Couple Builds Agency on Soapbox
Martin and Farah Perelmuter gave up well-paying jobs to launch
Speakers' Spotlight, which represents about 60 speakers
Globe and Mail (Monday, January 11, 1999)
By Jeff Brooke
Names: Martin and Farah Perelmuter, both age 29.
Career: The married couple founded and runs Speakers'
Spotlight, an agency that represents public speakers.
Base: The Perelmuters have an office on the main
floor of a rented duplex in Toronto's Forest Hill neighbourhood.
They live above on the house's second and third floors. But that
arrangement may not last much longer -- the Perelmuters are looking
for larger digs downtown for their growing business.
Quote: "We're having a lot of fun doing it, absolutely,"
says Ms. Perelmuter, the agency's president. "Somehow it doesn't
feel like work."
Business: Speakers' Spotlight represents about 60
speakers, usually booked by companies and organizations to deliver
motivational messages or enlighten employees on a new business or
social trend.
Hockey hero Paul Henderson was one of the first speakers
the Perelmuters signed up. Others now on board include astronaut
Roberta Bondar, Margaret Trudeau, wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen,
broadcasters Ron MacLean and Mike Duffy, demographics guru David
Foot, former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, comedian Dave Broadfoot
and author Peter C. Newman. Mr. Perelmuter says they've also started
lining up gigs for actor Christopher Reeve, comedian and jewelry
pitchwoman Joan Rivers and media mogul Moses Znaimer.
Client organizations include Bank of Montreal, Xerox Canada
Inc. and Conference Board of Canada.
The speakers represented by the agency generally charge
between $3,000 and $10,000 for an engagement. Speakers' Spotlight
gets a 25-per-cent commission.
The agency's biggest coup came in arranging a $40,000 (U.S.)
speech by Nicolas Negroponte, director of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's media lab.
Startup: The Perelmuters each gave up well-paying
jobs to launch Speakers' Spotlight. He was a lawyer with the Bay
Street firm Goodman Phillips & Vineberg, and she was an advertising
executive with a small Toronto company, LMA. But neither enjoyed
the situation because long hours at work kept them apart and the
rewards of their labours went to someone else. "Control," Ms. Perelmuter
answers, when asked why the couple set up their own business. "We
wanted more control of our lives."
Ms. Perelmuter came up with the idea for the business while
working at LMA on a promotional campaign for a speaker. At first,
they envisaged taking on about five speakers as a part-time venture.
But once they started looking for speakers to represent, more than
100 sent them material. "That's when we realized there was something
to this business after all," she says.
Seed money: The couple saved $25,000 (Canadian)
to launch the business in 1995. Mr. Perelmuter says the savings
process was fairly painless -- they cut down on such extras as long
trips and restaurant meals. The money was spent mostly on computers,
office supplies and marketing materials. "One of the goals we had
when we set out was that we didn't want to start in debt," says
Mr. Perelmuter, vice-president of business development.
Results: Mr. Perelmuter says the agency has reached
revenue objectives each year. The agency broke even in its first
year and saw its sales increase by about 400 per cent between the
second and third. Last year, the speakers they booked charged more
than a combined $1-million, meaning Speakers' Spotlight revenue
was in excess of $250,000.
Expansion: The company's quick growth has prompted
the Perelmuters to hire additional staff -- there are now three
other employees. They have also recently installed a high-technology
phone system, and they opened a bureau in Vancouver last fall to
serve the West Coast market.
Favourite tool: While a new phone system has helped
Speakers' Spotlight manage the growing volume of calls, a major
boon to the agency is its Web site (http://www.speakers.ca).
Mr. Perelmuter says the site gets 50,000 hits a month, has been
used by people in more than 40 countries and has helped the agency
land speech bookings abroad. Lloyd's of London, for example, discovered
Speakers' Spotlight on the Internet and called to book one of the
agency's speakers. "The Web site has been fantastic," Mr. Perelmuter
says. "It's been our most effective business tool."
Strategy: The Perelmuters say their niche in the
industry is in giving a highly personalized, hands-on and ethical
service to both the speakers and clients. "Our reputation is the
most valuable thing for us right now," Ms. Perelmuter says.
Road travelled: The Perelmuters met
in 1992 after graduating from the University of Western Ontario
in London, Ont. But they came very close to meeting before then.
While at university, they attended the same Halloween party and
were photographed standing beside each other. "We were in costume
so we didn't see each other," Ms. Perelmuter says. Later, she moved
in to the same apartment unit that he had just moved out of.
They started dating in 1993, became engaged the following
year and married in June, 1995. "Within that one month, we got married,
we moved, we quit our jobs, and we started the business," Mr. Perelmuter
recalls.
Ms. Perelmuter admits her friends and family thought they
were "a little bit crazy" to start their own business. "My parents
thought their daughter was marrying a lawyer."
Challenges: The Perelmuters still put in long hours. "Someone once said that when you have your own business, you can
work half days if you like," Ms. Perelmuter says. "You just choose
which 12 hours it's going to be."
They say a bigger challenge is separating their personal
and professional lives. "There are times when it is difficult to
stop talking about work," Mr. Perelmuter admits.
But the couple is slowly finding a balance. They took a
week off over the New Year's holiday to go to Costa Rica on vacation
-- their first since launching the business.
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