Georgian College

33 GEORGIANVIEW SPRING 2022 BUSINESS Georgian alumnus Sven Hansen's Always Bearded Lifestyle (ABL) specializes in products for healthy beards. Staff and mentors at Georgian's Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre (HBEC) fostered his success and today, Sven serves as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs. "I'm trying to pay it forward, because I was helped by like- minded people who had been where I was," he says. Howard Bernick, the son of HBEC's founder, was one of those people. "He has decades of experience in the cosmetics and beauty industry," says Sven. "He's an invaluable resource and I've been fortunate to connect with him." As a mentor, Sven now shares lessons he's learned first hand. "Becoming an entrepreneur is a lot of work," he advises. "You need to grow slowly. Set a little goal, hit that, then go on to the next, rather than trying to take on the world all at once." Sven graduated from Business – Marketing program at Georgian (class of 2010) at Georgian, where he received five scholarships and was honoured as Canada's 2010 Co-op Student of the Year by the Canadian Association of Co-operative Education. When he grew a beard in 2014, he shopped for products to keep it looking nice, and found very little to choose from. Always Bearded Lifestyle grew from that moment. At first, he sold existing products to barber shops and other retail outlets. Next, he created his own, "starting the first formulations in my kitchen," he laughs, adding he's proud to find manufacturers as close as possible to his home in Barrie, and to have won a Clean Beauty Award from CertClean for one of his products. Two major decisions prompted by the pandemic came next. With retailers shuttered by lockdowns, Sven invested heavily online to sell directly to consumers. And he invented the Beard Tarp, shaped to safely protect beards from the beard equivalent of hat head caused by most masks. "The Beard Tarp was gasoline on the fire," Sven recalls. "Our video had more than two million views in a month. In two weeks, we were on 80 different media outlets. We even created an augmented reality (AR) filter on Instagram where people can try it on from the comfort of their own phones." While Always Bearded Lifestyle has seen a 500 per cent growth in business year over year, Sven's success follows years of hard work, and there's more of that to come. He's planning new AR shopping experiences with his clothing line. And this spring, he'll diversify to launch ABL Manufacturing Company with grooming products and clothing for all men – bearded, clean-shaven or somewhere in between. | Growing a beard sparked Sven's thriving business. From mentee to mentor "I'm trying to pay it forward, because I was helped by like-minded people who had been where I was."

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