In 1983, in the midst of an economic downturn in Alberta, Stan Stawowski embraced his entrepreneurial spirit and decided to create something of his own.
Stan was born and raised in Calgary, seeing both the financial highs and lows, and has always believed in Alberta as a province full of potential. After spending years with Smith, Matthews and Partners, Stan decided to enter business for himself, focused solely on business owners and corporate clients. It was a risk, and it wasn’t easy, but starting a business never is.
After over 15 years of handling compliance for his clients, Stan began to look towards the future, not just for himself but for other business owners. Clients wanted help looking forward and needed someone who could help them make decisions today, knowing the impact on tomorrow. They needed more than financial compliance, they needed business advisory and financial leadership, and that’s when Stan developed a new business model. From that point on in early 2000, Stan focused on developing a baseline for business owners, starting with a planning day, understanding their goals both personally and professionally, and building a strategy to get them to where they wanted to be. It meant turning down big clients who just wanted year-end financials and convincing business owners to make the commitment. Still, Stan bet on himself and his growing team. If business owners didn’t see the value, there was no contract to tie them in, they could walk away, no questions asked. Business advisory grew from nothing to only work Stawowski McGill does today, based on proving the value to business owners through a unique model tailored to their wholistic needs and getting to know their business in ways most other advisors don’t.