Douglas magazine Apr/May 2023 by Page One Publishing

APR/MAY 2023

N EW n Desigal Reve

Mentoring

3 entrepreneurs share their stories

SLOWDOWN: CASH FLOW IS KEY

How to deal with best- and worst-case scenarios

A Sober Second Look Changing views on drinking culture

Opportunity Knocks Is it time to change your business model?

Armon Arani, CEO and Co-founder, Cognito Health

SPECIAL 10 TO WATCH ISSUE

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CONTENTS

APR/MAY 2023

F E AT U R E S

Opportunity Knocks Four companies found success by shaking up their original business models to try something new. BY ERIN SKILLEN

Sober Curious Enters the Workplace Recovery coach Michael Walsh on workplace sobriety, slippery slopes and his positive approach to recovery. BY KEN WINCHESTER

Origen Air — Breathing Life Into the Workplace, p. 11

SPECIAL SECTION

10 to Watch Award Winners

This year’s diverse group of entrepreneurs represent innovation, passion and business savvy, as well as a concern for sustainability. BY DANIELLE POPE AND KEN WINCHESTER

Mile Zero Coffee Company — It Takes a Mentor, p. 60

Slowdown: Why Cash Flow is key Stormy economic waters can also present opportunities. How to deal with best- and worst-case scenarios. BY SHANNON MONEO

It Takes a Mentor Mentorship is a two-way street, bridging youthful enthusiasm with the wisdom of real-world experience. Three entrepreneurs share their stories. BY MICHAEL JOHN LO

Retirees To the Rescue Boomers are making a comeback in a marketplace struggling for workers. BY INGRID VAUGHAN

D E PA R T M E N T S 6 NOTE FROM THE EDITOR 11 IN THE KNOW Breathing life into the workplace, Atomic Habits, Victoria’s big little airport, the business of bees and what’s next for down-but-not-out Capital Iron.

70 I NTEL 70 SCALING YOUR VENTURE Gas or brake? When is it time to expand, relocate, diversify or just sit tight? BY MIA MAKI 72 T HE QUESTION NO ONE IS ASKING ABOUT AI Is it really the best thing since sliced bread? BY RUBEN UGARTE

74 DID YOU KNOW StarFish Medical — Slowing the Slowdown, p. 52 4

D O U G L AS

Who visits Victoria? Where do they come from, what do they do and how much do they spend?

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PHOTO: KAT CRAATS, BCOM ’20

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A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

The Sweet Smell of Success

C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S

TO THE 10 TO WAT C H W I N N E R S ! Chuck offers a team-based approach for a total wealth strategy that addresses the entirety of your life.

C.P. (Chuck) McNaughton, PFP Senior Wealth Advisor 250.654.3342 charles.mcnaughton@scotiawealth.com themcnaughtongroup.ca The McNaughton Group ScotiaMcLeod®, a division of Scotia Capital Inc.

®Registered trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia, used under licence. Scotia Capital Inc. is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. For more information visit www.scotiawealthmanagement.com. McNaughton Group is a personal trade name of C.P. (Chuck) McNaughton.

D O U G L AS

WELCOME TO DOUGLAS MAGAZINE’S ANNUAL 10 TO WATCH ISSUE. Whew! This is our biggest issue of the year, and in it we’ve covered everything from tourism to mentorship, the art of scaling your business to the issue of workplace sobriety. Of course, the highlight is our pick of 10 up-and-coming Island entrepreneurs, as judged by six of the most experienced business leaders in Victoria. I know about entrepreneurship from experience. I’ve started a book publishing company, two wineries, a distillery and a coffee-roasting business. I understand both the soaring success and crushing defeat of starting an enterprise. So I have nothing but admiration for these amazing companies. Take the three talented chefs who founded Refire Kitchen with the notion of offering gourmet take-andbake meals. I’m a regular; my favourite is their elevated mac ‘n’ cheese. Or the three entrepreneurs behind Foragers Galley, whose beards and jeans belie their serious agri-tech backgrounds. I’ve just started a growyour-own mushroom kit of theirs and hope it will soon brim with blue oysters. I’ll keep you posted. Then there’s VoxCell and Apricell, both of whom are pioneering frontiers in cancer research, and Earlybird, which aims to make early childhood education fun through everyday play. The 10 to Watch stories are inspiring lessons in the art of the startup: the ups, downs and sideways of starting a business on Vancouver Island. Hopefully those experiences make their founders stronger and more resilient. But there are rewards, too. Being an entrepreneur means that you have freedom and flexibility, you have control over your own destiny, you can impact others positively and you can follow your passion. Like the city and island we cover, this issue is nothing if not diverse. To me the common thread is that owning a business is not for the faint of heart. But success, when it does come, is so, so sweet. •

“Having started several companies myself, I have nothing but admiration for these amazing entrepreneurs.”

— Ken Winchester, Editor

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PUBLISHERS Lise Gyorkos, Georgina Camilleri EDITOR IN CHIEF Joanne Sasvari EDITOR Ken Winchester DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jeffrey Bosdet PRODUCTION MANAGER Jennifer Kühtz DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT Amanda Wilson LEAD GRAPHIC DESIGNER Caroline Segonnes ASSOCIATE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Janice Hildybrant MARKETING COORDINATOR Claire Villaraza ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Lauren Ingle ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Doug Brown, Will Gillis, Cynthia Hanischuk, Brenda Knapik CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Michael John Lo, Mia Maki, Shannon Moneo, Danielle Pope, Erin Skillen, Ruben Ugarte, Ingrid Vaughan PROOFREADER Paula Marchese CONTRIBUTING AGENCIES Getty Images p.66, p.70 GENERAL INQUIRIES info@douglasmagazine.com SEND PRESS RELEASES TO editor@douglasmagazine.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR letters@douglasmagazine.com

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CONGRATULATIONS Douglas 10 to Watch Award Winners

INSTAGRAM @douglas_magazine COVER Armon Arani, CEO and co-founder, Cognito Health Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet Published by PAGE ONE PUBLISHING 580 Ardersier Road, Victoria, B.C. V8Z 1C7 T 250.595.7243 E info@pageonepublishing.ca pageonepublishing.ca Printed in British Columbia by Mitchell Press.

The Bay Centre is celebrating 34 years of partnering and incubating local entrepreneurs and their ideas. Explore opportunities to test and grow your concept into a thriving business today. Darlene.hollstein@jll.com 250-952-5690

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D O U G L AS

Darlene Hollstein, General Manager

Ideas and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Page One Publishing Inc. or its affiliates; no official endorsement should be inferred. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the contents of any advertisement and any and all representations or warranties made in such advertising are those of the advertiser and not the publisher. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in all or part, in any form — printed or electronic — without the express written permission of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #41295544 Undeliverable mail should be directed to Page One Publishing Inc. 580 Ardersier Road, Victoria, B.C. V8Z 1C7 Douglas magazine is a registered trademark of Page One Publishing Inc.

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IN THE KNOW

Breathing Life Into the Workplace

An Origen intern checks components produced by a futuristic bank of 3D printers. READ THE FULL STORY P. 12

BY KEN WINCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY BOSDET

Origen Air uses plant biotechnology to boost productivity at work and at school. D O U G L AS

IN THE KNOW “Plant-powered productivity.” That’s the mantra for Origen Air, a previous Douglas 10 to Watch winner. It’s based on a concept called biophilia, the innate human attraction to nature. Scientifically, regular houseplants aren’t capable of removing toxins from indoor air spaces. So Origen founders Susan Blanchet and Andrew Crawford went on a quest to find plants that do. The first was a genetically enhanced plant, pothos ivy, a.k.a. “the bachelor plant.” Not only was it easy to maintain, but it was proven to remove toxins from the air, a staggering 96 times more effectively than standard houseplants The pair designed a kind of large, stylish herbarium tower that now comes in different sizes and can be purchased or rented. Their flagship unit, The Pinnacle, stands seven feet tall and weighs some 300 pounds, and can be customized to match office décor. Each unit services up to 8,000 cubic feet of space and 16 people. The specialized plants naturally convert CO2 into fresh oxygen; filter out allergens, bacteria and viruses; and capture larger particulates like mould, pollen and dust. There’s also an optional air quality monitor. Origen initially targeted larger businesses and workplaces, but the units are also starting to appear in places like UVic and Camosun College. Moreover, Origen has tested and chronicled the effects of its products in the workplace. The system has been shown to increase productivity by up to eight per cent, decrease turnover up to 13 per cent, and impact employee mental health by up to 13 per cent. Whether it’s hospitals that want patients to heal more quickly, offices that seek to boost productivity or schools looking to raise test scores, Origen makes the case for incorporating nature where we live and work. • 12

D O U G L AS

Blue-shaded areas represent YYJ's ambitious expansion plans.

VICTORIA’S big LITTLE AIRPO YYJ is one of North America’s best-loved airports, and plans to spend $600 million to prove it.

ost travellers have a love/hate relationship with air travel. Weather delays, overbooking and riding shotgun with the loo are occupational hazards. But YYJ is different, or so says CNN Travel, which calls it one of the 10 most-loved airports in the world. Victoria International Airport (airport code: YYJ) is the 11th busiest airport in Canada with nearly two million passengers per year. YYJ is also the 2012, 2014 and 2020 winner of Best Regional Airport in North America by Airports

Council International. Even a regional airport needs constant maintenance and upgrades, everything from paving and pumping stations to runway approach lighting. But the new $600-million, 20-year plan seeks to make YYJ a truly international airport. This news comes after 93 years of service to the Island. In 1930, a private airport on the southern tip of the Island started YYJ’s humble beginnings. Before that, air travel was only possible by float plane. YYJ has come a long way. Scheduled passenger service was launched in 1942; in 1959 it was renamed Victoria

International Airport, despite only offering a handful of flights to Seattle. One of the plan’s most ambitious projects is to extend the main runway, dubbed 09/27, possibly allowing international flights to Europe, and handling what could be three million to four million flights per year by 2042. Like most airports, YYJ took a huge hit during COVID, but has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels of almost two million passengers per year. There are land-based improvements in store, too, including upgraded terminal facilities, parking expansion

IN THE KNOW

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY IN B.C. The business of real estate trumps almost every other in the province, at least in terms of individual operations. Professional services such as legal, accounting, tax preparation and consulting come in second, followed by health care in third place.

 Agriculture: 90  Mining & Oil: 14

Public Administration: 53 

 Utilities 4

Other services: 1098 

 Construction: 927

Accommodation: 583 

 Manufacturing: 257

Art & Entertainment: 365 

 Wholesale: 187

HealtheCare: 1715 

 Retail: 945

Educational: 225 

 Transportation: 190

Administrative: 423 

 Information: 242

Management: 139 

 finances: 870

Professional Services: 2297 

 Real Estate: 3823 Source: Statistics Canada

1 Runway end safety area 2 Taxiway fillets 3 Apron and terminal expansion 4 Apron expansion (remote parking) 5 Runway extension C Cargo reserve

ORT and the popular recreational path. An Ontario-based real estate developer has proposed constructing and operating a TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotel at the airport. The proposed hotel features 129 rooms, a mixture of traditional hotel rooms and extended-stay suites along with amenities such as a swimming pool, fitness centre and 1,500 square feet of meeting space. The project is being reviewed by the Victoria Airport Authority. And as a nod to environmental concerns in the neighbouring Saanich farming community, there is even a new pollinator garden featuring native species. •

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CAPITAL IRON? An iconic 90-year-old business gets a second lease on life. BY SHANNON MONEO

Capital Iron’s bankruptcy was a shocker when the news hit late last year. A fixture in Rock Bay for almost 90 years, along with more recent store openings in Sidney and Langford, the family-owned business appeared to be bulletproof. But COVID-19 delivered a loaded gun. Whether it was MIA shoppers, supply chain challenges, wage and benefit pressures, staffing issues, competition from online shopping or its ambitious expansion, Capital Iron’s demise caught the attention of one successful entrepreneur. “Capital Iron was a destination store,” says Fred Aram, owner of West Coast Appliance Gallery. “When the news of the bankruptcy came out, it created a void and a demand.” So, with cash in hand and a desire to add outdoor cooking appliances, patio furniture and hot tubs to West Coast’s product lines, Aram bought the “Capital Iron” name, website and social

media channels. “I’d always thought of setting up something separate like ʻWest Coast Outdoor Furniture,ʼ but I’d be up against Capital Iron,” says Aram, who has worked in the appliance business for over 23 years. As well, West Coast’s current location, already full of merchandise, wouldn’t have had room for outdoor kitchens, big tables and fire pits. “I didn’t want to get into it halfway,” he says. But Aram appears to have solved the space problem. “I have an accepted lease offer on the original Capital Iron building downtown, 1900 Store Street,” he says. So the Capital Iron name and location will live on. Aram plans to focus on items that Capital Iron excelled at: outdoor appliances and furniture. He won’t be taking the “general store” route by offering a wide variety of products, like crab traps or marine antiques. As well, he has put out a call for

former Capital Iron employees to join his endeavour. He predicts there will be about two dozen jobs at the store. “Put money into advertising to draw customers,” Aram says. A lot of businesses spend less on advertising when times are tough but “you have to draw more customers. You can’t afford to have customers go to businesses that advertise.”

