“I wasn’t looking for more; I’ve got more than my share of stuff to do,” she says. “But then I look at something like the Shaw Group and I realize what an opportunity it is. Each time, I learn something new; it gives me a different lens to look at my business through. I don’t think we would be as successful as we are if I didn’t have that.”

A year after buying out McDonald’s interests, Bennett started to feel the itch for something new. It had been a good year—but nothing really different than before. Working within a global corporation like McDonald’s, after all, offers limited room for individual inf luence and entrepreneurship. “That world was less flexible for me than I craved and that’s probably one of the reasons I’m inspired to look at other business opportunities.”

Even a major upcoming restaurant renovation seemed like more of the same—until she decided to take it on herself.

“We were going to contract out, but then I thought, we don’t need to do that, we have a great facilities team,” she says. It was 2008 and Bennett was about to hit a major career turning point. “We became the general contractors…and did such a great job we were asked to renovate other restaurants in Atlantic Canada.” She refused the offer in favour of focusing on her own assets.

Bennett purchased a newly vacant building beside one of her restaurants, partly to prevent a competitor from moving in (“I’m nothing if not competitive,” she admits). But she also had a plan. She knew, thanks to her corporate board work, there would be a number of contract employees coming to St. John’s, people who would need a place to work.

She renovated the building into f lexible, turnkey office space and launched The Business Suit(es).

“It’s been a fun project, because we grew it from nothing,” she says. It’s also been successful: a second building opened in 2012; she’s looking at other locations, including Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Even the current home of the Bennett Group of Companies, in St. John’s, will soon likely be rented out to tenants. She’ll find a new place to set up.

Labour issues have always been important to Bennett, but never more than when she felt the pinch of a worker shortage in her restaurants. Thanks to her work on the province’s labour market sub-committee, she recognized the problem early and was ready to act—and the solution turned into another business venture.

Bennett worked with Diamond Global Recruitment Group to find middle management employees. Her experience was so positive she called the company’s founder Audrey Guth and proposed a partnership.

“She’s been in this industry for 20 years and she’s a subject matter expert and she’s also very ethical,” Bennett says. Bennett is now president of Diamond Global’s eastern Canada office. She admits she’s been asked why she doesn’t hire locally; Bennett maintains the labour market is mismatched and international recruitment is the best solution for all.

“Since we brought in the international employees we’ve seen an increase in sales and an increase in customer satisfaction,” she says. “With better managers, we have better working conditions, and happier employees. They’re mentoring our domestic employees. I’m not seeing a negative yet.”

The next major partnership to come under the Bennett Group of Companies umbrella was with Sunny Corner Enterprises Ltd., a New Brunswick-based industrial construction and fabrication company. The deal was signed in early 2013.

Bennett was attracted to the company for their long-standing commitment to the community (Sunny Corner has been in rural New Brunswick for 40 years) their industrial construction in Labrador and the rest of the Atlantic provinces, and their success in the global market.

“The reality is that Atlantic Canada is very small and if you don’t get really good at something you can export globally, you’re not going to have a company that’s going to sustain itself in the long run,” she says.

“That’s insight I’ve gained through a number of my board positions, policy documents I’ve worked on, especially with APEC. We have a lot of opportunity to learn and get really sharp, but we need to take that and sell it globally.” She believes she can engage with Sunny Corner to keep them on the right track.

Bennett has more partnerships in the works, including one with Hi-Point Industries, a Newfoundland-based maker of peat products, among them a peatbased absorbent material used to clean up oil spills. In this case, she and her team will be supporting the transition from the original owner to his son; she believes her people have the expertise to support, mentor and nurture the company into something even bigger than it is.

“For a long time I felt that I knew McDonald’s really well, but I didn’t necessarily know business really well,” she says. “But I’ve discovered in the past five or six years that I had a lot of great training for management and leadership, and at the same time there’s a lot of discipline in my executive team and the [Bennett Group of Companies] as a whole.

“It’s that discipline we can bring to partners. I gained it through the large corporate structure but it is also applicable to a small business in Botwood or a business in Miramichi or the recruitment company that operates in eight different countries. That doesn’t mean you can’t be caring in how you do it, but you have to be focused and disciplined in how you do it so you don’t make mistakes.”

Last year, 2012, was a huge one for Cathy Bennett and her group. It brought the expansion of The Business Suit(es), the launch of Diamond Global Recruitment’s eastern Canada office, and the signing of the deal with Sunny Corner. Bennett, now with more than 800 employees, was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Women of Inf luence and awarded the entrepreneurial excellence award by the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs.

It also brought the opening of the first Ronald McDonald House in Newfoundland, a project close to Bennett’s heart—and not because of her restaurants. When Bennett was 17, her 12-year-old sister was diagnosed with cancer. She watched her parents struggle with the nights in the hospital and the constant travel.