How Fredericton’s Mike Davis has Made the Outdoors his Business
Mike Davis opened his business before he was even able to drive a car.
“I was into a sport called windsurfing. Back in 1985, there was a windsurf shop that was going to close down in Fredericton, and I was like ‘oh man we wouldn’t be able to buy windsurfing stuff here’,” he says.
At the time, as a 15-year-old, Davis was thinking about what more he could do so it wouldn’t be the end of windsurfing in Fredericton.
“My father helped me co-sign a loan for $3000 and I got another $3000 though a student entrepreneur loan from the government. So with the $6000, I bought the inventory from the business,” he says.
Davis renamed the business to the Fredericton Sailboard Shop and introduced more variety into the storefront by including other kinds of products, like skateboards, beach clothing and cycling gear.
“I have always believed that traffic and diversity are the keys [to success]. If [my store] was just a bike shop, my opportunity would be limited to people who bike,” he says.
Born in Toronto, outdoor enthusiast Davis spends most of his life in Fredericton. Now he is the co-founder and owner of Radical Edge, an adventure store located in Downtown Fredericton, and one of the partners and the board chair of Crabbe Mountain Ski Hill.
Davis says his passions for an active lifestyle started from spending time out at his family cottage in Harvey and camping.
“Every spring, right after school, we would move out [to the cottage]… My father came back and forth between Fredericton and the lake. I was out there, so I had to make my own fun. So from fishing or going for a long walk or finding something to do, I became good at entertaining myself,” he says.
After he graduated from the University of Western Ontario in economics and finance, he once again combined his passion for outdoor activities and business. Together with his friends, Davis launched a new store for beach clothing, skateboard and windsurfing gears. It was called Sun Surf and Dirt.
But his entrepreneurial journey hasn’t always been a smooth ride.
Not long after Sun Surf and Dirt opened, beach clothing and windsurfing became less popular, leading to the store’s closure.
But that didn’t keep him away from the business road. He and his now wife, Mary Davis partnered to open Radical Edge in Fredericton on March 1, 1992. The business is still going strong today.
When Davis heard the rumours that Crabbe Mountain was going to close down, he thought that the ski hill is too important to Fredericton to let it go. He and other investors came together and negotiated to a deal to keep Crabbe Mountain open. Davis now serves as its chairman.
“Crabbe Mountain is an important outlet for outdoor activities and for the city of Fredericton to market itself… I’m thinking of all of these new tech startups and all of the young professionals who are coming here to work, I think on the list of things that they are deciding if they would move to Fredericton, a ski hill is a good thing to see.”
Davis says since he was a child, his entrepreneurial spirit would push him to come up with ways to earn money without having to work for somebody else.
“I can charge $25 [per lawn] and do ten lawns to get $250 a week. If I worked for somebody, at the time for $5 an hour, it would probably take me an entire week to earn $250, when I could do ten lawns in less than a day.”
The 48-year-old says he enjoys the flexibility as well as the struggle that comes with starting his own business.
“I just love the challenge. I love success and I love failure. I love failing and understanding why I fail.”
Davis says what makes a great entrepreneur is the ability to recognize mistakes and quickly learn from them.
“I think that successful entrepreneurs have a level of humbleness to them that allows them to identify when they make a mistake and to say ‘that’s wrong, let’s go this way now’, recognize [the mistake] sooner or later and then apply what you learn from it in the next decision that you make.”