“I didn’t want to get into it halfway.” — Fred Aram, owner of West Coast Appliance Gallery

And doing business in Victoria is different than in larger cities like Vancouver or Calgary. Local prices are comparable to big box stores, and area shoppers are loyal to Greater Victoria businesses. The personal touch also plays a role and Aram prides himself on being available to customers. Although with two locations, he may need a doppelgänger. • D O U G L AS

EA DS

In the lively, informative Atomic Habits, James Clear, a leading expert on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that teach readers how to form good habits, break bad ones and master the tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results. The book contends that if you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Clear’s ability is to distill complex topics into simple behaviours that can be applied to daily life and work. He draws on biology, psychology and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be entertained and inspired by true stories from Olympic gold medallists, award-winning artists, business leaders, lifesaving physicians and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their crafts and vault to the top of their fields. Atomic Habits could reshape the way readers think about progress and success, and provide the tools and strategies to transform habits — whether a team is looking to win a championship, an organization is hoping to redefine an industry or an individual is simply wishing to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress or achieve any other goal. • 14

D O U G L AS

BELLE WHITE

UGL

IN THE KNOW

THE BUSINESS OF bees

Beekeeper Lindsay Dault tends to one of 60-plus hives in Saanich.

How not to get stung in a small, farm-based business? Diversify. In 2015, Jason and Lindsay Dault took a hard look at their big-city life in Vancouver. They took a giant leap of faith and purchased an 11-acre farm in rural Saanich, where Lindsay grew up. If you drive by the rustic country storefront of Country Bee Honey Farm on West Saanich Road you’ll see, well, a hive of activity. In the height of bee season, they manage up to 65 hives. That’s a staggering five million bees, plus queens. Country Bee also works with nine other local beekeepers, and pays a premium for local honey. But success in a small, farm-based business requires diversification, with several revenue streams that are needed to add up to a

successful operation. For Country Bee these include:  Honey: The mainstay, but Country Bee has set itself apart by offering several unique, local honeys like Hot Pepper and Lemon Ginger. They’ve also partnered with nearby DEVINE Distillery to age honey in used whisky and rum barrels.  Apitherapy: Honey is long thought to contain healing properties. Their collection of apitherapy products includes royal jelly, pollen, propolis, bee venom and Manuka honey.  Beeswax: A byproduct of honey production, pure beeswax is highly prized by crafters and candlemakers.

 Education: From time to time, Lindsay teaches intensive two-day classes on the art of beekeeping. Her students have included local farmers, winemakers and chefs interested in pollination and food production.  Farm: In 2016, the family spent a week planting 900 Douglas fir trees, which are now ready to cut as Christmas trees. Seasonally the farm offers farm-raised poultry, pork and holiday turkeys for sale.  Retail: Books, gift boxes, essential oils, wildflower seeds and of course beeswax candles are on offer, and there are coffee and local pastries to encourage visitors to linger. •

AUDACIOUS AUDETTE Victoria startup plans to expand from five to 150 cities across North America

YOU DEPEND COUR Congratulations YOU R to Watch DallEthe P E10 N to DA BLE winners for 2023!

udette has an FOR ALL YOU extraordinary goal: to FREIGHT & LOG build a carbon reduction plan for “every building on the planet.” The Victoria company observes that existing buildings make up 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and that half of those are FOR ALL YOUR COURIER, commercial real estate. Audette wants FREIGHT & LOGISTICS NEEDS to tackle the issue on a large scale and analyze whole cities’ worth of buildings. “Your business Servicing Victoria, Vancouver COURIER, FREIG The company, founded in 2020, plans is our highest Island, the Lower Mainland, to launch its platform in 150 cities in priority!” nationally and internationally North America, including 40 in Canada. Servicing Victoria, Van CEO and founder Christopher Naismith AL HASHAM, PRESIDENT Lower Mainland, nationa MAXIMUM EXPRESS came from a mechanical and civil “Your business engineering background, and spent a COURIER, FREIGHT & LOGISTICS highest maxcourier.com is | our info@maxcourier.com | 250.721.3278 decade in boiler rooms and boardrooms priority!” maxcourier.com | info@maxcourier.com | Vancouver Dispatch: Servicing Victoria, Island, the 250.721.32 for large real estate corporations. But AL HASHAM, PRESIDENT Lower Mainland, nationally and internationally. he came to realize they weren’t moving MAXIMUM EXPRESS fast enough on the issue of global warming. “In order for the world to meet maxcourier.com | info@maxcourier.com | Dispatch: 250.721.3278 its ambitious net zero targets, we need to have the intelligence at our disposal to figure out where we need to apply technology and finance. Audette provides that intelligence.” Audette’s proprietary platform uses artificial intelligence to record, monitor and analyze building data to identify opportunities to reduce emissions. Their systems can be scaled to the size, budget and ambition of different customers, and include a carbon “roadmap,” as well as tools to analyze efficiency and plan for capital spending. The company has targeted such potential customers as commercial real estate owners and managers, urban planners and holding companies with large real estate portfolios. For their ambitious plans and successful funding, Audette was awarded Startup of the Year at the 2022 Victoria Tech Community Awards. Says Naismith, “Despite all the challenges the world is facing, real estate owners have taken up the call to retrofit their properties with low-carbon technologies and materials. Those that participate in this massive market transformation will emerge as leaders in this new no-carbon economy.” •

COURIER

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OPPORTUNI

We spoke with four companies that have found success by shaking up their original business model to try something new. BY ERIN SKILLEN

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ITY KNOCKS The venerable BCAA took a big detour from roadside assistance to the business of car sharing.

he rapid rate of change in our world is bringing new opportunities for B.C. businesses to diversify and grow. But how do you know if it’s the right opportunity for your company? And if you identify a need in the marketplace, how can you pursue it to build on your existing revenue stream?

Analyze Shifts in Customer Behaviour Eight years ago, BCAA took a big detour from its 100-year-old reputation for providing roadside assistance. “We were seeing

that younger people didnʼt value car ownership the same way as their parents did,” says Amitis Khorsandi, Evo Car Share director. “It was this moment of, OK, how do we continue to stay relevant as the needs of people change but they still have to get around? “We launched Evo as a solution that allowed drivers without a personal vehicle, or those in a single-car household that needed to complement other forms of transport, to have occasional access to a vehicle.” D O U G L AS

Evo quickly became an attractive component of BCAA memberships, with many members signing up solely for access to the car share program. They started with only 250 cars and have since grown to over 2,200 vehicles. Each vehicle is hybrid or allelectric, and is adventure-ready, equipped with bike and ski racks for tackling the B.C. outdoors.

Amitis Khorsandi, Evo Car Share director

“It was this moment of, OK, how do we continue to stay relevant as the needs of people change but they still have to get around?”

Having found success with this transportation-based alternative to its traditional business model, BCAA is continuing to explore other options as the needs of their members evolve. They’re testing micro-mobility transportation opportunities, including a bike-share program currently being piloted with several larger Vancouver companies. While moving into the car share sector was a bold step for BCAA, they took their time making sure it was right for them and their members. Although there is always a risk with something new, Khorsandi recommends a thoughtful and informed approach to help improve your chances of getting it right. “Go through the exercise of being very rigorous, doing the research and making decisions that are based on data and research, but also a bit of intuition.”

Connect Underserved Markets with Underserved Talent Care2Talk CEO and founder Jordan Schley discovered a customer need firsthand during the height of COVID. His 88-yearold grandfather, Gene, was living in a care community and facing tech barriers while trying to stay connected to his family during lockdown. Schley created a simplified tablet that enabled his grandpa to easily make and receive video calls from approved contacts. Schley immediately saw the positive impact and created Care2Talk to refine and expand the idea. (It was a 10 to Watch winner in 2022.) As he was getting easy-to-use tablets into the hands of seniors, Schley soon recognized that communication wasn’t the only barrier they were facing. “I think what we did as a society for the last few years was tell seniors, ‘Donʼt leave your 18

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house, youʼll die,’ ” he says. “When youʼre in palliative care or hospice, you get care. When you're in long-term care, you get all the care you need. But if youʼre living independently or in assisted living, you donʼt get care.” While many people use telehealth to get health-care access without leaving home, many seniors weren’t able to use this stream of care because of tech barriers. Schley did his research to determine what could happen if he brought Care2Talk’s senior-friendly communication abilities together with a combination of telehealth and in-person visits to community care facilities. Of course, the biggest challenge in launching a new health angle to his business was getting doctors that were already in critical demand on board to provide care for these seniors. Rather than try to attract full-time doctors away from their family practices, Schley identified a different opportunity on the provider side. Some doctors in the later stage of their careers were considering retirement because they wanted to work less, but there wasn’t a part-time or casual alternative available to them. In working with Care2Talk, they’ve been able to create a new tier of semi-retirement, working the hours and days they want to without having to retire completely. Care2Talk has also added nurse practitioners, counsellors and other health care providers who were also seeking a more flexible career solution that accommodated their lives.

— Jordan Schley, Care2Talk CEO and founder

“Some people just say, ‘I think that's what the world wants,’ and they build it, and then ‘oh, maybe they didn't want that after all.’ ”

Build a Scalable Sales Process Paige Whitehead was volunteering at a music festival when she saw just how many expired glow sticks were left behind by attendees. Traditional sticks use chemiluminescence, or “chemical light” to create their glow, which results in carcinogenic waste. Fascinated by the magic of all-natural bioluminescence since the first time she swam in it, Whitehead wondered if the phenomenon could be harnessed as a sustainable solution. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as

in some fungi, bacteria, and even fireflies. Whitehead went into environmental studies and microbiology at UVic in pursuit of this goal, taking some time away from her degree to create her first prototype. Soon, Nyoka Design Labs was born. CEO and founder Whitehead and her team successfully achieved her goal by creating the Light Wand, a biodegradable glow stick alternative that achieves its non-chemical illumination with bioluminescence. Originally looking to engineer glow sticks that would last for four hours, Nyoka continued testing and redesigning, engineering a product that can last up to 48 hours with a slow-release formula.

Paige Whitehead, Nyoka Design Labs CEO and founder

“We were looking at all the possible applications of our formula to determine where we would have the most success as a startup.”

As the glow time grew, so did the range of potential business opportunities available to Nyoka. “When we were looking at festivals, the volume per order was really quite small,” says Whitehead. The range of potential markets they could focus on next included a vast range of industries currently using chemical luminescence products, with potential uses in aerospace, safety, military, diagnostics and more. A serendipitous confluence of sustainability laws, media attention and timing all came together to float the marine industry to the top of Nyoka’s priority list. They developed the Bio Stick, a marinebiodegradable fishing lure activated by ocean water. With bioluminescence in a powder form, Nyoka can ship out more lures with less weight, which take up less of the precious limited space on board boats. As traditional lures are made of plastic that can release toxic chemicals into fish and the ocean environment, switching to Nyoka’s lures also helps fishers maintain the sustainability certification required to get higher margins for their catches. “The customers in marine are so ideal for us because they buy almost the same amount, if not more, every single year. It's an essential use for them and they have good outcomes for their profitability. “One of the challenges in technology startups is you can do so much. It's hard to choose. So we started stacking up all the reasons for why we should go into

any given market.” She recommends that everyone considering a new industry or market go through the same process, to hone in on the opportunities that have an “almost painful need” combined with a fast, consistent sales cycle.

