Franchisee Voices: Kelly Knight of Safeguard

Kelly Knight began working in promotional items and advertising in 1998. Since 2008, he branched off and started his own business, KayCee Promotions and Design, designed to provide local businesses the resources to help promote their products and services. There, Knight began working as Tim Horton's Timbits Sports official provider in the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwest Ontario areas in 2009 and has been ever since. He secures products for the Timbits program like branded soccer balls, backpacks, hats, puzzles that have become a fixture as part of Timbits Minor Sports Programs.

Recently, Knight partnered with and signed on his business to work under the Safeguard umbrella where Knight will have more access name-brand distributors like Under Armour and Eddie Bauer. As of today, Knight is a part of Safeguard's business model. Apart from his work with Tim Horton's, Kight provides the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba the gift items featured on the annual Teddy Bears' Picnic.

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Knight is devoted to giving back to its local business men and women in the community he grew up in and is raising a family of his own. 1851 spoke with Knight to learn more about his background and how he got involved with Safeguard.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I was born and raised in Winnipeg and have been living here for nearly my entire life. I started working in this industry in 1998, and started in promotional advertising, specifically. The company I was working for at the time went out of business and it forced me to find an alternative. From there, I decided to start my own business in 2008, KayCee Promotions and Design. We needed a business like Safeguard to validate our items with access to name-brand retailers. They have bigger and better buying power, and more access to other product lines. If you don’t have the finances in this industry, you can’t go very far. Business men and women in Winnipeg are always looking for ways to grow their businesses.

One of the bigger organizations I’ve been working with over the years has been Tim Horton’s. I’ve been working with the company since 2006 within their TimBits Sports programs in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwest Ontario. It’s my job to provide the children playing hockey, soccer and baseball in TimBits programs with the Tim Horton’s branded promotional items to acknowledge their participation in the group.

They have a budget for the items and then I’m allotted those funds to find unique and fun gift items to offer the kids. Because I know the local coordinator, we were the ones who collaborated to produce this project. They come to me and I source gift items to give to the TimBits Soccer organization, for example. TimBits Soccer is generally our biggest job every spring and summer. I source and distribute the roughly 20,000 items. We’ve given away anything from custom baseball caps to bags, soccer ball bags, and this past year we gave away custom puzzles.

Why did you choose to become a franchisee with Safeguard? How did you learn about the brand?

I was looking to become a part of a business like Safeguard because I needed help getting access to suppliers that could help local businesses grow, on top of providing them with financial support and customer service. 

Do you work with any organizations in the community?

I’ve been doing some work with the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba where I provide some gift items for the Teddy Bears Picnic in an effort to help create awareness for child health and safety issues.