I left the corporate world - its rigid thinking and ladders to climb and became an entrepreneur.
It all started back in university while completing my Bachelor's degree. A class called “International Marketing” paired me with a local business man who wanted to expend into the exploding U.S. market’s healthy beverages industry. Here I was, going to "commercial missions" in New York and Boston, scouring the market, talking to distributors, benchmarking competitors, discovering the opportunities, and reporting my findings back to this family-owned business. I am grateful to this day my Mom let me go. It has profoundly impacted the course of my professional life.
After only a few short years in the corporate world “having a real job”, this early life adventure made me jump off the cliff and, with the maturity of a ripe walnut, I became self-employed.
The following 10 years led me to work with hundreds of start-up shops and well, a few Fortune 500 companies. My clients, and the projects they entrusted in me made me vagabond all across our beautiful country. I visited the floors of a thousand tradeshows, all over North America, played golf with Mario Andretti, interviewed a certain Schumacher F1 driver… and tasted the best prosciutto this world has to offer, in Bologna, Italy.
Most importantly however, is that I inadvertently surrounded myself for years with spirited visionaries and sometimes (well most of the time), hard-to-keep-up-with business men and women who one day had a dream and were making it happen! They were the teachers and I was the pupil.
Now you must ask: “what does this have to do with real estate”?
Along the way, I became a Mother. And with that the strong, inexplicable desire to root myself and my growing family to this community that had welcomed Guy and I over the past decade.
The myriad of stepping stones I have chosen since then have brought me back to this: working with entrepreneurs in a real estate advisory capacity. I am ever so fortunate for my formative years in commercial real estate to be influenced by some of the best mentors I could have asked for.
And so while I do believe that anyone can become an entrepreneur, I do believe that some of us are born to be nothing else but.
Guelph is the best small city in Canada, don’t you agree?
Let’s build it together.
Collaboration.
You see in a traditional model of commercial real estate the relation landlord-tenant is adversarial, by nature. The landlord wants the highest rent the marketplace can command, and as few liabilities as possible. The tenant wants the exact opposite.
By being service-oriented, as opposed to deal-oriented, my approach is to bring as much value as possible by getting a clear understanding of the vision and the needs, ranking priorities, working with an array of tools, educating and advising on the possibilities and the risks, with the goal of facilitating an arm’s length transaction between the parties.
Simply put, I do things differently.
Yes that’s right. I live here. I work here. I play here. Guelph is my playground and my market. Therefore I really do care about being an active part in building strong communities, vibrant neighbourhoods, successful business ventures and healthy relationships.
I have built a resourceful network of business owners, landlords, investors and professionals over the years. I am a connector. I facilitate and engage with people. I am cursed (I must admit)…it comes naturally for me.
TrilliumWest, under the leadership of Alan Mason, is re-inventing the way real estate is happening. Our work does not end once the deal is done. it goes far beyond that. We are a machine promoting your business, your successes, increasing your visibility in the marketplace and talking to potential customers of yours every single day. We are the only Brokerage in town doing that. Talk about an advantage!
Nathalie is so personably, knowledgeable and very professional. She took the time to really understand our needs and found us a fantastic property that ticked all of our boxes.
Lisa Sicoli
Nathalie had such a good understanding what our needs and desires were, and she went above and beyond to find us just the right location. She was also very diligent and helpful in going over the details of the lease.
Linda Schattmann
Nathalie Plouffe is the best commercial realtor I've ever worked with. Her knowledge and expertise is outstanding. She listens to her clients needs and wants, always putting her clients 1st.
Heather Boutilier
At the start of my career in Commercial Real Estate (CRE) I was – I must admit on the other side of the fence. I started as a Landlord representative....
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