TBT October 2012 by Toronto Business Times

TBT

sleepless in the city Advice on getting the rest you need to run your business Page 3

in conversation

John Tory talks about the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance Page 13

TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES

October 2012

www.torontobusinesstimes.com

How to effectively discipline your employees SANAM ISLAM tbt@insidetoronto.com

Staff photo/Nick Perry

It’s cool to care

Free The Children co-founder Marc Kielburger speaks to guests at TELUS’s Celebration of Giving event on Sept. 20. Attendees were told how corporate social responsibility can affect their bottom line. For the full story, see page 12.

Small businesses, like larger companies, have to deal with employees who may not be behaving acceptably. With small, closely knit teams, it’s even more important that small business owners take action right away rather than letting problems fester. “If you see an employee engaging in an unwanted behaviour and you don’t do anything about it – and many small business owners don’t because they don’t have the time or skills to deal with it and they hope it will go away – the problem will never get solved,” said Glenn Nishimura, principal and chief people strategist at Nishimura Consulting in Toronto. “You’re actually condoning the behaviour by not doing anything, which sets an example for the rest of the workforce as well.” That being said, an owner should not look at every issue as a disciplinary one. It’s important to >>>informal, page 8

Innovation expert to speak at Inventions Show SANAM ISLAM tbt@insidetoronto.com

obert Lane, founder of the Commodore 64 computer, will be speaking about the power, risks and value of innovation at this year’s Great Canadian Inventions Show being held on Nov. 3 in Toronto. Otto Schmidt, a Toronto-based innovator and teacher who founded the show, says it will be the highlight of the event. “Robert Lane is a major player in the business world. He’s worked with Steve Jobs and has been through the mileage. He will have great information,” Schmidt said. The show, which aims to bring

the marketplace to inventors, may also include foreign inventors for the first time. Schmidt said ten Iranian inventors plan to attend, and there has also been interest from Spain, Sudan, Algeria, Iran and the U.S. Schmidt said that for many inventors, it’s a challenge to get their invention, product or service into the marketplace, which is why he decided to create the show. “Many of them are afraid to approach companies because they fear having their invention ripped off. And quite often, they don’t have the skills to present themselves and their inventions professionally,” he said. Schmidt offers train-

Details

WHAT: The Great Canadian Inventions Show, with guest speaker Robert Lane WHEN: Saturday, Nov, 3, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: North York Memorial Community Hall, 5120 Yonge St. REGISTRATION: Inventorscollege.org; inventors deadline: Oct. 15, attendee deadline: Oct. 30 COST: Inventors: $95 for single table, $160 for shared table; attendees: $35, or $20 for college/university students NOTE: The exhibition is not open to the public. Only inventors with innovations that are not being sold in the marketplace and business team associates may register and attend. INFO: www.inventorscollege.org ing to inventors through the Innovation Initiative Co-operative, a Toronto-based cooperative for inventors, on how to present themselves and their

inventions. An effort is also made to protect inventions; everyone who attends is asked to sign non-disclosure forms and only specific

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groups of people are allowed to attend. This list includes directly involved people (small or large company owners, company product buyers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs starting new businesses); investors and financial investing groups; graduated or graduating university students looking to start a business with a new product or service; career changers; and legal professionals who can directly support inventors. The Great Canadian Inventions Show is an opportunity for small business owners, who often don’t have research and development departments, >>>INNOVATORS, page 10

2 - TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012

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TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 3

h e a lth & w e l l n e s s

Sleepless in Toronto

Why not getting enough sleep could harm your business and your health IZABELA JAROSZYNSKI tbt@insidetoronto.com

leepiness. Fatigue. Tiredness. Restlessness. Exhaustion. Drowsiness. Call it what you will, but too much work and not enough sleep means entrepreneurs have become a frazzled lot. “The biggest problem small business owners have is that they are not the best managers of time,” said Andrew Patricio, CEO of BizLaunch, a small business training company based in Toronto. “Because they are so passionate about what they are doing, sleep is often the last thing on the agenda.” In other words, sleep – that seemingly unproductive, timeconsuming, non-money-making activity that should take up seven to eight hours of our 24-hour cycle – gets pushed aside for more immediate tasks on the small business owner’s perpetual to-do list. But Patricio, an entrepreneur himself, said that’s a mistake. “We think, ‘The harder I work, the more money I’ll make,’” he said. “But that’s just not true. If you don’t sleep well, you don’t manage well. And your productivity decreases if you wake up exhausted in the morning.” It seems entrepreneurs have a hard time leaving the stresses of the job at work. A 2011 small business survey by TD Bank revealed the majority of small business owners (60 per cent) have trouble separating their work from their personal life and nearly all (89 per cent) admitted they never truly stop thinking about their business. “It’s not a bad thing,” Patricio

‘J

A sleep-deprived entrepreneur can be an unproductive entrepreneur. Small business owners are reminded to ‘recharge’ their batteries for optimal health. said. “You love what you do and are passionate about it. Not many people can say that.” He said when an entrepreneur watches television, only three quarters of his or her attention is on the program; the other quarter is thinking about work. While it’s normal that such dedication and passion will translate into the occasional sleepless night, continually missing sleep can have detrimental effects of your health, said Sushma Shah, a naturopathic doctor at Toronto’s Nature’s Intentions Naturopathic Clinic. “Sleep is when the body gets

– Andrew Patricio, CEO of BizLaunch

to revitalize,” she said. “So when we lack sleep chronically over a prolonged period of time, or get less than seven hours of sleep over a prolonged period of time, we can start to see various health symptoms or issues we didn’t have before.” These issues can include allergies, unusual weight gain around the waist and fatigue. If left unchecked, other issues will start to appear, she said, such as cardiovascular and thyroid problems. “I see this quite often in people who work night shifts,” she added. Shah recommends a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night. “Just as we need to eat, we need to sleep in order to keep our body and hormones functioning optimally, keeping our immune system healthy and, as well, keeping our sanity.” Shah compared our bodies to

Rest easier with these time management techniques D

oes your ever-growing to-do list keep you awake most nights? Do you lose sleep worrying about issues related to your business? Do you find yourself busy all day and still feeling like you haven’t put a dent in the mountain of work? It sounds like you need a better time management strategy, said Andrew Patricio. The founder of BizLaunch knows a thing or two about being busy. In his 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, he has started seven businesses and written two books on topics related to small business. Patricio offers his top three techniques to better organize your time at work:

Tips to help you get a good night’s sleep IZABELA JAROSZYNSKI tbt@insidetoronto.com

‘If you don’t sleep well, you don’t manage well. And your productivity decreases if you wake up exhausted in the morning.’

IZABELA JAROSZYNSKI tbt@insidetoronto.com

Too tired to work?

n Ensure you have an online calender Patricio uses his to first plug in the most important task, whether work or personal, and then fills in the rest. This would include unmovable items such as meetings, conferences or family obligations. “You can allocate time for different tasks and have the time to get them done.” n Create a daily to-do list and categorize items based on priority “Whether your system is online or off line is up to you, but you need to be able to prioritize things based on what needs to be done today,” he said. “If you have a daily plan, you get those things done.” Without a daily plan, Patricio

said you can get caught up doing tasks that could have been put off and not leave enough time for the day’s must-dos. n Plan well in advance Patricio suggested picking one evening each week to sit down and do strategic planning – longterm goals, marketing initiatives, allocation of resources or growth plans. Focusing on these tasks once a week ensures small business owners won’t get exclusively caught up in day-to-day tasks. Although even the best plans can get derailed, having a strategy to tackle each day will help entrepreneurs get much-needed rest at night. “Our brain just doesn’t switch off,” Patricio said of entrepreneurs. “We are very passionate about our business.”

that of a sports car: “You can not keep running it all the time. You need to recharge it as well as maintain it, which is what sleep does for us.” All this sounds reasonable unless you have, say, cash flow issues to worry about, an issue Patricio said is the No. 1 reason small business owners don’t get enough sleep. He suggested entrepreneurs force themselves to do something relaxing for one hour before bed, such as reading or listening to music. “Remember that our business will survive even if we sleep eight hours,” he said. And for those that wake up in the middle of the night worried about issues at work, Patricio recommended jotting down the problem or potential solution and then forgetting about it until the next day. “You are not going to solve anything at 3 a.m.”

