Larry Finnson is hoping that success is even sweeter the second time around.

Best known as the president and co-founder of Krave's Candy Co., which has manufactured and marketed Clodhoppers fudge-clustered candy in Winnipeg since 1996, Finnson stepped down in October to concentrate on a new endeavour - 24K Water Co.

"I figured that I took Clodhoppers as far as I could," he says. "To be honest, after 10 years, I was burning out of passion. It was time to do something else."

Finnson, 36, initially became interested in the beverage industry two years ago, learning more about the business through food and confection trade shows he attended. Once he discovered that he could combine bottled water with zeal for his Nordic roots, it was impossible to keep a cap on his enthusiasm.

John Johnston, Business Edge
Clodhoppers and 24K Water Co.'s Larry Finnson of Winnipeg has used his Viking heritage to help corral Canadian distribution rights for Icelandic Glacial bottled water.

"I'm 100 per cent Icelandic," Finnson says. "I always thought if I could find bottled water from Iceland, the cleanest country in the world - that would be ideal."

Internet research led Finnson to Icelandic Glacial, a premium bottled mineral water company. Demonstrating his guerrilla marketing knack, which made Clodhoppers a household name and earned it shelf space in Wal-Marts around North America, Finnson sent an introductory e-mail with a photo of himself posed beside the famous 15-ft.-tall Viking statue in Gimli, Man.

"They said: 'We like your style. Let's meet!' " he recalls.

Following a meeting in Minneapolis, Finnson was made Canada's exclusive distributor of Icelandic Glacial. His 24K Water Co. will launch Icelandic Glacial in Winnipeg Wal-Mart locations in April and plans to expand into other markets shortly afterward.

"It's been a natural transition for me," he says. "I went to the school of hard knocks and worked my butt off for 10 years to learn the industry and build relationships. Now I'm taking those contacts and springboarding onto the next (challenge.)" Finnson says that for entrepreneurs such as him, the excitement is in seeing a vision unfold and the fun is in overcoming the fears that come with taking a new risk.

"I would say it's like building a three-headed Frankenstein, then trying to figure out how to control it," he says. "There's a little bit of madness in great entrepreneurship."

According to a 2005 study of entrepreneurship by CIBC World Markets Inc., 33 per cent of Canada's 2.5-million small business owners have owned or currently own more than one business, classifying them as "serial entrepreneurs."

One quarter of these entrepreneurs have owned a business that is no longer in operation, and 22 per cent of those with one business say they are seriously considering starting another venture in addition to their current enterprise.

Tony Lourakis, president and CEO of Complete Innovations Inc., falls into both categories.

"Thinking big is always exciting to me," says Lourakis, whose company based in Richmond Hill, Ont., provides mission-critical operations and management software for more than 350 courier, mobile workforce and transportation-related companies.

File photo by Chris Wood, Business Edge
Calgary's Shashi Behl started Twisted Goods in addition to children's wholesale firm BodyBlocker Co.

It's the 26-year-old's second company, although as he puts it, "I've been running businesses from a very young age."

The son of a Greek-immigrated property and real estate entrepreneur, Lourakis says self-employment comes naturally.

"From the time I could walk, my father had me working for him. By the time I had my driver's licence, he would go to Greece in the summer and leave me to run his business."

Lourakis started his first company, an IT consulting firm, while still in college. "I always had an interest in computer technology and knew I wanted to be in business for myself, but didn't know what it would be until I took my interest and recognized there might be something there."

In 1997, a friend in the courier business asked Lourakis and his partner to build an affordable software system that would give smaller operations the same dispatch and tracking abilities that big players such as UPS and Fed-Ex had.

"We weren't the first company to come up with courier software, but we came up with a Windows-based system that was priced so that small and medium-sized businesses could afford it," he says, adding that innovation continues to inspire him.

"Doing something new, something cool, something that will help - that's exciting. You might do something that's been done before, but you'll put a different twist on it and find a better way to deliver it."

In addition to Complete Innovations, Lourakis is a shareholder and consultant in a couple of his friends' ventures - just another side effect of being a serial entrepreneur - and says that he's toying with importing extra virgin olive oil from his family's olive groves in Greece.

"I'm constantly thinking up new business ideas and concepts. It's the only way I know how to live."

Dr. Walter Good is a professor and marketing department head at the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, as well as author of Building a Dream (McGraw-Hill Ryerson Trade), a guide to starting a business in Canada. He says serial entrepreneurs are innovative and creative people who are generally more interested in starting new businesses than running them.

"Serial entrepreneurs tend to be strongly focused. They'll start a venture and develop it to a certain stage. Then they'll lose interest in it, the challenge runs out or, in some cases, they get shoved aside by the investment capital that's come into the business, and they move on. Next thing you know, they've started another venture."

Good believes that while most of us rarely look beyond the edges of our desk, serial entrepreneurs are visionaries.

"I typically associate four characteristics with them: Determination, commitment, perseverance and vision," he says. "They have a vision. They see something else no one else does and set out a path to get there."

Calgary's Shashi Behl became an entrepreneur after realizing she was not cut out as an employee.

"I don't work well for other people, honestly," says Behl, 35.

"I've had 'real' jobs and I always thought I could do things faster and more efficiently. Finally, I thought I should stop talking about how I'd do it differently and get off my butt and do it."

Today, Behl runs two operations. In 1996, she started BodyBlocker Co., a wholesale outfit offering sun-protective swimwear and clothing for children.

"Then I got bored," she admits, and in 2001, opened a home-decor emporium called Twisted Goods, selling items by artisans from around the world. Both BodyBlocker Co. and Twisted Goods continue to operate under Behl's ANKH Inc. and employ 14 staff members between stores in Calgary and Saskatoon.

"I've never heard the term 'serial entrepreneur' before," she says, "but I would describe myself as a serial challenge- maker. I like knowing that I have a huge learning curve in front of me.

"The most exhilarating thing is the first day you open the doors after you've been planning for a year - at last, you get the satisfaction of putting in the final piece of the puzzle," she says. "A week later, you dismantle it and point out everything you did wrong so that next time you do it differently."

Good says Behl's description is typical of what drives the serial entrepreneur. "They're never really satisfied. They're always trying to analyse systems, dissect them and understand them. They reflect on mistakes as a learning experience because everything is part of the process."

When asked if he can imagine going through the startup process again, Larry Finnson affirms that he is an entrepreneur for life.

"I'm not quite exhausted yet. I'm a little more exhausted than I was 10 years ago, but I know 10 times as much, so I think I probably have another one in me," he says.

"I'll always have my fingers in something - I wouldn't be happy without it."

(Barbara Chabai can be reached at chabai@businessedge.ca)