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MARCH 2017
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VICTORIA Complete Residential Property Management opened for business in 2001
NEW SHIPPING OPTIONS for VANCOUVER ISLAND BUSINESSES Deepsea.npa.ca 250-734-3457
Victoria
WWW.BUSINESSEXAMINER.CA
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NANAIMO 2017 BE Awards celebrating the best on the Island
Spirit Of Entrepreneurship Drives Business Owner To Give Back Local Business Owner And Mentor Advises Strong Work Ethic and Getting to the ‘Yes’ Is Secret to Entrepreneurial Success BETH HENDRY-YIM
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INDEX News Update
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Saanich Peninsula
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Greater Victoria
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Esquimalt 7 West Shore
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Who is Suing Whom 25 Movers and Shakers 27 Opinion 30 Contact us: 1-866-758-2684
OUR 30TH YEAR
ICTORIA – Al Hasham is a man on the go. Up by 4 am, at his office by 5 and then home by 10 at night. Driven and passionate about business, he doesn’t see running his three companies as work. “I look forward to every day,” he said. “When you love what you do it doesn’t feel like a job.” His life isn’t all work though, a big part of his business philosophy is to give back whenever and wherever he can: currently he is the Chair of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, helps out at fund raising events for other organizations and regularly mentors budding new entrepreneurs. Hasham started his career in business in 1987 when he and his brother began their first courier company in Victoria. They ran
DanFoss together for 15 years and then sold it in 2001. Hasham moved to the States for a few years and then back to Vancouver. But having a strong understanding of the courier business and its customer needs, in 2004 Hasham and his brother founded their second courier company, Maximum Express, with offices in both Vancouver and Victoria. “That year we also founded Max Holdings and purchased a building to house the courier offices and vehicles,” he explained. Since then, Hasham has also opened Max Furniture, and more recently Cambria College. Opening a school seems like an odd segue from owning a courier company and even a furniture store. But Hasham has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and when SEE AL HASHAM | PAGE 20
Al Hasham went from being a mentor of Rahim Khudabux to business partner of Max Furniture CREDIT:MAXIMUM EXPRESS COURIER
Leveling The Ground In Business And Trade Recent Business Excellence Award Winner Sees Steady Growth as a Fair Trade Organization
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ICTORIA - At the recent Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards, Level Ground Trading Company’s acceptance speech given by Grant Kratofil for the Business of the Year Award was gracious,
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heartfelt and inspiring. In it he shared a business model and corporate culture that is successful at all levels, from the ground up. “We have one goal, to alleviate poverty through trade,” said Stacey Toews, co-founder and
communication catalyst. “As a young man, traveling and living in different places around the world, I saw agricultural and business practices that, I felt, encouraged impoverishment and an oppositional mentality. I asked
+ BUSINESS SYSTEMS
“The vision of office technology”
www.unitybusiness.ca www.innov8ds.ca
VICTORIA • NANAIMO • COURTENAY • CAMPBELL RIVER • KELOWNA • KAMLOOPS
who is being harmed and how can we respond thoughtfully and compassionately to those most marginalized in global trade?” The result was four families SEE LEVEL GROUND | PAGE 9