Northern BC Business

New Title

bizfrustration — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:05:12 +0000

We have made some changes to our site and it can now be seen directly at
www.northernbcbusiness.com

Why we started this?

bizfrustration — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:23:37 +0000

Why did 3 guys from Northern BC start this business blog? Time to answer. We need to go back to Feb 1, 2009 and use BC Business Magazine as our inspiration. Nice article about life in a Northern town. They ask a rhetorical question can entrepreneurs succeed where big government and big resource companies have failed? An interesting but provocative article on Vanderhoof with the main photo of this Vanderhoof article being a picture of … wait for this .. Fort Fraser. Yes the business magazine of British Columbia can not even get it right. The worst part of this is that one of our new group was from Vanderhoof and wrote a letter to BC Business letting them know that they made a mistake. Guess what – no return email, correction or acknowledgement of theirmistake. Putting this together we deceide to look at being an advocate for business in the North.

We have agreed for our purposes that the North is everything from Quesnel northward. We may include something from Williams Lake as the people there tend to associate with the northern mentality.

What we are doign is offering Northern BC businesses the opportunity to be noticed. We are looking at small to medium sized businesses that are thinking and operating outside the box. Nothing here for Canfor or West Fraser as they do not interest us and they get enough press through the Citizen and other major media outlets. We are looking at the little guy, because we are all that person

BC Business Magazine article http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2009/02/01/life-northern-town

US worried about Port of Prince Rupert

bizfrustration — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:51:22 +0000

We will be the first to sound the alarm. The Port of Prince Rupert is in trouble. There is going to problems there. The move to increase the capacity of Prince Rupert has caused concerns in the US. Why do we say this? Well we found some articles in Seattle area that say this. There is a concern about little old Prince Rupert taking business away from US ports. Now many US ports have asked the US Congress to fight the progress from Prince Rupert. Do people really think that this would be allowed to open up with out a fight. Keep in mind the US loves trade and capitalism except when it threatens them. To take a look for yourself click on the links below from a Seattle area newspaper

The Olympian Online — South Sound – http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/

The Seattle PI http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_moses_lake_seattle.html

The News Tribune http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/791980.html

Paper?

bizfrustration — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:57:27 +0000

Over the last week we have been talking to businesses in the North about our project. Numerous times the question has come up will we be printing. The answer is no. Look at all the newspapers closing down as people are now getting their news and information online. The goal is not to publish something that sits on a desk collecting dust but to do constant updates throughout the day. We will be doing this via our Blackberrys and eventually via Twitter. If you are not familiar with these tools you better get moving in this direction. Hard copy news sites are old and outdated. Look online for your news and information not newsprint.

Article in the USA Today back in March signalling the death of the old newspaper format.

Marketing 102 – Website

bizfrustration — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:39:37 +0000

If your business has not got a website – go away. Really if you do not have a website then you must be doing great in business. The reason why is now everyone looks for something on the web. Most people under the age of 40 look online to get a phone number. When was the last time you used the phone book? Advertising in the yellow pages is expensive and they are constantly making mistakes. I know this as I worked for them for a year and I never got swore at some many times for screw ups from the year before. Having a website is simple cheap and easy. Do not think that you need to spend hundreds or thousands of bucks on one. A simple one page site gives people your basic information about your company. That is what you want. Try to find someone that would be operating a similar business to you and see what theyhave. Do not look locally for ideas. Pick another region or somewhere in the US and see what they do. Do not use flash as it looks nice but takes too long to load. For example a public company in the US who I have worked with in the past has a nice site with flash but they lose 85% of their visitors in the first 10 seconds as the flash loads. They are just getting it now. People have no patience. Do you remember dial up? Get a site and put it out there. This is your brochure

Marketing 101

bizfrustration — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:23:00 +0000

We have decided to create the marketing of the our blog/website ourselves through a old fashioned but simple marketing tool – by doing it in person. Right now there are 2 of us handing out information about our site and telling people about it. We are taking the time to inform people what we are doing and the response has been positive if not over the top. Why? It is because we are not asking for anything just for peoples attention. We have resorted to a 5 min talk and flyer drop off. It has rarely lasted 5 min as people really want to now more information. We can sometime sit down with them to listen which is very important. People like to talk and it is rare to listen. So what we are doing is listening to our potential customers and hearing what they have to say. In person marketing takes time and effort but it has rewards. Since we are not in a rush to move quickly we are doing things right and making sure are hitting our target customers. Basic marketing goes back to getting to hear what people want and then turning it around and offering this back to them. Marketing 101 then turns into Customer Service 101

