www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 17, 2007 - 9 Perseverance paid off for First Canadian Title founder By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF His business started in a corner of his daughter's bedroom and has since grown to the point where it has 16,000 customers and employs around 1,000 employees across Canada, including 500 people in Oakville. Thomas Grifferty, CEO of First Canadian Title, shared his secrets to success with Oakville's small business owners, Monday morning, during an Oakville Chamber of Commerce kick-off breakfast to celebrate Small Business Week. Canada's leading provider of title insurance, which protects the insured against loss resulting from title/survey defects and losses associated with title-related fraud and forgery, has reached a level of excellence even its own maker never thought possible. "Back then I looked up to a friend who did $4 million in revenue during the course of a year" said Grifferty, to the laughter of those present. "Sometimes it's a bit scary to look back and see what we've created." Grifferty's odyssey from air traffic controller to title insurance tycoon began in 1987 during a dinner with a cousin who had a job with First American Title. "When I look back on it, there really wasn't a lot of encouragement coming from anyone. They wanted to know what made me think I could succeed. I said, `I'm an air traffic controller, so I'm meant for success.'" First Canadian Title CEO Thomas Grifferty During the dinner conversation the cousin noted that there might be some money in it for Grifferty if he could bring title insurance, then practically non-existent in Canada, across the border. A meeting with First American Title's vice-president followed at which it was recommended to Grifferty that he have a lawyer look into the prospects for selling title insurance in Canada. Grifferty followed this recommendation, but he did not get the results he had been hoping for when the information came back. "Six weeks later, I was given a nine-page document pointing out why title insurance would never work in Canada," he said. "When I look back at it, there really wasn't a lot of encouragement coming from anyone." Even getting a license to sell title insurance proved difficult, as three previous title insurance license recipients had done little business. "They wanted to know what made me think I could succeed," said Grifferty. "I said, `I'm an air traffic controller, so I'm meant for success.'" Armed with his licence to sell title insurance and no real competition to worry about, Grifferty set about the exceedingly difficult task of intro- ducing his product to the Canadian public. Initial efforts proved fruitless with one client meeting transpiring only after Grifferty agreed to provide a case of beer and two large pizzas. However, little by little the public's feelings towards title insurance began to sway and Grifferty's profits began to increase from $18,000 after the first year to more than $20 million in his seventh year of business. "We created a faster, better, cheaper process, that's what they cared about," said Grifferty. "Today, people get it because they're worried about fraud and identity theft, but back then it was all about the process." Grifferty also noted that people would only purchase his product, if he pointed it out to them that it would save them money. For example, by buying title insurance a homeowner could avoid paying for a survey in most cases. "We had to use it (title insurance) to reduce customer costs. No one wanted to pay for it," he said. Great product knowledge and a well-crafted approach to selling title insurance were not the only factors that allowed First Canadian Title to thrive. "The most important thing we did was hire great people," said Grifferty. "But, because title insurance was just getting started in Canada you couldn't ask an applicant for five years of experience working in title insurance." To fuel his expanding business Grifferty says he hired large numbers of people right out of community colleges, listing large amounts of enthusiasm and drive as two key attributes he looked for during interviews. "What they needed to know about the product we could teach them," said Grifferty. "We don't sell cars or secret chicken recipes or anything else, we sell service." With so many small business owners present, Grifferty pointed out the need for perseverance, noting that throughout his long struggle to build his business he never gave up no matter how bleak others told him his prospects were. "I didn't want to go back to being an air traffic controller," he said. "I'm an optimist. I tried to find a positive thing out of every bad meeting I had, and there were a lot of them." Think Green. Be Cool. Breathe Easy. 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