Kamloops Business

> Also: TEcHNOLOGY: 3-D printing nothing short of revolutionary An exclusive feature publication of The Daily News

APRIL/MAY 2013

$4.25

the economic

Big guns They may keep a low profile, but the city’s biggest businesses play a major role in driving the community

INSIDE CHAMBER NEWS: Rebranding showcases Chamber’s core services

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• Finalist in the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce ‘Business Excellence Awards for Service Provider over 11 Staff' “I just wa nte • Full service recruitment agency in Western Excel Pers d you to know tha t wh onn more live el and you do tou at Canada since 1992 s than yo c u imagine hes been loo . I had king for e • Temporary and contract staffing, payroll services, mp months a nd was fe loyment for 7 e by the tim ling fairly down permanent and executive personnel services e I lande doorstep d on y and Exce l Personn our me emplo • Member of Kamloops, Kelowna & el had y e d right awa have don y. I could e it witho n’t ut Ex Prince George Chamber of Commerce – I will alwa ys fondly cel’s help and rem now work supporting each community with local staffing in the Job ember you. I helping o Wave Pro thers, like Excel help gram • We can test on 800 different applications ed me.”

S hawny M from administration to finance to industrial Vancouve r testing applications

HEAD OFFICE Suite #600, 235–1st Avenue, Kamloops Ph. 1-877-374-3853 Branch offices in Kelowna and Prince George 2 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

Your Full Service Recruitment Firm Our recruiters are standing by to work with you.

www.excel.bc.ca

INSIDE Dan Lockwood, Finning branch manager, says “it’s our ability to provide product support and customer solutions that really sets us apart.”

Murray Mitchell /KAMLOOPS BUSINESS

Kamloops Business is published six times a year by The Kamloops Daily News advertising department, 393 Seymour St., Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6P6. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission.

Unsolicited material will not be returned.

Publisher assumes no responsibility.

For editorial information, contact Kamloops Business editor Danna Bach.

COVER STORY

The Big of Business in Kamloops Many of the biggest contributors to the Kamloops economy and overall well-being of the community are out of the public eye.

Still, their collective contribution is immeasurable. /page 12

Publisher TIM SHOULTS

Supervising Editor ROBERT KOOPMANS

Advertising Director kevin dergez

Manager, Specialty Publications keshaV sharma

Editor STEWART DUNCAN

FEATURES

Go Ahead, Get Your Geek On IT experts help small businesses save time and money /22

Community’s Core Values Roger Brooks hopes to make downtown the ‘heart and soul’ of Kamloops /26

Shifting Into High Gear Bird’s-eye videos take golf-course marketing to new heights /34

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

The Daily News is a member of the B.C. Press Council. It is published daily except Sundays and most holidays at 393 Seymour St., Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6P6.

Phone (250) 372-2331

Editor’s Message, 6

Startup advice, 25

Q&A, 36

Profile, 30

Chamber News, 20

KCBIA Report, 24

Tech Talk, 22

Solid Advice, 10

Contributing writers

Venture Kamloops, 18

TRU Views, 9

Larkin Schmiedl

A division of Glacier Ventures International Corp.

Publications Mail Registration No. 0681.

APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 3

Meet Your Team

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Richard Jensen QC

Barry Carter

Dennis Coates QC

Rob Adkin

Dave McDougall

Jim McCreight

Marlene Harrison

Darren Paulsen

Michael Sutherland

Murray Weeres

Terry Bepple

Joaquin Mariona

Luke Bergerman

Sarah Goddard

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Mair Jensen Blair LLP - Lawyers 700 - 275 Lansdowne Street, Kamloops, BC V2C 6H6

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- ADVERTISING FEATURE -

Starting or Buying a Small Business – Do I Need a Lawyer?

by Dennis P. Coates Q.C. MJB Lawyers dpc@mjblaw.com 250-372-4923 MJBLaw.com

A lawyer can play a variety of roles if you are considering buying a small business or starting a new business. Obviously, the process of buying an existing business is the easier process. The role of the lawyer is sometimes confined to the technical aspects such as preparing a purchase agreement or reviewing a lease, or just doing an incorporation of a new company. A lawyer however, should be viewed in addition, as the coordinator of a variety of investigations and due diligence processes to ensure that your new business has the best opportunity of succeeding.

It is the duty of lawyers to ensure that you understand all the risks you are confronting, which sometimes get overlooked in the enthusiasm to acquire or start the new business.

Some of the key issues that should come out of these consultations are: ✔ Ensure that you have done a realistic business plan.

Projected revenues and expected expenses should be done conservatively and realistically. Don’t minimize the legal and accounting expenses on an acquisition or startup as this may be the best money you spend.

You should understand in simple terms how much business is necessary to break even and to make the amount of money needed to repay your costs and provide an appropriate income. These precautions apply equally to a service business, a retail business, or even a home based business. ✔ Consider incorporating at the beginning. Limited liability through incorporation is often delayed due to the expense, but becomes far more of an expense to implement in the future as you are then required to transfer an existing business. This may have significant tax issues. You need to protect your personal assets from accidental exposure to your business. ✔ Careful capital budgeting - this includes all startup expenses and probably the period of time for the business to develop into a profitable venture. ✔ Investigate municipal zoning issues and business license issues. There are frequently unexpected surprises that if discovered after the fact, are very expensive. This particularly applies to home based businesses. ✔ Don’t be so committed to the proposal or new business that you overlook the potential problems. Be prepared to abandon your project if the issues such as those above don’t give you a green light. ✔ Ensure that you get legal advice on issues such as leases, personal exposure to liability and partnership issues. If you are operating under a franchise agreement, ensure you that you know all the obligations of a franchisee and particularly how to terminate the arrangement and continue to operate in the same business.

✔ There are some very basic partnership or co shareholder decisions which are often ignored and which need to be incorporated into a partnership agreement or a shareholders agreement: ♣ Money: • where does the purchase or set up money come from?

• where does the working capital money come from?

• who signs the personal guarantees at the bank?

• if one of the parties borrows from their family what are the obligations from all of the participants?

• who gets paid as contrasted to the sharing of profits and who determines changes to the compensation in the future?

• what happens in the event of money shortages or defaults on obligations - does the proportion of ownership change?

• often the issues come from a relationship where one partner intends to do the work and one puts up the money. When the enterprise starts to make money and the seed money has been repaid parties often forget what the original arrangement was. ♣ Work; • what are the duties of the different participants?

• what is the expected work that will be done and more importantly, which party has what authority on an ongoing basis generally and with respect to each partner?

• what rights do family members ,including spouses, have with respect to the business? ♣ Dispute resolution: • the parties should anticipate that there will always be problems to resolve between co participants in the business • the agreements should create inexpensive ways to resolve disputes and issues within the business.

The more people that are involved in the business, the more difficult it is to find the best answers to the above matters. One of the keys to the success of your business is proper planning from the beginning. Often that will mean consulting a corporate lawyer early in the process.

250-374-3161

> Editor’s Message

Moving forward in small and big ways Progression a natural part of community and business

W

e have a lot to be thankful for.

