“It was scary.” ~Peter Bocking on stepping into entrepreneurship.
Peter Bocking is the co-founder of Bocking and Grieve as well as the 2022 President of the board of directors for the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce. In this episode, Peter shares his journey as a business person and how he grew up looking forward to ownership but also speaks about leaving his decades-long career during the pandemic to set up his own shop and how appreciative he was of his former business partner and mentor during that time. Peter mentions how he listened to a lot of podcasts during the pandemic as a way of exploring his own interests, including one in particular that challenged him by asking “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” It was through this listening that the flame in him was rekindled to realize his childhood entrepreneurial dreams of being a business.
The discussion also turns to how entrepreneurship is a form of creative expression that gives people the freedom to try new things and provides them with the space to mistakes and experiment. Peter touches on the deep-rooted fear of leaving his career to open his own business upon the realization that suddenly he had a group of people all depending on him.
The talk turns to the role and relevance of chambers of commerce in 2022, and how chambers can best contribute to a world as dynamic and fast-paced as ours. Peter shares his personal take on this subject and mentions how for him he looked forward to the events, networking and having the ability to connect before COVID-19, and states that advocacy hasn’t been let go, it evolves, and that he is a big believer in the chamber movement. Peter shares that he is looking forward to expanding on new opportunities that will get employment back on the rise as well, such as connecting with University students and offering mentorship opportunities.
Peter also speaks about the benefits programme and how it is designed for small to midsize employers. You can contact Peter Bocking through his website; https://bockinggrieve.ca/, through email: [email protected]
or by phone, 1.800.971.2295
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