Fatigue facts Fatigue is the state of feeling very tired, weary or sleepy resulting from insufficient sleep, prolonged mental or physical work, or extended periods of stress or anxiety. Acute fatigue results from shortterm sleep loss or from short periods of heavy physical or mental work. Chronic fatigue syndrome is the constant, severe state of tiredness that is not relieved by rest. The symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are similar to the flu, last longer than six months and interfere with certain activities. Signs and symptoms of fatigue: n tiredness n sleepiness, including falling asleep against your will n irritability n depression n giddiness n loss of appetite n digestive problems n increased susceptibility to illness – Source: Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

ust go to bed and get some rest.” Sound advice, but often easier said than done. Statistics Canada estimates that more than three million Canadians are not getting enough shut-eye at night. Those who work more than nine hours per day get even less. So what is the secret to getting that much-needed rest? Sushma Shah has been treating sleep disorders for nine years and is founder of Nature’s Intentions Naturopathic Clinic in Toronto. She said the key to getting a good night’s sleep is to follow a few simple rules. n Don’t sleep in Resist the urge to catch up on sleep on your days off. “Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia,” she said. While it’s tempting to catch a few extra hours of sleep on the weekend, doing so will make it harder to get up on Monday morning. n Exercise While not recommended right before bed, a daily workout of 20 to 30 minutes may make falling asleep – and staying asleep – easier. “For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about five to six hours before going to bed,” Shah said. n Avoid the big three: caffeine, nicotine and alcohol That glass of brandy might not be such a good idea before bed. “Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep,” Shah said. Similarly smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up early craving a cigarette. Caffeine, on the other hand, acts as a stimulant that will keep you awake. Watch out for caffeine in items such as diet drugs, non-herbal teas or some pain relievers. n Relax before bed “You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual,” Shah said. She suggests taking a warm bath or reading before bed. n Set the right temperature Keeping a room too hot or too cold could result in poor sleep. “Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom,” Shah said. “Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep.” If, despite your best efforts, you still find yourself tossing and turning, Shah suggested taking your mind off of sleep. “The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia,” she said. “If you can’t get to sleep, don’t just lie in bed. Do something else – like reading, watching television or listening to music – until you feel tired.”

TBT

4 - TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012

TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES

Ian Proudfoot Publisher Marg Middleton General Manager Peter Haggert Editor-in-Chief Paul Futhey Managing editor Warren Elder Regional Director of Advertising Jamie Munoz Regional Director of Distribution VOLUME 11, NO. 1

Toronto Business Times is published monthly by Toronto Community News, 175 Gordon Baker Rd., Toronto, ON, M2H 0A2

EDITORIAL Telephone: 416-493-4400; Fax: 416-774-2070 Advertising Telephone: 416-493-4400; Fax: 416-774-2067

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WHERE TO FIND TBT

Copies available at many locations, including Enterprise Toronto offices in North York and Scarborough civic centres, Etobicoke Civic Centre, the Learning Enrichment Foundation, Toronto Board of Trade, Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Business Development Bank offices and mailed to business owners and managers throughout Toronto.

Editorial

Small business must speak up on transit needs

ll who represent the city – municipally, provincially and federally – are back to business after hopefully, some well-deserved summer rest. And there is one issue that should speak loudest for Torontonians: transit. And not just public transit, but cars, bicycles and every other way we get around the city. That’s no surprise to those in small business, who see resources drained moving products across the city and to customers. It’s no surprise to those who lose time and money because of inadequate transit structures. Indeed, it’s long been a value of the Toronto Board of Trade to call for expansion and integration of Toronto’s regional transportation infrastructure. In the 1970s and ’80s, Toronto’s transit system was held up as a great example for other leading

international cities to see. But it’s time for a continuous, systematic determination of a shared vision for transit’s future. According to board of trade figures, we lose $6 billion a year to the regional economy – almost $1,100 per regional resident – due to traffic congestion. And then there’s the three work weeks a year the average commuter spends in their car just getting to work. There’s little confidence in a progressive outcome until all three levels of government can stand united at a microphone and announce developed plans that keep the GTA system moving. In these pages, we have called for a national transit strategy – not just ad hoc funding that bends with the wind. We have called for the provincial government to take back running the Toronto Transit Commission, alleviating the strain on municipal coffers. We’ve called

on everyone who sits on city council to stop arguing about a transit vision and commit to one. We have every confidence that lobbying organizations representing business make their views known and do what they can to forward transit lobbying to the top of their agendas. Maybe it’s easy for politicians to lose track of the transit issue when dealing with their individual portfolios. If we hope to one day have a solid transit solution for such a large and growing city, we must keep their political feet to the fire and make sure the topic never disappears from their radars. And maybe they need to hear individually from 80,000 small business owners in Toronto about the necessity to keep transit moving to preserve jobs, preserve lifestyle for those who choose to work in the GTA, and to keep small business viable.

Column

Companies can learn from each other W

e have had the great privilege this week to host an online journalist from an Australian daily newspaper. David Earley, homepage editor with The Courier Mail in Brisbane, was the recipient of a “rising star” award from an Australian Community Newspaper Association. On the association’s dime, he’s been travelling through North America learning about how media on this continent is tackling the present and preparing for the future. He’s an innovative fellow with great accomplishment in both web and social media. Some of my takeaways from the experience include: n Sometimes when you’re unsure you’re going down the right path with an innovation, you can derive comfort from finding someone else with the same principles and ideas who can make contributions to your growth. n While the innovation process is often more or less the same between companies, it’s refreshing, motivating and valuable to have the perspective of how others accept and rise to the challenge, based on different missions, different challenges and different measurements of success. n You can’t be everything to

EDITOR’S DESK

PETER HAGGERT everyone...so why would you try? Often, tackling too much just waters down the proficiency in the areas where you have specific strengths. n Conversation with your product user is essential. You can design something to be pretty, intricate, clever or whatever characteristic you want. But if the user is not inclined to use the product, you’re out of business pretty quickly. David’s off to San Francisco for a few days for an online conference and then he returns for a week to learn more about Metroland and our many products and services. He then goes to New York State, ending his journey at the Wall Street Journal. And somewhere, sometime, I’m pretty sure practises we employ in North America will start appearing halfway across the globe. This was a contest – but have

