International Women’s Week ft. Heather Desjardins

Heather started her career as a Special Education Teacher. She realized how great the need was for students and families to gain awareness and to have access to effective remediation for students with learning differences. This was when she made the decision to dedicate herself to this mission, leaving her stable teaching position to start The Open Door Educational Services. With a team of over 50 trained educators, they have helped students and their families who are struggling due to known or suspected learning disabilities, both in-person and online, spanning 3 continents.

In starting The Open Door, Heather discovered a second passion — being an entrepreneur. She loves learning and finding ways to innovate and improve her business. In the eight years since she founded the company, she has won Founder of the Year at the 2019 Bootstrap Awards, is a Forty Under 40 recipient, and most recently, won last year’s Businesswoman of the Year from the Women’s Business Network.

In the face of the pandemic, new challenges have arisen, and resilience has been essential for the success of many companies. How did you embrace resiliency, in order to survive and thrive amidst the pandemic?

We were very fortunate to already be offering online tutoring sessions prior to the pandemic; however, we certainly had to scramble to get all of our tutors and all our programming up and running online. We were training around the clock to give each tutor the one-on-one training they needed to ensure they were ready and able to move fully to online tutoring with minimal interruption to their sessions with the students. We had to find new ways to complete so many tasks including our hiring and training practises. I’m so thrilled that my team was innovative and flexible enough to shift with the changing needs of our operations as well as of our students.

Being an entrepreneur is a challenge and being a woman-identifying entrepreneur is another challenge in itself. Has there been a time when being a woman pursuing entrepreneurship created additional obstacles? If so, how did you overcome these challenges?

Three months after I left my teaching position to start my business, I found out that I was expecting my first child. It was very difficult figuring out how to launch a start-up while dealing with the challenges of pregnancy, followed by the very difficult newborn stage and beyond.

Further to this, despite the fact that society has come a long way, there is still a common expectation that women should be the primary caregiver of the family. The idea that if a man works hard and puts in the hours, he’s admired, but if a woman does the same thing, the unfortunate truth is that some people will wonder if she’s succeeding in business at the cost of being a good mother (or wife, or whatever role she is expected to be putting most of her energy into).

It took a long time to learn that (regardless of whether you are a father or a mother), the solution to this is to find the balance that works by being fully present in whatever you are doing at that time. If you are working, don’t be distracted by thinking about those errands you need to run. If you are spending time with your family, turn off the work distractions and be fully present in the moment. This means that whatever you are choosing to spend your time on, it will be high-quality time that is well spent.

Did anyone that inspire you in or during your pursuit of entrepreneurship? Subsequently, what inspired the idea for your business/organization?

I was inspired to start my business because I saw a significant need that was not being met. I saw so many children slipping through the cracks of our educational system because of a lack of awareness around learning differences (both in identifying and in providing effective help). It took a leap of faith to leave my job to fulfill this calling.

Since starting my business, I’ve taken every opportunity I can to learn from my fellow entrepreneurs. I’ve been amazed by the combination of perseverance, flexibility, and creativity I have seen in so many. Those who have inspired me the most are those who want to make a difference. Whether it is giving some time for mentorship, volunteering to help a cause that matters to them, or creating initiatives to give back.

We love having strong representation of women identifying leaders in the entrepreneurial community, is there anything you wish to tell the next generation of aspiring women entrepreneurs?

If I had to choose one piece of advice, I would say it is to be really clear on your “why”. Why are you wanting to start this business? Not only can this serve as a huge motivation to keep going when things get tough (and they will), but it helps you from unintentionally veering off course from what you are wanting to accomplish. It is one thing to consciously change directions if you decide to adjust your “why,” but quite another if you stray off course and get sidelined by undertakings that do not align with your goals.

*This feature was published in honour of the International Women’s Week, 2022.