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West Hants
and Area News
Time for business to buck up!
It might be cliché, but two certainties of life are
death and taxes. But in times of recession, are there
businesses that are certain to weather economic storms?
Although some businesses are said to be
“recession-proof”, few truly are because our economy so
reliant of consumer spending. But funeral home directors
and accountants, for example, can safely assume a
recession won’t have much impact on death and taxes.
(Although one has to wonder if cremations are more
popular during a recession.) Self-employed consultants
providing business services, particularly marketing
services are also in demand. Many companies invest and
get more aggressive in their marketing and customer
service during a recession as well, to do what it takes
to keep and attract new business. A slow-down doesn’t
mean companies no longer require services, but simply a
little less of them. And, in times of lay-offs,
consultants and job-sharing is growing more popular
option than having someone on the books full-time and
paying them benefits. (Although often times consultants
build these benefits into their hourly fee.)
If you’ve been laid off recently, you might even be
thinking of starting your own small business to provide
you a bit of shelter from a bleak job market. Others
more cynical are otherwise thinking, “Why would I want
to start a business?” Running your own business is a lot
of work, but in return can provide a lot of satisfaction
and security, in addition to providing a better
work-life balance.
The number of
small-businesses in Canada is still on the rise. And, so
many stay at home parents thrive at being entrepreneurs
across North America it’s sparked a new term, “Mompreneurs”.
If you are interested in starting your own business, The
Hants Regional Development Authority is repeating its
worthwhile “So you want to start a business?”
introductory workshop in early March. (See Calendar of
Events below for details.)
One way to think about which businesses face the
greatest risk is to ask: What products and services are
people going to continue to buy even if there’s a
recession? When times get bad, people tend to put off
buying a new car as long as they can. But people still
need to fix them, so local mechanics are a little more
busy than usual. And, people still need to buy
insurance, whether for their car or home. However,
economists and common sense say there's more to
surviving a recession just being in the right business.
Some businesses might not act swiftly enough to cut
prices as demand shrinks. Others may find themselves too
heavily in debt and unable to borrow more money or
extend their credit to get them through the downturn.
Simply, some businesses are better able to adapt better
than others; those with high fixed costs may be more
vulnerable than businesses that can survive for a time
on a shoestring, or home-based with not a lot of
overhead.
If you think you’re a possible layoff candidate, brush
up your skills with some short-term workshops or
training, and fire up your social and professional
networks to find out who might be hiring – or at least
what they’re doing. The West Hants Chamber of Commerce’s
motto? Networking Means Business! Business owners who
see a downturn are advised to turn to their customers
for guidance. The sooner they find out which customers
plan to cut back, the sooner they can plan to make the
changes they need to cope with those cuts. One local
Windsor business owner told E-news they’re business
strategy is to never spend all their profits and always
ensure they put something aside for a rainy day. Well,
ok, this downturn is going to last longer than a day –
but folks learning this lesson the hard way will only
have to learn it once, and hopefully at not too high a
price.
It’s grape in Hants County
As a follow up to last week’s story on the province’s
new targets for grape growing in NS, we caught up with
Ryan MacNeil, Director of the Hants County Regional
Development Authority. Available statistics currently
show that Hants County grows 22.7% of the total grape
acreage in Nova Scotia, which MacNeil predicts will
increase in the near future as interest in this
“lifestyle agriculture” industry grows. “We believe that
there is considerable potential for vineyards and
wineries throughout Hants County, and particularly in
the Avon River Valley,” he said. MacNeil provided E-news
with an excerpt from the Hants County Agriculture
Prospectus (Morton Horticultural Associates for the
Hants RDA, MAY 2007): “Hants County was the early leader
in modern day grape production in Nova Scotia with
plantings in 1980 in Upper Falmouth along the Avon
River. The land along the Avon River Valley is well
suited for the production of grapes and the opportunity
exists to increase the grape acreage in the area.”
KLJ files for bankruptcy
KLJ Field Services, founded in 2001, has filed for
bankruptcy and laid off 90 employees. "It's a terribly
sad day for us and for the employees who have given so
much to make the KLJ the eight-year success story it has
been," said president Jason McGrath to AllNovaScotia,
the province's leading daily online business news
service. "We have become another unfortunate casualty of
the economic downturn, particularly in the United
States," said McGrath. Eighty percent of its client base
was based in the US. It’s not known at this time whether
sister company, KLJ Computer Solutions, is also
impacted. E-News made a policy of not reporting these
stories that will be well-circulated in the media and
rumour-mill, but we wanted to extend to Jason and his
staff best wishes in the days and weeks ahead. McGrath
and his partners built both businesses from the ground
up and we’re sure it won’t be the last we hear of him.
