Cameron Reid

WHAT GOT YOU STARTED?

by Burke Campbell 

Published in the Financial Post

 July 21, 2008

Cameron Reid is president and founder of OrderIt (www.orderit.ca), a Toronto-based company that takes orders and delivers food for numerous restaurants in Toronto , Richmond Hill , and Markham . Cameron Reid tells the Financial Post what motivated him to become an entrepreneur.

The idea develops: "While I apprenticed to become a chef at a fine Toronto restaurant, I thought of a way to let a customer make one phone call, order excellent food from a local restaurant, and have it promptly delivered. I wanted to offer this service to a number of restaurants." 

The pitch: "I convinced select restaurants to let me take orders for them, pick up the food and then deliver it. Orderit.ca grew slowly, but I'm stubborn and felt I had a good idea." 

The moment arrives: "As life grew more hectic, and people had less time to cook, demand grew for delivered food. At the start, we just had telephones. But as it became more common to order off the web, we developed an effective web site, too." 

Core competencies: "Restaurants can focus on preparing and serving food on their premises while we handle the marketing and logistics for diners who want delivery." 

Passionate for improvement: "In a recent project with Telus, we installed an easy-to-use GPS system that lets us visually track our drivers throughout the delivery process. I love innovation, refining an idea and so offering better service." 

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