in the future. It was definitely worth the long distance travel and excited to grow GroYourBiz in the UK.
Claris CoachingThanks Barb Mowat and EXCELerate2017 for a brilliant conference bringing together so many who are committed to advancing women’s entrepreneurship.
East West CenterThe 2017 EXCELerate Conference exceeded my expectations. The plenary sessions alone were worth the fee … the level of speakers gathered— and their synergy—was absolutely brilliant. Regarding the break-out sessions: Ann Gomez’s session, ‘Focus Your Time to GroYourBiz: Personal Productivity for Busy People’, blew my socks off with its relevance and practical applications. Her book, ‘The Email Warrior’, is easy to read and the tips within it are easy to implement. Wow!
Click Media WorksWow, what a fantastic event last week. While it is advertised for entrepreneurs it is really an inspiring event for business women of all ages and positions. What an incredible line up of guest speakers.
Western Union Business SolutionsThere is no question that this was once again one of the most captivating conferences that I have attended—with not only one good idea—but many. It is wonderful how the panels all have different points of view that foster challenging perhaps our previous opinions or at the very least give us more information to have an informed opinion. Our team thought it was time well spent indeed!
McCurdy FinancialThere is nothing more powerful than inspiration. A wonderful conference to learn, meet other entrepreneurs, share your story and be inspired to achieve your goals. Amazing!!
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