For all the fun of our winter sports, everyone’s thankful for spring. And Danna Bach is thankful to be back as editor of Kamloops Business just as this issue was going to press. I’ve been covering for her during her mat leave and now am on to early retirement and other long-postponed projects.

The 500-plus who heard moneymanagement guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade on Feb. 10 at the Kamloops Conference Centre had to have been thankful for that opportunity.

The Daily News and the law firm of Epp Cates Oien brought Vaz-Oxlade to town and perhaps didn’t fully know what we were Stewart Duncan getting into. The creative host of HGTV’s Till Debt Do Us Part doesn’t mince words and her blunt and often funny observations about life and money forced many to reassess their lifestyles.

And here’s something completely different that those of us in the industry are thankful for: a revolution of the printed newspaper — or at least, publications owned by our parent compamy, Glacier Media Group.

As Publisher Tim Shoults explains on this page, The Daily News is the world’s first augmented-reality daily newspaper. And it is amazing.

Many will rush to copy this groundbreaking technology, but won’t be able to offer readers what they’ll find in future issues of The Daily News.

Our cover story is about a few of the big companies that function under the radar of the average consumer. They contribute to Kamloops with taxes, wages, spinoff and support businesses, community support and volunteer work, yet they exist like mellow wallpaper, enhancing the city but not garnering attention.

We also have a feature on exceptional aerial videography that was developed here but is employed internationally. Golfers can’t help but love following the flying camera down the fairways and over the greens of a challenging course. After a few minutes “riding the camera,” they’ll be well acquainted with the course even before they’ve played it.

Freelance writer Larkin Schmiedl interviewed Kamloops businessman Mike Miltimore about a fascinating “new” technology called 3-D printing — not really new to industry but new to most of us.

It involves a printer that spews out thin layers of plastic, one on top of the other until an object that is designed on the computer is created on the printer. Even more amazing is the fact that scientists are now using living cells rather than plastics and creating body parts.

Someday, perhaps soon, you won’t be waiting for a kidney. You’ll have one built of your own body’s cells.

It’s the kind of progress for which we can be very thankful. KB 6 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

What is Layar? download the app and scan this page to check out the experience

Layar brings print to life

G

lacier, Western Canada’s largest local media company, has teamed with Layar, an industry leader in the rapidly-emerging field of augmented reality (AR) to enhance printed media.

AR is digital information that has been superimposed — or augmented — onto print, just like the magazine in your hands.

This allows print to come to life. It adds many different dimensions to the stories, photos and advertising that appear in our papers.

Rather than QR codes in Tim Shoults print, the Layar application can be downloaded on any iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

Layar operates as image-recognition software, invisibly tagging images, logos and icons with codes to allow the augmented-reality components to appear instantly on a reader’s phone or tablet while scanning the AR content.

Layar provides the ability to link to multiple assets, allowing readers to view video, listen to audio, share content on social networks and even buy a product right from the page.

To download the app and get started viewing augmented-reality content, go to layar.com/download or search for “Layar” on the App Store or Google Play. KB

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• Current Portfolio is in excess of $3 million

CITY OF KAMLOOPS ECCOTEAM CHASE GATEWAY PROJECT

Growing communities one idea at a time since 1987.

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APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 7

Are you a job seeker looking for work?

Are you an employer looking for employees?

www.tqmconsulting.ca/jobs_kamloops.htm For Job Seekers: Access to hundreds of employment opportunities x x x x x

Job postings with Kamloops employers Links to employment/career web pages of over 300 Kamloops area employers Local employment agency and employer association links Direct links to the most widely-used job search and job posting sites in Canada Job opportunities in mining, government, trades, universities, and much more

For Employers: Complimentary Job Postings x x x x

We will post your position at no charge in our Job Openings in Kamloops section Your position is posted exactly as you create it All positions are posted in PDF format – no page limit A hyperlink to your company’s website is included with your listing

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Phone (250) 828-0420

www.tqmconsulting.ca

> tru views

Entrepreneurial revolution Increase the probability of success in your new venture

BY DR. PRASAD RAVI >> THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY

A

n entrepreneurship revolution is taking place all over the world. Entrepreneurship and small businesses have become the growth engines of national economies and job creation. Contrary to the belief that big business creates employment, in many countries small and medium enterprise creates more employment. During the recent recession in Canada, entrepreneurial Dr. Prasad Ravi ventures and small businesses created jobs where large organizations shed thousands of jobs. Entrepreneurial ventures have been expanding their share in the services sector and, most notably,

in exports and international business.

Many people, particularly young people, dream of starting their own business. They want to create their own destiny rather than work for somebody else. Money is the prime motivator, but there are other reasons as well.

Some succeed while many do not.

According to many researchers, the failure rates of new ventures can be as high as 80 per cent. Though percentages vary from industry to industry, the failure rate of new ventures is high.

Analysis of the failed ventures reveals interesting issues. Some entrepreneurs are so in love with their ideas that it inhibits their objectivity. Many entrepreneurs believe that entrepreneurs are “born� and start their ventures without understanding the process. Some think cash is all they need. Some feel that once they start their business, customers automatically start coming in.

Many failed business people never did any market research, nor developed strategy, and failed to understand the money they would need at various stages. In many cases, these entrepreneurs tried to beat their competition as cost leaders, grossly overestimating revenues and underestimating expenses.

The vast majority had no business plan. In some cases, opportunists tried to exploit an opportunity to make money with no regard for sustainability.

It pays to take formal courses or training in entrepreneurship at university, workshops or online courses. The time and effort invested in education and training will reduce or eliminate the costly tuition of business failure. KB

APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 9

> solid advice

It takes two to tango Business leaders key to success

BY SHANE JENSEN >> NEW QUEST COACHING & Consulting

M

y last column I wrote that when it comes to hiring the right person, it is important to find a balance between skill and attitude.

The key message was that you should hire first for attitude then look at skills and experience. You can always train someone to improve their skills, but it is extremely hard to change SHANE JENSEN someone’s poor attitude.

I received a lot of great responses to this topic and it was interesting to hear so many people share their own experiences around attitude versus talent. I noticed a common theme and that was the role of the leader when it came new employees.

As I was reminded, it does not matter how great the attitude (or talent) is if the employee ends up working for a boss who has no concept of how to lead people. It reminded me of the classic business line “people don’t leave organizations; they leave their boss.”

All of us have a bad-boss story and we all know the effect that boss had on our career, let alone the effect on the business.

In my work with organizations, when I am asked if I could work with a team or a department due to high conflict, dissatisfied customers and turnover, I will always request that I work with the leader first before I work with the team.

This comes from the simple fact that it takes two to tango and the leader is largely responsible for why a team is dysfunctional or when it is successful.

Thankfully, we are seeing a continued demand in the workplace to train and educate leaders to ensure they have the skills to engage and get great performance out of their employees.

Shane Jensen, MA, ACC, CEC, is the senior principal for New Quest Coaching & Consulting. To learn more please see www.newquestcc.com. KB 10 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

> support

Investing in the community

Professional Reliable Prompt

Kamloops foundations offer support to businesses

C

ommunity vitality is everyone’s business. We all have the power to influence what our community will be — today, tomorrow and even far into the future — if we choose to invest now.