Prepare Yourself Bradley Morris has been operating Majik Media from Salt Spring Island since 2016, collaborating with artists to create innovative media and course content. He has also learned directly how challenging it can be for artists to earn a living within mainstream distribution models. “I had a traditional publishing contract for a book in the past. Traditional publishers pay the authors five to 10 per cent, so you make nothing,” Morris shares. “Big companies are basically sucking as much profit and creativity from artists as possible and paying them as little as possible so that they can benefit as much as possible.” He decided to do something about it, creating Majik Kids, a fair-trade publishing company focused on producing audiobooks for children that are like “movies for your ears,” as well as printed books. The key

difference in the Majik Kids publishing model is how revenues are split and shared. “After book printing costs, we pay our authors and illustrators 50 per cent of the revenue from book sales, which is massive. We're trying to create a new model that honours the creators and the gifts that theyʼre here to give the world because imagine a world without art!”

Bradley Morris, Majik Kids founder

“No matter what you decide to create in the world, it's like climbing a mountain.”

As an experienced entrepreneur, Morris was pragmatic about adding this new sub-company to his Majik Media portfolio. “Before you take action on the new idea, youʼre never going to know the whole picture, but you want to be able to visualize the end, see the steps that you have to take to get there. And you want to be realistic about what it’s going to take to get version

1.0 out into the world.” The new publishing company has already created work for more than 70 artists and authors on Salt Spring Island, which has required an extensive amount of Morris’s time and effort. He encourages other business owners to keep all of the variables in mind when they’re considering a new addition to their company. “Do you have the bandwidth for that right now? Are you well enough resourced mentally, emotionally, physically, to be able to do that? Because no matter what you decide to create in the world, itʼs like climbing a mountain. It’s going to wear you out; youʼre going to come up against unexpected hurdles that you have to overcome.” One sentiment all of these businesses share is that they’re glad they took the calculated risk of stepping into new revenue streams. They’re also grateful to have support, whether from the inside like the BCAA, or from innovative funders like the Thrive Impact Fund, which invested in both Nyoka and Majik Kids. If you do your homework, put resources in place and gather supporters, a new direction may be just what your business needs. •

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SOBER CURIOUS ENTERS THE WORKPLACE Happy hour is facing a reckoning. Will businesses take a sober second look at the culture of drinking?

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ichael Walsh is quick to point out that he’s not a counsellor, but a recovery coach. When he says he’s seen it all, he means it. He’s done all-nighters, experienced blackouts, job losses and financial difficulties. He’s been through various therapies and detox facilities. But he’s a different person now, and he’s here to help. Walsh is a certified recovery coach who has worked with the Victoria Cool Aid Society and Island Health, and founded a support group in Victoria in 2014. He is more of a coach than a judge. He recognizes that there are shades of grey in the process of recovery, that sobriety is not a cliff so much as a slippery slope. He offers addiction support to stop, cut back or

take a break from alcohol. And rather than preach, he asks questions:  Are you sober curious, want to cut down or take a break?  Do you want to get back on track after a relapse?  Do you want to explore an alternative to a rigid 12-step program?  Have you stopped drinking many times but can’t seem to stay stopped? And perhaps the most important question of all: “If you’re saying yes to alcohol, what are you staying no to?” With the rise of telehealth and online resources, Walsh’s goal is to create a custom strategy for each client, whether the goal is

LIA CROWE

Michael Walsh considers himself a coach, not a counsellor.

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A special occasion demands special attention. You’ll find it here.

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full abstinence or moderation. To that end, he has helped create an innovative online home-based recovery program aimed at low to moderate drinkers who want the tools to change their behaviour. Many of Walsh’s clients include Island business owners and employees. Most workplace trends turn over quickly, but drinking — from mimosas at lunch to post-work beers — has always been seen as a way to have a good time. Conversely, not drinking has seemed somewhat suspect; abstaining is often interpreted as a tacit indication that you struggle with alcoholism, itself historically stigmatized and kept private, or that you’re just a virtuous teetotaller who doesn’t know how to have fun. Unfortunately, there’s a high proportion of “functional” drinkers on the job, the socalled grey-area drinkers. Research is clear that alcohol negatively impacts productivity and company performance, says Enid Chung Roemer, an associate scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Alcohol consumption has been connected to workplace accidents, absenteeism and lower productivity, mostly because it impairs a person’s ability to concentrate. As defined by author Jolene Park, greyarea drinking is “the space between rock bottom and every-now-and-then drinking.” You might drink more than is considered safe, but still manage to maintain a socially accepted standard of living. To help identify this, Michael Walsh asks:  Do you often drink more than you intended and feel bad afterward?  Do you silently fret about your drinking?

 SOBER CELLAR

COMPLETE EYE EXAMINATIONS BY

DR. JASON MAYCOCK DR. TOBY VALLANCE DR. MANDY LETKEMANN DR. NICHOLAS CATCHUK OPTOMETRISTS

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Catering to the increasing demand for non-alcoholic beverages, the popular Market Garden in Vic West has created an elegant “cellar” featuring nonalcoholic beer, wines and spirits. Local features include Phillips’ iOTA beers, Sheringham Distillery’s Lumette! spirits and ONES+ wines from Summerland, all of which are under one per cent alcohol. They’re all good choices to order at dinner with the boss when you want to stay sharp.

 Do you get defensive about your use of alcohol?  Can you stop drinking, but find it hard to stay stopped?  Are there areas of your life that might improve without alcohol? Heather Lowe, founder of Ditch the Drink, writes: “Before an organization makes soberfriendly changes, its leaders should question their own beliefs and biases around alcohol and its role in the workplace. Alcohol is the only drug that leads to stigma for people who quit using it.” But there are two pieces of encouraging news: Younger people are drinking less, and non-alcoholic beverages are enjoying a boom. Surveys suggest that millennials are drinking at least 10 per cent less than baby boomers. The sober movement's prevalence on social media has appealed to young people, especially women. Sober-curious influencers post on TikTok and Instagram detailing how they've stepped away from drinking, and they even partner with brands selling alternatives to booze. In a 2021 survey by Statistics Canada, around one in five Canadians said they’ve been drinking less than they did pre-pandemic, and among those aged 15 to 29, one-third had decreased their consumption. So what’s behind sober curious? Millie Gooch, the founder of Sober Girl Society, says that “sober curious” is a purposefully ambiguous phrase, as the movement includes all kinds of grey-area drinkers. Gooch says that for some people, being sober curious means being more mindful of when and why they're drinking. Some sober-curious folks cut down on drinking or abstain for extended periods, while others stop drinking completely. This trend is reflected in the dramatic rise of non-alcoholic beverages, from beer to wine to spirits. In 2022, sales of no- and lowalcohol beverages grew by more than seven per cent in volume across 10 key global markets, surpassing US$11 billion in market value. This is up from US$8 billion in 2018, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. “Ten years ago, you would go to a company event with a non-alcoholic beer, and people would ask you if you’re pregnant or sick,” said Nicolas Gagnon-Oosterwaal, president of the Montreal-based nonalcoholic brewery Sober Carpenter. “But now, it’s completely the other way around.” In time, as a younger, less alcoholobsessed generation takes over the workplace, businesses may begin paring back the company-sponsored beer for late-afternoon brainstorming or holiday party booze-ups. Until then, experts like Michael Walsh suggest companies actively support the abstainers and those who are just seeking to cut back, and offer nonjudgmental help for those with a problem. • D O U G L AS

THE TOP 10 NEW BUSINESSES YOU NEED TO KNOW By Ken Winchester & Danielle Pope | Photography by Jeffrey Bosdet

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2023

10 To Watch Award Winners From tech to toys to takeout, our 10 to Watch entrepreneurs are balancing innovation, passion and business savvy to compete in an increasingly complex marketplace.

he annual Douglas 10 to Watch issue celebrates up-and-coming businesses on Vancouver Island. This year, there was an impressive list to choose from, and it was the duty of our esteemed judging panel to read through the many applications and hold thoughtful discussions to decide on the final 10 showcased here. But what makes a successful startup? Some of the criteria they pondered included: CREATIVITY: These are companies that wow us; they are not just following the beaten path. Creativity breeds originality. It gives a business the space to work smarter, not harder. Traditional companies have hierarchies that impede creativity. Entrepreneurs value a diversity of views and ideas, and are willing to take chances, albeit with research and forethought. VALUES: These originate with a company’s founders and leaders, and consist of doing the right thing in the

right way. They include ethics, client connection, team spirit, accountability and a work/life balance. Done right, these values permeate the entire enterprise. There is also a common thread in these winners of concern for the environment and sustainability. Indeed, that is the core business for two of them. VISION: What lies ahead? It’s often said that it’s harder to grow a business than to start one. Where will a business be in three to five years, and how will it align with a company's goals and aspirations? It is the “why” for any business. Another, often elusive, factor in success is the notion of a “unique selling proposition” — the one thing that makes a business better than the competition. It’s a specific and clear benefit that makes a business stand out compared to others in the market. In short, it must define what a company does best. The 10 companies that follow have checked all these boxes, and we at Douglas can’t wait to see what’s next for them.

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Congratulations to this year’s Douglas Magazine 10 to Watch Winners!

Weeknights at 5 and 6 with Stacy Ross and Joe Perkins

PANEL OF JUDGES

FACILITATOR | Cathy McIntyre is principal of Strategic Initiatives, a strategy consulting firm that works with organizations in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. A chartered director, McIntyre serves on boards of First West Credit Union, Consumer Protection BC and Peninsula Co-op. She is a former chair of the University of Victoria Board of Governors, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation and has served on the boards of a number of other local organizations. She earned her MBA in entrepreneurship at UVic and received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her community service. “This year’s winners represent the remarkable diversity of the business landscape here on Vancouver Island, as well as a growing (and welcome) emphasis on innovation, sustainability and community engagement.”

JUDGE | Pedro Márquez is VP, research and international, at Royal Roads University. He is a former dean of the faculty of management, a former board member at the WestShore Chamber of Commerce, Vancouver Island Economic Alliance and South Island Prosperity Partnership. Márquez is a current board member of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. He holds a PhD in management and political science from the University of Calgary. “Fantastic to learn about these innovative, value driven, successful businesses.”

JUDGE | Deirdre Campbell is president of the Canadian-based tartanbond, a globally integrated communications consultancy. Campbell has been nominated as a businessperson and PR professional of the year, recognized with the YW/YMCA Women of Distinction Award for her work in the community, and, in 2019, Destination Greater Victoria presented her with their Miracle Award for her work in tourism. “It is so heartwarming to see how these new businesses are responding to community gaps and our urgent need to be more resilient and sustainable. We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to a thriving business community.”

JUDGE | Heidi Sherwood is the founder of Sapphire Day Spa, a leading wellness spa in Victoria. She is a natural health practitioner and has sat on a number of boards concerned with health and the environment. Sherwood has worked tirelessly as an educator, mentor and industry leader in the health and wellness sector. “This year’s winners provided me with an opportunity to see how Vancouver Island’s entrepreneurs are innovating and building unique and impactful businesses. They are a testament to determination and entrepreneurial spirit.”

JUDGE | Mia Maki is associate dean, faculty outreach at the Gustavson School of Business at UVic; a professor of finance, accounting and entrepreneurship; and a principal at Quimper Consulting. Formerly chief financial officer and chief operating officer for a Victoria-based technology company, Maki has helped raise over $50 million for international initiatives, including acquisitions, strategic partnerships and joint subsidiary creation projects. “The variety of cool businesses this year is inspiring. Despite the challenges of the last few years, entrepreneurship is healthy in Victoria!”