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you ever considered hooking up with a similar company elsewhere to do an employee exchange? Think of the benefits one of your staffers could derive from an offsite visit to a company with a similar mission. Maybe it’s a reward for good work? You’d be sending a motivated employee elsewhere to bring back good ideas. Bet you’d get them, too! Cities have twinning programs. Why can’t businesses? It might just open up opportunities in a global marketplace. UPCOMING: The Toronto Board of Trade is hosting a fascinating one-day event Oct. 9. The SMB Exchange: inspiring start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators, is an opportunity to share case studies to solve different business issues and learn from small business entrepreneurs who have the same challenges, experiences and live in the same business environment. Keynote speaker is Peter Oliver, partner from Oliver and Bonachi, and Rick Segal, CEO and co-founder Fixmo, and president of Chapters Online. Visit bot.com/smbexchange or call 416-862-4522 to register. n Peter Haggert is editor in chief of Toronto Business Times. He can be reached at phaggert@ insidetoronto.com

Opinion

Traffic: the GTA problem that will not go away F

igure this one out. It takes me about 40 minutes to drive to work – give or take five minutes. It’s during the morning rush hour. As drives go, it’s not bad. With the occasional exception, traffic flow is decent, and I have some time to think – maybe hash out a work-related challenge I’m having or ponder an approach to a new project. The drive home, along the same route, during the evening rush hour, is another matter entirely. It’s close to an hour, sometimes as much as 75 minutes. Attempts on alternate routes yield minimal success. As far as I can tell, it’s all traffic volume that’s the cause. This is not a ‘woe-is-me’ piece. Traffic’s been a challenge in Toronto and its surrounding areas for years. My story is not unique. But that’s the problem. The oft-repeated estimate, that traffic costs the Greater Toronto Region $6 billion annually in lost productivity, is staggering. That annual cost is expected to be $15 billion without “significant action” by 2031, according to a Toronto Board of Trade study. From a small business perspective – the movement of goods, the movement of people – it’s a huge problem. And it won’t get solved unless there’s a long-term, sustainable plan for the following: 1. Infrastructure: Forget meeting future growth needs. We’re struggling to keep up with things currently. On the bright side, several transit projects are identified in the Metrolinx document the Big Move. A number of them, including the Eglinton-Scarborough light rail line, are under construction. But funding a lot of those projects is a big question mark and we’re still years away from experiencing any tangible ben-

NOTEBOOK

Paul Futhey efits. 2. Regional co-operation: We keep coming back to this one. Traffic is a local and a regional challenge. It’s not like traffic magically appears or disappears at Steeles Avenue. We have to bridge these jurisdictional divides. Neither of these challenges are simple ones. Investing in infrastructure takes money. Regional co-operation is tricky to marshall. Progress gets bogged down in red tape and competing visions. But whether simple or difficult, there’s one thing we know about challenges. When left unmet, they just get harder and harder to solve. n Paper chase update: Last month in this space, I vowed to get a better handle on the amount of paper on my desk – namely, ensure that there’s less of it (and by extension, less of a distraction). The results? A strong start has faded somewhat, but there’s been a definite improvement. Small business forum: We’ll be there at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Feel free to drop by the Toronto Community News booth to say hello. See you on the 16th! n Paul Futhey is the managing editor of the Toronto Business Times. His Notebook column appears monthly. Reach him at pfuthey@insidetoronto.com

TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 5

op in ion Each month, Toronto Business Times solicits opinions from experts on a question of relevance to the small business community. This month’s question is: How should a small business owner deal with a sudden loss of cash flow?

Address the causes to counter the Cash flow budgeting essential symptoms of cash flow crunches for business revenue growth

very business, at some point (or several), experiences a cash flow crunch. The majority of articles dealing with this topic go immediately to cost-cutting strategies. I will not repeat those responses. Once you find a balance or have eased the crunch you have eased the symptom. The big question is: have you addressed the cause(s)? Look at your revenue line(s) and the root causes of low revenue: n How well do you know your customer group? Are you selling to the right customer? Does your marketing reach the right audience and are you conveying the right message? Do you have the right product mix/ service mix? n Is your pricing strategy addressing your customers price/value concerns? Does your cost structure allow you to fulfill your pricing strategy? n Do you provide outstanding customer service? Do you know what outstanding service is? n Did you have an indepth knowledge of your competitors when you started? Did you build your business on a base that would address how you deal with competitors? Do you have an in-depth knowledge of your competitors now? n Has the market changed? Is it becoming

george brown

mark simpson more commodity-based which indicates your pricing has to change and with it your cost structure (both need to go lower or you have to add extra value for a slightly higher price)? Is it becoming more of a premium market and you are servicing the lower end If you don’t have business plan, create one. If it’s been a long time, create a new one. The business plan ensures you have: n Thought through and addressed the entire business process, particularly the market and customer environment. n Created a risk analysis and developed a plan to deal with changes in the business environment and your business specifically. n Developed a series of metrics that are more than just an operating margin and a profit line. If you don’t have the time, resources or expertise, reach out to your local college or University for assistance. George Brown College operates the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation (IECI) and provides consult-

ing services. Business professors at post-secondary institutions may consider your company as a class project. The core of any business plan is the market research and the quality of the market research. Secondary research is primarily free either online or through your local library. It gives you a static overview of your industry and customer habits, and tells the story of what happened and may provide insight into what is likely to happen. Primary research is talking with your customers and potential customers; looking at your competition and from all data determining where you are in the market and where you should be. Once you have a better understanding of your market and your customer, you can build your financials understanding customer purchasing habits and the cost structure required to meet customer needs and demand. Mark Simpson is a professor at George Brown School of Business. He developed the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation to bring together aspiring entrepreneurs and community groups with students at George Brown College.

Cash flow management is the foundation of a successful company

n today’s volatile economic environment, the need for companies to manage and plan their liquidity is crucial, as effective cash management is the foundation of every thriving company. In fact, according to the RBC 2012 Small Business Survey, maintaining sufficient cash flow/financing growth was cited as one of the top challenges for business owners. It’s critical for the ongoing success and longevity of any business to understand and control their cash cycle, which fundamentally means knowing when sales turn into cash (cash inflow) and when employees, bills and vendors have to be paid (cash outflow). The first step toward managing cash flow is to understand your company’s cash cycle by accelerating payment collection from customers, enhancing your control of when payments are made, and improving access to your daily financial activity, such as through online banking. In addition to standard industry collection practices, such as telling clients when you expect payment,

rbc

marie houde following up with phone calls on a scheduled basis, and providing customers with electronic payment options to speed up the process, it’s important to limit expenses, manage inventory and leverage relationships with suppliers to extend credit terms. These are measures that have helped many small and medium enterprises better navigate rough economic waters.

unexpected shortfalls While no one wants to experience shortfalls, cash flow issues can arise despite your best efforts. For example, an economic downturn can cause a decline in sales, a customer could make a late payment, or as a recent start-up, it could simply take longer than expected to make a profit. Of course, keeping a contingency surplus fund in your bank account can serve as a reserve to cover unexpected losses

or shortfalls. However, if that’s a challenge for your business, a good strategy is to use your credit card to pay for certain expenses. This keeps more money in your account and delays the payment. If you’ve identified a shortfall in advance, you can prepare for it with a line of credit or overdraft protection. An operating line is very useful. You can draw down against it as you need money, and as frequently as you need. I recommend business owners work with their financial services provider to ensure that they’re taking advantage of the most effective and efficient products for their particular business. Cash flow management shouldn’t be a self-balancing proposition where cash inflow equals cash outflow; that doesn’t leave any reserve or any way to invest in the business. Cash flow management is all about how you’re going to successfully navigate during stormy times and grow going forward. Marie Houde is director, cash and treasury management, at RBC.

