Life's Opportunities with Vickie Goudreau

Written by: Niesha Blancas

The Entrepreneur Mentor Program students were happy to welcome guest speaker Vickie Goudreau of Innovation Commercial Flooring for a presentation on insightful values and life lessons. Innovation Commercial Flooring is a company who provides sales of flooring products and installation for commercial grade flooring for schools, businesses, medical facilities, and more.

Vickie and her husband Wayne started their entrepreneurial journey by launching the business in 2009. Assigned the role as “cheerleader”, Vickie has helped manage marketing and sales of their business. “One of the paychecks for us is providing opportunity and jobs for the Valley,” Vickie said.

After learning about the sudden death of her brother-in-law, Vickie and Wayne realized with a family history of health issues, they needed to develop a long term strategy for the business. Vickie noted “Having a business is hard”, so both Vickie and Wayne made the decision to have Vickie learn the business in the event of Wayne becoming unable to serve the role as CEO.

During this time, Vickie and Wayne shared their story with their banker. Their banker advised them to consider restructuring the business to become woman owned in which they can gain certifications and advantages in the market. She remembered being told by a mentor “develop a great relationship with your banker, stay close to your banker, visit them once a week, and do exactly what they say.” Thanks to all the advice and guidance, Innovation Commercial Flooring is now a woman owned business.

Diving deep into all aspects of the business, Vickie committed herself to enrolling in classes provided by the Small Business Administration. Vickie just completed the USSBA Emerging Leaders class which is considered a free mini MBA for small business owners. By taking on a large share of responsibility, Vickie shared how Wayne has maintained his health.

Throughout her presentation Vicki shared her values as a business owner. The values she identified as “practical stuff” are what she learned over the years. Her four core values are:

• Finance
• Integrity
• Associations and friendships
• Continual Growth

“The thrill of being alive is the opportunity to learn, read new books, meet new people, go to new places, and try new things. It’s all about being upgraded.”

The students enjoyed Vickie sharing her experience as an entrepreneur and teaching us values we should have as business owners and to take advantage of life’s opportunities!