Rudder Business Advisory Services

For Jerry White, entrepreneurship is in the blood. The son of an independent business man, White started his own landscaping business while in university. Today, he owns Rudder Business Advisory Services, providing advice to owners of small and medium businesses about starting, growing, and improving their operations.

“What I like about working with small and medium sized businesses is that I can see the impact of my efforts. These people don’t have big consulting budgets – if they hire me, it’s because they want to do something, and they know the kind of advice they need to reach their goals,” White says.

White established Rudder Business Advisory Services a few years after returning to Nova Scotia from Toronto where he worked in the strategic consulting group of Andersen Consulting. Then, after working in the business consultancy and market development division of UNISYS, White and his wife decided to come back home.

“We bought the house, then looked for jobs,” he jokes. But they were convinced that there were opportunities in Nova Scotia for intelligent, industrious people. “It’s a matter of analyzing your skills, and being creative about what you can do. No one was looking for a corporate strategist, but the strategic and business skills I had learned at Andersen and UNISYS allowed me to target a fairly broad range of employment opportunities.

“Now, I’m working with interesting, creative people who are establishing businesses that can compete across Canada and across the globe,” he says. “And I’m able to work from home – so I can take the kayak out between appointments. That is one of the joys of working in Nova Scotia!”

But White points to other advantages of doing business in Nova Scotia. “I see a real change in attitude over the last generation,” he says. “People aren’t looking to government for solutions. They’re looking for opportunities to do their own thing. They want a fair playing field, and a business environment that will let them run with their ideas.

“There is great creativity here, not only in developing new ideas, but in adapting ideas and forging partnerships that will make them work in this business climate. For example, one of my clients, a health, safety and environment risk management engineer in the oil industry, was frustrated with the manual systems and processes used to track and control risk factors that could cost millions of dollars if not managed properly. He developed a software application to help him manage these risks in his own work. Now, he’s developed a commercial-grade application and is marketing it to risk management firms in the oil and gas industry around the world – and has created a promising new business in Nova Scotia. ”

That cooperative spirit is one of the strengths White identifies in Nova Scotia’s business culture. Referring to it as ‘reverse networking’, he notes that the willingness to help someone else builds rapport, credibility and influence. “Halifax is small enough to build strong networks. People are genuinely interested and friendly – they’re more open here than in larger centres.”

Many of White’s clients are doing business internationally, or seeking to enter international markets. Again, he sees a significant shift in global opportunities for businesses in Nova Scotia.

“There used to be a sense that Nova Scotia was too small and out of the mainstream. But with technology, anyone can do business anywhere – and we have the great advantage of being in a time zone that allows us to communicate in one business day with Europe and with the rest of North America,” he says.

“People also have a great pride in place. That has brought a much more positive and optimistic attitude than I recall in the past.”

Access to capital continues to be a challenge for businesses in Nova Scotia, but White is finding greater investor interest in his clients’ businesses. He attributes that to an increase in local venture capital activity, and the capacity of Nova Scotian businesses to go further afield in search of investment.

International business is also helped by the greater number of people who have come here from other parts of the world for work or study, and decided to stay. These people bring their talents and connections, and they’ve chosen to live in and contribute to Nova Scotia.

Like them, White appreciates the balance that working in Nova Scotia offers. “My Toronto friends are astounded that we can live on a lakefront half an hour from downtown Halifax. They have to rush, rush, rush to relax on a weekend – I can step outside my front door every day.”

And why did he call his business Rudder? Like any Nova Scotian, he found a marine analogy. On a boat, the sails and mast are visible, but it needs the invisible rudder to get to its destination.

White’s Rudder helps clients with the critical invisible details of analyzing, assessing, planning and coaching to allow them to achieve their goals.