JUDGE | Rory Capern works with Canadian technology companies to help them get to the next level. Capern has held senior positions with Microsoft, Google and Twitter; as well as some of Canada’s fastest growth companies — The Weather Network, Certn and Redbrick. Capern is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Ivey School of Business at Western University and at Alacrity Canada venture fund in Victoria. He is a Techstars Toronto mentor, and an angel investor. "The level of sophistication and execution in these companies was both inspiring and exciting — I can't wait to see what comes forward next year."

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 10 TO WATCH WINNERS FROM THE TEAM AT

GERICCONSTRUCTION.COM

CANCER RESEARCH, and the development of drugs to treat the disease, have a huge hurdle: how to test promising treatments on actual human tissue. Karolina Valente’s young company, VoxCell Bio Innovation, was born on the UVic campus to meet this challenge. By creating human-like vascular tissues with cancer, which can be used to test new drugs, VoxCell is on the leading edge of oncology research. Their proprietary 3D bioprinter uses a state-of-the-art laser to produce high-resolution 3D tissues. This process occurs at the focal point of the laser, called the voxel, hence the company’s name. The printer is a staggering 600 times more accurate than any other bioprinter. VoxCell’s tissues are also unique in that they include artificially created blood vessels, which allow for the

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VOXCELL BIOINNOVATION testing of chemotherapy drugs. “Now they can be injected through the blood vessels of this tissue, so we are one step closer to mimicking what happens in the human body,” Valente says. For its efforts, VoxCell finished third in the 2022 New Ventures BC Competition and went on to win a $100,000 investment from Spring Activator and the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good via the Women-led Impact Investor Challenge. They have also opened a satellite lab at the UVic BioInnovation Hub in Saanich Plaza to collaborate with other innovators. Their 3D models increase confidence in new drug candidates, decrease their failure rate (currently more than 95 per cent), and hasten the time for new therapies to get to market. •

Sector: Biotechnology Year Launched: 2020 Founder: Karolina Valente Unique Selling Proposition: Creating human-like tissue to aid cancer research. Strategy: Using proprietary technology to shorten the research and development cycle of promising drugs. Website: voxcellbio.com

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to this year’s 10 to Watch! We are proud to be supporting the local business community and to once again be a sponsor. 250.384.0565 | hello@monk.ca | monk.ca

Vancouver Island’s Office Outfitters

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COGNITO HEALTH FOR ARMON ARANI, the launch of Cognito Health is rooted in personal experience. While attending university, Arani developed some severe mental health challenges he believed could have been easily resolved through proper treatment. “At the time, I was faced with a number of hurdles that spiralled my condition: doctors who lacked the training to adequately help me, very long wait times to see therapists and highly expensive sessions,” says Arani, Cognitoʼs CEO and co-founder. The experience showed Arani there had to be a better solution. In June 2021, Cognito launched with a mission to get people better, faster. Because the platform is set up as a direct-to-consumer model, clients can go to the website and enroll for care immediately, with low or no barriers. With an estimated 3.8 million Canadians experiencing depression and anxiety, the platform aims to bring effective, integrated treatment options to its users. Cognito, named for the play on “cognition” (representing brain health) and “incognito” (representing a safe and private space), unites care from mental health experts with online, flexible, athome appointments. Clients can access physicians, nurse practitioners, therapists, counsellors and pharmacists — collaborating in real time for an allin-one approach. “An integrated approach for mental health is the right approach, backed by research. However, it’s very difficult to pull together a team of highly qualified and sought-after professionals to work together in ways they’ve never been able to do before,” says Arani. “It requires a lot of up-front costs, time, iteration and effort. Without missiondriven partners, clinicians and investors, this would never be possible.” Arani hopes that Cognito will be recognized within five years as one of Canada’s largest behavioural health initiatives, and will be covered by public health care programs. •

Sectors: Medical and Health Year launched: 2021 Founder: Armon Arani, CEO and co-founder Unique selling proposition: Cognito Health aims to make mental health care more accessible, affordable, immediate and integrated by offering an all-in-one online platform for clients to access support. Strategy: With a mission to change the way mental health care is provided to Canadians, Cognito Health combines access to physicians, pharmacies and counselling services to develop a more effective treatment for anxiety and depression. Website: getcognito.ca

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REFIRE KITCHEN BRINGS NEW MEANING to the phrase “take and bake.” Its founding partners have some 100 years of combined experience in fine dining at such celebrated restaurants as Westin Bear Mountain Resort & Spa, Veneto Bar Ristorante and Cenote. They have worked together, on and off, for “north of a decade,” according to co-founder Rob Curtis. Now they’re bringing their culinary talents to customers with a taste for good food, but little time to shop, prep and cook. Back during the COVID shutdown, chef Tod Bosence started making lasagna for his wife, a nurse, which expanded to 20 meals a day for the grateful hospital staff. Thus an idea was hatched: restaurant quality meals to go. Their business model wasn’t new. Places like M&M Food Market have been doing take-and-bake for a long time. But Refire wanted to do something in a re-energized and artisanal way. The menu has expanded to offerings like savoury soups and stews, entrees such as baked chicken tetrazzini, pulled pork mac ʼnʼ cheese and, of course, their signature lasagna bolognese. There are also seasonal and holiday offerings, such as a Valentine’s Day feast for two featuring braised short ribs and lobster risotto. But their best-selling product? Brisket shepherd’s pie. No, it’s not the traditional version of ground lamb, vegetables and mashed potatoes, but Refire’s recipe sells out on a regular basis. Refire recently opened a second location in Admiral’s Walk Shopping Centre in View Royal, where they have expanded their kitchen to keep up with demand for gourmet takeout. •

2023 WINNER

REFIRE KITCHEN

Sector: Food and Beverage Year launched: 2020 Founders: From left, Brian Newham, Tod Bosence and Rob Curtis Unique selling proposition: Their chefprepared soups and stews only require reheating, and “take and bake” entrees are so simple that anyone can cook them. Strategy: Wholesome, delicious food in a convenient form, fresh or flash-frozen. Website: refirekitchen.ca

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Congratulations Congratulations to the 2019 Congratulations 2023 to the 2021 “10 To Watch” to the 2019 10 to Watch Winners. “10 To Watch” Winners. Winners.

TD Business Banking salutes your innovation, achievements, and entrepreneurship throughout our Island communities. At TD Business Bank, weisisare TD TDBusiness Business Banking Banking proud proudto to TD Businessto Banking your innovation, committed helpingsalutes Canadian Small Business grow. 2018 support support Douglas Douglas Magazine’s Magazine’s 2018 achievements, and entrepreneurship throughout 10 10TO TOWATCH WATCH Awards AwardsCelebration Celebration our Island communities. At TD Business Bank, we are For more information reach out to Congratulations Congratulations totoallallthe the10 10ToToWatch WatchWinners. Winners. committed to helping Canadian Small Business grow. TD TDBusiness BusinessBanking Bankingsalutes salutesyour yourinnovation, innovation,

Brian Gordon, Area Manager Business Banking. achievement, achievement, and andentrepreneurship entrepreneurship ininour ourcommunity. community. T 250-507-0088 For more information informationreach reachout outto to Brian.gordon@td.com Paul Area Manager Manager, Business Business Banking. Banking. BrianDonohoe, Gordon, Area T 604-649-7754 T 250-507-0088 Brian.gordon@td.com Paul.donohoe@td.com For Formore moreinformation information Call CallBrian BrianGordon, Gordon,Area AreaManager ManagerBusiness BusinessBanking Banking atat250-507-0088 250-507-0088

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APRICELL BIOTECHNOLOGY BEGAN WITH ONE QUESTION: What could be done to reduce the 95 per cent failure rate of new anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials? Amir Seyfoori, Apricellʼs CEO and co-founder, had just graduated with his master’s degree in biomedical engineering when his closest friend was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although the friend underwent immediate chemotherapy, treatment was unsuccessful. “Missing a close friend of mine, at that time, was the greatest driving force for me to want to help people with cancer find more accurate solutions for treatment,” says Seyfoori. With his team, including co-founder Matt Sutherland, Seyfoori was able to form a lab-grown mini tumour. These human-mimicking tissue models appear on small chips (known in the industry as “organs-on-a-chip”) and allow researchers to see how cells interact with specific interventions. “It sounds amazing to have small-sized human organs on a chip. We mimic the cancerous tissues on our microchips to predict the effect of different treatments,” says Seyfoori. “These organoids can be made in the lab to open new horizons in human biology.”

Despite significant technological advances, anti-cancer drug development has become slower and more expensive, Seyfoori says. Preclinical cancer models, such as 2D cell layers and animal models, fail to accurately recreate human biology, making it challenging to predict how humans will respond to a drug before it is administered. This phenomenon is known as Eroom’s Law, the observation that drug discovery is becoming slower and more expensive over time. Apricell aims to reverse this. Apricell, which earned its name from the apricot shape cancer cells take when not attached to their environment, is currently developing models for various types of cancer, including brain, ovarian, pancreatic and breast. These avatars will allow scientists to test new treatments without the ethical issues associated with testing on animals or humans. There’s still plenty of work to do. Seyfoori says organs-ona-chip technology is evolving. “While these technologies have the potential to provide valuable insights into the function and response of human organs, they are still in the early stages of development and have limitations,” he says. “It’s important to view organs-on-a-chip as a complementary tool.” •

2023 WINNER

APRICELL BIOTECHNOLOGY

Sectors: Technology and Health Year launched: 2021 Founders: From left, Amir Seyfoori, CEO, and Matt Sutherland Unique selling proposition: Apricell is changing the way new anti-cancer drugs are developed by creating models that are more accurate, cheaper and faster to use than the current methods for drug testing. Strategy: Apricell is developing a platform that allows researchers and drug developers to test new anticancer drugs on patient-mimicking tumour models for more predictive results, significantly reducing the reliance on animal testing. Website: apricell.com

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Congratulations

to the Douglas 10 to Watch nominees and winners for 2023! Make the Business Hub at City Hall your first stop.

Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

1 Centennial Square, Victoria 250.361.0629 bizhub@victoria.ca victoria.ca/bizhub

2023 WINNER

BCAUSE GREATER VICTORIA IS RIFE with small, local food producers. Whether it’s fair-trade chocolate, organic coffee or grass-fed bison, these artisan entrepreneurs thrive on passion and quality. But big, traditional grocery stores are not necessarily their friends. There are high hurdles to getting products on shelves, including large stocking fees, mandatory promotions and the necessity of working with a distributor rather than selling direct. Mitch Hawes founded BCause in 2021 to ditch the traditional hurdles and make it easier for local brands of all sizes to reach their markets. As the name suggests, BCause wants to shake up the grocery industry, support local producers and make groceries more accessible by delivering direct to customers. To accomplish this, the company touts weekly specials, including their now-famous one-cent sale. One week it could be a pound of carrots, another week Roma tomatoes, all for a penny. Next-day home delivery is free within Greater Victoria, from Sooke to Sidney, and once a week as far up-Island as Qualicum, with a minimum order. Rush (same-day) delivery is also available in Victoria, as is a time-window delivery. BCause offers an eclectic selection of hardto-find local products from some 75 suppliers: smoked tofu, beef bone broth, chimichurri, even a dairy-free cheese spread dauntingly called “Death by Garlic.” Suppliers include Two Rivers Meats, Mr. Cooper’s Pies and Bicycle Pizza. They even offer Island wine, beer and spirits, which are typically only available at tasting rooms. By eliminating the middleman in the food chain, BCause hopes to connect local producers to local customers. •

Sectors: Online Retail, Food and Beverage Year launched: 2021 Founder: Mitch Hawes Unique selling proposition: BCause it’s time for a new era of grocery shopping. Strategy: BCause caters its business model to benefit small- and medium-sized producers to help make supporting local businesses easier. Website: shopbcause.ca

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2023 WINNER

IDEAS FOR IMPACT IDEAS FOR IMPACT’S CORE BELIEF is that the business community is not past the point of no return. The company is putting its stake in the ground as climate-fighting, community-building, sustainability-seeking believers. It’s an audacious strategy, but they’re backing it up with real-world business solutions. Joanna Buczkowska-McCumber founded the business in 2022 based on her passion for sustainability, both human and environmental, and to help lead businesses through the sometimes thorny path of compliance. Her approach includes such concerns as: Sustainability: Helping businesses develop a strategy that fits investment goals while recognizing their impact on the world. Innovation: New products and services don’t happen by accident. It means building ideas for what Ideas for Impact calls an “innovation ecosystem.” B Corp certification: A designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency, from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices. Leadership workshops: To build, elevate and hone leadership skills from the bottom up. Market research: What is the market opportunity for a business project or product? Social impact: Identifying a business’s place on the “map” of sustainability. Ideas for Impact’s approach includes a fivestep process that begins with an impact and sustainability assessment. With that perspective, Ideas for Impact builds a blueprint of strategies and training to improve everything from employee engagement to supplier relations to branding.

