Small Business

Date: October 16, 2014

Name: Small Business is Big Business in BC

Presenters: Naomi Yamamoto, Terry Tarle, Ian Tostenson, MJ Whitemarsh, and Robert White

The Board of Trade invites Naomi Yamamoto, the Minister of State for Tourism, and Small business of British Columbia, Terry Tarle, the CEO of AXYS Technologies Inc, Ian Tostenson, the President of BC Restaurant and Food Services Association, MJ Whitemarsh, the CEO of Whitemarsh Enterprises Inc, and Robert White, the Associate Director of Western Sales of Bell Mobility, to discuss the approach to bring government and business together in BC. The moderator, Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia, the CEO of Century Plaza Hotel and Absolute Spa Group, will interview the panel to address issues that can support small business owners to improve productivity and profitability. Moreover, business owners can take the advantage of new opportunities from this presentation.

This presentation includes the ceremony of the Small business Roundtable the annual report to government.

From the statistic of Small Business Roundtable, 98% of all businesses in BC consider as small businesses. Small businesses provide 55% of all BC private sector jobs and 31% of BC’s GDP is based on small businesses. In average, 32% of businesses in lower mainland are small businesses. Yamamoto indicates the Small Business Roundtable supports small businesses by listening and responding to government. In addition, the primary focus is to cut the red tapes.

Small business is one of the top 4 sectors (First Nation, Tourism, Foreign, and Small business) in BC. Currently, Yamamoto will work along with UBC to increase the awareness of small businesses.

Yamamoto recommends all small business owners to visit OpportunitiesBC website to discover ways to bring Small businesses and capital venture together. The website can provide exit option for local BC businesses. If small businesses decide to retire or close, owners can use the platform to provide career opportunities for local employees.

Yamamoto indicates the biggest challenge for small businesses in BC is volume of customers. It is important to shop local business to improve the economy. By shopping over the border is not helping the local small businesses. Moreover, 30% of local Canadian purchases pay more if it is made locally.

Tarle states BC is focusing more on Green technology. Over 95% of companies in BC conduct international businesses in 50 different countries. His advice to all small business owners is to “Think big, start small, and act fast”.

Tostenson informs government has limited resource for small businesses. It is important to have collaboration with local community. Municipal government is working hard to foster big opportunities for small businesses. Tostenson suggests all small business owners to create an attractive place in Vancouver by engage with local communities.

Whitemarsh reports people are more confidence in Small Business Roundtable. The minsters are accepting the challenges that are raised by the Roundtable. One of red tape reduction strategy is to expand the mobile licensing. Mobile license can help small businesses to be more transparent, which leads to more sustainable revenue. The issues raised by small businesses to Roundtable will flow to government.

White emphasizes wireless technology will improve productivity for small businesses in BC. The trend is to go paperless. Wireless technology will optimize the recent data and talk to inventory. By increasing communication with machine, business are also considered going green. Improve the real time tracking management, security and safety, small businesses will be well prepared in BC.

Successful small businesses are formed by relationship, collaboration, and partnership. Yamamoto recommends all small business owners to take advantage of the import and export guide from government website to improve current production and capital.