Jaime Landry owns Black Harbour Distillers, a venue located in Fox Point, near Hubbards, Nova Scotia. She was granted her distillers’ license in 2019, and a few months later she sold her first bottle of vodka at a farmers’ market. By combining her grandfather's moonshine legacy with her entrepreneurial passion, she creates high-quality vodka, gin and rum products with earnest stories behind them. With a strong focus on planning and community, Jaime's leadership and enthusiasm have driven BHD’s remarkable growth and will inspire entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.

When Jaime Landry was young, she was a natural leader. Her charisma and influence were motivational for those around her during playtime with friends or among teammates. As she began her entrepreneurial journey, those leadership qualities helped to sustain her vision, keep her on track through challenges, and grow her business footprint. Within five years of opening and operating BHD, she has expanded her facility, invented unique flavours of vodka, gin and rum, partnered with retailers nationwide, and grown to a team of 11.

BHD is not the result of an entrepreneurial family influence or built on the backbone of a seasoned career in the industry or the brainchild of a team of Ivy league consultants. This is what inspiration, intrigue, sentiment, vision and planning look like. The twist that makes Jaime’s story a special one? She’s 24 years old. At the age of 19, she was the youngest person in Canada to receive a distiller’s license and a few months later she opened the venue in Hubbards. But don’t dwell on her age: dwell on her accomplishments as a businesswoman. She’s no slouch.

Jaime’s passion for involvement led her to join her Grade 12 Humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic. One morning, her group visited sugar cane fields, and in the afternoon, the partnering distillery. Jaime was inspired by the people she’d met working in the fields and was intrigued by the distilling process. Although he had passed away when Jaime was a baby, her family often recounted well-loved stories of the grandfather who used to make moonshine. His recipe and techniques lived on in those stories, and Jaime had fallen in love with the whole process, first as a granddaughter and then as an entrepreneur.

Planning is one of two mainstays of her style as a business owner. When she was assigned to develop a business plan at the beginning of her first year at Dalhousie, her parents advised her to pick a business idea she was truly passionate about. That business plan has become a living document, often referenced and updated, that keeps her on track to her vision. “From the original business plan that I started with in September [2018], it has updated, pivoted, and changed, but that main focus on having quality products and bringing together the community, that never changed.” She added, “Anybody that ever asks me now, “Oh, I have a business idea I want to do” I'm like, “Write a business plan.””

Her other mainstay is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for each product and enthusiasm for and from customers, the local community and her employees. “The most rewarding part is seeing the team that I'm growing and how passionate they are behind the Black Harbour products. And the customers and the community - the loyalty behind Black Harbour has been very rewarding.” It’s her enthusiasm that keeps her on track when there are struggles: “I try not to think of anything as a ‘con’: just a learning obstacle.”

Beginning entrepreneurs often feel pressure to ‘do it all’ themselves. After a bit of experience, the lesson they learn is similar: understand when you are and aren’t getting a return on your investment of time or money. Jaime talks with her family and mentors for advice on when there’s value in pursuing an idea or when it’s time to refocus her attention. She’ll pull back when she’s “spending too much time on something that isn't getting either the excitement or satisfaction or even just the quality that's needed.”

There is no requirement that an individual must wait to start or operate a business until after they’re fully equipped with all the skills, knowledge and experience needed to succeed. The path best travelled follows “complementary hiring.” Building a diverse and well-rounded team – employees, mentors, business partners, etc. – that has skills and expertise that, together, make a whole greater than the sum of its independent parts. Jaime learned this very early on, and it’s advice she gives now for those getting started. “I think that if I went back in time and sat down and picked a partner who had the qualities that I didn't have to grow a business or had those aspects that weren't my strong points, then I think a partner would be amazing.” She also leverages her membership in The Entrepreneur’s Organization, a global, peer-to-peer network of business owners that enables entrepreneurs to learn and grow.

Her final thought is empowering: “The right time is now.” But her encouraging words aren’t adrift in romantic sentiment. “If you're passionate about something and you have taken the right steps and written a business plan and know where you're headed - and especially that passion piece - the right time is now; just go for it.”

Celebrating their fifth anniversary this summer, BHD is opening an on-site restaurant “The 5th Barrel” in September, 2024. And, Jaime is working on new product lines: ready-to-drink cocktails in a can or pouch. But her overall vision for the business is to make Black Harbour synonymous with Hubbards and a household name with a widespread retail presence. You can be sure to find a detailed plan of approach written up in a file on her computer.