Sector: Sustainability Strategy Consulting Year launched: 2022 Founder: Joanna Buczkowska-McCumber Unique selling proposition: Solutions for businesses to meet sustainability compliance needs. Strategy: Creating an action plan for businesses to achieve sustainability. Website: ideasforimpact.ca

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Congratulations to all nominees and winners in this year’s Douglas 10 to Watch Awards

As entrepreneurs, you’re just beginning to write your story. Your hard work, courage, and passion is an inspiration to your community and all who do business with you. At MNP, we take every opportunity to celebrate Canadian startups and business owners who share our values. We’re excited to work alongside you on your journey to success, wherever business takes you. Luke Biles, CPA, CA | 250.388.6554 | luke.biles@mnp.ca MNP.ca

KRYSTAL AIKMAN AND STEPHANIE FARROW KNEW they were onto something when they came up with the idea to open a refillery up-Island. “When we first opened, we had so many people come into the store thrilled, and the first thing out of their mouths was ‘We needed this in the Cowichan Valley and we are so happy you are here,’ ” says Aikman. “I think that in itself gave us both the assurance that we made the right decision.” Aikman mentioned the idea to her sister-in-law Stephanie Farrow, after a road trip in October 2021. It was “crazy” at the time — the two had families and jobs they loved — but the idea stuck. By November plans were in motion, and the shop opened in February 2022. Since then, plentiFILL has been refilling the central and Gulf Islands’ containers with everything from soaps and cosmetics to food items like mushroomcacao mix. The store also offers local goods to support

2023 WINNER

PLENTIFILL those living an eco-conscious lifestyle. “For the last 10 years, Krystal and I have shared a five-acre hobby farm with my parents, our partners and my son. We’ve been sharing resources, raising our food and trying to minimize our overall impact,” says Farrow. “I’ve always been a bit of a ‘granola mom’ — cloth diapers, driving an electric vehicle, growing gardens, recycling — so I always made my best effort, but once we started on this journey, I started to see some frightening facts that I was unaware of previously … Re-using really is our best course of action to have a maximum impact.” With a mission to directly reduce the amount of single-use packaging sent to landfills, the store not only offers one-stop refills: it now partners with local resources and regional district waste management initiatives to offer educational materials and programs, and a drop-off location for hard-to-recycle containers. •

Sector: Sales and Retail Year launched: 2022 Founders: From left, Krystal Aikman and Stephanie Farrow Unique selling proposition: plentiFILL is on a mission to drastically reduce consumer waste in the Cowichan Valley by offering low- and nowaste alternatives to everyday household, bath, body and food products. Strategy: With a focus on building community, plentiFILL gives customers the opportunity to use their old containers (or donated ones in-store) and refill them with new products from shampoo to toothpaste, tea to garlic salt. Website: plentifill.ca

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your future Starts Here.

Congrats to the 2023 Douglas Magazine 10 to Watch Winners! At Royal Roads, we share your entrepreneurial spirit. It’s in our DNA and embedded throughout our flexible, relevant programs. It’s a tall order to create an educational approach that inspires people like you with the courage to transform the world. But that’s what you’ve done. And we can’t wait to see our students follow in your footsteps. 1.877.778.6227 | royalroads.ca

2023 WINNER

CIRCL WHEN DR. NOLAN BEISE FOUNDED CIRCL, he wanted to give people a tool to make the most of their brain power. Beise spent decades in the neuroscience field, eager to understand the impact of stress and activity on the brain. With some of his own family members experiencing dementia, the issue of brain health hit close to home. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” Beise says. To access feedback, Circl users wear the tech companyʼs headset for five minutes a day and play a game on the app, while the device captures brainwave data and produces a cognitive score. (The test stimulates the visual cortex with circles — hence the company’s name.) Depending on the reading, people can experiment with lifestyle adjustments, from sleep to diet to activity, then test again to see the impact. Along the way, Beise made an interesting finding about stress. For some, a certain amount of stress keeps the brain sharp. For others, stress, especially when combined with poor sleep or diet, shows weakening performance. Given the tech’s real-time results, Beise says it’s possible to understand over the course of a week, or even a day, how your brain functions the best. While corporate executives and athletes could lean on this tool for enhancing performance, Circl has also provided headsets to local brain health organizations, and has plans to create access for people with disabilities due to brain injuries. “We still don’t know how high human cognition can reach,” says Beise, noting most people utilize roughly 30 per cent of their brains. “We’ve never pushed cognitive performance to an absolute peak. What we could do is figure out how to measure it. It’s not about competing in the Olympics — it’s about staving off dementia and illness so people can live longer, better lives.” •

Sector: Technology Year launched: 2021 Founder: Dr. Nolan Beise, CEO Unique selling proposition: Circl aims to empower people to live healthier, happier lives by allowing them to track their own brain waves and use that information to make lifestyle adjustments. Strategy: By wearing the Circl headset for five minutes a day (and playing an appbased game) users receive a cognitive score and have the ability to see their realtime brain speed, brain power and focus. Website: circl.tech

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WHEN RENÉE JORDAN AND SARAH HUNTER created the Earlybird Early Learning app, there wasn’t anything like it. The partnership was forged thanks to Jordan’s Instagram account, in which she shared easy educational ideas for parents to interact with their kids using things found at home. “When I became a parent, I realized so many parents had no idea what to do to support their child’s development or that it can be as easy as the way you play,” says Jordan, a teacher passionate about early childhood development. “[My account] took off because parents were hungry for information and resources they could trust.” Hunter had been one such parent, and approached Jordan about doing something more serious with the content. With the combo of Jordan’s educational psychology and neurodevelopment background, and Hunter’s digital design expertise, Earlybird was born: a single resource families

could use to navigate the early years from 0 to 5. “Decades of research show that kids learn by doing, and that play is a child’s laboratory where they build the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in life and their futures,” says Jordan. While organizations worldwide tout play-based learning as vital for development, Jordan found few resources telling parents how to do it. To unite resources, Earlybird partnered with organizations as varied as childhood play specialists, neurodevelopment and physiotherapy clinics, Montessori-based learning experts and homeschooling experts. The numbers reveal the need: Earlybird’s platforms now boast 35,000 followers. “This isn’t something that is developed by flash-card drills and workbooks. It’s developed by sharing everyday moments with your kids. It’s built by how you ask them questions, read them stories, and how you engage in playtime.” •

2023 WINNER

EARLYBIRD

Sector: Education Year launched: 2021 Founders: From left, Renée Jordan and Sarah Hunter Unique selling proposition: Earlybird utilizes app-based technology to provide parents with the tools, resources and confidence they need to raise kind, bright, emotionally healthy kids. Strategy: Earlybird’s mobile app is designed to be a one-stop resource for parents to access play-based ideas for supporting their children’s development through the early years. Website: learnwithearlybird.com

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FORAGERS GALLEY SELLS DRIED MUSHROOMS, many wild-gathered on Vancouver Island, as well as specialty food products. But their real claim to fame is their grow-your-own mushroom kits. Partners Jonathan Wright, Brendan Harris and Janusz Urban all come from an agri-tech background and share a passion for mushrooms. But the challenge was the instability of wild-gathered crops. In 2020, the partners custom-built a small sterile laboratory and growing room. Being an indoor facility, the lab eliminates environmental variables and allows for a consistent product. The kits contain everything customers need to grow a small crop, including the all-important misting bottle and small a plastic “window.” The white material in the bag is mushroom mycelium growing on a hardwood substrate. After four to 14 days, voilà, the mushrooms are ready to harvest. It’s even possible, after a brief rest period, to tease out a second crop, called a “flush.” Why grow mushrooms? They’re a low-calorie source of fibre, protein and antioxidants, and impart a lovely, earthy flavour to soups, casseroles and other dishes. They can even be dried in a warm oven with the door cracked open to release humidity. Foragers Galley kits range from tried-and-true oyster mushrooms to exocticlooking varieties like lion’s mane and Antler Reishi. The products are now in 93 Canadian retailers and eight states in the U.S. Aside from the reward of growing their gourmet food, customers enjoy bragging rights next time they make a mushroom risotto. •

2023 WINNER

FORAGERS GALLEY

Sectors: Food, Agriculture, Retail Year launched: 2020 Founders: From left, Janusz Urban, Brendan Harris and Jon Wright Unique selling proposition: Bringing gourmet mushrooms, both wild-harvested and as kits, direct to customers. Strategy: A combination of prepared gourmet products and do-it-yourself kits. Website: foragersgalley.com

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The Victoria Foundation congratulates the 2023 recipients of the Douglas 10 to Watch Awards. We look forward to seeing how you strengthen our community in the years to come!

Join host Lucky Budd in conversation with inspiring people in Greater Victoria

CIETY

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CO U NSELL

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MAN-NA

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AWA R E N E

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Find the podcasts on VICTORIAFOUNDATION.CA, CHEK+, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!

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2023

THANK YOU Douglas magazine’s 10 to Watch Awards foster business growth by increasing awareness of new local businesses that exemplify innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. This could not be done without the support of our sponsors.

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SLOWD WHY CASH FLOW In 2023, the recession/inflation/debt message continues to churn, tossing businesses into fraught waters. But slowdowns can also present opportunities. BY SHANNON MONEO | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY BOSDET

he CEO and founder of StarFish Medical has an apt illustration for his business strategy. Scott Phillips was a rock climber and he scaled peaks using well-timed and careful moves, and studying what lay ahead. Compare that to someone who suddenly realizes they’re on a treacherous rock wall, with a 1,000-foot drop, having climbed without considering the landscape. “It would be utterly debilitating,” says Phillips, who started StarFish over 23 years ago. His philosophy? Be financially conservative and prepare for ups and downs. “You never know what’s around the corner. I like to operate with a mix of being bold and keeping an eye out — optimistic readiness,” says Phillips. StarFish is one of North America’s largest medical consultancies. “We sell to companies that hope to sell to hospitals,” he says. “Our business is heavily influenced by the investment environment.” Last year was a gold star year. StarFish added 30 per cent more staff; there are now 140 employees in Victoria and 60 in Toronto. But keeping with his temperate credo, Phillips won’t be hiring more staff in 2023, unless it’s a select few. Working in his favour is that more people are seeking jobs. Last summer, he got five applicants for one job. In January, another posting drew 100.

"WHEN THE ECONOMY IS TIGHT, OPPORTUNITIES APPEAR." — Scott Phillips, CEO and founder of StarFish Medical

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OWN:

IS KEY

Scott Phillips of StarFish Medical believes a happy staff is a key to success.

