NEIL MORTON BUILDS UP NEW BUSINESSES TO KEEP BUSY

If variety is the spice of life, then Neil Morton has crafted a luxurious and flavourful dish throughout his career.

"I get bored easily and I like to do a lot of different things," said Morton, who is being inducted into the Junior Achivement Business Hall of Fame. "People say I'm a bit of a squirrel."

He's the founder of media site Ptbo Canada as well as Studio Ptbo, co-founder of the semi-professional soccer team the Electric City Football Club and is cofounder of a new 3D-printing construction company aiming to disrupt the building industry.

"My mind is an adventure," said Morton, looking back at more than 10 years of building businesses.

Morton went to school at

Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson University, and worked for 20 years in media.

Though in 2012 he altered his career path and moved to Peterborough and co-established Ptbo Canada, a "hyper local version of Buzzfeed."

"I built that over time into a fully-fledged business and was doing that basically full time until I sold that a year-and-a-half ago," said Morton.

It provided him the "experience to tell stories about Peterborough and the wonderful people here," he said.

During that time he also co-founded the marketing agency Studio Ptbo and told stories via video, podcasts and other web formats.

"Our lens was a little different from other media, ours was more rose-coloured glasses and looking

at the positive side of the community."

While he's since departed from both of those businesses, he says it's become his method to build something up and then pass

them onto others.

"So that hopefully they will last way beyond when I'm here on this Earth," he said.

Electric City Football Club was one of the next projects Morton says he helped kick-start. It is a "semi-pro football team, soccer in Canadian terms," he says.

His most recent endeavour is to partner with Dwight and Dwayne Corcoran to establish Cormor, a concrete-based 3D printing business to build homes.

"We utilize advanced technology and material science to print sustainable concrete buildings, so we're going to be doing that in Peterborough and the Kawarthas," said Morton, adding the company has already partnered with Habitat for Humanity for a new affordable home project.

More recently he's also working as a consultant with former MP Maryam Monsef to help build the brand for her new company, Onward, which empowers women to succeed in life.

It's quite a trek of businesses Morton says he's built up along his career path, but there's been a community focus throughout.

With so much experience in growing businesses, Morton has some advice for burgeoning entrepreneurs: ask people for a cup of coffee.

"Go out to events, and network and introduce yourself to people. That's really vital and that really helped get my business off the ground," he said.

And having one-on-one chats and establishing connections in the community is key to growing your business. It helps too that Peterborough is a great environment for small businesses.

"The entrepreneurial ecosystem here has been amazing and it's really accelerated my growth as an entrepreneur," he added.