With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
10 BCBUSINESS JUNE 2020 ( the informer ) With construction an essential service in B.C., we look up— way up—at some of the structures that are literally raising the profile of the province's cities by Melissa Edwards Towering Ambition G O F I G U R E with donations from others and itself, then tested out the new takeout world in April before reopening five dining rooms late last month. And like thousands, Yacoub went to his bank to ask what government support would be available. Since then, Ottawa has announced several pro- grams to help small businesses, including a $40,000 zero- interest loan with a $10,000 forgivable portion; one that will pay 75 percent of retained employees' wages; and a third program to give landlords half the missing rent. All of that kind of planning is exactly what Huey Lee, who specializes in corporate re- structurings and turnarounds at accounting firm KPMG, was taking dozens of his clients through during the spring. Lee says business operators call him freaking out about two things: "I don't have enough cash" and "What do I do with my employees?" At first, with the almost science fiction–like situation of a global shutdown happening, companies can feel like an unknowable black hole has opened up beneath them. But there are numbers owners can start attaching to reality. If they're planning for months of impaired operations or zero revenue, what does that actually mean? Add up the building, employee and sup- plies costs. Then calculate the survival numbers, says Lee. "What is the bare minimum I need so, when this passes, I will be ready?" From there, a busi- ness owner can establish what their company's cash resources are and the gap between that and what's needed. In late March, Lee was help- ing clients get that spreadsheet ready for their banks so that, the minute the details of federal aid for businesses were an- nounced, they would be ready. One warning he was giving to clients, though: If your business wasn't viable before the global crash, any federal aid probably won't help. "If they were a vi- able company, the application would be considered," Lee says. "But this isn't a bailout. It's a bit of a shock absorber." Finally, Lee notes, the com- panies that he's seen make it back from the brink do two im- portant things. First, they don't try to pretend nothing is hap- pening. "Take it head-on. Don't put your head in the sand." And they're very transpar- ent and straightforward with everyone around them: their lenders, suppliers, landlords and employees. All of those steps hold for both large and small busi- nesses. Yvonne Hogenes, who has run a women's clothing store in Cloverdale for 22 years, is following that path, having survived 2008's recession. "I've lived through these things, and the worst move is a knee-jerk response," says Ho- genes, whose Malary's Fashion Network stocks Canadian and European designers as well as a line of custom-produced bras that she manufactures. She readied herself by reducing staff hours and calculating her losses if she has minimal or no revenue for months. Hogenes says this round of economic shock, while far worse, is better in one way because at least governments are offering multiple kinds of help. Last time, she and her husband made it through by using $100,000 of their retire- ment savings. "We were left to ourselves to figure it out." There's one last thing that savvy business owners are do- ing, as hard as it might seem when it feels like the world is crashing. Opening again. Dur- ing the last downturn, which hit the construction industry especially hard, developers spent the limbo period getting projects ready to go the minute there was an uptick. That's what Yacoub is planning for. "I think people will go out like crazy when this is over." That depends on how the world evolves in the next year. Yacoub is hoping for more nor- malcy by July, when Vancouver typically starts seeing 250,000 summer cruise-ship passen- gers. They won't be here, nor will many other tourists. So it's all riding on how much people in B.C. are willing to dine out and shop on their home turf. • SOURCES: STATISTICS CANADA, EMPORIS, VANCOUVER FOUNDATION, SKYSCRAPER CENTER, CITY OF VANCOUVER, VANCOUVER SUN, GLOBAL NEWS 9.4% of buildings in B.C. were classified as highrises as of 2016 g 23.5% since 2011 In Vancouver: 29.3% g 18.5% since 2011 In Victoria: 17.9% g 14.1% since 2011 In Kelowna: 3.1% g 46.3% since 2011 B.C. had 106 existing or under- construction skyscrapers (buildings more than 100 metres tall) as of March Vancouver Burnaby Surrey 67 9 24 9 7 3 EXISTING/UNDER CONSTRUCTION PLANNED Richmond has 1 structure more than 100 metres tall– the Lafarge cement kiln stack, techni- cally rated as a skyscraper at 113 metres 1 skyscraper has been demolished in B.C. (Vancou- ver's Empire Landmark Hotel, in 2018-19) READ THIS No one can accuse Jeff Booth of being afraid to speak his mind. The en- trepreneur, who co-founded Vancouver building supplies e-tailer BuildDirect, penned his first book on a controversial topic. In The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future, he argues that, in an economy dependent on "easy credit" and ripe for replacing people with AI, the only way forward is to accept deflation as inevitable and plan for it. Booth probably didn't see a global pandemic coming, but the need for an economic restart has instantly made some of his ideas more compelling. Stanley Press 234 pages, paperback, $21.73 •