An entrepreneurial couple from Morse Saskatchewan recently took their product to new heights by appearing on the CBC television show Dragons' Den.

Geoff and Colette Heschel created GH The Leveller out of necessity when building a deck onto their house. In 2008 the couple built a new house in Morse and then went to build a deck on to it in 2012. Geoff said that most decks because of the soil conditions in Morse which are really high water tables and real saline soil are built above grade. Geoff knew he wanted to put a leveling footing as he wanted it to rest in some footing. Being unable to find what they needed in the marketplace, Geoff details how he created his own. 

"I wanted something that was stronger and looked more aesthetically pleasing so because we have a business, I have an oil field shop in Morse, I went down to the shop and threw a few things together and built my own."

Both are long-time fans of Dragons' Den and Colette says the experience was a once-in-a-lifetime one.

"It was a great experience. It was so surreal because Geoff and I are both big fans of the show so we have been watching for years. Going down and having the opportunity to meet the dragons in person and do our pitch for them was absolutely exciting and again a super surreal experience."

Geoff adds that you always wonder what kind of experience people will have on the show, will they be eaten alive? For the Heschel's they felt as though they were quite prepared and the part that they were most worried about was the one minute elevator pitch that they had to present to the dragons. Geoff took his guitar along with them and played a jingle which he says was a good ice breaker and everything went well after that. Both Colette and Geoff say that they practiced a lot ahead of time and were surprised that as they were standing backstage waiting to go on, they were not as nervous as they thought they would be. 

The Heschel's say they wanted to be on the show in order to gain exposure as well as the fact that they were looking for a strategic partner. Their product GH The Leveller is available in roughly 160 stores across Canada but they knew the dragons would have additional connections. Geoff adds that the exposure on the program would be great for their product as they would receive advertising from the episode airing as well as in this day and age the show will be on streaming services for years to come as well as social media sites such as YouTube. 

Reflecting on how the pandemic has affected their entrepreneurial process, Colette says it has been a double-edged sword. During the pandemic, many have been doing household projects and so stores that did have their product they received a lot of supply and demand from that. However, they were unable to go into stores that were not already selling their product and for the realtors to take on new products was difficult. Geoff says that they have a roughly 95% close rate if they can visit a realtor and they can see the product and have it in hand they usually stock it. 

In the Swift Current retail market specifically, Geoff and Colette say they have always received great support here. GH The Leveller can be found at Home Hardware, Swift Current Building Supplies, and the Pioneer Co-op. 

The Heschel's episode of Dragons' Den will be airing on CBC on November 4th. 

For more on their product visit here or check out GH The Leveller on Facebook.