ash flow is one of the most important issues for small and medium businesses, yet owner/managers often pay little attention to it. The budgeting process is frequently seen as having little value, especially when compared to going out and getting revenue. Although both are important, cash budgeting is essential for the start-up where cash is a precarious resource. Bankers and lenders are very interested in the cash position, present and future. If you are running short on cash, the process is simple. Identify the problem: Why is my cash flow poor or declining? Develop a strategy to remedy the problem. Execute the strategy. It’s simple to say, but more difficult in practice, especially for the owner/entrepreneur who has enough on his/her plate just getting a business off the ground. A cash flow forecast, usually monthly, is essential even if it’s a rough one; you have to demonstrate you can meet your obligations. This means viability for the entrepreneur and sound management for the lender or investor. Free cash flow is especially important for new capital investment for growth that is to be

ryerson

knud jensen internally financed. Even if financing is external, cash flow will be part of the evaluation process. Identifying issues in poor cash flow can be simple. For example, a distributor found himself in a cash flow crunch. It was discovered that the collection of accounts had been lax and mismanaged. A lot of cash was sitting in the customers’ hands and the average account was being collected in 120 to 150 days. The strategy was simple – manage the accounts payable more efficiently. An aggressive collection process was executed and this solved the cash flow problem. The financial statement analysis surfaced the problem. However, often the solution is not as simple. There are many variables impacting on cash flow and a more detailed analysis is required. This means appraising the cash conversion cycle. Examining sales, margins, costs, expenses, inventory, debt, assets, taxes and profits is necessary since they all impact the cash

flow. For example, inventory is a great consumer of cash and dead inventory is just cash sitting there. Expenses can spike and drain cash. If a company is involved in international trade, especially with the U.S., a change in currency such as a rising Canadian dollar will put pressure on cash flow. Many cash flow decisions involve trade-offs. Tighten credit and you may lose customers. A large inventory improves service, but consumes cash. Moving to a larger facility means increased expenses, but may lead to improved and more productive processes. Basically, cash flow management means working two levers, cash inflow and cash outflow, and the larger the company, the more complex the process. Keep in mind that cash flow issues occur for growing companies, for slow-growth or nogrowth companies, and for companies in decline. Many entrepreneurs consider cash flow budgeting a nuisance, but it’s as essential to growth as the revenue forecast. Knud Jensen is a professor in the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. He specializes in strategies for growing small and medium enterprises.

Managing your money: plan to make more and spend less

anaging cash flow is simply about timing the inflows and outflows of cash. There is nothing overtly complex about the process – until you unexpectedly incur a problem. Whether the problem is caused by the sudden loss of an existing customer or an unusually large expense, it is common for companies large and small alike to experience difficulties with their cash flow. It is very important to plan, schedule and forecast your cash. If you incur an unexpected problem you must quickly examine the cash flow pattern and determine how it can be altered. Your immediate challenge is basic in nature: find ways to cover the cash deficit. Setting up a line of credit before you incur a problem is a good planning strategy. It will allow you to add additional cash to the business if and when necessary. This should be considered a limited or one-time option. Even with the raised money your cash inflows must match the outflows if the business is to survive. The two best options to increase your cash flow are increasing revenue (make

enterprise toronto

sandi koitsiszigomanis more) or spending less. Evaluating and implanting some basic options can help you achieve this. Increasing revenue: The most common way to do this is by increasing sales. n Offer discount promotion for cash-only payments. Additionally, existing accounts receivable can be accelerated by offering the same discount for cash payments option. n Invoice customers early and more often. Billing customers twice per month instead of once will accelerate your collections and increase your cash flow. n Implement an installment payment plan; ask customers for an initial up-front (cash) payment followed by subsequent payments. n Create a sales promotion targeted at your best customers designed to increase their spending or shift spending to products/ services with higher margins.

Spend less: The simplest way to accomplish this is to reduce/defer and eliminate certain expenses n Utilize the entire term allotted on your accounts payable invoices. n Negotiate policies to pay accounts 30 to 40 days after receiving invoices. These small differences will allow you to improve your cash balance (temporarily) by better aligning outflows with inflows. n Buy used equipment or lease instead of buying new equipment. n Examine what you are spending money on, define what is essential and eliminate all non-essential expenditures. As a small business advisor at Enterprise Toronto I always encourage clients to take the time to examine and understand their cash flow cycle. The result will be a balanced controlled cash flow with the knowledge/ability to adapt and act quickly to any unexpected crisis – time definitely well spent! Sandi Koitsis-Zigomanis is a small business consultant at Enterprise Toronto, Toronto’s hub for small business start-up and growth.

6 - TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012

op i n i on

More to a paycheque than money Future of computing hinges on

ow much do employees get paid? Simple question, right? Well, it’s likely not as simple as you think. The average Canadian employee can add up to 30 per cent onto their paycheque to account for the full value of their compensation package. It also serves as valuable information in creating a more realistic picture of your company’s total compensation profile. Most employees are unaware of the total list of compensation items covered by their employers on an annual basis. Many items are simply disregarded, minimized and may not even be considered as part of their compensation. However, when people move through a career transition, they become painfully aware of how different benefit offerings can be from company to company and between industries. This can be a powerful negotiating tool as items that are valuable to an employee may be more easily honoured than straight cash on a salary increase. Employers owe it to themselves – and to their employees – to be as transparent as possible in communicating the total compensation profile to employees. A total compensation profile may include: n Health and dental benefits (15 to 24 per cent): There’s a wide range on

Coach’s Corner

Sonia Byrne the value of health benefits offered by employers. Eye care, life insurance, optional insurance and accident insurance can increase the value of these benefits. n Health care spending account (one-half to two per cent): Some employers have added a flexible benefit package or additional health care spending account to their basic health benefit package, allowing employees to “customize” their health care spend. Typical spending accounts range from $250 to $1,500 annually. n Employee assistance program – EAP (two to 10 per cent): A natural complement to traditional health care benefits, an employee benefits program provides a range of services from legal advice to counselling regarding health care, eldercare and family issues. n Tuition assistance and reimbursement (two to five per cent): This benefit is one of the most under-utilized benefits offered by employers. Eligible participants can receive 25 to 50 per cent contribution towards their

education or professional development courses. Most employers offer an annual cap of $500 to $1,500. n Conference attendance and professional dues (one-half to five per cent): For many professional accreditations, conferences and workshops account for “learning units” or “points” in applicable industry associations. Companies that pay for such items are contributing to employees’ professional development and career advancement as well. n Car allowance/fleet vehicle (five to 10 per cent): This amount can be significant for employees who travel regularly in their roles. For those with company vehicles, items such as insurance, maintenance and gas may also be covered, increasing the value of this benefit exponentially. n Mileage expenses (one to three per cent): Over time, this small but regular reimbursement adds up, contributing to your total compensation profile. The listed items are simply a summary of the typical non-salary items that may show up in your company’s total compensation picture. A regular paycheque is simply a onedimensional depiction of the complete compensation picture. Sonia Byrne is a business and life coach. She can be reached at www.soniabyrne. com

A Home For Your Business… That Feels Like Home.

making life more convenient

s a technology writer and longtime thinker of all things digital, I’m often asked by people in business what the future is going to be like. The truth is that if I had any real clues about the future, I’d be a very rich man. Any insights I have about what’s coming is based on a lot of reading, some observations about people and a pinch of luck. The future happens so quickly that you barely notice it happening. Any innovations that happen these days are culminations of years of research, investments and testing, with the proverbial x-factor always being the market’s blessing (or disinterest). Sure, there have always been a few brilliant people with advanced foresight to nail some prescient visions. I’m no genius, but I’m going to take a shot at a few predictions of my own when it comes to the future of technology.

future is social The future is ceaselessly social. It’s now axiomatic for people to talk about the future as a place for the extroverted soul. Today, we’re spending more time than ever making our presence known to the digital world through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Foursquare. The simple

TECH TALK

smartphone is a perfect example of this; it is a device that, one day, will contain more power than today’s best laptops.

future is biology

GREG HUGHES act of telling the world where you are and what you’re doing is increasingly important to everyone and will only continue to grow in the years ahead. The big change that’s coming is how that sociability will shift from participatory to almostmandatory. It will become a fact of life that everyone’s location, activity and status will evolve into a seamless act, free of needing to even tap an app on a phone. Because of this, the act of “opting out” of social media will in itself become a rebellious act.

