This article appears in today’s Vancouver Sun:
When the going gets tough, get help
Family-owned bookstore consumes 100 hours a week of couple’s time
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Marc Fournier (right) stocks shelves as his wife, Yuki, serves a customer in the busy Sophia Books that the two own. For the first four years, Marc says, they didn’t have a Saturday off.
It’s not easy running a small business while raising a young family. Just ask Marc Fournier.
Fournier, a husband and father of two boys, owns the downtown specialty bookstore Sophia Books, a family business that consumes most of his waking hours.
Between himself and wife, Yuki, the couple spends more than 100 hours a week at the store.
“When I’m at the store, she’s with the boys. When I’m with the boys, she’s at the store,” Fournier said. “For the first four years, we didn’t have a Saturday off.”
It’s a juggling act that requires tremendous effort, and sometimes late hours working from home.
“When you run your own business, you dream about your customers,” Fournier said.
According to an RBC Royal Bank poll released Monday in time for Small Business Week, only 39 per cent of small business owners in B.C. feel they are able to balance their time between work and home well, while 57 per cent said, if given an extra hour a day, they’d spend it with family, relax or get caught up with personal matters.
The poll, conducted by Ipsos- Reid, showed that 36 per cent of the 363 B.C. business owners who were surveyed said they work more than five days a week.
“It really speaks to the challenge of running your own business and finding that balance,” said Jim Payn, sales manager for RBC Small Business.
But, he added, there are a lot of financial tools and resources available to businesses, regardless of their size.
Internet banking, for example, was a popular option for respondents of the poll. Of the more than 2,000 business owners surveyed Canada-wide, 48 per cent paid bills online, 37 per cent filed their taxes over the Internet, while 20 per cent relied on e-mail money transfers to make payments to suppliers.
In a press release, RBC Royal Bank offered this advice for small business owners: “Take time for yourself and your family; set clear boundaries between work and home; put your family and home life first; set realistic business goals and benchmarks; efficiently manage your time at work.”
And when the going gets tough, Payn said, seek help.
Despite the challenges, a growing number of British Columbians are entering the small business world.
Employment in B.C.’s small businesses grew more than four times the national average last year, at a rate of 3.8 per cent compared with 0.9 per cent nationally, according to the B.C. Ministry of Small Business and Revenue.
The ministry’s “Small Business Profile 2006” report, also released Monday, estimates that one million British Columbians work in small businesses.
That means 48 per cent of all employment in the province is generated by businesses with fewer than 50 employees, or by self-employed workers, the report said.
It noted that 98 per cent, or 364,000, of all businesses in B.C. were considered small businesses, while 84 per cent, or 303,700, of them were further characterized as micro-businesses, or operations with fewer than five workers.
High-tech firms, business services — such as veterinary and accounting services — education services, real estate, and tourism were the hottest sectors, the report said.
It added that annual earnings for small business workers increased 13 per cent over the past five years to $33,078, more than twice the increase for employees of large businesses. (Large business workers, however still earn more, with an average annual income of $39,788.)
Back at Sophia Books, Fournier said becoming an entrepreneur has been a learning process.
Fournier, who previously worked for the Duthie Books chain, took over Sophia Books from his father-in-law about six years ago. He now has 14 employees, a dedicated customer base, and importantly, job satisfaction.
“I really love my job and I love my work. . . . I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved here,” he said.
Asked whether he prefers working for himself, Fournier said: “I often think about it. Would I be able to go back and work for someone else? Probably not. . . . Being your own boss, of course, creates a lot of stress.”
But once you’ve tasted that liberty, he said, it’s hard to turn back.
wleung@png.canwest.com
– – –
BIG NUMBERS FROM SMALL BUSINESS
Rick Thorpe, B.C.’s minister of small business, on Monday released Small Business Profile 2006. Some of the highlights include:
1 million+ British Columbians work in small business.
98% of all businesses in B.C. are small businesses.
26% of B.C.’s GDP is derived from small business, higher than any other province (Canadian average is 22%).
3.9%, the average annual growth rate for B.C. small business employment over the past four years — four times the Canadian rate.
200 new small businesses were added each year, on average, to B.C.’s Northeast region in each of the past five years.
Source: Small Business Profile 2006
© The Vancouver Sun 2006