Kamloops is home to one of the more than 180 Community Foundations of Canada that provide a means for businesses and individuals to contribute to a range of community Jan Lingford initiatives in a meaningful and lasting way. Donations to the Kamloops Foundation become part of an ever-growing pool of funds that are invested to produce income for distribution within our own region every year. With an annual distribution rate of more than 3.5 per cent in recent years, the Kamloops Foundation’s performance is the envy of many much larger foundations, thanks to its conservative investment policies and focus on income.

The Kamloops Foundation offers a number of options for community-minded businesses who believe in lending their support. For example, donations can be used to establish an endowment fund in the company name, with the annual proceeds directed to the organization or area of interest nearest and dearest to your heart, or added to the community fund for distribution through the foundation’s granting programs.

There seems to be a misconception surrounding the work of foundations. Many people don’t realize that everyone can make a difference.

The Kamloops Foundation is pleased to announce that Jan Lingford recently joined the organization as foundation development officer. Jan has more than 30 years experience working with non-profit organizations to raise funds, streamline operations and enhance public awareness. Many of you will remember Jan as the CEO of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce or the volunteer co-ordinator for the 1993 Kamloops Canada Summer Games. Jan is keen to help the foundation reach its goals. Watch for a major donation campaign announcement in the near future.

Talk to Jan about how you can get involved and work with us to make Kamloops even better. Contact the Kamloops Foundation at 250-434-6995 or info@kamloopsfoundation. com and get started today. KB

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Wheelchair Cabs Available APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 11

> cover story

BIG deal

They may be big, but they’re not brash — a look at the businesses that play a big part in keeping the economy humming in Kamloops STORY BY STEWART DUNCAN

PHOTOS BY HUGO YUEN & MURRAY MITCHELL

E

very thriving city has a diversity of businesses and industries that keep it humming all year round, year after year.

Kamloops is no different, though many of the biggest contributors to the economy and overall well-being of the community are out of the public eye.

Still, their collective contribution is immeasurable.

The products they move and the projects they do feed the city and region and improve our lives daily.

As a hub city with five highways spider-webbing through it, Kamloops is lucky to have them.

12 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

Arrow Transportation division manager Kevin Gayfer stands in front of a 2013 Freightliner.

Arrow Transportation moves about 200,000 truckloads per year of wood fibre, mining concentrates, forest products, soils, steel, crude oil, fuel oil, sulphur, fire retardant, building materials, heavy equipment and other products.

They pay top wages that pour into real estate, vehicles and the necessities of life. And they corporately support amateur sports, arts programs, community and civic initiatives and numerous charities, all of which enhance our city.

But it’s apparent that the people behind the big businesses operating big equipment and big vehicles and big projects prefer to keep small profiles.

We see big trucks. They see big jobs with, as much as possible, small footprints.

Our cover features the Valleyview operation of Finning Canada, an 80-year-old B.C. company that is the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer. Finning was incorporated in Vancouver in 1933 and in 1965, opened its $750,000 Kamloops facility with 36 employees.

Today, 165 employees in the Valleyview operation continue to fulfil the promise of founder Earl B. Finning to “service what we sell.”

Finning sells and rents the most advanced equipment and engines in the world, from snow-clearing skid steers all the way up to the 400-ton haulers, said Kamloops branch manager Dan Lockwood.

The majority of our spending occurs within the communities where we operate.

“

Mitchell Zulinik, Kamloops-Based COO of Arrow Transportation

“It’s our ability to provide product support and customer solutions that really sets us apart,” he said.

“Our service technicians are the most knowledgeable, dedicated and wellequipped mechanics around and our customers depend on them for increased productivity and lower operating costs.”

Lockwood, who has been with Finning 16 years, said the parent company is dedicated to excellence in customer service.

“Finning Canada has just opened a world-class, state-of-the-art hydraulic hose facility here in Kamloops,” he said.

The branch here “has a budget to sell $55 million in parts and service this year,” said Lockwood.

“Most of the parts sold are Caterpillar, but we rely on many Kamloops busi-

nesses to deliver a superior service.

“When it comes to employees, safety is at the centre of our business. It is a core value that influences everything we do. We also build a work environment that’s attractive to employees. Finning Kamloops employees will tell you that working at the branch is like being part of a caring family; it’s a great place to work.”

It certainly helps with Finning’s recruitment efforts; all the big companies interviewed for this article have challenges when it comes to hiring new, skilled employees.

“We hired a number of new employees last year,” said Lockwood. “As markets grow and our services expand, recruitment of skilled people, particularly service technicians, is a priority.”

APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 13

“We’re looking for employees who are committed to safety and customer service. People who want to take command of their career and develop their skills.

“For 48 years, Finning has been serving mining, forestry and construction customers in the Kamloops area,” Lockwood added. “Some employees have started and ended their careers in Kamloops raising families and serving the community.”

Lockwood credited strong mining and forestry markets over the last two years for enabling Finning Kamloops to exceed its budgets.

ARROW TRANSPORTATION Another influential outfit is Arrow Transportation, which started in Vancouver as Kitsilano Transfer in 1919.

Economic “We operate 21 transload facilities in Canada and the oly-Cop’s United States,” payroll said Kamloopsexceeds $5 million a based COO year in B.C. Mitchell Zulinik, and with “and nine transexpenditures portation termihitting $6 million nals as well as per year in offices in B.C., Moly-Cop Kamloops, is a driving Vancouver and force in these parts.

Edmonton. Of the

player

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company’s 850 employees, more than 200 are based here.

“We move (about) 200,000 truckloads per year of wood fibre, mining concentrates, forest products, soils, steel, crude oil, fuel oil, sulphur, fire retardant, building materials, heavy equipment and many other products each year,” Zulinik said.

“Each facility specializes in the movement of specific products and design transportation, distribution and materials handling solutions specific to each customer. We employ over 300 tractors, 1,000 trailer units and a large amount of heavy equipment to support our business needs.

“We spend significantly on parts, supplies, fuel, tires, labour and other items to operate our various business 14 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

Calvin Allen, process metallurgist at Moly-Cop, stands with a bin of grinding balls.

Moly-Cop serves almost 60 per cent of the total domestic grinding-ball market.

units,” he acknowledged.

“We are a strong supporter of local business and the majority of our spending occurs within the communities where we operate.”

Like other large companies with many employees active in their communities, Arrow uses its influence in areas besides business.

“Arrow is a proud supporter of many

community and charitable organizations in Kamloops and the other communities we call home,” said Zulinik. “United Way, TRU Athletics, The Jesstin Zulinick Memorial Fund for B.C. children and families facing significant hardship, B.C. Children’s Hospital, Boys and Girls Clubs, local sporting organizations, Royal Inland Hospital and many others,” he said.

MOLY-COP One company that is based far afield but runs huge operations in Canada —including Kamloops — is Moly-Cop. The branch of Australian giant Arrium is “the sole supplier of grinding balls to the vast majority of mining operations in Canada,” said marketing and sales manager Maurice Hindle.

