BDC’s young entrepreneur

A customized Internet strategy is just what Mike Miltimore needs to take his guitar-manufacturing business to the next level

Michael Eibl (L) and Fiona Chan of the Business Development Bank of Canada pose with Mike Miltimore, a winner in BDC's Young Entrepreneur Awards, and his innovative Riversong guitars. — Photo courtesy BDC

From among eight Canadian finalists competing for the 2012 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award, Mike Miltimore was the second-place winner. His prize is $25,000 worth of service from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), focused on growing his business through a customized Internet strategy.

Miltimore is co-owner of Lee’s Music in Kamloops, B.C., and his award-winning venture is Riversong Guitars, the first new acoustic guitar design in 150 years.

“I was born to work in the music industry,” Miltimore said. “I never thought that I would do anything else. My training to be a sound engineer started in my dad’s music store before I can even remember. My little hands were able to fit inside guitars and tighten jacks and stuff, so I was helping from a very young age.”

A new world of acoustics

Part of the business of Lee’s Music is to repair acoustic guitars; for the most part, the problems with these instruments are related to the tremendous amount of tension there is on an acoustic guitar—200 pounds pulling on the bridge. The constant tension results in necks warping, necks breaking, tops lifting and braces breaking.

“Three and a half years ago,” said Miltimore, “I had an idea for a new design that would eliminate all the structural tension issues that there are in the standard, conventional acoustic guitar. What we did was develop a braceless guitar system.”

It turns out that by eliminating all of the structural bracing on the guitar, they made it more resonant.

“It was louder and lower in pitch, and that’s a balance you always try to make when building a guitar,” Miltimore said. “You want to make it nice and low and full-sounding, yet structurally strong. Our design also was easier to build and gave us the adjustability that no one else has.”

When they had the first version of the new guitar working well, Miltimore approached Michael Eibl at BDC Consulting in Kamloops for help in determining what his next step should be. Eibl suggested that Miltimore go and patent the idea, and set him up with an experienced consultant. Three years later, Miltimore has a worldwide patent pending and is set up with a solid foundation on which to grow his business.

The young entrepreneur competition

During the course of his work with BDC, Miltimore had heard about BDC's annual Young Entrepreneur Award; the competition invites Canadian entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 to apply and compete for a $100,000 grand prize for innovation. In April 2012, just days before his 36th birthday and just before the application period closed, Miltimore submitted his application.

Shortlisted as one of the eight finalists—the only one from British Columbia—Miltimore turned to the public for their support. From May 30 to June 19, the candidates engaged in an intense campaign of showcasing their products and, with the support of BDC, using social media to encourage people to vote for them. Miltimore did a lot of face-to-face campaigning, and the bumper stickers on his car became a familiar sight well beyond the Kamloops area over the three-week voting period as he hustled to make his brand more widely known.

“My support team worked really hard, and I have the most patient wife in the world,” Miltimore said. “Riversong jumped from eighth place to first, and battled for that spot right through to the end.”

The winners

Incidentally, along with votes, orders for the Riversong guitar came pouring in. On June 25, when the final tabulation was done, the competitors with the highest numbers of votes were on opposite sides of the country: Zane Kelsall of Anchored Coffee in Nova Scotia had won the first prize of $100,000, and Miltimore of Riversong Guitars in British Columbia was in second place.

Miltimore is elated with his prize and grateful to the voting public who pushed him to the top. The $25,000 worth of Internet strategy coaching and support that BDC is providing will help Riversong to capture a larger share of the market, in North America and abroad.

“BDC’s approach to the young entrepreneurs program is to use social media, the online voting system and Internet marketing,” said Eibl. “It would probably have taken three to four years of a traditional media campaign to equal the amount of exposure Mike received in this short period.”

“I can’t imagine how we ever could have done this on our own,” Miltimore said. “This experience has given me the tools that I need to go after the business. The biggest thing I’ve learned through this whole process with BDC is how to market myself through social media. We have a good, unique product that we’ve thought through, which helps. I’m excited to see how the customized Internet strategy helps our business to evolve in the next few months.”