Jason has been the recipient of a number of awards over
the past decade, the most prestigious being the BDC
Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2000 for Nova
Scotia.
Who is hiring?
Windsor and area
Kentville and area
Service Canada Summer grants
Meanwhile, Service Canada's Summer Job grants for
non-profit organizations, public-sector
employers, and small businesses with 50 or fewer
employees is now taking applications until February
27th. If your organization fits the bill and wants to
create jobs for students between the ages of 15 and 30
looking to gain work experiences. For more information
go
online
Regional
and National Snippets
NB & NS remove barriers
We’ve been neighbouring provinces since 1867 but in
February 2009, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald and
Premier Shawn Graham of New Brunswick signed an
agreement which aims to remove barriers to trade,
business, and the movement of skilled labour between the
two provinces. The agreement is referred to as a PARE –
a partnership agreement for regulation in the economy
(PARE), and was signed at a recent NS Chamber of
Commerce breakfast. “We have long supported the removal
of inter-provincial trade barriers and the harmonization
of rules and regulations,” says Bill Denyar, APCC
president and CEO. “As a regional chamber representing
chambers of commerce and boards of trade in the four
Atlantic Provinces, we fully support and promote
regional cooperation and collaboration.” “This agreement
is a great step forward in the effort to harmonize rules
and regulations, enhance labor mobility, and promote
business growth and prosperity across our region,” says
Denyar.
Chamber wish list
The Halifax Chamber of Commerce has submitted its annual
wish list for the upcoming Halifax Regional Municipality
budget that could have implications for West Hants and
area commuters. The Chamber submits its list of
recommendations to the city before municipal budget
deliberations each year. This year’s submission focuses
on the economy, transportation, speeding up the
construction approval process, tax reform and preparing
for the shovel-ready infrastructure projects. The
Chamber is callings for action on transportation “a top
growth priority”. “The city has many transportation
plans. But these fragmented plans need to be unified,”
states Valerie Payn, Chamber President. Creation of an
amalgamated Transportation Authority must be
reconsidered, too. “The Mayor stated that he would be
open to creating a Transportation Authority during the
fall campaign. Keeping fiscal efficiency in mind, we
think that a sole transportation authority must be
considered again,” states Payn. The Chamber also urged
the city to lobby the Province to boost its level of
provincial transit investment. The national average of
provincial investment in municipal transit is $19.87 per
capita; Nova Scotia spends a mere $3.79 per capita. In
related news, the CEO of the Halifax Bridge Commission,
Steve Snider, recently spoke to chamber members at it
Distinguished Speaker Series Luncheon. Snider said he
expected congestion on the city’s two bridges to get
worse and that the commission is considering several
ideas to deal with it, including the possibility of peak
period tolls. “If we don’t consider options like this
and make tough and bold decisions, we will be
confronting the reality of building another harbour
crossing or sitting in gridlock,” he said.
The Chamber’s entire pre-budget submission can be found
here.
Parents as career-coaches
Parents are the single
greatest influence on their child's education and career
decisions. So, the Department of Labour and Workforce
Development offers Parents as Career Coaches, a
three-session program offered at no cost to parents and
guardians of high school students across Nova Scotia.
This program equips parents to better support their
children in making informed and successful education and
career choices. Parents as Career Coaches teaches career
development as a lifelong process, which involves taking
the time to understand what today's youth need to find
their place in the constantly changing world of work.
The program covers topics such as post-secondary
options, the changing labour market, career-building
skills, talking to your teenager, and how to connect
interests and skills with career options.
For more information, visit
www.parentsascareercoaches.ca
or phone 902.424.4264
Airports hoping stimulus
flies
Atlantic Canada’s airports are pressing federal and
provincial governments to assist in funding 22
shovel-ready projects at a number of the region’s
airports. Monette Connaughton, executive director of the
Atlantic Canada Airports Association, said Monday the
cost of the projects total $182 million. The work
includes such things as runway resurfacing, apron
rehabilitation, terminal expansion and so on. "We are
looking for the Building Canada Fund to start moving
into Atlantic Canada," she said. "It has already started
flowing in Ontario. Seven airport projects have been
approved there, so we are hoping the federal and
provincial governments in Atlantic Canada are going to
look favourably on airport projects when those funds
start to roll out here, and we are hoping they will roll
out quickly." The association was disappointed there was
no funding for projects at airports belonging to the
association included in the recent federal budget. The
budget approved infrastructure projects for virtually
every form of transportation, with the exception of
airports, Ms. Connaughton said in a news release. Roads,
harbours and cruise ship and rail infrastructure were
all beneficiaries in the budget. "It is a glaring
omission," she said. The association said the 22
projects would create about 2,000 jobs in the region.
