Meet Saba Chishti, Co-Founder of Choice Health Centre and 2020 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards, Momentum Finalist

Saba Chishti is a physiotherapist and co-owner of Choice Health Centre, where she works collaboratively with her team to provide high-quality and smooth care to her clients. Whether as a young athlete or a business owner, Saba has always understood the important role of physiotherapy in the overall health and ability of a person to achieve their goals in their day-to-day life, which ultimately led her to co-founding her own health centre. 

My first job ever was… working at the farmers market with my father selling food that we prepared the night before.

I decided to be an entrepreneur because… I love change and I love to solve problems — becoming a business owner presented me with the opportunity to play to my strengths and present me with daily challenges while fulfilling a need within the community.

My proudest accomplishment is… how quickly I was able to help grow Choice Health Centre; creating 20 new jobs in the last 5 years has been a great sense of pride and accomplishment for me. 

My biggest setback was… HR. Growing a team that fast did present challenges on how to ensure regular communication and how to continue with the values we set out for the company.

I overcame it by… getting proper coaching. Learning how to manage a team of 20 was essential to our continued success. 

If you Googled me, you still wouldn’t know… that in the Grade 9 production of Alice in Wonderland I played Alice, and though that I might grow up to be an actor. 

When starting my business, I wish I knew… how important it is to delegate to those who are better at the things you are weak in and who are likely more enthusiastic about that type of work than you. Once I started to do this, I found the quality of work was higher and my time was freed up to do what I do best — grow the business. 

My best advice for people looking to grow their business is… to hire the right people, don’t just fill a role as needed. The right people in the right roles will be dedicated to your business, take pride in their work, understand your values and goals and help you achieve them. That is the fastest way to grow. 

A great leader is… someone who is open to being vulnerable, and has a willingness to learn and constantly improve themselves to better serve others. 

The future excites me because… of the unknown. Even when you have a strategic plan in place how that will exactly play out is unknown and the future is filled with all sorts of possibilities. COVID is a great example of how you have to navigate the times and can learn so much while doing so, opening new opportunities. Success to me means… a life of fulfillment. What fulfills someone is very unique, it can be family, money, experiences, however it is important to know what fulfillment means to you and to work towards attaining that.