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Because StarFish relies on investor-funded companies, it’s now courting companies that have solid investment/funding behind them. Competition from about five other North American companies, in a diminished market, means StarFish will spend more to generate sales. Accordingly, the marketing budget won’t be reduced. Important to Phillips is a happy staff. StarFish achieves that by helping employees grow in their careers. In 2021, it earned Waterstone Human Capital’s award for Most Admired Corporate Culture. Because StarFish isn’t carrying debt and has, as Phillips quips, “a lot of dry powder,” StarFish has the capacity to do things. “Industry benchmarks are not that relevant,” he says. But particulars of clients and venture capital metrics inform where StarFish will spread its tentacles. Companies that have debt or overextended lines of credit may need support. StarFish, with its savings, is open to partnerships. Phillips notes, “When the economy is tight, opportunities come by. If you run

conservatively, like we do, you have a buffer.” Derek Lai, a licensed solvency trustee and partner at Crowe MacKay & Company in Vancouver, buttresses Phillips’s philosophy. While the phrase is somewhat hackneyed, “cash is king,” remains on the money. “Businesses need to be focused on cash. You can generate a lot of revenue, but it may not result in a lot of cash,” Lai says. Even seemingly successful companies can falter. Problems can surface if a business has 50 employees who are paid every two weeks and customers who enjoy Net 30 payment terms. Lai has also run into businesses when personal lines of credit are relied upon to stay solvent. “You need to know when you’ll run out of money.” He advises doing a weekly cash flow projection that shows actual expenditures. A solid profit margin would be 20 per cent and when that level drops, a business can be prepared if it has consistent cash flow statements. Businesses need to be “organic” and adjust quickly.

“WHAT I’VE LEARNED IS THAT I’M A SOCIALIST RUNNING A BUSINESS IN A CAPITALIST WORLD.” — Gwen Fisher, founder of The Artisan’s Garden

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Gwen Fisher tends The Artisan's Garden in Sooke.

Pandemic effects on business, along with inflation and rising interest rates, continue to play out and not in a good way. Many businesses were struggling before COVID. Some disappeared. Some survived, thanks to government aid, but are now in trouble. Suffering sectors include cannabis retailers, transportation companies, hospitality/restaurant businesses and heavy construction, Lai says. “You always want to be proactive,” he adds. “It may be hard to accept that your business is struggling. When you’re not doing well, plan for that.”

Gardening Is No Bed of Roses

Which is what Gwen Fisher, a popular Sooke entrepreneur, is doing. In 2006, she opened Pure Elements, an esthetics/hair salon in a converted ocean-view home. She followed that with the launch of The Artisan’s Garden in 2016, a gardening, gift and coffee bar business on the lower level. But in January 2022, she closed the salon due to staffing challenges and expanded the garden/gift business and coffee bar. Staffing remains foremost for Fisher. “I’ve had to take very hard steps for 2023, meeting with four wonderful garden staff to let them know the business is now having to be seasonal. I overstaffed our garden

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LINGCOD AND SPRING VEGETABLES EN PAPILLOTE INGREDIENTS | Serves 2 • 300g lingcod, cut into 2 portions • 5 cups spring vegetables sliced no more then 1/2" thick. (Some of my favourites are patty pan squash, leeks, spring onions, fava beans, peas, morel mushrooms — anything green that “springs” to mind.)

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil • 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar • 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley • 1 Tbsp kosher salt • 1/2 lemon cut into 4 thin slices • 2x 8x12” sheets of parchment paper

• 1 Tbsp grainy mustard

• 2x 18” lengths of twine

Preheat oven to 400°F. Whisk together mustard, vinegar, olive oil, parsley and salt to make a dressing. Set aside 1 Tbsp of the dressing and toss the rest of it with your sliced veggies. Divide the dressed veg in two and lay in the centre of each sheet of parchment. Top veg with 2 lemon slices each and

place the fish on top of that. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the 2 pieces of fish. Wrap the bundles securely and tie closed with twine. Bake bundles on a sheet pan for 18 to 20 minutes. Can be lifted out of the bundle and placed on a plate or enjoyed straight from the parchment.

Check our website for more seafood recipes!

centre last year and am struggling because of it,” Fisher says. For 2023, her four staff were laid off until March and then their hours were reduced, with the hope that more hours will be added when garden season picks up in May. She was aware that staffing expenses should be around 45 per cent of costs, but Fisher was always over 50 per cent. That’s because she treated staff like family, with weekend retreats and strong support during personal upheavals. As well, the province’s mandated paid sick days have proven costly. “What I’ve learned is that I’m a socialist running a business in a capitalist world,” she says. Fisher admits she’s had to re-evaluate all of her business practices. No longer will she order from larger suppliers, who demand minimum orders. Instead she’ll buy from three family-owned wholesalers as well as local artisans. And while The Artisan’s Garden has loyal customers, Fisher says visitors to the Sooke area need to be enticed to visit not just her business, but all of the shops in the area, making it a destination experience. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been cooperation on that front. “Any small business is only months away from going under. Bankruptcy has never been an option for me, so I have to do as my mom used to say, ‘One foot in front of the other and keep going,’ ” Fisher says.

When Cash Is King

An invaluable resource in her steps forward has been the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). Beth Fisher (no relation to Gwen) is a BDC senior business advisor, CPA and CMA. She says there are two key areas where businesses must be vigilant. First, a company must review and improve its financial management processes. Second, examine productivity, seek efficiencies and eliminate waste. With 30 years of experience as a CPA, Beth Fisher says a company’s financial statements are paramount. “One of the most common mistakes is that they're not up-to-date. If they’re not, you can’t make timely decisions,” she says. Financial statements should include plans to deal with best- and worst-case scenarios, and budgets for both. And the process should include all staff, because they

“FOCUS ON CASH FIRST [...] WORK WITH LENDERS ON HOW TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD.” — Beth Fisher, Business Development Bank of Canada

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know what’s happening on the front lines. And as Lai notes, cash management is crucial. “Focus on cash first,” Beth Fisher says. A 13-week rolling cash flow forecast provides a handle on actual inflow and outflow. If there’s a cash crunch, don’t wait for the bank to call. “Be proactive and contact your lenders,” she says. They’ll appreciate the heads-up and are often more accommodating. “Work with lenders on how to keep moving forward,” she adds. Regarding productivity, hiring highquality staff is a start. “A top employee can do the job of one and a half people,” Beth Fisher notes. And take advantage of government grants or opportunities to introduce more technology into the business.

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Booking for Conservative Growth

To compete with the big box stores, it’s a given that pricing won’t be a starter. “Compete to be unique,” Beth Fisher advises. And better service is the reward for higher prices. Munro’s Books, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023, exemplifies the unique and better-service philosophy. The idea that people will dedicate spending to needs, not wants, in tough money times, hasn’t hit the storied bookstore. And the pandemic didn’t sicken sales as stay-athomes snapped up puzzles, cookbooks, gardening tomes and the classics. “We got through COVID a lot better than we thought,” says Munro’s managing partner Jessica Walker. “My worst fears have not come to pass.” Walker has been in the bookselling business for over 35 years and has worked at Munro’s since 2000. She has weathered economic ups and downs, technological advances, online incursions and even weather disruptions. But like Phillips, Walker is cautious. “I’m fairly conservative,” she says of her management practices. “I’m a fan of continual, small adjustments.” Customers have asked if Munro’s will expand to Vancouver, but Walker has resisted. Besides overextending, she feels the business will become something it isn’t. Munro’s is not a chain store; it’s a destination bookstore with bookish employees. “Staff are in-between being a retailer and a librarian,” Walker says of the roughly 30 employees. One staff member has been there 50 years; a couple have worked there for over 30 years. Their expertise is invaluable. “If you’ve invested in training, it’s good to keep them,” she says. “It’s important to carry them through the quiet times.” Bookselling is one of the few industries where prices are printed on the product. “In theory, we can charge what we want, but it’s not a good look,” Walker says. Meanwhile, costs like shipping have gone through the roof.

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Amid costs that cannot be controlled, Walker is planning for a level 2023, without major cuts and no grand spending. In 2022, significant renovations were done in the store, and Walker acknowledges that it’s important to invest in the future. Because so much book business work depends on computers, a new server was purchased this year. Technology has had a large impact on Munro’s. Pre-computer, when books were received, each one had to be checked off by hand. Today, a whole box can be quickly scanned. Online sales represent 10 per cent

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of business and are handled efficiently each morning. Ordering books online means Munro’s buyers can work from home. “It’s a strategic use of staff,” Walker says.

Cause for Optimism: Diversity

Greg Ibbott is a senior vice-president at MNP, specializing in insolvency and corporate recovery. Knowing who are your key employees is important and if giving a big raise isn’t possible, remote work may quell employee demands. But businesses in all sectors continue to grapple with staff shortages, inflation, pandemic outfall and cash-strapped customers. Since January, there’s been a growing number of calls around restructuring and bankruptcy. Government aid and the deferral of loans and source deductions delayed the inevitable financial woes, Ibbott says. “Even profitable businesses can run out of cash. Businesses need to understand the peaks and valleys and plan for the valleys,”

he adds. A rainy day fund is a good idea. Building good relationships with suppliers is another. The value of effective, honest communication cannot be overstated. And there’s one counterintuitive move businesses can make. “Now is the time to raise prices, if required,” Ibbott says. Why? Daily news stories trumpet the increasing cost of everything from eggs to used cars. Because consumers have been conditioned to price hikes, a reasonable increase probably won’t get a lot of pushback. Cutting expenses should also be considered. Businesses get in the rut of doing what they did the year before, Ibbott

says. It may be time to examine if a cost is necessary or if a lower-priced supplier exists. “It’s good to bring front line staff in who see efficiencies where managers don’t.” Entrepreneurs can’t be experts in all aspects of their businesses and often go with their gut feelings. Financial statements may not be top of mind so bringing in other voices is beneficial. And while there are significantly more challenges across all sectors in 2023, Ibbott remains upbeat. “B.C. is pretty stable. There’s a lot of diversity. No one’s expecting a harsh recession,” he predicts. “We’re operating in a diverse province.” •

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Jessica Walker and her staff at Munro's Books are both retailers and librarians.

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IT TAKES A MENTO A good mentor can be a bridge between individual and organizational needs, with surprisingly long-lasting effects. BY MICHAEL JOHN LO

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hen Mile Zero Coffee Company outgrew its James Bay location and relocated to the eclectic Rock Bay Square, owner Bradley Scissons finally got the chance to apply his ideas on business mentorship to his own company. Scissons has co-owned Mile Zero Coffee Company since 2017. But prior to that, he had worked for more than a decade at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in three different cities in North America. Which means that he is quite familiar with the mentorship programs within large companies. “I was in a very structured setting,” Scissons says. “You lived your life by your six-month plan, your one-year, three-year and five-year plans.” Despite Fairmont’s attempt at standardizing its mentorship program, Scissons found that there was a big difference in having a mentor who checked in every week, as opposed to a corporate type that he talked to twice a year. “What [the former] type of mentorship does is help provide stability and structure,” he says. “But it doesn’t always apply the same way to every person, to either the mentor or the mentored.” Want to learn by doing? Find a mentor. Want to leave a legacy? Be a mentor.

Making It Fit for Both Sides

The term “mentorship” tends to conjure up the image of a senior partner taking the new hire out for lunch, and dropping cryptic advice about career tips and office politics. But mentorship is so much more than that, and its benefits are well documented. The offerings of guidance, support and networking opportunities can be a key to success for someone new to a business. Aakriti Rai first came to Mile Zero Coffee Company as a digital marketing intern while she was studying for a masterʼs degree in global management at Royal Roads University. It was a good fit for both sides, and gave Rai the opportunity to learn both the marketing and production sides of the coffee business from the ground up.

Mentor Bradley Scissons demonstrates to mentee Aakriti Rai the fine art of coffee roasting, from bean to cup.

“The best thing about Aakriti is that she has these great ideas on a larger scale, ideas that we can then apply in a smaller setting.” — Bradley Scissons, Mile Zero Coffee Company, owner D O U G L AS

Mentees Matt King and Erin Boggs are carrying on the tradition of 94-year-old Robinson’s Outdoor Store.

“A lot of the things that she was learning were about larger businesses,” Scissons recalls. “She has these great ideas on a larger scale, ideas that we can then apply in a smaller setting.” It’s something that Rai has come to understand in her many informal chats with her boss while working shoulder-to-shoulder at the coffee roastery and café. “Vancouver Island works very differently from anywhere else in the world,” Rai says. “A lot of marketing happens via word of mouth; a lot of it is based on relationships.” She adds: “Customers are very brand loyal here. No matter what coffee company moves into town, or if the prices drop somewhere else, they won’t leave us.” “It’s a give and take, where you get to utilize and learn from each other,” Scissons adds. “Our approach to mentorship is a little more open-ended.” When Mile Zero Coffee Company is ready to expand, Rai’s expertise in tapping into large markets will be a handy asset. Finding opportunities like these for your employees requires patience, says Scissons. He estimates that it takes anywhere from four to six months to get an employee trained up and comfortable with the job before the window for mentorship opens. And, of course, the mentee must want it, too. “You have to choose your mentor, rather than the other way round,” Rai says. “If I wouldn’t have vibed with Brad, I would’ve never taken the job.”

