YOUR WEEKLY SOURCE OF REGIONAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SINCE 1989 www.biv.

com 604-688-2398
Issue 1088 August 31September 6, 2010 $3.00 $79.95 annually subscribe@biv.com
Subscriber details
RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION
DEPARTMENT: 102 EAST 4TH AVENUE, VANCOUVER, B.C. V5T 1G2.
Business in Vancouver Issue 1088
PN40069240 R88I6
I 6 IIII4 I83I2 36
Hed
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS
Bicycles versus business
Why Charles Gauthier wants brakes applied to bike lanes 3
SMALL BUSINESS RETAIL
A day at the beach
HST ire washing up on Vancouvers Wreck Beach shores 6
Working networks
Jason and Adam Pittelli plug into the power of networking 13
list
Biggest
telecommunication
companies in B.C. 16
Randy Powell
The impressive corporate track record of
Rocky Mountaineers CEO Profile, page 29
Moly made; ghost-town owner mad
Avanti Mining wrangles with Kitsault
millionaires northern town News, page 2
New Nevada claims; proxy battles
Gold miner digging the desert again; the
fight for control of EurOmax News, pages 4, 10
Grow opps and camcorder views
Grow conference links Silicon Valley with local
startups; Ciscos systems Technology, page 11
Whos going places; whos
going to court
Local career moves; B.C. business
battles For the record, pages 20-24
Double standards; cultural cash
crunch; refugee resolutions
Timothy Renshaw, Peter Ladner,
Mark Milke Op/ed, pages 30-31
THIS WEEK
see Training, 5
By Joel McKay
BC
s resource boom is paying off for
some First Nations groups who re-
cently inked historic revenue-sharing deals
with the province, but one community said
the rush to exploit the provinces natural gifts
has become an uncontrollable stampede.
West Moberly Chief Roland Willson
stands at ground zero of the boom near Fort
St. John.
Every day his people face an onslaught of
resource companies, many from Vancouver,
>B.C. First Nations
struggle with demands
created by provinces
northeast resource rush
>Business training needed
to help remote communities
prosper from the ood of
projects in their territory
FASHION
Joyce Poons Noir Lash Lounge is among a growing group of local businesses specializing in single-service beauty treatments: see page 6
S
A
M

L
E
U
N
G
Development deluge
Beauty spots: Esthetic enterprise
that want to build the next shale gas well, coal
mine or power project.
ere are so many consultation referrals,
said Willson, triage is the only way his sta
can sort through them all.
Its just about hair-straight-back up here
in every eld oil and gas, mining, forestry,
wind-farm development. Were up to our
eyeballs in Site C, Willson told BIV. Were
being overrun. Were being overrun by de-
velopment.
Last week, the province signed agree-
ments with several First Nations groups to
share tax revenue from the New Aon mine
near Kamloops and the Mount Milligan
mine in northeast B.C.
Beauty and the biz: Metro Vancouvers
single-service esthetic business boom
One-product grooming businesses blossoming in citys Yaletown district
By Noa Glouberman
A
new type of business is
taking over one of Van-
couvers trendiest neighbour-
hoods.
While spas and salons ofer-
ing a range of esthetic services
still abound, niche beauty pro-
viders, each with a single styl-
ish ofering, are quickly laying
claim to Yaletown and be-
yond. Among them:
Pure Nail Bar (manicures/
pedicures);
Skoah (facials);
Blo Blow Dry Bar (hair styl-
ing);
Pure Smile Studio (tooth
whitening);
Noir Lash Lounge (eyelash
extensions);
Bombay Brow Bar (eyebrow
shaping);
Stripped Wax Bar (body
hair removal); and
Rouge Make-Up Lounge
(makeup application).
Look below the surface and
youll see just how much these
B.C.-born-and-bred businesses
have in common.
We each do one thing, and
we each do it really well, Joyce
Poon, founder of Vancouver-
based Noir Lash Louge, told
Business in Vancouver. For us
its semi-permanent eyelash ex-
tensions. That isnt an added
service its our only service.
Rather than limiting sales,
singularity is Poons secret to
success.
Weve been able to concen-
trate on becoming the last word
on lashes, she explained. It
also lets us ofer an unparalleled
level of service for hundreds less
than a high-end salon, because
we dont have to worry about
training and equipment and
extra space for anything other
than eyelashes.