Future is smaller The future is smaller. Moore’s Law – the doubling of computing power every two years – governs so much of our lives. It motivates our computing choices and what we value in consumer tech. Yet there’s also a corollary to this rule: our beloved gadgets are getting smaller and more portable. The

The future is biology, squared. As we expect computers to solve more and more of society’s ills, it’s only natural that the computer’s influence will increase in the biological realm, specifically medical applications. I can see a time when nanobots (microscopic machines) enter the human body to destroy cancer cells, or when cybernetic techniques allow for rebuilding human limbs. Of course, take all of these claims with a grain of salt: I can’t tell if any of these predictions will come true, nor do I want to commit to these theories in perpetuity. Yet if there’s one thing I’ve learned when it comes to societal progress, we are always looking to make things easier, more convenient for ourselves. We want life to be easier. Computing makes much of our lives more convenient. For those reasons, I’m willing to bet my word on a few of these theories in 10 years. Greg Hughes is a writer, editor and Web 3.0 junkie. Follow him on Twitter at ghughesca

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8 - TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012

discipline PR EAR SE ICI LY PT NG BI EM U RD BE NT R IL 24

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Three Steps For Maximizing Investment Performance

Informal conversation first step in controlling unwanted behaviours >>>from page 1 have an informal conversation with the employee first to find out why the unwanted behaviour is happening without using an accusatory tone, Nishimura said. Such behaviours can include coming in late, being rude or disrespectful, failing to follow rules and policies, and being dishonest. “ S i t d ow n w i t h t h e employee and say, ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been late for the last couple of weeks. I’m interested in knowing why and if I can help you,’” Nishimura said, adding it may be that there are external issues the employee is dealing with, and a simple fix such as changing the time of the shift can solve the problem. According to Andre deCarufel, Academic Director of the Kellogg Schulich Executive MBA Program at the Schulich School of Business, the supervisor should act “almost immediately” after unwanted behaviour is observed. “The key thing is to try and capture it early and have some kind of process mapped out,” he said. Nishimura also recommended speaking to the employee privately in the office or in a less formal setting such as a coffee shop, rather than in front of a group of co-workers. “Some managers have a very confrontational, antagonistic management style where they think peer pressure, putting people on the spot and embarrassing them will work better, but it doesn’t,” he said. Usually an initial conversation is enough to trigger a change, and owners should aim to solve most small issues with this method, Nishimura said.

Once the employee starts making changes, regularly use positive reinforcement to help solidify the behaviour change. “The manager should make it a point to go over and say, ‘I’m glad to see you’re here on time,’” said Angus Duff, a business administration lecturer at Trent University who is working toward his Ph.D in Human Resource Management at York. If there is no progress after the conversation, a verbal warning is typically the next step. It should lay out the issue, state the improvement that needs to happen, and indicate when the changes should occur by. The next step would be to send a written warning to the employee that states he has already been approached a few times about an unwanted behaviour and that it needs to change. It’s a good idea to ask the employee to sign this document, Nishimura said. The business owner can also choose to suspend the employee if the behaviour continues. However, if all else fails and the employee’s behaviour is damaging to the company, termination is the best course of action. To prevent problems from getting to that level – or even from happening in the first place – it’s important for owners to define what is unacceptable. “The problem with many organizations is that there are different definitions. What an employer and employee thinks is unacceptable behaviour might be two different things,” Nishimura said. Owners should create an employee handbook that sets clear guidelines about what is unacceptable, what

constitutes gross misconduct for which an employee can be terminated, and what types of behaviours can lead to disciplinary action. It should also include progressive disciplinary procedures for various types of misconduct. It’s also important that employers regularly observe employees’ behaviour and provide positive and constructive negative feedback. “The manager could say, ‘I like what you did here’ or ‘I noticed you did this, but I would prefer if you did this,’” Duff said. He added that this kind of proactive behaviour will do more to motivate positive performance than reactive behaviour such as disciplining an employee. In addition, managers can drive effective behaviour by modelling effective behaviour themselves. “Employees follow the behaviour of their manager and they follow the behaviour of other employees,” Duff said. “Usually what happens is an employee will watch the behaviour of others and take it a little further, which results in disciplinary action.” For additional guidance, a performance improvement plan, which indicates what needs to be improved, how the owner will help the employee to do it, what needs to be achieved and when it needs to be achieved by, can be helpful, Nishimura said. deCarufel noted organiziations such as the Canadian Associa tion of Family Enterprises are a good source of connections to industry expertise. “You may find someone else in another business who has faced a similar issue and can offer good solutions,” he said.

By Richard Bruton TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice

There is nothing particularly difficult about building an investment portfolio. But making that portfolio pay off is another story. There are some key fundamentals to investment success: partnership, planning and patience. Partnership is about getting professional advice. Planning is about the establishment of goals. Patience is about thinking long-term. Making all three work together successfully is the key to consistent investment success. A good place to start is partnership, and that means getting some professional advice. A reliable investment advisor, working in partnership with you, can bring great value to both the basic construction and subsequent performance of your portfolio. Planning is next. Identifying goals. Factoring in your income level, now and in the future. Taking account of lifestyle issues. Considering how much money you have to invest and how frequently you are prepared to invest it. And that brings us to patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and no investment is going to pay-off overnight. Steady long-term thinking is the key. So try to invest regularly, not just once a year during RSP season, as so many people do. Set up a schedule with your investment advisor. Consider investing as a regular part of your monthly budget, just like paying the rent or the mortgage. Partnership with an Investment Advisor. Planning your portfolio carefully. Patience and long-term thinking. These are the basics to success for many investors, and with good reason. They pay off.

��

LET YOUR STORY LINK YOU TO THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY YOU SERVE Calling all businesses small, medium and large

Richard Bruton, B. Comm (Hons)

Investment Advisor The Richard Bruton Wealth Management Group TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. 79 Wellington Street West 11th Floor Toronto ON M5K 1A1 T 416 982 3517 1 888 576 4447 richardbrutongroup@td.com

��

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TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 9

i n th e n e w s

Business world and old world collide in print Lawyer pens book on businessman at crossroads

auto manufacturer. But life is never simple, and after feeling his ethics have been compromised, Mark revisits his birthplace and has to decide whether to stay and live in the leisurely pace of the countryside, or return to the challenges and rewards of corporate life. Cancellara said he has been pleasantly surprised at people’s reception of his book, which he wrote in 2009 after having taken a leave of absence from his law firm to pursue other business ventures. When those other ventures were completed, Cancellara said he found himself indecisive about his next step. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to the practice of law, my wife wanted me to retire so she said, ‘Ken, you’ve always wanted to write, why don’t you write a book?’” he said. Cancellara penned the book in about seven months, but had no intention of publishing it. However, that wasn’t the case for long after his wife read the manuscript. “She started welling up and she told me I should really try to get this book published,” he said. While Cancellara’s book is not autobiographical, many of the characters and the experiences the main character goes through are inspired by his observations and personal experiences as a lawyer Delonghi Deep and businessman in Toronto. Fryer %“I had wanted to write a OFF $219.99 hybrid WAS experience of both