Passing the Torch

Sometimes the opportunity for mentorship is obvious, like when Gayle Robinson helped her daughter, Erin Boggs, take over Robinson’s Outdoor Store. The iconic family business on Broad Street started as a bicycle shop back in 1929; today it sells hiking,

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“She’s going to put her own spin on it; do it her way. She’s taking it to the next generation.” — Gayle Robinson, Robinson’s Outdoor Store, former owner

adventure travel and fly-fishing gear, but over the course of its history has offered everything from baby buggies to hunting rifles. “If you go down into the basement, you can still see bullet holes from where they did target practice,” says Boggs, who now co-owns the 94-year-old business with longtime Robinson’s employee Matt King. Boggs wasn’t thinking about taking over the family business when she took a job at Robinson’s 10 years ago to pay off her student debt. But as she started getting comfortable in the store, Boggs began taking on more responsibility without really noticing it. By the time her mother asked if she was willing to take over the store in 2017, she was ready to say yes. After a five-year period when Robinson worked alongside Boggs and King for transition purposes, the duo fully bought the business from Robinson last year. “I just kind of realized that I really loved working here,” Boggs says. “Yes, there are the responsibilities of buying stock, hiring, marketing and all that. But most of the time you’ll see me out on the floor, selling jackets, restocking things. We work fulltime, shoulder-to-shoulder, like everyone else.” It was an amazing experience to be able to pass on the store to her daughter and be a mentor during the process, says Robinson. “You really can’t learn how to run a business like this one in school,” she says. “You have to learn by doing.” Boggs recalls the learning process as a lot of shadowing: sitting with her mother in the back office, watching her manage the store and pitch vendors. She also tagged along for buying trips at retail shows as far away as Utah. Now that Boggs is in charge, she’s beginning to understand her mother’s perspective. “When I was younger, I’d pick apart what she was doing. And the really funny thing is now that I’m in her role and I’m sitting here — fast-forward 10 years — there’s so many things that I’m like: Ah, I didn’t see the full depth of it!” “She’s going to put her own spin on it; do it her way,” Robinson says of her daughter. “She’s taking it to the next generation.” Robinson will always remember the times she shared with her daughter, pulling

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early mornings and late nights to teach Boggs yet another aspect of the store. And Robinson still occasionally lends a hand whenever they need it. “She’s our top salesperson,” Boggs jokes. “Sometimes, I pull the mom card. She’d pull the daughter card,” Robinson says, smiling. “But what the mentorship really did was grow our relationship. We’re closer than ever.”

The Art of Matchmaking Research strongly supports the idea that the social aspect of mentorship is just as important as simple career advice. Two business professors at the University of Victoria, Yan Shen and Rick Cotton, have studied its effects. “What differentiated the more successful relationships in terms of what the mentees achieved in their careers was actually a sense of psychosocial support from their mentors,” explains Mia Maki, an associate dean at UVic’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. “Their mentors knew them, saw them and were there as a form of social support, as a form of psychological support beyond just career advice.” The business school is busy translating those findings into their own mentorship program, which matches anywhere between 80 to 200 students with mentors drawn from Victoria’s business community. There are a

few weeks of socializing and matchmaking before the actual start of the mentorship — a fairly flexible relationship whose terms are negotiated between mentor and student. Some of the teams stay in touch well beyond graduation. Maki knows of one student who invited her mentor to her wedding, years into her career in a different city. Maki herself is an early alumna of the Gustavson mentorship program. “When I did my MBA here at UVic, my mentor took on both me and Troy Griffiths [now CEO of Vigil Health Solutions],” Maki recalls. “Sometimes he would mentor us together. We would meet for lunch and talk, not just about our own careers, but also what we could do for the community, and what we could create in Victoria.” With their mentor, Dave Matthews, Maki and Griffiths would go on to create an informal group of Victoria-based controllers and chief financial officers that they called the CFO club. “Getting together and sharing information made our lives so much easier,” says Maki. “We were able to negotiate better banking arrangements, figure out who to go to right away without going through a bunch of people.” What came out of that mentor-mentee relationship has now grown into a regular roundtable offering at VIATEC (Victoria Innovation, Advanced

“Their mentors knew them, saw them and were there as a form of social support, as a form of psychological support beyond just career advice.” — Mia Maki, associate dean, UVic’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, associate dean

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THE NEW BUSINESS MEETING. Mia Maki (second from left), associate dean at UVic’s Gustavson School of Business, is responsible for faculty outreach.

Technology & Entrepreneurship Council). “There’s a school of thought — and it’s supported by research — that it’s not about a single mentorship relationship that actually helps you accelerate your career,” Maki says. “It’s about forming a personal board of advisors, a number of people who can help you with your career development. One person can’t have all the answers.” That’s something some businesses in Victoria are already practising. Beyond her mother, Boggs credits the Vancouver Island Family Business Association’s personal advisory groups as another pillar of mentorship. The advisory groups consist of family business owners from noncompeting sectors. Boggs’s group usually meets on Robinson’s second floor, where they come together once a month to perch on camp chairs. The meeting begins with each member checking in about their past 90 days and their plans for the next 90, and then the group brainstorms various issues that the members are facing. The personal advisory group is helping Boggs understand the challenges that are unique to family businesses. But the diversity of her group — which includes members in construction, events, hospitality and human resources — means they are able to share ideas and best practices across industries. Every year, they decamp to a retreat in Sooke. “We talk a lot about business stuff, but we also just get to bond and have some fun with each other,” Boggs says. “It’s probably the most valuable thing that I’ve ever entered outside of the business that’s helped me grow individually, but also into feeling confident in my role.” •

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RETIREES TO THE RESCUE Not quietly quitting, but quietly returning, older workers are transforming both business and retirement. BY INGRID VAUGHAN

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ccording to Statistics Canada, for the first time in our history, there are now more seniors over the age of 65 than there are children under 15. With fewer young people entering the workforce to replace the increasing number of retirees, this shift is having direct implications on Canadaʼs economy and labour market. Statistics Canada reports that 300,000 Canadians retired in the last few years (a 30 per cent increase over the past). This has, in part, contributed to the labour shortage Canadian businesses are facing. In many cases, retirement-aged employees were the first to go when COVID began as employers sought to cut costs to cope with the pandemic’s economic fallout. Others left the workforce feeling burned out and disillusioned by expectations of long hours and stressful work. However, the labour market has struggled to recover and employers are scrambling to fill the staffing holes opened up by departing seniors. In spite of the need for workers, older adults face barriers when trying to remain in the labour market or re-enter the workforce, including:  Ageism: Discrimination based on age stereotypes that don’t reflect the reality of aging individuals, such as beliefs that older workers are less productive, more prone to sickness and resistant to change.  Preferential treatment of younger workers who are given more opportunities based on the assumption that older workers don’t learn as quickly or will struggle with technology.  Difficulty in finding and applying for jobs due to a lack of access to information about employment opportunities that match older people's skills or that offer appropriate workplace accommodations like accessibility.  Unfair compensation practices: Unemployed older Canadians are more likely to suffer significant wage decreases, earning up to 25 per cent less than in their previous jobs. In spite of these barriers, retirees are returning to the workforce. Some go back to work because they need the money to pay for living expenses or leisure activities. Many just want to work because they find it more meaningful than staying at home.

The Benefits of Hiring Older Workers

Although it’s unfair to stereotype any particular generation of workers, evidence and experience show that the following are more often true than not of retirees and senior workers.  They’re reliable and productive. There’s a misconception that older workers are less productive, but research shows there is no difference in productivity between older and younger workers. In fact, some studies show that age diversity can actually improve the performance and productivity of a team. When older, experienced workers and younger employees with strong skills and talent work together, it fosters collaboration, reciprocal learning and cultural diversity.  They’re loyal. Many companies are facing the reality that younger workers are eager to gain different types of experience and therefore stay in jobs for shorter periods of time and move on. Conversely, many retirees have stories to share about a lifetime working for one company. They may be more likely to stay in a job for the long term instead of looking for a new role.  They’re looking for flexibility. Because many mature workers can work flexible schedules, they can fit into non-traditional time slots that don’t require full-time employees. This could include part-time, oncall or seasonal work, or job sharing.  They come with a built-in set of skills and abilities. In relation to senior workers, Kerry Hannon (at Forbes.com), says, “The whole set of mental abilities that you look for in a great employee are baked in. Management skills, leadership skills, communication skills, empathy — those qualities keep developing as we age. And when a great idea percolates up, older workers are adept at sussing out what to make of it because they can weigh it against whatʼs succeeded and failed and how high the bar truly is to hitting one out of the park.”  They contribute to a healthy culture. Seniors have conformed to many values and norms over their careers and are adaptable and eager to contribute. Generally, they bring a maturity and a can-do attitude to the workplace that aligns with a positive culture. Older workers tend to be proactive, positive and practical. Hannon offers that while this is a generalization, experience shows that the big life challenges are behind

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older workers (the kids are launched, big-ticket money drains are easing, the mortgage is paid off and so forth). This is the time in life when they can focus their energy on their jobs and love their work with a zeal that wasn't possible at a younger age.  They are confident. Confidence is a key trait of high-performing employees, and older workers tend to be poised and selfassured, confident in their knowledge, skills and abilities. This quality can rub off on younger employees and inspire them to accomplish their goals. The best employees are those who bring a mix of confidence and expertise, a combination that shines with age.

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 They contribute leadership skills. Whether or not they have been in formal leadership roles, workers who have been on the job for a few decades are often good natural leaders, in large part due to their communication skills. In their formative work years, communication wasn’t ruled by email, texting or social media. As a result, they tend to have honed sharp communication and people skills. They have led in many different ways throughout their careers and bring both formal and informal leadership skills to the team.

How Employers Can Attract and Engage Mature Workers  Create a Culture That Honours Experience Mature workers will be attracted to a culture that values their experience and capabilities — an environment that can take some time and effort to build. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, “It’s Time to Retire Retirement,” Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson and Bob Morison suggest, “If companies are to win back the hearts and minds of baby boomers and other mature workers, they need to start with the work environment itself, which has become increasingly alienating to anyone over the age of 50. Human resource practices are often explicitly or implicitly biased against older workers, and these biases can seep into the culture in a manner that makes them feel unwelcome.” This can begin with recruiting and the subtle ways words in a job advertisement are chosen. “Even high-energy, youngin-spirit older workers, for example, may interpret an ad stressing ‘energy,’ ‘fast paced’ and ‘fresh thinking’ as implicitly targeting younger workers and dismiss the opportunity out of hand,” suggest the authors. “Mature workers are more likely to be attracted to ads emphasizing ʻexperience,ʼ ʻknowledgeʼ and ʻexpertise.ʼ ”  Offer Flexible Work Older employees are looking for companies whose HR processes and culture are

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welcoming. While mature workers want to keep working, they may want to do so in fewer hours per week so they can pursue other interests. Many returning retirees have a direct and compelling need for flexibility to accommodate multiple commitments, such as caring for grandchildren and elderly parents. Work that’s flexible in both where and when it’s performed can appeal to employees’ changing needs, while also meeting changing employer needs for workers.  Support the Concept of Flexible Retirement Post COVID, employers are recognizing that flexibility is becoming a consideration across all generations of workers. Flexible retirement is a logical extension of these malleable models where the work may continue after the official retirement age. Many people don’t want a life of pure leisure. A recent AARP/Roper Center of Public Opinion Research survey found that 80 per cent of baby boomers plan to work at least part-time during their retirement, and only 16 per cent say that they won’t work at all. These workers are looking for options — three days a week, for example, or maybe six months a year. Many want or need the income, but that’s not the sole motivator. Mature workers are interested in continuing to learn, grow, try new things and be productive. They enjoy the sense of selfworth that comes with contributing to an organization and a team.