The solid-steel grinding balls are used in giant tumblers to pulverize ore for easier mineral extraction.

Quality is paramount; lower-quality steel or balls that are out-of-round disintegrate sooner, and that puts Moly-Cop products in higher demand than those of competitors in Russia and elsewhere.

“Moly-Cop ships by truck and rail from coast to coast and north to the Arctic and Alaska. In addition to serving almost 60 per cent of the total domestic grinding-ball market, MolyCop also ships to operations in eastern Russia.”

The company draws on Kamloops businesses for parts, service and regular maintenance for all its operations, Hindle said. And with a twostorey, 3,600-square-foot industrial building in the works, Moly-Cop will “draw as much as possible on local contractors for its expansion.”

That physical growth will add up to 35 high-paying jobs to Kamloops — and that means more opportunities for people here.

Moly-Cop’s payroll already exceeds $5 million a year in B.C. and with expenditures hitting $6 million per year in B.C., Moly-Cop is a driving force in these parts.

And as with other good corporate citizens, Moly-Cop invests heavily in environmental care, and supports numerous causes. Among them are B.C. Children’s Hospital, United Way, Royal Inland Hospital, a Thompson Rivers University bursary, the annual Relay for Life, which raises money for cancer research, and others.

“It’s not just the company,” said Hindle. “Our employees do volunteer work for many organizations in the community and consider it a real honour.” KB

Rick Angeli, Trimac branch manager, says the company has “to be creative in how we attract and retain drivers.’

Trimac Transportation

BY STEWART DUNCAN

Big Wheels Keep on Turning

P

eople living in Moose Jaw, Sask., in 1930 might not remember much about that year other than it was the early days of the Great Depression. It grew into 10 lost years of harsh economic conditions and severe hardship for Canadian farmers.

But one farmer had a different vision. J.W. (Jack) McCaig realized that trucks were the future of transportation, so he used his $50 for a down payment.

He then started his first freight run to Regina, 45 miles — 72 kilometres in today’s terms — down what passed for a road in 1930.

And that was the start of Trimac Transportation, which was established in 1945. Sixty-eight years later, Trimac is headquartered in Calgary (Houston, Texas, in the U.S.) and operates a busy branch in Kamloops on Versatile Drive by the Petro-Canada Travel Centre.

It is the largest bulk carrier in North America.

Branch manager Rick Angeli joined Trimac in 2007 when the big firm purchased his family’s business.

The hub-city branch has 39 fulltime drivers, five part-time drivers, nine mechanics and seven administration staff.

They work as a team to keep 29 trucks rolling in and out of Kam-

loops, hauling cement, petroleum, copper concentrate, propane and ammonium nitrate.

“With an aging workforce, it’s more and more difficult to find quality drivers,” said Angeli. “With the opportunities out there, we have to be creative in how we attract and retain drivers. Things like shift work — we try to accommodate drivers so they have regular schedules for balanced life. We have auto-shift units to attract others to the industry, and Trimac Corporate now has a foreign-workers program to bring drivers here from other countries to help counter the shortage.”

With all those big rigs on the move, Trimac manages them with a preventative maintenance program so trucks are serviced every 32,000 kilometres or every 90 days.

For trailers, it’s 90 days or every 48,000 kilometres.

“We maintain our own equipment and businesses from outside Trimac,” Angeli said. “We are a fully licensed and certified shop with six bays and we also have our own wash facility.”

But it’s not all work. Trimac supports the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation for the annual Southcentral Trucking and Industry golf tournament. KB

APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 15

> Industry

Waratah reaches worldwide Kamloops’ best-kept secret has quietly become a major player in the Canadian forest industry

SPECIAL TO KAMLOOPS BUSINESS MAGAZINE

K

amloops has a best-kept secret.

Waratah is the world’s largest forestry harvester-head company, with distribution facilities in Canada, U.S., Australia, Asia, Europe and South America, and manufacturing facilities in both Finland and New Zealand.

It is the New Zealand plant that mostly supplies Waratah Canada with products and parts that flow into Kamloops on a weekly basis via ship container and airfreight.

For ease of understanding, a Waratah 16 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

harvester-head is a sophisticated, computer and hydraulically operated attachment that is hung on the end of a forestry excavator and used for complex de-limbing and bucking of tree lengths.

Waratah Forestry Canada opened in late 1997, providing a select dealer group and our Canadian professional loggers with sales, product support, training and parts distribution for the New Zealandmanufactured product line of tree-harvesting heads.

Waratah Canada was founded by

Hugo Yuen/Kamloops Business

Waratah’s general manager Rob Agassiz is proud of his team of employees, which includes Norm Williston, Derek Graf, Ed Lund, Jeff O’Rourke, Marianne Wilcox, Mark Kersley, Fred Schinz, Rick Woldum, Justin Drake, Dean Middleton, Steve Paulsen and Kelty Young.

Kamloops entrepreneur Rob Agassiz, who, after seven years of working in the mechanized forestry industry, saw increased market potential for “dangle head” style forestry processors.

A supply and distribution agreement was created with partner Waratah General Engineering out of Tokoroa, N.Z., and this successful business relationship grew quickly over the years, earning a strong Canadian market position and a pursuit to grow and expand to the reaches of Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

Today, this company is owned by John Deere Corp. in Moline, Ill., a move Agassiz said made sense as they share his original vision of the company’s distribution plan.

Since, Agassiz’s talented cross-Canada team of highly motivated employees has been able to grow this Kamloopsspawned business to annual sales of more than $50 million, positioning Waratah as a significant player in the Canadian forest industry.

At the same time, this has made Waratah a strong contributor to both our Kamloops and our provincial economies.

“Our employees’ passion and their dedication to customers is what drives our business success,” said Agassiz.

“Some of our employees, like me, were raised in Kamloops. Others are people we have relocated to Kamloops from other cities including Houston, Williams Lake, Prince George, Vancouver and as far away as Quebec.

“These great people have come to work at Waratah and in part to enjoy the City of Kamloops while raising their families.”

Waratah Canada employs 13 people full time in Kamloops and another six in Eastern Canada ranging from field-service mechanics and parts personnel to administration and management positions.

Waratah Canada supports more than 135 Kamloops businesses and suppliers including packaging companies, freight companies, industrial parts, print shops, hydraulic and welding suppliers — and the list goes on.

Waratah also brings a lot of out-oftown visitors into Kamloops who stay in our hotels and frequent our restaurants.

This includes a continuous flow of overseas engineering staff and support workers but also includes other out-ofcountry guests, including an annual group of Russian forest owners and professional loggers.

Waratah employees and their families are also active in the community and support many fundraisers, including Healing Hands and the Kamloops SPCA, where Waratah sponsors a daily adopt-a-pet program.

“Waratah Canada has worked really hard over the years to do two things,” said Agassiz.

“First, continue to earn our customers’ business through product performance, reliability and support. Second, build a dealer model that brings significant added value to our products across

“Our employees’ passion and their dedication to customers is what drives our business success,” says Waratah general manager Rob Agassiz.