MARIA TZAVARAS tbt@insidetoronto.com

Providing a better life for yourself and your family is the goal of any immigrant family, regardless of where you came from. For Ken Cancellara, who was a child when he came to Canada in 1956 on a boat from Italy, it meant something equally as important: “What I thought as a seven-year-old is that I am going to America and I’m going to have my own television,” he said. Not only did he get his own television and enjoy a great childhood, but Cancellara has also enjoyed a successful career in Toronto as a lawyer and businessman. He recently added author to his repertoire, penning his first novel, Finding Marco. In this book, Cancellara explores his Italian roots and uses his observations from the business world to tell the story of Mark Gentile, whose ambitions for success take him far away from his home and birthplace, which is a small countryside village in southern Italy. Ultimately, Mark’s dream of success comes to fruition, leading him all the way to becoming CEO of a huge

legal greed and personal executive greed for a long time...and I’d seen how personal greed could really blind what I call the twin pillars of ethics or morality,” he said. The more personal relationships in the book, like the one Mark has with his nonno (grandfather in Italian), were inspired by Cancellara’s life: the bond with his own nonno, his strong ambition to succeed, the setting, Acerenza in southern Italy, which is Cancellara’s birthplace. Cancellara said Italy was the ideal backdrop for this story because of its expressive people and tradition of culture. It also allowed him to explore his roots in the land of his birth. The character of Mark reaches a crossroads in his life, much like the baby boomers of today who are perhaps contemplating life after retirement, and Cancellara initially thought they would be the book’s primary audience. However, it turned out to have a much wider appeal, including anyone who can relate to the universality of the book’s themes or those who have cultural roots outside of Canada. “As we age, we gain more and more affinity with our roots, that’s an inevitable human factor that can’t be deleted,” he said. Up next for Cancellara is the sequel to Finding Marco and eventually penning a third book to complete the trilogy. The sequel is slated to be released in the spring.

Staff photo/Nick Perry

Lawyer Ken Cancellara parallels experiences from his own life in the business circle, through his book, Finding Marco, to show the problems many working professionals face, including prioritizing work and home duties.

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Innovators and investors invited to Inventions Show >>>from page 1 to scope out new products or services to expand or diversify their sales lines, said Schmidt. The show also gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to pick up something new and original and build a business around it rather than offering the same products and services that are already on the market and competing with established players, he added. “In order to be competitive, you have to stand out in some way,” Schmidt said. Being a producer of new ideas, products and services is a way of doing that. Small business owners who attend the show have the option to make deals with inventors by partnering with them, buying their inventions or manufacturing their products. Past inventions have included road safety

devices, medical devices, wellness products, an electric car and specialty software. One of the biggest success stories from the show is a solar-powered houseboat called The Loon, which was backed by an investor, went into production and is expected to hit the market soon. Claudio Carosi, an inventor who lives in Mississauga, also had a positive experience from exhibiting his self-loading wheelbarrow, called the SpineSaver, at the show. He received a call from the W Network’s Backyard Inventors TV show to film an episode about the SpineSaver. The episode has aired several times since this spring; as a result, several manufacturers contacted Carosi expressing their interest, although nothing has materialized.

“Backyard Inventors was a great experience, and I believe one of the reasons they noticed us was because we were at the show,” Carosi said. In addition to providing exposure for Carosi’s invention, the show was a good learning experience. “We got very positive feedback from people, but we also got valuable feedback from manufacturers and other inventors about what was wrong with my invention,” Carosi said. Based on their advice, he redesigned his wheelbarrow to make it more attractive, stronger, cheaper to produce and lighter. Maria Carosi, who helps her husband market the SpineSaver, said the show also gave them the skills to talk to people about the invention and market it. “Now we know what to do in the next show,” she said.

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TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 11

R E C OG N I TI ON

Award opens window of opportunity

Gift awards unwrapped Glassopolis wins The Challenge contest prize of a $100,000 business grant by pair of Toronto companies W it around in our facility because our crane was built for a certain weight.” Botman said they are beyond thrilled to be the recipients of this grant, and he sees it as an affirmation that they’re doing good things with their products. “We’re over the moon to have won, and what this means instead of buying used equipment that might break down, might be dangerous for staff, we’re going to a better grade of machinery that will allow us to process the glass more professionally and safely and more efficiently,” Botman said.

MARIA TZAVARAS tbt@insidetoronto.com

hen Rob Botman is driving around the streets of Toronto, he has a sense of pride that he has contributed something tangible to our cityscape. “When my family comes to visit from out of town, we can go for a drive around the city and stop at U of T and look at the brand new building they built and I can say, ‘Look at this fabulous new building, its great architecture and look over there, that glassware comes from our company,’” Botman said. Botman is the general manager and partnering owner of Glassopolis, a Toronto-based glass company that distributes fireresistant glass for sectors of the building industry across North America.

SAFETY GLASS Their glass is used in hotels, offices, hospitals and schools, mainly in stairwell doors, where safety standards dictate this glass be used to potentially save lives in the event of a fire. The product is vital to all of us who frequent these buildings. Recently, the company’s contribution to public safety has been recognized:

FIRE-RESISTANT

Photo/COURTESY

Rob Botman, general manager of Glassopolis, looks through some glass at the company’s Toronto headquarters. The company won a $100,000 grant as part of a contest to help overcome challenges of producing its new fire resistant glass. Glassopolis is the winner of The Challenge contest, making them the recipient of a $100,000 business grant. The Challenge contest, sponsored by TELUS and The Globe and Mail, called on small business owners to outline a particular challenge in the growth of their business.

Botman said their challenge was being able to safely distribute another fire-resistant glass that’s thicker than their current glass product. The money, he said, will mean they can buy heavier machinery that will allow them to get this new glass product out into the market faster and more

efficiently. “All of our machinery in our factory is geared around glass that weighs 200 pounds per piece, but the thick glass can weigh up to 2,000 pounds a piece,” Botman said. “So our forklift isn’t big enough, the way we cut our glass isn’t the right kind of machine, we can’t move

While Glassopolis is the subsidiary of a familyowned and -operated glass company that dates back to 1912, it was launched in 2008 as a separate and wholly-owned business in which Botman heads a 20-person team to focus solely on distributing this fire-resistant glass. “We’ve grown four or five times our size that we were when we started, in four years,” he said. And with the purchase of this new machinery, Botman said they are excited to be able to keep expanding with a goal of doubling sales.

Two North York-based businesses have won Retail News’ Best Gift Awards from the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association (CGTA). Kidcentral Supply’s Add-a-Kid won Best Kid’s Gift, while Paper E. Clips’ Seymours LED Readers took home Best Novelty Gift. Entries were judged on functionality, quality, overall market potential and design aesthetics. Winners were revealed during the Fall Toronto Gift Show in August and were on display Aug. 13 to 15 during the event. Add-a-Kid’s products, which includes bibs, rompers and T-shirts, are made up of sports, hobbies and fantasy themes, adding a photographic hanger of a baby’s head. Seymours LED Readers have tiny, user-controlled LED lights built into the frames, to help improve vision in dark places. The CGTA is comprised of more than 1,400 members made up of leading Canadian giftware manufacturers, importers, exporters, distributors and wholesalers.