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Nurturing a Welcoming Workplace Trend watchers and futurists alike are indicating that the worker shortage will continue for some time. For example, in 2017, Top Sixty Over Sixty (topsixtyoversixty. com) emerged with the purpose of encouraging older Canadians to reinvent themselves to meet new work and entrepreneurial challenges. They have done this by: motivating and retraining older adults; helping employers transform multigenerational workforces into innovative, intergenerational teams; advising businesses on how to attract and retain a diversely aged workforce; and showing progressive businesses how to avoid age bias in their branding, hiring and communications. Top Sixty Over Sixty endeavours to eliminate ageism and advocate for workers who still have much to contribute to the workforce. The return of mature workers to the workforce is a trend that requires attention by employers who are struggling to fill their workplace. The advantages far outweigh the perceived disadvantages of bringing mature workers onto their teams and may be one of the most significant ways employers can address the worker and skill gaps in their companies for the foreseeable future. •

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SCALING your VENTURE Mia Maki is an associate dean, faculty outreach, at the Gustavson School of Business at UVic; a professor of finance, accounting and entrepreneurship; and a principal at Quimper Consulting. Maki has helped raise over $50 million for international initiatives, including acquisitions, strategic partnerships and joint subsidiary creation projects.

Gas or brake? Is it time to expand, relocate or diversify? Or is it time to rethink cash flow? A friend of mine had a successful retail surfwear company in Vancouver quite a few years ago. He was scaling by increasing sales. His product was sourced from Australia, which meant prepaying for inventory. That inventory would be put on a ship and take about four weeks to get to the Port of Vancouver. He had a brick-and-mortar store in a desirable, but expensive, location. The company was thriving. Revenues were growing at a fast pace. The income statement was healthy. Margins were solid. Despite all this, cash flow was tight, and getting tighter. Why was the growth model not working? Like my friend, maybe you’ve reached a plateau and decided to scale your venture. You have considered the alternatives for growth, including: • Increasing sales: by expanding the customer base, increasing the frequency of purchases, upselling and cross-selling to existing customers. • Raising prices: by increasing the value proposition of your product or service and/or improving its appeal through marketing and advertising. • Expanding into new markets: by entering new geographic markets, launching new products or services or targeting new customers. • Mergers and acquisitions: by acquiring other companies or merging with them to expand the

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company’s reach, customer base and product offerings. • Improving operational efficiency: by streamlining processes, automating tasks and reducing costs, which can increase profitability and allow for reinvestment in growth. It’s important to note that each company’s situation is unique, and the best approach will depend on the specific strategy, economic and competitive context, and goals.

The Cash Conversion Cycle: What Is It and Why Does It Matter? The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a measure of how quickly a company can convert its investments in inventory and other resources into cash. The CCC helps

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to determine how efficiently a company is using its resources, and it can be an important indicator of a company’s financial health. Let’s take an example, where Company A collects prepayments from customers for its product, and uses its 30-day credit terms with suppliers. At Company B, inventory is paid for a month in advance, and customers have 30 days to pay (see chart on page 70). Assuming a 50 per cent margin and starting cash of zero dollars: In Company A, cash keeps growing and growing. Company B has a hole that keeps growing. You need proper financing to cover rapid growth with a longer cash conversion cycle. You also need financing, or savings, in a company with large, stepped fixed costs, such as a lease for additional space or adding more employees before they can generate revenue.

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Danger Ahead! Back to my friend’s surfwear company. Remember that revenues were growing; the income statement was healthy. Suddenly, he reached the limit of his credit, the bank called his debt, and his company went bankrupt. I met him when he was taking courses to make sure that it never happened to him again. His company looked great on paper. What went wrong? Cash flow! He was Company B. He was getting mixed signals. On one hand, revenue was growing and this felt like success. He didn’t understand what was happening to cash, and felt sure that as he continued to grow, that the cash situation would right itself. It likely would have, given adequate financing and more time. If he had forecasted his cash flow needs, obtained additional financing and kept his bankers in the loop, he might have survived this period of intense growth and still be running that surfwear company to this day. What can we learn from his experience?

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How to Scale Effectively Cash flow tracking, forecasting, and cash management are critical when scaling your company. Cash management includes tracking and forecasting, plus deciding how much cash to hold, investing excess cash, and managing the company’s short-term debt, such as lines of credit and commercial paper, to ensure that the company has access to cash when it is needed.  EXPERT TIP: Treat cash flow tracking and forecasting as a hand-in-hand learning experience. Forecasting cash flows and then tracking actual cash, to check your precision, helps you become skilled at determining future

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financing needs. Cash flow tracking and forecasting together are a learning exercise. If you start forecasting before you scale, you develop the skill to predict cash needs with some accuracy. This doesn’t have to be a technical or complex activity. A simple Excel spreadsheet, with cash inflows (revenue, financing) and cash outflows (expenses, capital purchases, financing such as loan principal repayments) and determining the ending balance, will do the trick. As you track the actual cash inflows and outflows against your initial forecasts, you will get better at forecasting. Determine the time range that each Excel column should cover: you can break down your cash flow forecast by month, bi-weekly, weekly or daily. If your payroll is a significant expense, forecast biweekly. If the lease cost for your space is your most significant expense, then monthly tracking might suffice.  Expert tip: Maintain cost discipline during growth. In this context, cost discipline means making conscious decisions about spending. There’s lean, and there’s mean — be lean, not mean. Scaling is an important time to keep an eye on costs, as it’s easy to take on high, recurring costs and weakening margins, when the focus is growing revenues. Maintaining cost discipline through a time of growth sets up your company for the next phase, once the revenue growth is achieved. It is harder to change gears and reduce costs; it is easier to maintain cost discipline and not have to make significant cuts at the end of the transition. That said, balance cost discipline with culture and employee retention. Ensure that everybody on your team is supported during a very intense period.  Expert tip: Set up financing well before you need it. Get some financing in place. Scaling is often more difficult than anticipated, and there can be bumps on the road. Having your financing set up in advance allows you to focus on solving problems rather than the distraction of setting up financing. Do that work before entering the growth phase. Remember: Bankers do not like surprises and the best time to negotiate is before you need the funds. If we go back to my friend’s surfwear company, had he forecasted and recognized the oncoming cash crisis before it occurred, he might have had alternatives to avoid bankruptcy, including:  Slowing growth, and managing it within existing financing;  Arranging additional financing to bridge the growth phase. • Next issue: Looking south to scale. Export as a scaling strategy, and the tools to assist entrepreneurs. 72

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the QUESTION

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Ruben Ugarte is a Vancouver-based decision strategist and consultant. He produces a free weekly newsletter called Growth Needle and is the author of the 2021 book Bulletproof Decisions: How Executives Can Get It Right, Every Time.

NO ONE IS ASKING ABOUT AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. It has fascinating uses, big and small, but businesses need to keep two feet on the ground. Artificial Intelligence is having a moment. From ChatGPT to Bing AI, pretty much every software company is rushing to release a chatbot feature. It seems everyone is talking about AI! The power of conversational AI seems to be infinite. Tools like ChatGPT feel intuitive even if you can remember a world with dial-up or rotary phones. That’s what makes the current wave of AI excitement fascinating. All business executives can imagine how a chatbot — who doesn’t sleep, go on vacation or think about unionizing — could help their business. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see even the local coffee shop use chatbots to answer questions and take reservations. Among all the hype though, there is one question no one is asking. Should you even be using AI at all? The current wave of chatbots is technically not even AI. If you really want to impress your peers, you should refer to ChatGPT as an LLM (large language model). Looking into how LLMs work can also give you clues to how ChatGPT answers questions and why it can go so horribly wrong. In this article, I’ll keep calling it AI for simplicity’s sake. That being said, it seems AI can solve any challenge: Need help creating content for social media? Check. Need new images created? Check. Need a new website? Check. Don’t want to argue with your spouse? Let AI do it. AI seems to be the panacea to everything. Just sprinkle a little of it and everything will be better. In reality, AI — as described today — is helpful in some situations and useless in others. The difficulty is figuring out the right situations for it. Don’t believe what software vendors tell you. From their perspective, AI is just weeks away from curing cancer and solving world peace. To help you sort through the noise, I created a handy chart looking at two simple variables in our professional lives: importance and repetition. I believe these two

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SHOULD YOU USE AI ? + Repetitive IGNORE IT

USE IT + Important

- Important AVOID IT

CASE BY CASE - Repetitive

elements can help us figure out where AI might be the most impactful. Important situations that are highly repetitive: These are the biggest opportunities. Creating regular content for your marketing, creating boilerplate legal contracts and so forth fall into this category. Use AI whenever you can here. Marketing is one of the best examples. Marketing requires consistent output to be effective over the long term. Creating the relevant assets can be a major challenge especially for small teams. AI can close that gap by helping you craft text, images and even videos in a matter of minutes. Important situations that aren’t repetitive: These have to be determined on a case-by-case basis. AI might help your team tackle problems, but it depends on the complexity of the problem and what information you feed the chatbot. Having AI review legal contracts could save you time, but if you only do that a few times a month, it might not be worth it. Keep in

INTEL

mind that AI is bound to miss important elements or even make errors. Just look at the recent weird conversations people have had with the BingAI before thinking these tools are perfect. Unimportant situations that aren’t repetitive: These should avoid AI. You’ll simply try to automate things that don’t happen often and aren’t important. All businesses have these kinds of tasks. It’s what we often call “admin” work. Don’t worry too much about these tasks and either try to remove them or forget about optimizing them. Unimportant situations that are highly repetitive: These should be discarded altogether. There’s no point in automating things that shouldn’t take place anyway. Asking AI to create reports or presentations that no one reads is a waste of time for everybody, including the machine. Instead, you should be thinking if these tasks are even needed or if you could find better alternatives. I shudder every time I see a 50-page report that could be summarized in two pages and a 60-minute conversation. As your team thinks about the future, AI tools should be a bullet point in the agenda. Depending on your business, AI might have a minimal impact or a major one. The goal is to find ways to drive business outcomes such as revenue, profit, talent retention and so forth. Don’t view technology adoption as the end goal. AI isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. It has fascinating use cases, but we need to keep our two feet on the ground. The hype is deafening, but I hope the chart above gives you ideas on how to better think about AI. Maybe AI will evolve and become more like the robots in Star Wars but, in the meantime, we need to manage our expectations. •

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D O U G L AS

D I D YO U K N O W Source: Statistics Canada

WHO VISITS VICTORIA? The average visitor to Victoria is diverse, active and genuinely curious about our history, culture and the outdoors. The following stats are adapted from a recent survey by Destination Greater Victoria.

0,6%

0,2%

WHERE THEY COME FROM Half of visitors to Victoria come from mainland British Columbia, 20% from Alberta, and 15% from Ontario. U.S. visitors are predominantly from Washington state (40%), California (15%) and Oregon (9%). The top five countries for overseas visitors are Great Britain, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico.

Activities vary by season, but, by and large, visitors to Victoria enjoy the outdoors, from walking (83%) to beachcombing (31%). In the winter they prefer shopping (66%) and sightseeing (83%). In warmer months they venture farther afield to regional parks (57%), beaches (31%), wineries (10%) and hiking trails (12%).

HOW MUCH THEY SPEND A typical visit costs most visitors about $1,650 (20% more than they expected, says the survey), the majority of which goes toward accommodation.

20,1%

70% 60% 50%

38%

40% 30% 20%

14%

10%

t rt en s ha n s m c g t a e u in rli e B ard Pa uild B Th G

re ch at ro tle e r h T da as aig C AX Cr IM

BC al um y R o us e M

Accommodation

42%

Food and Beverages

25%

Shopping

13%

Attractions

Outdoor Recreation

7% 6% 1%

Other Entertainment

Other

D O U G L AS

2,4%

61%

Local Transportation

3.3%

5.0%

15,5%

TOP 5 ATTRACTIONS IN VICTORIA

WHAT THEY DO

51,2%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

BUSINESS MOVES IN

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