Thirty years ago, “Madame Cora” was a recently-divorced single mom, and was looking to make ends meet for her three teenagers.
Now she is a successful restaurant chain CEO with over a hundred stores in her name.
"I did a very big study about philosophy and literature; it doesn't help you to get a job to feed your kids very easy. So I decided to sell the family house and I bought a little snack bar and this is where is started."
The 70-year old has grown her business across the country, and the new Cora in Sudbury is the 130th franchise to open.
Local franchisee, Karen Bass, says the success story is the reason she and her partners have invested.
"Madame Cora is totally the reason why we are here. She believed in herself when she was just a single mom starting out, and she built this empire. The fact that she's still involved made me want to be involved and to see what's possible when you actually believe in yourself."
So what is Madame Cora’s advice to young entrepreneurs? She says it’s all about finding something to be passionate about.
“Then, even if it’s hard, sometimes even if it’s difficult, even if we are tired, we always want to wake up the next day to go back to our passion." said Cora.
Madame Cora says she has no plans of slowing down anytime soon as her company is working on opening more stores in Alberta and BC, with plans of eventually expanding into the US.