12 - TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012

g ood works

liste d

Free The Children CEO offers corporate social responsibility advice to small business owners

Top 5 items to know about health and safety legislation

SANAM Islam tbt@insidetoronto.com

ne of the most important lessons Marc Kielburger has learned about social responsibility as cofounder and co-CEO of Free The Children is that you have to “make it cool to care.” Speaking last month to an audience that included small and mediumsized business owners, Kielburger said it’s important to ask: “How do I get involved? How do I make it cool to care and what do I actually do tangibly once I make it cool to care?” Kielburger – along with TELUS executives and Tal Dehtiar, founder and president of Oliberté Footwear – provided advice on how SMBs can add to their success through corporate social responsibility at TELUS’s Celebration of Giving event. It was held Sept. 20 at TELUS House in Toronto to celebrate grassroots organizations, community partners and small businesses in the GTA that create healthier communities. Companies that find a way to make it “cool to care” about a certain cause may see an increased interest in their

Staff photo/NICK PERRY

Jennifer Kirner, senior manager of community affairs at TELUS, presents Toronto Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong with a cheque for $5.5 million during the TELUS celebration of giving on Sept. 20. The cheque represents TELUS’s charitable giving total to GTA-based organizations for 2012. business and products. For example, young people who are engaged with We Day – a series of Free The Children events that encourage Canadian youth to create change in their communities and in the world – might choose to support the cause by buying a TELUS phone since the that company sponsors We Day and is

currently donating $25 from each sale of selected phone models to Free The Children, Kielburger said. “It’s about making it cool to care through consumer choices, which is so important.” According to Jim Senko, vice-president of SMB marketing at TELUS, by becoming socially responsible, small businesses

can also increase their customers’ likelihood to recommend products and services; attract and retain the best employees; drive business growth with customers’ support; and build connections with those who affect them. Kielburger recommended that businesses give back locally first and then internationally.

“I love TELUS’s slogan – We give where we live,” he said. “Issues in the developing world are important, but you also need to understand issues that are important and relevant in your own backyard.” He suggested working with organizations such as the United Way and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, which engage with local communities. Another tip for small businesses is to call a “minga,” Kielburger said. While working on a project in Ecuador, he learned that in the local language, “minga” means the coming together of people to work for the benefit of all. “That’s what we need if we’re going to change the world...we need to minga with corporations, minga with groups and with each other,” he said. Finally, it’s important to have the courage to push your company to be socially responsible and to have a strong belief in the cause you support, Kielburg said. “If we’re going to engage our employees to be socially responsible and to care, and if we’re going to really walk the talk... we have to truly believe in what we’re doing.”

Hooray for Play donates to SickKids Foundation Hooray for Play, an indoor playground and party centre for children in Etobicoke, has donated more than $1,200 in services and funds in support of SickKids Foundation. “SickKids is an amazing organization. The work they do offers hope to so many children and families – not just here, but around the world,” said Vladimira Anderson, owner of Hooray for Play. Hooray for Play officially opened for business on July

6, but supported a local fundraising event for St. Leo Catholic School and SickKids that took place a month before on June 6. “Our goal is not just to be a successful business, but to be successful by giving back to the community that supports us,” said Anderson. Hooray for Play also donated a birthday party, an annual play pass, and the day’s proceeds from drop-in play at a recent fundraising event for SickKids.

Photo/COURTESY

Workers at the CIBC location at Jane Street and Wilson Avenue took some time to celebrate Think Pink Week in September. Think Pink Week is designed to build awareness of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure event. Last year, more than 170,000 participants raised more than $30 million (including $3 million from CIBC) for breast cancer research, awareness and education. In this event, the local district raised more than $3,000 based on a employee bike ride from Orangeville to North York.

Nivea and Plan Canada support education

Pancake breakfast Frank McKenna, left, ONEXONE founder Joey Adler and celebrity chef David Rocco attend the ONEXONE Celebrity Pancake Breakfast on Sept. 10 at the TD Centre North Plaza. ONEXONE’s mission is to help children in need, in Canada and around the world. The breakfast raised funds and awareness for ONEXONE’s First Nations school breakfast program and its backpack program as part of its commitment to provide nutritional food to children in need.

2. Be committed to health and safety in the workplace. Regardless of company size, it makes good business sense and it’s the law. Safety in the workplace will impact the bottom line in a positive way and will help employers avoid losses to their most important investment: their employees. 3. Use available resources. There is a vast number of occupational health and safety-related websites that provide credible and relevant tools and resources to improve workplace health and safety programs. Most of the material is free and can be of tremendous value. Just to name a few: Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, and the Workers’ Compensation Board of BC all have websites dedicated to promoting workplace health and safety for workers and employers. 4. Involve your employees. Occupational health and safety is a shared responsibility between employers, supervisors and employees. Employees have the legal right to participate and should be encouraged to participate in creating a safe place to work.

Thinking Pink!

Photo/THOM HAYIM

1. Know your legal responsibilities. Whether your organization is federally or provincially regulated, your legal responsibilities will be outlined in the applicable legislation. The Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act, for example, is a critical piece of legislation that outlines employer responsibilities as well as the responsibilities of others working at or involved with the work site.

Nivea Canada has partnered with the child rights and international development agency, Plan Canada, to help fund an education project in Senegal, West Africa. With the shared goal of building schools, providing better opportunities for education and teaching essential skills, Nivea and Plan Canada are working together to help break the cycle of poverty. To support the

Senegalese project, Nivea Canada is donating $25,000 to the Toronto-based Plan Canada. The donation will be matched by an institutional donor threeto-one (up to $100,000). The Senegal project is just one example of how Nivea is supporting Plan internationally. Globally, Nivea is committed to developing a truly sustainable partnership with Plan, contributing $1.75 million in funding

to the organization worldwide over a three-year period. “Every child deserves access to a quality education and in countries like Senegal, where so many children and their families live in poverty, an education is the only way for them to claim a brighter future and realize their full potential,” says Rosemary McCarney, president and CEO for Plan Canada.

5. Adopt and promote occupational health and safety practices. Make it part of your corporate culture. Be proactive. Tie it into performance management and be very clear about the fact that it’s not a joke. In order to eliminate workplace injuries and deaths, there must be no doubt about the commitment to and importance of health and safety in the workplace. n Listed is a monthly feature in Toronto Business Times. Lisa Guglielmi is a professor at Seneca College Lisa Centre for Guglielmi Human Resources.

TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 13

i n c on versa tion : joh n tory

Investment in GTA is a victory for Toronto ERIC HEINO tbt@insidetoronto.com

is resume includes job titles like lawyer, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, commissioner of the Canadian Football League and CEO of Rogers Cable. John Tory can now add co-chair of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) to that list after recently being brought on to help develop greater economic cooperation between municipalities in the Greater Toronto Region. Tory will be spending the next year busily figuring out how to better market the region to attract investment but he was still able to take a few minutes to speak with Toronto Business Times about the challenges he, and the GTA, are facing.

Q You have recently

started in a new role as the co-chair of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance. How did that position come about?

A Well it really came as a

result of my chairmanship of the Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance. During our summit meeting held in November 2011, about 1,000 people that were there indicated that one of their top priorities was more cooperation and a better effort made across the region on economic development. One of the things we set out to do in collaboration with many levels of government was to identify how we can do a more effective job: A job that involves much more real co-operation between the different cities in the greater Toronto region on economic development. I agreed to serve for one year as co-chair of the GTMA with my job being not so much to attend to the annual budgets or ongoing activities that will still be carrying on, but rather to sit with this group of people and figure out how we can take the GTMA to the next level so they can become that organization that provides leadership on a regional basis and can be accepted as that leader by governments, by businesses, by labour and by other interested parties.

Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance has John Tory working to revitalize economy and attract people to invest their money here in the GTA and create jobs here and put plants and businesses here? Number two is going to be to find a way that we can renew and revitalize and make some changes to this agency such that it will earn and maintain the confidence of everyone involved. Let’s be candid: In the past, we have seen people talking a big game when it comes to attracting people and investment to the region, but there has been a lot more competition and a lot less sharing of resources with each other, which I think has prevented us from putting our best foot forward. I’m not saying this will happen, but in a hypothetical example you could say, in the past and in the present, Sheridan College, an excellent educational instruction in the GTA, might think it wouldn’t be loyal or appropriate for us to team up with somebody in Scarborough and somebody else in Newmarket to put a pitch together and attract investment for a given plan. Sheridan has the resources and the experts to really make that happen but people might look at that and say you aren’t being loyal to Brampton (where a campus is). Well, we are looking for an environment where Sheridan College can say they are interested in any program that will attract jobs or development in Markham or anywhere in the GTA. They can sign up on the basis that they are going to support programs that benefit citizens of the region of the GTA. We have to be sure that kind of co-operation is maintained and that kind of confidence in the organization is built on being a truly regional organization that is looking for the best for everybody. Finally, on this short list, you want to make sure the organization itself has the resources to get their job done. I’ll be very candid and say that the organization has been operating on a shoe-string budget and if you are going to do a proper job of getting resources together, maintain the support of all the municipalities and businesses, taking the trips that are necessary to go to other countries and get them interested in the GTA you are going to need a proper budget and proper ability to make sure you can achieve those results.

‘A victory for one place in the GTA getting an investment is a victory for all places in the GTA.’

Q What do you see as necessary for the GTMA to be its most effective?

A I think first of all it’s to

decide what the mandate is. When you are talking about marketing and about economic activity in the GTA there are a lot of elements to that. We have to decide, first and foremost, what is the mandate? Is it going to be on foreign or domestic investment into the Toronto region to create jobs here

Q When it comes to eco-

nomic development there

Photo/Courtesy

John Tory is the co-chair of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance. could be differences from a regional and from a municipal viewpoint. In your opinion, how do you begin reconciling Toronto with areas in the 905 that it is, in effect, competing with for jobs and dollars?

A I don’t really look at it

as a competition because if that was the case then every single penny of every dollar spent by a company investing in the City of Toronto was spent here and every employee was going to live here and every business supply purchased was here then I would say there is a reason for Toronto to create only its own investment opportunities and not share those with the region. The reality is that when a company invests in Toronto or in Markham or in Newmarket they are going to have employees living across the region, they will have suppliers across the region, they are going to co-operate with educational institutions across the region and they will do banking with a bank not located near their business. The imperative to co-operate is so much larger than this so-called competition. I think we have fooled ourselves that we are better off competing with each other for jobs and investment. When you look at it, there are only so many things that can be located in the city of Toronto. If you are looking at building a manufacturing plant of some kind it is probably not going to be in the City of Toronto. Just for reasons of land and practicality it is probably going to be located

in the 905. The lawyers and the banking might be done in the City of Toronto, some of the suppliers might be in the City of Toronto. A victory for one place in the GTA getting an investment is a victory for all places in the GTA. I think that part of the mandate we have here is to convince people who are a long way from being convinced. We have come a long way from the old days where people wanted competition between areas and now I hope they will fight competently together to increase their chances of getting that investment.

Q How do you view

Toronto as an environment for small businesses in general?

A I think that it is an

environment that is very positive in many respects. We have a well-trained workforce, we have an entrepreneurial spirit, we have a huge market within a couple hours drive from Toronto. We have a lot, but you have to be concerned at the same time about things like the complexity of doing business here and the different levels of government and the regulations involved. What is the cost of doing business here, which leads to questions about levels of taxation as a city? It’s not necessarily going to be part of our mandate, but we need to ask ourselves what our sales pitch is and if we have what it takes to make a good case for Toronto. We need federal, provincial and municipal governments to make sure they continue to do the work I believe they are com-

mitted to doing and make Toronto a more hospitable environment for smaller and bigger business. That means where you can set up and run a business and not be confronted by undue amounts of bureaucracy and red tape and the costs are reasonable. They don’t have to be the lowest in the world – if they were that would be a great selling point – but they have to be reasonable costs. We can then take those things and combine them with the things we know are huge pluses like the location and the workforce. There is no question that we have work to do in making sure that we take some of the things that are not positive at the moment and working with governments to make sure we attract smaller businesses. Bigger businesses have lawyers and a permanent team that deals with taxes and that sort of thing. Small and medium-sized businesses often don’t have any of that and so they don’t have time to be concerned with that sort of thing. If they are confronted with that they might go somewhere else with their business and that is part of what the GTMA is about. This is why co-operation is so important. A business that is working in 15 different municipalities in the GTA might be dealing with 15 different sets of rules and that is something a strong, credible GTMA can help with. Get these municipalities to get together and see if we can have one set of rules, if possible, to deal with some of these areas so it is made easier for people to work here without having to hire six lawyers and three consultants.

Q What do

set up and figure out who to call and what to do and how to get it down quickly and seamlessly. Cost is a different issue and it is one that clearly small and medium businesses have to cross in order to locate here.

Q So you are only signed

on in this current position for one year?

A Yes, but it is my inten-

tion to file my report much sooner than that, maybe six months from now. I want to see how we can take this GTMA and use its resources to enhance it, reorganize it in such a way as to make it more effective in the ways we have talked about.

Q In terms of business and economic development, even outside the influence of the GTMA, what do you hope Toronto will have achieved five years from now?

A Clearly in the minds of

people inside and around the world, Toronto is one of the easiest places in Canada to do business and one of the easiest places in the world. You have one-stop shopping where you can go to organizations like the GTMA and get the information you need, touch base with all the municipalities, you can get help to find your way through the maze and find for yourself that this is the best place in the world to invest and a lot of people will be doing that. The results are what speak at the end of the day and that will determine that the GTA is what I believe it to be: one of the greatest places to do business in all the world for a whole bunch of reasons. I hope that that will manifest itself in an organization that has the confidence of all the municipalities in the GTA as well as the federal and provincial governments. I hope they look to us as a place to invest resources and look to it as the place where leadership comes in terms of investing in this region. I hope they are funded properly so they can do the job they are mandated to do and I really hope we will have become that place because of our one-stop shopping, because of this powerful and effective and well-run co-operative organization that represents this region and all it has to offer. That is a great workforce, business expertise, educational institutions will all help us to attract investment and jobs rushing here so that we can hardly keep up with the number of people that want to come here.

‘We have a well-trained workforce, we have an entrepreneurial spirit, we have a huge market within a couple hours drive from Toronto.’

you see as the single greatest challenge small businesses face in Toronto that you can address as the co-chair of the GTMA?

A Simplification, meaning

making it easier to figure out how to set up business here and jump through all the different hoops you need to get through. The second is cost. That involves everything from taxation to other kinds of costs and that is harder to deal with but you have to be conscious of that. The simplification thing is one issue where the GTMA can make it easier for people to get here and

TORONTO BUSINESS TIMES - October 2012 - 15

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