Above: Waratah staff members Dean Middleton, Justin Drake and Derek Graf.

Left: Agassiz and Norm Williston.

Canada as seen by our end-use customers.”

We carefully select only the best forestry equipment dealers in each region of Canada to represent and support our products.

On the flip side, we feel that the Waratah product line brings a proven, high-value, low-risk forestry-harvesting tool that can leverage these dealer’s own forestry-carrier sales, and match the reliability of their own core products.”

Waratah’s business in Kamloops and its recipe for ongoing success has not gone unnoticed by its corporate-giant owners and their shareholders.

This past December, Waratah Canada was awarded the prestigious 2012 John Deere President’s award. This award was provided for business excellence shown to customers, employees and company

shareholders.

It is presented to only one business annually in Deere’s Construction and Forestry division.

“This was both rewarding and humbling,” said Agassiz.

“We don’t take our customers’ business for granted. Our employees continue to work hard to do the right things.

“Most important, this includes putting boots on our customers’ jobsites as often as possible to listen and to understand their needs, and lowering our prices to customers on our replacement parts through strategic manufacturing and large purchasing strategies.

“Our customers are what make us successful, and we will continually work hard to earn their business.”

Waratah Forestry Canada in Kamloops is at 930 Laval Cres. KB APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 17

> VENTURE KAMLOOPS

Growing in business and knowledge Supports offer new companies every possibility for success

BY JIM ANDERSON >> VENTURE KAMLOOPS

T

he Learning Curve — we’ve all heard of it. But I don’t think I really understood it until I began work at Venture Kamloops in January.

Each day brings something new from anything my work life has ever presented to me. As an example, in my 50-day tenure with the organization, I have met with two provincial cabinet ministers, which brings my lifetime total of meetings with provincial cabinet ministers to . . . two.

JIM ANDERSON The first took place before I officially assumed the role. Imagine my panic when the minister asked me to give the assembled group of Economic Development officials a

quick overview of the programs and initiatives underway at VK. I managed to stumble through a meek apology that I had no idea.

Two months later, I have a much better idea of what’s happening at Venture Kamloops. It took far less than those two months to recognize the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit to the local economy. Entrepreneurship has become a key area of focus for us in the early part of 2013.

Last month, we partnered with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation and TRU’s School of Business and Economics to introduce a program that will encourage and assist students moving from academia to business ownership.

The Business Ownership Through Graduated Success program will allow students to concentrate the final year of their studies on a business opportunity that they can invest in and, eventually, purchase. Students have the option to apply to the CYBF for funding for their new business and Venture Kamloops has programs available for entrepreneurs and business startups. This program offers an extremely high level of support to young business owners doing things for the very first time.

January saw the convening of another Venture Kamloops entrepreneurial program, the VK Venture Advisors. This panel of entrepreneurs has been selected from various business backgrounds and members bring knowledge specific to their sector as well as experience in starting and running their own business.

The goal of these support programs is to offer new business owners every possibility for success here in Kamloops.

Their success is also ours. KB

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Chamber NEWS

Hugo Yuen/Kamloops Business

Deb McClelland, executive director of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce, unveiled the chamber’s new logo during the grand opening celebrating the association’s new location on Victoria Street in February.

Year off to ambitious start with new location, logo Rebranding helps showcase chamber’s core services

BY MAURICE HINDLE >> CHAMBER PRESIDENT

K

amloops Chamber of Kamloops has experienced one of its most ambitious and fruitful periods in our 117-year history, and much of the thanks goes to our progressive board 20 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

members and our fabulous, intelligent, beautiful, loyal, dedicated, hard-working and creative staff for all their work in the past year.

We met several significant goals in 2013.

I attended many events and meetings as president of the chamber.

It has been my pleasure to represent the chamber in this capacity over the past 18 months.

Some interesting events included: p Through a deliberate three-year plan, the chamber bought beautiful office facil-

ities in a key central location for our membership.

Although the sale did not complete until January, most of the behind-thescenes work was done in 2012. p We also relinquished our contract for the Visitor Centre to Tourism Kamloops, which is an excellent fit for that organization. p The chamber rebranded itself in MAURICE HINDLE February to better portray our organization’s culture and objectives.

The result that you see is a vibrant look, depicting our three core services and our inclusive, welcoming culture.

> chamber news i NEW MEMBERS I want to thank our staff’s rebranding task force for all their hard work, and Fresh Inc. for its expertise and guidance throughout the whole process.

Executive Director Deb McClelland continues to serve on the boards of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada.

Deb has just completed three years on the B.C. Chamber board, a position that was only to last a year.

She also is moving her way up in the executive with the CCEC board.

The Kamloops chamber is daily sought out for advice and guidance from other local organizations and other chambers across the province and country.

Our board of directors is considered a leader in the governance model. We provide training for other boards in Kamloops to follow the same model. We have more than 50 members interested in serving on our board.

Our strategic plan goals are reviewed

The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce’s rebranding offers a vibrant look. quarterly and annually and renewed every three years.

While our strategic plan outlines many more accomplishments to be made over the next two years, I am extremely proud of the work that our team achieved this year.

I wish our next president a very profitable and enjoyable year.

And thank you all for the opportunity I have had to see first-hand what a vibrant and relevant chamber of commerce can do for the community. KB

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> tech talk

Chris Gillen, CEO and founder of Dial-A-Geek, calls information technology experts the “plumbers of the 21st century.”

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omputing technology is everywhere, and it’s a rare business that does without it. To get a sense of how important technology is, think about how much time is spent on computers during business hours.

With so many rapidly evolving technologies, information technology (IT) experts are almost indispensable to modern businesses.

“We call ourselves the plumbers of the 21st century,” said Chris Gillen, CEO and founder of Dial-A-Geek, a computer repair and consulting business.

He says small businesses make two big mistakes when it comes to IT and both involve planning ahead rather than waiting for something to go wrong.

“Time and again,” he said, “businesses that have failed to properly manage their IT are dead in the water and unable to do business until we get them up and running again.”

The first big mistake businesses make is not putting IT into their budgets.

With a budget, Gillen says, a business is prepared, and what could be a computer crisis can instead be a mild inconvenience.

“You want a situation where if a computer breaks down, or if something gets lost or gets stolen, or lost in a fire or flood, it’s very, very easy to replace. And to do that right, you have to have a good infrastructure set up.”

To achieve that infrastructure, Gillen suggests businesses look at a technology-replacement cycle that budgets for upgrades every year.

“If you own a computer that’s running a point-of-sale and running the back, and you’re expecting to replace it every five years, say hypothetically, and you look around, and your business — say it has five computers — what that means, is if you want to replace it every five years, that means every year one of those computers should be rotated out.”

This would mean setting aside $1,000 per year, for example, in a budget to handle those upgrades.

Gillen says that in his experience consulting for businesses, the mistake most make is waiting until things break to deal with them.

“Then they’re trying to figure out how to pay for it, as opposed to having some sort of budget, even a nominal one where they’ve earmarked money for maintenance.”

