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Jana Boyko, CEO, University of Calgary alum and co-founder of , says she’s always had “the entrepreneurial bug.”

“I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” she says. 

Jana, BComm'16, BA'16, and her brother and fellow UCalgary alum, Brad Boyko, BComm'18, founded Bedside Business Plan in 2022, with Jana leading product creation and Brad overseeing operations. 

“From the time we were young, we’ve wanted to go into business together,” Jana says. “Our parents have been so supportive of us from an early age. We were those kids running cookie stands and garage sales.”  

Bedside Business Plan is a guided journal company designed to help people move from where they are to where they want to be. Its flagship product, also titled Bedside Business Plan, helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into tangible plans. Since launching, the product line has expanded with a new journal released last year, Employee to Entrepreneur.  

Bedside Business Plan has found a home at ŽșɫֱȄ Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, where it’s given to Innovation Sandbox members upon joining the community. Innovation Sandbox is a co-working environment for students, staff, faculty and alumni working on their own entrepreneurial ventures.

The journal was also distributed during the , an international conference hosted by the Hunter Hub last October. 

The sustainability of the entrepreneur 

When Jana initially came up with the idea behind their business, she says, Brad was “an immediate yes.”

With a concept in mind, the two went to Fabricland to create a makeshift prototype, which would become the early version of the Bedside Business Plan journal. “We bought rolls of navy fabric, wrapped it around a random journal and duct taped it together,” Jana recalls with a laugh. 

Their goal? To humanize business planning and empower anyone to become an entrepreneur.

“Sometimes, people feel that they’re not entrepreneurial enough to start a business, and I really want to dispel that,” Jana says.

In fact, Jana says, entrepreneurship is the most natural form of human expression. 

“We’ve been doing this since the beginning of time," she says. "We create things and exchange them for other things of value. It’s in our DNA. It’s human nature.” 

With Bedside Business Plan, Jana and Brad strive to make entrepreneurship warm, accessible and sustainable. 

“When Brad and I were looking at business-plan templates, we noticed a gap. Everyone talks about creating sustainable businesses. But what about the sustainability of the entrepreneur? What are your wants and needs as an entrepreneur?" says Jana. "In our journal, we ask, ‘What do you need your business to give you?’ These are questions you need to ask yourself if you’re going to create something you can sustain in a healthy way.

“I’m proud that we‘re able to bring a different perspective to that conversation.” 

Once the journal was complete, the focus shifted to getting the journal into people’s hands. After refining their prototype and printing a few samples, the siblings started visiting Indigo locations to speak with store managers. After officially pitching to the retailer, they secured a Canada-wide retail partnership, with the Bedside Business Plan journal launching in Indigo stores in August 2022.  

The power of journalling 

“For me, conceptually, everything starts with pen and paper,” Jana says.  

A lifelong journal keeper, Jana first wrote down the idea for Bedside Business Plan in one of her own personal notebooks. “I remember writing that I wanted to create a journal to help people start businesses,” she says.

In a hyperconnected world, Jana thinks journalling can help cut the noise.

“We’re constantly overstimulated. It’s easy to feel internal pressure when you’re at the keyboard. Journalling can alleviate that pressure and help you be more honest with yourself,” she says. 

Jana and Brad believe journalling can help people tune into their thoughts, ideas and sense of self.

“One aspect of journalling I find to be really powerful is that writing itself is an act of doing,” Brad says. “The moment you put pen to paper, you physically bring ideas and plans into the world and they begin to feel real.

“While the pace of the digital world pulls our attention outward, journalling slows time down. Writing isn’t only for reflection; it’s a commitment. Every entry turns your intention into something concrete, and that simple act builds the habit entrepreneurs need most: the habit of taking action.”

For Jana, journalling also sharpens an entrepreneur’s instincts.

“As an entrepreneur, you need to develop a sharp sense of intuition,” she says. 

journalling can support focus, decision making and workplace productivity, and it has been proven to improve emotional well-being and resilience under pressure. 

Beyond personal benefits, journalling can also be used in group settings. “People create clubs and communities around our journals, making it a shared, collaborative experience,” Jana notes. “There can also be a social component to it.” 

Asking the right questions

In addition to her role as CEO of Bedside Business Plan, Jana is also the founder and CEO of a helping women transition from employee to entrepreneur. 

Her experience in this role directly informed the creation of their journals. “Working with women, the first thing we do is get clear on what they want," Jana says. "In our journal, Employee to Entrepreneur, the first section is all about desire. Because to be an entrepreneur, you really need to know yourself and what you want.”  

Jana believes it's important to ask yourself the right questions. 

“As a coach, I often hear people say they don’t even know the right questions to ask themselves, let alone the answers,” she says. 

As such, the journals are designed with thoughtful prompts to support this early process. In Bedside Business Plan, there are 13 sections with more than 100 prompts. The questions also include examples and descriptions for context. 

“We thought really deeply about the scope of each question,” Brad says. “We wanted to make sure nothing was duplicative. To us, we fail if somebody gets to a question they can’t answer.”

Looking ahead

Next, Jana and Brad are focused on bringing Bedside Business Plan and Employee to Entrepreneur to the U.S. They also plan to create journals that move beyond business and entrepreneurship. Later this year, they plan to launch a new guided journal that helps people find purpose in retirement.

As the business grows, the siblings remain focused on building something meaningful. 

“Building this business with Jana has been a real gift,” Brad says. “We want to win for each other, and creating something meaningful together has turned into a shared purpose we are genuinely proud of.”

Jana echoes the sentiment: “It’s really about offering products that help people change their lives.”