Funding for the projects would be split three ways
between the federal and provincial governments and
individual airports. Connaughton also said the
association is also pushing Ottawa on a number of other
infrastructure funding issues and has raised particular
concern with the Airports Capital Assistance Program.
[Source: The Chronicle Herald.]
Did You Know? [Source: www.acairports.ca]
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The Atlantic Canada
Airports Association is a non-profit industry
association representing all airports in the region
that have been transferred to local control from the
federal government. Together our 13 airports handle
99 % of passenger traffic, including all
international and transborder passengers, and all
cargo traffic into and out of the region.
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Ottawa collects about
$300 million annually in rent but only puts $38
million, or about 12.5 per cent, into the program.
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In 2006, Atlantic
Canada’s locally-controlled airports handled 6.5
million passengers, an increase of 5.2 % over 2005.
Passenger growth in the region has increased every
year since 2002.
Fat chances of missing
work
Stats Canada is reporting findings of a national study
on obesity that suggest overweight young men are nearly
four times more likely to miss work than their more
svelt co-workers.
The recent stats Can report found the odds of being
absent were far greater among those obese men aged 18 to
34 than they were for people of normal weight. The study
says older over-weight people don’t show the same
tendency, possibly because the less healthy among them
have already left the labour market. It says research
has shown that obesity often contributes significantly
to “presenteeism” or reduced work activity while on the
job, particularly among women. The study found a greater
tendency towards “reduced work activities due to a long
term health problem among obese women aged 35-64 and
obese men aged 55-64. It also found obese women aged
35-64 were “significantly more likely to take a
disability day – spending the bulk of the day in bed or
cutting down on normal activities because of illness or
injury – than their normal-weight colleagues. Obesity
rates climbed to 15.7 percent in 2005, up from 12.5
percent in the mid-90’s. “Obesity can cause personal
stress and long-term health problems; moreover it can
lead to significant societal costs by reducing labour
market productivity,” the study says. “More
specifically, the implication is that reducing or
preventing obesity in the workplace would have multiple
potential benefits, including better health and
well-being and higher productivity job performance.
[Source: The Canadian Press]
Business
calendar of events:
Saturday Feb 28th – Dinner with Michael Ignatieff,
MP and leader of the federal Liberal Party - Reception
at 6:00 pm; Dinner at 7:00 -9:00 pm. To register or for
more information, contact 429-1993 or visit
www.liberal.ns.ca
Wednesday, March 4th - Distinguished Speaker Series
Luncheon, Halifax Chamber
Ian Russell, President & CEO, Investment Industry
Association of Canada
Westin Nova Scotian, Atlantic Ballroom 11:30 am ~
Networking & Registration 12:00 - 1:30 pm ~ Luncheon $50
Members ~ $80 Non-Members (plus HST)
Friday, March 6th - So, you want to start a business?
This is an essential first step for anyone who is
considering starting a business. Together with an Acadia
Centre for Social and Business Entrepreneurship (ACSBE)
Business Counsellor, you will explore the essentials you
need to get started from decision-making to financing
options.
East Hants Resource Centre, Elmsdale. Registration is
$10 and lunch is included with registration. To register
contact Chantelle Marshall at Hants Regional Development
Authority
1-877-284-2687, Email
admin@hantscounty.com.
Space is limited so please register early.
March 6-8th – The Real Home Show
Halifax Forum complex “Walk in with a vision, walk out
with a plan”; from the NS Home Builder’s Association.
Fri 10-8 pm; Sat 10-7 pm; Sun 10-5 pm.
March 25-27th - 27th Annual Health and Safety
Conference
From Safety Services Nova Scotia (formerly Nova Scotia
Safety Council). Register now as a delegate or exhibitor
to help us move toward a healthy and safe Nova
Scotia.The conference offers: 40 sessions, workshops and
plant tours; 500+ delegates=outstanding networking. Most
industries and government departments are represented.
Focus on occupational health and safety issues. Please
note: a limited number of complimentary trade show
booths are available and accompany certain conference
sponsorship levels. If you wish to participate as both a
sponsor and exhibitor, contact Arminta Kennedy at
902-454-9621, x222 for details of sponsorship benefits
and to select your booth. Otherwise, registration is
online
Chuckles:
The economy is crumbling. Who will
save us? You can. Play The Bail Out Game.
Monopoly for Modern Times -
http://www.thebailoutgame.us
You can find the Obama version
here that specifically
helps homeowners
E-News info:
Our next issue of WHCC E-News will be published on
March 27th. Please submit your business news, event or
announcement by March 23rd. Every two weeks, E-News is
distributed to - and read by – over 300 local business
contacts throughout the Windsor-West Hants area. If your
business has news or events you would like to share with
our readers, please call our Newsletter Editor, Heather Desveaux on 790-4009 or email
info@whcc.ca
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