It’s a good thing Davey Moody is a morning person.
If he was the type of teenager to hit the snooze button before begrudgingly rolling out of bed and rushing off to school, there’s no way he’d have enough time to accomplish his day’s activities – which include school work, playing two sports and, this year, also running a business.
Earlier this year, the 16-year-old Semiahmoo Secondary student – who plays rugby for the school and hockey with the Semiahmoo Ravens midget A2 team – created Tizon (www.tizon.ca), a web-based company that sells ties emblazoned with team logos on them. Purchases can be made individually, or in bulk for an entire team.
“I play rep hockey and we have to wear ties to games and I just thought that we wear (matching) uniforms on the ice, so why not represent our teams with ties, too,” he explained to Peace Arch News.
He began putting together the plan for his business in the summer, and with the company launched, by the time school was back in session in September he was busy enough that he had to add a few more hours to his schedule.
A typical day for Moody begins with a 5 a.m. wake-up call, and from there he gets ready and leaves for a nearby coffee shop, where for a few hours before school, he sets up shop with his laptop and finishes homework, takes care of Tizon business and works on the company website. On his lunch break, he takes his laptop into the school library and works on his company, and after school, he squeezes in homework and more business responsibilities between rugby practices and hockey games.
“It’s pretty busy,” he said. “But I do have lots of support.”
Much of that support, he explains, comes from his father, Neil, a businessman himself who is currently the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C. and who Davey mentions as being one of his biggest inspirations.
“Business and entrepreneurship is something I’ve just always been interested in,” the younger Moody explained.
“My dad created his own furniture company when he was 19, then built it up, sold it and started another one. I’ve learned a lot from him and he’s helped me with a lot – the paperwork and legal stuff (involved) with forming a company.”
His dad, however, is quick to credit his son for the company’s creation and early success – success that includes sales locally, and even from as far away as Japan, where the Moody family has friends and business connections.
“I helped with the government paperwork… but the rest is Davey,” Neil said, adding that his son “does have a great work ethic.”
“The idea for Tizon is his own and he designed the ties and sourced the supplier, then proceeded to set up an eCommerce site to accept orders and payment.
“He has an office set up in his bedroom so he is definitely interested in business… he also completed Math 12 pre-calc through an online course over the summer holidays so he is certainly focused and motivated.”
Moody’s new venture also has a charitable component, as a portion of each tie sale goes to support Semiahmoo Minor Hockey Association’s Grow the Game Foundation, which helps would-be players pay for equipment and ice time that they would not otherwise be able to afford.
So far, Moody’s hockey team wears Tizon ties – Semiahmoo Minor Hockey has also added a link to Tizon.ca on its website – and his Semiahmoo rugby team is also ordering some Totem-logo ties for an upcoming tour of New Zealand. A few other teams, both local and from abroad, are also interested, he noted.
Down the road, Moody said he’d like to expand Tizon beyond ties to include other team-logo gear, and his father told PAN that one of his son’s goals is to get a tie to Don Cherry, the famous Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster famous for his garish suits and colourful ties.
Such exposure, Neil points out, would boost Tizon’s business and in turn, provide more funding for the Grow the Game Foundation, thus helping more young athletes.
“I’d like to create (new products). My family is spreading the word, family friends, my friends at school – the more people know about it the better, and maybe we can expand one day.”
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