In the spirit of Valentine’s Day this month, we want to celebrate and recognize couples who work together in business everyday.

Meet Chris and Lisa from Tim Hortons!

1. How did you both meet?
   We met at Square One shopping Mall in Mississauga, true story. 🙂
2. Why did you start working/open your business together?
   Lisa worked at Tim Hortons Head Office for 18 years prior to becoming owners.  We are both passionate about the brand.  There is of course always risk and stress when starting your own business but once established there can be a lot of rewards as well to being self-employed.  We get to work with an amazing team of people and our loyal guests.  We love what we do and are incredibly fortunate to do it in our own city of Burlington.  We are truly blessed and could not do it without our team and our valued guests who support us and come to see us each day.
3. Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your business. (i.e. What is your unique offering?)
   The fabulous thing about Tim Hortons is that it is a part of Canadians daily lives and routine.  You don’t really have to explain it.  Whether you are grabbing a  coffee on your way to work,  a sandwich on your lunch break or an afternoon snack people love their Timmies and are just as passionate about it as we are.  This is what makes our brand truly amazing.  Being in the downtown core is awesome because we get to be involved in many fabulous events such as Sound of Music,  Rib Fest and the Santa Clause parade, just to name a few.
4. When did you open your business in Downtown Burlington?
   This location downtown in the No Frills plaza opened on  December 13, 2013 at 13:00 which is kinda really cool in itself.   The funny thing is we used to frequent the Blockbuster that was in its place years ago when we lived right across the street basically.
5. What made you choose Downtown Burlington?
   An opportunity came up and we jumped in full speed.  Never looked back and happy we did.
6. What other downtown businesses do you frequent and do business with?
   We love to support other local businesses on a regular basis.  Some of our favourites include The Martini House and The Works.  We also truly appreciate the cinema downtown Cine Starz.  It’s a  great little spot for date night and we’ve been going there for years.
7. If you had a piece of advice for other couples starting a business together, to help them succeed, what would it be?
   Hmmmm. How much time do you have? We love discussing this with anyone who is thinking about starting up their own business.  In fact, before we did we sat down with other local owners and friends to ask them questions.  If you’re starting a business as a couple, I would have to say you need to have a good, strong relationship to begin with because there will me challenging moments for sure.  What works nicely too for us is we have our own defined roles.  Chris does the Financial side, Lisa does the Operations and we share the HR component nicely.  We are a good team.  You need to be able to support each other and be understanding when the other person is having a rough day.  It is going to happen sometimes.
8. Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions?
   We usually have date night at a local Burlington restaurant. There are so many good ones to choose from.