Rosetta Sicoli: entrepreneur - Sault Ste. Marie. (2002 Winner).

Rosetta Sicoli went from not being able to afford pantyhose, to owning one of the top-rated restaurants in Canada. She has "come a long way baby" and all in a "Thymely" manner.

Thymely Manner has been running successfully for 17 years in the City of Sault St. Marie, where Sicoli resides.

The Where to Eat in Canada publication has listed the restaurant business as one of the top 500 in Canada for at least six years.

Sicoli started the business "right from scratch" in 1983. She bought an old house on St. Albert St. East and renovated it. The doors opened in September of 1984.

She says the biggest challenge she has had to overcome was obtaining financing for the venture.

"It was a big-time struggle," Sicoli says. "All the banks said "no."" Being single, and a woman, did not help in her attempt to obtain financing, says Sicoli. She says bank managers would often tell her they had no problem giving her a loan as long as her husband would be a co-signer.

Finally Sicoli went to a trust company and was able to secure a loan. She says statistics point out that 80 per cent of restaurants are "doomed to fail," but she "sure wasn't going to be one of them."

She was told to declare bankruptcy numerous times, but refused to do it.

"I almost lost everything," Sicoli says. "Losing everything wouldn't have been that bad if it hadn't been so important to me at the time because my family was associated with it."

After vowing to pay back debtors, Sicoli began to make her recovery.

"It would have been so simple (to declare bankruptcy)," Sicoli says. "But I never did anything simple."

"When you hit rock bottom, everything's on the way up after that," she says.

Keeping it a success is not simple either, according to Sicoli.

"A lot of hard work, a lot of hours every single day" is what keeps the business flourishing, she adds.

"People get into business and assume it's going to be a right-off," she says. "I'll have a fancy car, a big home, wonderful clothes...all of those things do not happen overnight. In fact sometimes they don't happen. But if you're doing what you really love doing, then that's what should be the reward because you're doing what you love to do."

Another reason Sicoli believes the restaurant is such a success is the fact that all the food she prepares is cooked with natural ingredients, in a manner that Sicoli calls "peasant cooking."

"Aim to be honest and true to your craft," she says. "Be honest with who you are and with your customers."

Sicoli has hosted a number of functions for governors-general, lieutenant governors, premiers, cabinet ministers and foreign heads of state.

Sicoli's business became the "caterer of choice" for the Sault Civic Centre, as well as many other local institutions and businesses, according Dora Cook, president of the Sault St. Marie Business and Professional Women's Club. Cook says Sicoli has always "gone the extra mile" and was not content to just have a career operating a "good restaurant," according to Cook.

Bryna Coppel Park, chair of the Women for Women of Algoma, says it was Sicoli's "vision, dedication and leadership role" in a fundraising project for women's mental health that made it so successful, raising over $10,000.

"When it comes to certain things and certain issues, women's mental health is very important to me," Sicoli says. "(Women) need to be there for the young so they can know they have the sources they need, that they don't have to, God forbid, do anything more than reach out for help for themselves."

Sicoli is involved with the Art Gallery of Algoma, and says the gallery is "very special" to her because she believes through art people find therapy.

"Just being able to be around art and artists, in places that give you that time and solitude, can be therapeutic."

Sicoli has been involved with the local chamber of commerce, and has been a committee member for the casino's committee of suppliers and contractors and the local tourism awareness committee.

Sicoli is also a motivational speakers, and a guest speaker each year in high schools that touch on cooking and women in business. She was also the keynote speaker for Network 2000 held at Sault College.

The forty-seven-year-old step grandmother of three, and soon to be grandmother of four, plans to "forge ahead," work in the restaurant and continue with her volunteer work. She plans to delve more into catering and continue her community work efforts.

The 'Jane of all trades,' can work in every area of the business, from dishwashing to bookkeeping.

'I love all the different aspects," she says. "I'm a package deal."

Sicoli says she "gets emotional" when she recalls the days of "being in the pit."

But when she looks back, she knows it helped her "build character, and offers words of wisdom for other women women struggling to succeed in their business.

"If you have to wear long skirts because you don't have any money for the panty hose, wear them," she says. "Know that you can get through it. Know that no matter what you're wearing and no matter what you have and don't have, what's inside is your's to keep."

"Now that's success."