Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

Surrounded by plastic boxes neatly stacked to the ceiling, a large, muscular man hunches over a small piece of wood. Carefully pinned to this wood rests a glowing metallic blue butterfly. With the precision of a surgeon, the man painstakingly ensures the pins don't penetrate the wings but display the butterfly in perfect symmetry.

Anshul Fernando displays some of the more exotic butterflies from his company's inventory

"This business is extremely labour intensive," explains Anshul Fernando, co-president of Lepidopteran, a Calgary-based company selling butterflies and insects around the world. "The material is extremely fragile." Arriving from exotic locations such as Papua New Guinea, Peru, Africa... Fernando takes anywhere from eight to 10 hours to mount a specimen after it arrives dehydrated in a paper-like state.

That hasn't stopped him from building a successful company. Lepidopteran is so busy, Fernando says, the five-member Calgary staff can barely keep up with demand. So how does a local company selling butterflies make money? By sticking to the basics of business, the enthusiastic Fernando says.

"This isn't sheer luck. There's a formula in place. Every industry has their own special nuances, the butterfly industry just happens to be unpopular. The mechanisms that make other businesses successful are the same here." Some of those keys include solid business and marketing plans and getting to know the customer.

The philosophy graduate says his 11-year-old company succeeds because it listens to its market. Lepidopteran deals only with farmed and specially bred butterflies so it doesn't take any of the insects out of nature. Most of the competitors don't do that, Fernando says. In fact, Fernando has spent time in Sri Lanka and India training farmers to use their land and its natural plants to raise butterflies for his company.

Growing up in Australia with dozens of different beautifully coloured butterflies in his backyard, Fernando has long been a butterfly collector. And when he moved to Calgary, his interest continued, and grew. To keep up with the hobby, he started a fish breeding operation to help pay for his passion.

That allowed him to gain experience in business needed when he started Lepidopteran in 1992. Despite his love for butterflies, particularly, he has been able to divide the passion for his hobby from the passion for his business. This allows him to keep his eye on the key ingredient in business, the bottom line.

"I have 100,000 butterflies and not one is mine," he says, pointing to the plastic bins along the walls. "They are the company's. What I sell and what I buy for myself are not related. I may have the most exquisite butterfly in my company and not have it in my collection and that's OK. I've separated my collection from my inventory."

Even though he's been in business for years, he still puts in long hours. "I don't have a problem putting in 14-18 hour days," he says. "I don't have a problem depriving myself of the finer things. I love what I do." Part of what keeps him going is the response he gets from people when a specimen puts genuine joy on their faces. "Getting that positive feedback is fuel to continue." No matter how detailed the work.