Gerry Stenson, owner of Kamloops’ Spitfire Computers, says “time is money. If someone’s machine is down, that’s a problem, because (they’re) under a deadline.

For any business, time is money and you want to minimize downtime as much as possible.”

Stenson said a backup plan is important because customers or clients generally don’t want to wait for a business to work out its technical difficulties.

In order to create that backup plan, and know what circumstances to be prepared for, consulting with an IT expert or having one on staff

(IT) is something that businesses tend to undervalue up until the moment it stops working.

“

Chris Gillen

is more efficient.

In the absence of expert IT advice, small business owners often play the role of technology expert, regardless if they’re well-suited for it.

Hiring IT expertise allows business owners and other staff the space to focus on other aspects of the business that they’re more effective at.

Since IT experts already have the knowledge required to deal with computing problems, the business

also saves time and money on researching the issues.

Having the right technology in place also increases overall efficiency. “(IT) is something that businesses tend to undervalue up until the moment it stops working. And then it is suddenly the most important thing to the operation of the business,” said Gillen.

“Virtually every single person in small business nowadays interfaces with a computer throughout the day.

Whether or not it’s their price till system at the front, whether or not it’s accounting at the back, whether or not it’s inventory management — at some point, virtually every person who’s an employee of a business will be interfacing with a computer just to do their job. And when those computers aren’t talking together or are falling apart, they need people . . . to make sure that they are doing what they need to do.” KB

APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 23

> Kcbia report

Cuba — lessons from Castroism For Cuban entrepreneurs, ‘there is always a way!’

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uba is a fascinating country in many ways. If you look beyond the beaches of Varadero, you can learn intriguing lessons from “Castroism.”

We escaped from the insular peninsula into Havana, certainly a more authentic version of Cuba.

Havana is a city that envelops you in a living museum, showcasing architecture and transportation from eras spanning five centuries.

This is exciting and entertaining, however, the real lesson is from the people you meet.

There are so many challenges Cubans have to cope with every day to survive, including dealing with state-controlled entities that vary from inefficient to incompetent.

GAY POOLER For example, when the sugar industry declined, instead of planting a different crop or letting farmers grow their own food, the state chose to leave the fields fallow.

These are now overrun with invasive weeds, and they have to import food that the average Cuban cannot afford to buy.

Another issue is the imbalance of two currencies — the Cuban peso and the tourist “convertible” peso (CUC) create two economies, including a massive black market. State workers are paid in Cuban pesos but can’t live on that income. They have other jobs where they earn CUC’s or rely on tourist tips.

(Have you ever heard of tipping a bus driver in Canada?)

Thankfully, there are entrepreneurs in Cuba. Recently, the government decided to allow more free enterprise, mainly operations that service the tourist market — taxis, tour guides and bed and breakfasts. Of course, there are heavy government fees that operators pay whether they have customers or not.

Admirably, Cubans are adaptable and inventive (it takes an ingenious mechanic to keep a 1956 Bel Air running when you can’t import any parts). They figure out how to navigate life in a difficult political system. Rolli, our tour guide/driver for our trip to Havana is starting to do tours on his own instead of with state taxis. He is working on connecting with customers online but the Internet service in Cuba is incredibly slow and the state limits Internet use to two hours per month. We inquired how he could possibly run a business with so many challenges. His answer reflects the Cuban spirit: “There is always a way!” In Canada we think we have challenges, but take inspiration from entrepreneurs in Cuba, a country that doesn’t make anything easy. Repeat the mantra: there is always a way! KB

> Small business

Taking the fear out of starting up Proper training and wise business decisions key to finding success

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usinesses are not as risky as we had originally thought. There is still risk and uncertainty, but the idea that 50 per cent of startups go out of business in the first year is not true. In fact, 51 per cent of new employers survive the first five years of business.

So how does a start-up become one of the success stories?

Industry Canada states, “the main reason for (business) failure is inexperienced management. Managers of bankrupt firms do not have the experience, knowledge, or vision to run their businesses.� Other studies have shown a combination of other reasons including; p Lack of cash flow management p Overexpansion p Lack of sales experience p Spending marketing dollars in the wrong avenues p Failing to plan on a strategic level The majority of these reasons all boil down to bad business decisions due to lack of management experience and training. Lack of cash flow management and overexpansion can be addressed through finance and strategy training or experience. Time management training helps with implementation and work-life balance. While sales and marketing experience or training resolves the rest of the challenges.

Experience is interesting, as it is proven that entrepreneurs in their third business stand a much better chance of success.

Financial institutions sometimes actually favour financing entrepreneurs who have a track record of failure. People learn more from their mistakes than from their success.

When you don’t have the luxury of money or time to gain this experience, ramping up on training is the best option.

How? Ask for help, join mentoring groups, get a board of advisers, find a partner who has different strengths than you, or get on a professional development program that fills any gaps.

Beyond the risk of knowing if the idea will work, the other reason why individuals balk at starting a business is the opportunity cost of leaving a good job.

Increased youth unemployment rates have removed most of this opportunity cost. The probability of landing a really great job is dramatically reduced. Starting a business is now a real alternative as the initial projected income in line with current starting salaries.

To learn more about business plans and access other great tools, visit www.smallbusinesssolver.com. KB

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> strategy

From beautification to signs, Roger Brooks hopes to pump Kamloops full of ideas to make downtown the ‘heart and soul’ of the community

Core

Values STORY BY STEWART DUNCAN

R

oger Brooks doesn’t live here but in many respects, he knows us better than we do.

And he’ll bring us up to speed as the main speaker at the annual B.C. business-improvement associations conference April 15 to 17 at Hotel540.

Brooks’s topic is downtown revitalization in Kamloops, Kimberly, Kaslo, Kelowna, Keremeos and Kitimat and every other B.C. city or town with a devalued core.

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And while he’ll likely mention any or all of the above, he’ll emphasize that it’s a common problem all across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Downtown cores everywhere are hurting.

Reached by phone at Destination Development International in Seattle, Brooks enthusiastically pumped urban centres as the “heart and soul of a community.”

“Nearly every city and town in Canada” is founded on a natural resource, agriculture or transportation to get the goods to market or get the people to the goods.

“When communities lose their core industry, they start looking for their second act.”

In this global economy, we’re all looking for new ways to promote our regions and the “health of downtown tells us health of community.

“The litmus test is downtown. It’s what you’re about.”

Brooks said his firm, DDI, did a survey of 400 downtowns, 100 of which were in Canada and many of those in B.C. And he has compiled statistics and percentages on everything DDI studied.

Of the 55 items checked, DDI

We’re baby countries, built around the automobile.

In Europe, they shop later, eat later, etc. We’re moving into the European model.

“

Roger Brooks of Destination Development International

determined there were 20 ingredients that made for an outstanding downtown. He’ll be sharing those at the conference.

“Then we broke them down into three things for each property owner to do, each merchant to do and each city/town government to do.”

