BC Business
Owner AGE: 28 The story: Adam Wicks is literally an accidental entrepreneur. Nine years ago, he was a 19-year-old electrician apprentice, with no plan to start a business, when he slipped at work and tore a knee ligament. Emergency doctors discovered a bone tumour, and in the months of contemplation during his...
Owner
AGE: 28
The story: Adam Wicks always knew he wanted to start his own business, but at age 19 he had an accident that sped up the process. In 2007, while working as an electrician apprentice, Wicks slipped and tore a knee ligament. Emergency doctors discovered a bone tumour, and in the months of contemplation during his treatment and recovery, Wicks developed his vision for what a great electrical contracting company should be. He started Wicks Electric in 2012, slowly gathering clients using flyers at local stores and ads on Craigslist. The industry has been around almost since Edison, but Wicks’s obsessive attention to customer satisfaction propelled the company to doubling its sales and profits each year. Tesla Motors Inc. chose Wicks Electric as a recommended Lower Mainland installer for its customers’ home-charging stations in 2014, and the company is the electrical contractor of choice for a growing list of builders.
Markers of success: Sales have grown from $120,000 in 2013 to $750,000 in 2015. Wicks no longer wields a pair of pliers now that he’s running a company that’s grown from two employees to eight over the same time. This past December he was asked to speak in front of Vancouver Community College’s graduating class.
PHOTO: ADAM BLASBERG