They say big things start from humble beginnings.

A Fanshawe business graduate has gone before his peers to set precedence and pave the way for hopeful entrepreneurs. If you're a business student at Fanshawe College with corporate dreams, look no further than the example of Andrew Stephenson.

Stephenson was once a student of the Business Administration — Marketing program, and on January 1 of this year, he became the founder of AV Marketing Inc., an audio and video marketing service company.

Last winter, the 25-year-old took advantage of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation and the Business Development Corporation and received funding to launch the firm.

“The one challenge for me was taking that theoretical knowledge and applying it to something that's practical and achievable,” he said. “I think what the Canadian Youth Business Foundation really helped with was guiding me to coming up with realistic goals and realistic projections. I think the hardest thing is guessing where you're going to be at, where you want to be at, and what's realistic.”

If you're a prospective business owner or entrepreneur, don't think you have to make it big by yourself. There are resources and people out there available to help kickstart your plans or ideas. All you need is the drive to see it happen.

Brian Chalmers is the business and loans advisor at the Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC), located in St. Thomas. He guided Stephenson along the process of creating the business plan for AV Marketing Inc. “We tell clients to believe in themselves and their opportunity and to have the tenacity to keep knocking on doors until you get the right financial support, and, in Andrews's case, the right client support,” said Chalmers. “It was very clear when Andrew first came into the CFDC offices that he intended to make his business succeed. Working with us and in conjunction with CYBF, Andrew continuously dug down to come up with whatever was required.”

Stephenson is thankful for what local help he was able to get, but no successful self-made dream is ever possible without the right education. He said his time at Fanshawe College helped him a great deal. “It's really given me a good foundation to build from,” he said. “I've always been an entrepreneur at heart, so that was always there, but it was just a matter of building up my knowledge and my skill set to really attack it head-on. Without the program, I don't think I'd be where I am today.”

If you're in a business program at Fanshawe, chances are you want to be successful. Whether it's dealing in finance, handling stocks, or even owning your own company, you're in it to win it.

For those of you with dreams such as these, Stephenson has one piece of advice: “Never give up,” he said. “Perseverance is so important. Even going through this process, there were so many moments when things seemed a little overwhelming or things weren't coming together as I thought they would be, but perseverance allowed me to push through all those problems and solve them. Without that, I would be back at square one ... Where there's a will, there's a way.”

For more information on AV Marketing Inc., Like it at facebook.com/AvMarketingInc. To get help starting your own business, check out cybf.ca.