He mentioned three things he’ll bring up during his presentation. p A way-finding system: can visitors find out what it is that we have to offer? Can they find out how to get there? Part of that is blade signs, which face pedestrians walking on your sidewalk. It translates to travellers’ ease. p Beautification: Brooks said 70 per cent of first-time sales is curb appeal. A merchant’s window display, exterior space and entrance combine to make visitors want to walk in or walk by.

“Women account for 80 per cent of all retail consumer spending,”

Brooks said. “And everywhere it’s the same: they want to feel welcome; they want to feel safe; and they want it to be pretty.” p Hours of operation: Brooks will challenge his audience with this finding: “70 per cent of all retail spending is done after 6 p.m.

“After 6 p.m. Are you open?

“This is a trend,” he said. “We’re baby countries, built around the automobile. In Europe, they shop later, are out later, eat later, etc.

We’re moving to the European model. It’s a trend across the U.S. and Canada.

“In places like Kamloops, visitors enjoy outdoor recreation in the day, then come back to town in the evening and you’re closed.

Skiing, biking, hiking, golf, hot springs — Brooks says it doesn’t matter. “The No. 1 activity in the world is the combination of shopping, dining and entertainment in a pedestrian-friendly setting.

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WORKING IT OUT “Eighty per cent of all non-lodging tourism spending (regardless of hour) is dining, entertainment and shopping.

“The recreation isn’t expensive. It’s afterward that counts.

“We spend the night where there are things to do after 6 p.m.,” he said. “Give people something to spend money on.”

He emphasized that visitors “look for the busiest places. If the locals don’t hang out there, neither will the tourists.

“We work around the world but 80 per cent of our work is in Canada.

It’s not much different anywhere: same issues, politics, challenges, all going through revitalization. Ninetyfive per cent of my presentation will be Canadian.”

A big and growing problem is ‘leakage,’ ” said Brooks. “That’s when money earned here is spent

elsewhere. We have to know how to keep it here.

“There are more ghost towns in the making in North America now than ever,” he said. “More bankruptcies in the U.S. in the last five years than the previous 200 years of U.S. history.

“With less and less federal money, cities and towns have to act more like businesses: import more than you export and you die.”

To counteract that, cities need to know what makes them special — or at least different.

“What do we have that the people we’re trying to attract can’t get closer to home? If you want me here, what do you have to draw me?”

Arts scene? Antiques? Lake? Hot springs? Aboriginal art? Deep-sea fishing?

“You have to be different or better.” KB

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A W A R D S

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The award winners will be proled in a special edition of Kamloops Business in July 2013, and will automatically become nominees for the Kamloops Business Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards 2013.

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APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 29

> PROFILE

Eagle Homes flying high

A

lthough it has four branches in the Interior, Eagle Homes’ biggest investment is in Kamloops. The modular-home manufacturer, using B.C.-sourced materials, can put up a home in six to eight weeks.

With two notable developments in the area, Sunset Ridge in Brocklehurst and Kokanee Court near Campbell Creek, Eagle Homes president Mark Ellis said Kamloops offers the company so much space for development — 150 residential lots, in fact — Eagle Homes has made Kamloops its focus.

“We’ve invested most of our resources right in Kamloops due to the developments we’re working with.”

The other branches are in Salmon Arm, Castlegar and Cranbrook.

Ellis manages the Kamloops store, which has been open for seven years.

30 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

Module-home manufacturer finds success in Kamloops’ vibrant housing market Interview by Larkin Schmiedl “In Kamloops, we sell modular and mobile homes and private lands, and (at the) developments that are in Kamloops . . . we’re selling the lands with the homes.”

Ellis says the lots are cheaper than conventional lots, partly due to the efficiency with which the homes are produced.

“What I like about the modular home is today . . . (because we have) controlled production and several inspection stages, the quality is high and we’re more efficient. So we can build a home in six to eight weeks, where on-site building takes a lot longer.”

The homes are manufactured in Penticton at a plant

that’s been in business since 1974.

And the materials are partly homegrown.

“All the materials are sourced through the valley. For example, the kitchen cupboard facings actually come from Kamloops — a company on the North Shore manufactures the facings for all the cabinets; and Armstrong Maax Bathtubs supplies the tubs. (The company) buys all its lumber through the valley from different sources.”

Ellis says “I’ve been doing this since I graduated out of high school pretty well.

It’s just something that happened. The industry was not the same as it is today, but there was a need for the homes and I was selling them, and it just grew from there.”

Eagle Homes has lots available in Kamloops. KB

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ou can consistently deliver more effective presentations if you develop the habits of highly effective speakers. Success is a matter of habit.

1. Clear Purpose Start your presentation with the end in mind. The only reason to speak is to move people. So start preparing by thinking about this question. What do you want people to think, feel or do after you speak? Keep that purpose top of mind as you prepare and deliver your presentation.

2. Prepare Don’t wing your presentation or hope to think on your feet.

That’s a formula for disaster. Instead, consider the mindset of your audience. Design your presentation. Rehearse it. Arrive early to check out the room. Be prepared to cut it short or deal with interruptions. Rehearse dealing with difficult questions.

3. Open and Close There are three parts of your presentation ­— the opening, the body and the close. They are not equal in time but each is important. Many speakers make the mistake of only focusing on the body. The opening of your presentation needs to grab the attention of your audience, establish rapport and set the direction. The close is the last thing you say and hence might be the strongest thing they remember. Ensure that it reinforces your message and what you want them to do next.

4. Pause Nervous and novice speakers are afraid of silence. Yet, silence is your friend. You don’t persuade anyone by speaking constantly, rapidly and louder. You persuade them by saying something poignant then pausing while they absorb and consider your words. The more often and longer that you pause the more confident you will appear and the more comfortable they will feel with your ideas.

5. Conversation The most important point is that your presentation should not feel like a pitch or a lecture. If you come across that way people will tune you out and resent you. So, how do you make your presentation feel more like a conversation? Do the things that you enjoy in a friendly conversation. That will include some of the techniques above — telling stories, pausing and making friendly eye contact. Here’s one more technique to have the conversation — ask questions of the group and listen without judging. Also punctuate your presentation with rhetorical questions to repeatedly engage their minds.

We are creatures of habit. You can be more successful when presenting by following these habits of highly effective speakers.

George Torok is The Speech Coach for Executives and the author of the Superior Presentations program. KB

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> Marketing

Bird’s-eye videos take golf-course marketing to stunning new heights

Highgear STORY BY STEWART DUNCAN

R

each stroke as you “fly” the fairway. aised on westerns and curious Providing the ever-so-cool view is a about cattle and cacti, a man in lightweight, eight-prop, flying camera New York state — or is it Illinois?

UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that — dreams of touring the West.

And since a documentary linked to the captures the layout, rough, trees and greens, sand traps and waterways.

2010 Olympics intrigued him, he’s been It makes for compelling video of views considering a golf tour of B.C. you can’t get any other way.

It’s a nice thought.

The aerial video is the brainchild of But how do we in Kamloops convert Mastermind Studios, a high-technology him — and his friends — from dreaming company that operates out of Kamloops there to playing here? but has even travelled out of Canada to Competition is fierce. Options abound. provide its services.