Serial Entrpreneur

bizfrustration — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:51:00 +0000

I am a serial entrepreneur. What this means is I love the thrill of starting something in business. Do I think I can build a better mousetrap? No. I can though look at other sources for ideas and inspiration. I am getting thoughts and enthusiasm from other sources not just those locally. It is important to expand your way of thinking and see what else is out there. Maybe it is the fact that I love to venture off and create something in business. I have found some interesting blogs and websites that people seem to venture towards for their work. sites like http://sellingcrap.wordpress.com, www.workrant.com and www.idiotonastick.com. Do they hate their current job. When you work for yourself it puts the responsibility to on you. Too many times in business for myslef I had to wait, hope and rely on other people – I can not control this.

Moving back towards the other sources of inspiration I was forwarded a great link on business – more specially Entrepreneurship from Stanford University. It is a great site with podcasts and video casts. Watch it and learn. Do not try to look at what is happening in Vancouver but rather look beyond. I also look at http://money.cnn.com/smallbusiness/ as they have great ideas on what other people are doing. Remember only you think your business is special

Free Falling

bizfrustration — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:21:39 +0000

Things will get worse here for the forestry sector. The largest market for lumber is the US and people seem to think that things are going to get better there this summer. Think again. In the US there are over 20 million vacant homes. That is right 20 million houses that no one is living in. They are foreclosed, for sale, abandoned or trashed. In Canada there are 20 million homes in total. There are just as many vacant homes in the US as there are in total in Canada. There will be no new homes to be built now or anytime soon. I know of people from Alberta who have money and have gone down to Vegas or Phoenix and bought homes that are in nice neighbourhoods and would be comparable to new homes in College Heights in Prince George. Homes here are $300,000. The ones down there $50,000 to $100,000. A person I know from Calgary just went to Vegas in February and bought 6 homes all at once for $300,000 and he paid cash. They are all being resold to friends and family.
To top it off Vegas now has a mosquito problem. Why is this a concern? It is from all the new homes that were built that had swimming pools installed and the water is just sitting. There are over 20,000 vacant newly built homes in the Vegas area that empty will over 80% of those homes never lived in. So do you think that the mills will be starting production soon?

Pockets of Economic Activity

bizfrustration — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:17:50 +0000

The one thing about travelling here in Northern BC is that you see pockets of business activity that is interesting and hard to understand. In the last couple of months I have travelled 3 times up to Peace Country and find that the activity there is interesting. Using the hotel standard of price I found that simple rooms in Dawson Creek and Chetwynd are over $150 a night but they are all sold out. Going to Fort St John there a vacancy in most of the hotels and the price is around $120. What does this mean? Based on the supply and demand you have to look at the communities are busy with activity of outside people but not necessary are the people and the local economy flourishing. Oil and gas is driving the region at $70 a barrel and it does not seem to be slowing down. Will that concept rub off into the Prince George region – no. A different sector of business applies to each region.

Business Opportunities

bizfrustration — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:18:48 +0000

THe change of business is really going to effect people in this region beyond what they think. The mills are going to be done and slow for a long time. Think about it. Overall the US is the biggest customer for Canada and particularly our region for lumber. Do you think that new house construction in the US will come back in 2 months, 6 months or a year? Try 5-10 years. Why is that? Right now there are over 20 million vacant houses in the US. In Canada we have 20 million houses in total. They will not be building any new houses there for a long time. Get used to it folks the mills will be down for a real long time. Think China is the answer? Look at Russia with their vast forests and the distance to China compared to here – plus no ocean. Things here will get a lot worse before they get better.

Oh by the way – the Olympics are coming and do you really think that we will get a spin off in the North? As small town Northern Alberta if they saw beneficial results from the Olympics in Calgary in 1988? Nothing there

Am I doom and gloom? No but time to be creative and look at something different and outside the ordinary