The Starter Company Plus program is funded by the government of Ontario and delivered by the Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County and Orillia. The program is designed to help entrepreneurs start, grow or buy a business. Participants receive mentorship from experienced business professionals, access to valuable training and networking opportunities, as well as the opportunity to pitch for up to $5,000 in micro-grants.
The Small Business Centre team is excited to share the companies they had the chance to work with this fall.
Meet Jake Agema and Addimin
Jake Agema and Addimin offer an end-to-end solution for managing temporary staffing and simplifying staffing processes. Helping to streamline day-to-day administrative worker-related activities, Addimin allows businesses to deliver better, more efficient service to clients while reducing their own workload. The platform focuses on a complete view of end-to-end staffing operations, including recruitment, scheduling, time-tracking, communication, payroll, performance management, client management, and more. With years of management experience, Jake has taken the knowledge of all his hard-earned lessons, pain-points, and solutions and combined them into and all-in-one software to help make other business owners’ lives easier.
Subtract from your Administrative Workload with Addimin
What is your favourite part about being an entrepreneur?
Being my own boss and not having someone constantly telling me what I need to do. I enjoy the autonomy and flexibility of working for myself. Being able to shape my own vision and make decisions that directly impact my success is incredibly fulfilling.
What inspired you to start a business?
My dad has owned his own business for a decade, and I ran the business for 3 years before making the decision to start my own business. The skills and experience I gained through his business got me very interested in starting my own business.
What services/ products do you offer?
Addimin is an all-in-one management software platform designed for staffing businesses that actively manage their own team of workers. With a focus on end-to-end staffing operations—including recruitment, scheduling, time tracking, communication, payroll, performance management, and client management—Addimin helps streamline day-to-day temp staffing processes, allowing businesses to deliver better, more efficient service to clients while reducing the administrative workload.
Who do you look up to for inspiration when it comes to either being an entrepreneur or your business?
I look up to other entrepreneurs in general, but more specifically entrepreneurs that are also in the technology space. I also look up to people who make me think deeply and educate me about business and people.
How did you come up with your business name?
We started with names that related to staffing. This included gigconnections, shiftconnect, shiftmatch, tempworks, giglink, and more. Along with this, we took names related to staffing, such as shift, connect, temporary, match, worker, freelance, gig, and more, and translated them into a variety of different languages, to try and come up with something unique.
After spending a lot of time coming up with names this way, I made the decision that I did not want to business’s name to actually relate to what we were offering. For example, Apple sells technology and software, not apples.
Once we decided on this, we ended up coming up with the final name by breaking down the value of our software, and it is mainly that it streamlines the administrative tasks and processes related to staffing. Since the word Admin.com was not available, we stretched the word into Addimin.
What is unique about your business?
There are a variety of scheduling, workforce management, and applicant tracking tools and software’s, but Addimin is an all-in-one platform designed from years of experience in temporary staffing. We have taken all of our experience and headaches and continually put solutions into the software because it was meant to help make our lives easier.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about yourself through your entrepreneurial journey?
I appreciate people more than I knew. After managing staff for 3 years I found people exhausting and very difficult to put up with on a daily basis, but outside of managing them, I find people very interesting and I actually enjoy conversations and meeting new people when I thought I wouldn’t after my management experience.
What’s the best piece of advice you would give to another entrepreneur?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is very difficult to wear every hat as an entrepreneur and people are more open to helping others than we realize. Surround yourself with mentors and a strong support network, as their insights and experiences can save you time and help you avoid costly mistakes.
What do you hope to achieve through the Starter Company Plus program?
The biggest goal of mine is that by the end of the program I will have taken more steps to pay down my ignorance tax as it relates to business. My understanding of ignorance tax is basically the following - I don’t know how much I don’t know, and the more I don’t know, the more opportunities I will miss to become a better entrepreneur and run a successful business. So, throughout this program I plan to learn as much as I can from mentors and fellow entrepreneurs.
Explore Addimin Today
To learn more about Jake Agema and Addimin, you can reach out via email at jake@addimin.com or head to their website: addimin.com. Follow Addimin on social media to stay informed about their services.
- X (Twitter): @OfficialAddimin
- Instagram: @officialaddimin
- Facebook: Addimin
Learn More About the Starter Company Plus Program
To learn more about the Starter Company Plus program, reach out to the Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County & Orillia today at smallbusiness@barrie.ca or 705-720-2445.