Kamloops is remote and foreign, which means border-security hassles. There is compelling geographical beauty all over North America — not just here — and our potential tourist gets more exposure to golf courses in the American West than in B.C. We are at a significant disadvantage.

But that can change An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, top right, can give new when our potential tourist perspective to golf courses, including Sun Rivers, above. does a skip-and-hop through Google and brings up a low-altitude aerial tour of an 18-hole championship golf course in an exciting-looking place called Kamloops.

It features silt cliffs like the westerns he watched, a deep-blue river common to this side of the Rockies, and this unique feature: a bird’s-eye tour of all 18 holes of Rivershore Golf Links, complete with the course pro’s helpful narration.

Unlike a view from an aircraft high overhead, this video shows what the ball might see from the tee box to the green.

Meanwhile, the pro’s tips and instructions explain how and where to play 34 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

Founder and CEO Peter CameronInglis builds and operates these mostly carbon-fibre flying camera UAVs with 360˚ rotation, forward/back tilt and left/ right roll. Some of the components, such as the motors and airframe, are sourced from the U.S. and New Zealand while the GPS and other components can come from as far away as Germany.

“We deal with different companies because, while one company makes the best of one item, it doesn’t make the best of all the components,” said Cameron-Inglis.

He and his video crew have filmed

much of Kamloops in glorious sunshine, from TRU to Sun Peaks Resort, including the seven outstanding courses that make up the Kamloops Golf Consortium.

The results, acquired in two to three days of video work for each golf course, are breathtakingly beautiful.

And while there are unlimited uses for such video — real estate, industry, property development, recreation, infrastructure projects — Cameron-Inglis is particularly enthusiastic about the golf courses.

The videos mean that hypothetical visitors from the eastern U.S. or southern Australia can familiarize themselves with Rivershore Golf Links before they leave home.

Rivershore is the only course in Kamloops using the video as a marketing tool, but several courses from Kelowna to the Lower Mainland are also looking at the option.

“Although we’ve only just begun to film golf courses in the last year, no one else in the world is doing this sort of aerial photography/video work to the level that we are,” said Cameron-Inglis. “Most organizations are just producing computer-generated animations, which do not make the same emotional connection with the viewer.”

But that’s just one of the uses of lowlevel aerial cameras. Cameron-Inglis relates a unique new service for mining corporations, one of the many uses in that massive industry.

He can program GPS co-ordinates into a UAV, then turn it loose at a mountain of rock debris from a mining pit. The photos are then fed into a special software system that calculates growth of the waste pile over time as well as ore yield and other KB practical data.

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> Q&A

I

f you haven’t already heard of 3-D printing, you should know it’s on your doorstep. It has been employed in medical, industrial design, jewelry, footwear and other industries for years — decades in some cases — but few consumers could access it due to cost.

Also known as additive manufacturing, 3-D printing is revolutionizing how we create objects.

Mike Miltimore, co-owner of Lee’s Music, has embraced the technology.

Q: What is 3-D printing?

3-D printing is rapid prototyping. In years past, you’d draw your designs and mill it with a milling machine. If you made a mistake or needed to tweak it, it was a big, involved process to rebuild the parts. You couldn’t do a lot of complex things because a milling machine can only do outside shapes.

Additive printing melts different plastics and squirts them through a little nozzle. It allows you to take that little tiny bit of plastic, and print it — kind of like a dot-matrix printer — a layer at a time.

36 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS APRIL/MAY 2013

So you want to print a wrench?

No problem

3-D printing may help businesses not only think outside the box — it gets rid of the box entirely Interview by Larkin Schmiedl

It allows you to do complex shapes.

For example, one of the testers you print when you get your first machine and first file is a rook from a chess set. It looks like a castle, it’s got brick on the outside, a spiral staircase inside and a double-helix through the centre. And this is all printed layer by layer by layer with a 3-D printer.

Q: And you’ve got one at Lee’s Music?

Yeah, we’re using it for our prototyping for some of our new guitar innovations.

A guitar has six strings, and you need to build six things that are exactly the same. Now we can build them exactly the same in no time, and have something that we can actually take to production, and use and test. So if I design something in the virtual world in 3-D CAD (computer-aided design), I can print it.

I can even print threads into it, so I can take it off the printer and use it. It’s a hard piece of plastic . . . and it’s all standard consumer level, so you can have one at home just like we did with laser printers.

You could go online and find a chess set, or find a switch cover for your light switches that is customized with your name on it, or you can put your picture on it, or an iPhone holder.

If you had an idea of some way of holding your iPhone onto the shower rail without it getting wet, you could design and print it.

Q: How far off is this technology for consumers?

They’re coming way down in price, so probably two grand. That allows you to do 5.5 inches by 5.5 inches by 5.5 inches.

Realistically, I guess we’re there. You could do your own bobble-head.

Q: How big is the machine?

About a foot-and-a-half cubed. And the nozzle looks like a hot-glue gun nozzle.

Q: 3-D printing is additive manufacturing as opposed to most traditional subtractive manufacturing. What’s the advantage?

Subtractive manufacturing using CMC routers cuts away from the outside, and you have three axes: X, Y and Z. Your X-Y moves your cutter back and forth, up and down. We use that a lot manufactur-

Hugo Yuen/Kamloops Business

Mike Miltimore, co-owner of Lee’s Music, shows off a bridge of one of his custom-made guitars that can be replicated by his 3-D printer. Miltimore is excited about the technology. ing guitars — a lot of three-axis machines.

When you get into five-axis machines, you can do things like a block with a doorway in it, but you really can’t do anything other than what you can get from the outside, right?

With additive printing, you can do complex things, including variable stiffness. Say you’re designing a new skateboard and you want more flex in the centre, but across the plane of the skateboard you want it to be very stiff. You can actually draw it to have different structures inside it, so it flexes only one way. Or depending on the longitude of your board, you can have different degrees of flex.

You used to have to print a copy of your design, send it to a company in the U.S., and they would print a copy, and you’d get it back in weeks. And we call that rapid prototyping, and it was amazing!

Now, we can create that same part in half an hour after I finish designing it. I can have it in my hands, ready to use.

The other thing that’s really cool is you can print things like complex machines. You can print a crescent

wrench, and it prints it all assembled ready to go.

Q: This is blowing my mind a bit.

It is mind-blowing. Something else that’s kind of interesting: you go to China, and you buy a G.I. Joe from China, let’s say. (3-D printing) may move a lot of the manufacturing away from that base where you buy products that are injection-moulded or built in China and shipped over here. Now if you want that new G.I. Joe or Barbie, you print it on your printer and you pay for the design.

No shipping — it’s all done right here.

Q: I’m foreseeing a future where everything is in virtual design format and that’s what people pay for, and they manufacture it themselves.

Exactly.

Q: Is there anything else people should know about 3-D printing?

I’m excited about it. The idea of being able to change structural properties of a given material is opening up the possibilities of being able to control variables within the structures that we’re working with. We can think way outside the box, or even just get rid of the box. KB APRIL/MAY 2013 KAMLOOPS BUSINESS 37

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