Ravy Mehroke, who
opened Bombay Brow Bars
doors down the street from
Noir during the :o:o Winter
Olympics, agrees.
We have a major brow ob-
session its all we do, said
the commerce graduate, whos
fielded several offers to open
additional brow bars across
Canada in the six months shes
been in business. Some star-
tups wouldnt survive with
one product, but we followed a
tried-and-true model that let us
focus exclusively on eyebrows
and becoming experts in pro-
viding that service.
Te business plan Mehroke
refers to was executed in Yale-
town in :oo, by Judy Brooks,
whose Blo Blow Dry Bar, co-
founded with daughter Devon,
has expanded to :: Canadian
and U.S. locations including
storefronts in South Granville
and South Surreys Morgan
Crossing area in the space of
three years.
When we frst opened there
wasnt anyone else in North
America doing no cuts, no col-
our, just blow-drying hair, so
we fgured well just build our
own business to fll that niche
and create an amazing brand
and culture while were at it,
Brooks said. Our success was
so immediate that others soon
followed.
Poon, for example, who
launched her lash lounge out
of a leased space adjacent to
Blo in Yaletown, has closely
trailed Brooks lead, opening
a South Granville location near
the blow-dry bar in April :o:o
and, as of last week, announ-
cing a third Noir in Morgan
Crossing.
In business its always
smart to look at something
thats working and say, Im go-
ing to align myself with that,
said Brooks. In this case, imi-
tation really is the highest form
of fattery because its allowed
us to support each other, work
together and share ideas and
even a client base, because
someone who enjoys Joyces
service is likely to enjoy ours
as well.
Having recently handed
Blos reins over to new man-
agement (see Fast-growing
Blo loses founder issue :o8a,
August ,-o), Brooks now plans
to spend more time providing
business-consulting services to
niche-beauty newcomers.
One such up-and-comer,
Susan Vu, opened her first
Stripped Wax Bar ofering
body hair-removal services
on Yaletowns beauty block in
late June. She, too, opted to fol-
low the single-service plan be-
cause of its proven success.
Seeing Blo, Noir, Bom-
bay and the others succeed in
this neighbourhood, we knew
this wasnt going to be a failed
venture, that we were going to
hit the ground running, she
said from her Hamilton Street
space. Weve been busy from
Day :.
Vu is no stranger to entre-
preneurship; she opened her
frst retail fashion startup, Bou-
doir, in April :oo8, and takes
a keen interest in the business
side of beauty.
Te single-service model
works well in this industry for
several reasons, Vu said. For
one, it lets you train experts
who dont have to switch be-
tween tasks like spa or salon
Beautiful business tips
I
t sounds simple: create a
company around a singu-
lar beauty offering. Not so fast!
There are other components
to the single-service business
plan.
Location: set up shop close
to businesses that complement
your own.
Decor: a bigger space isnt al-
ways better in the niche beauty
biz, but avoid the dark, dun-
geon-like setting of many es-
thetic services of the past (trans-
lation: keep it light, trendy and
hip).
Expertise: train your staf to
be experts in providing your
service.
Consistency: give clients the
same experience every time
they visit.
Accessibility: make your ser-
vice quick, easy and afordable,
without sacrifcing quality.
Marketing: enough cant be
said for social media. Make
Facebook, Twitter and other
tools a part of your daily to-
do list.
Branding: from signage to
verbiage, create a look and feel
that cant be mistaken for any
business but your own.
estheticians do.
To that end Vus strip-
pers, Mehrokes brow sculp-
tresses, Brooks hair ca-
dets and Poons noir stars
are thoroughly trained before
theyre permitted to work on
clients (in many cases, new
hires are already established
estheticians).
Tey become really, really
quick at that one technique,
without sacrifcing quality, Vu
added. Tat means we can see
more clients in one day and, as
a result, keep our prices a lot
lower than a spa.
Like her predecessors, Vus
sights are set on rapid expan-
sion. Yaletown was a market
we absolutely knew we had to
get into, and I wouldnt have
opened my frst location any-
where else but here, but theres
tons of potential for growth in
this business, she said. From
here to Toronto everything
in-between is up for grabs.
nglouberman@biv.com
Wax on, wax off: one of the newest kids on beauty block, Stripped
Wax Bar, offers no-frill hair-removal services to ladies and gents
A day at the beach with the HST
Harmonized tax cutting into profts for some Wreck Beach vendors
By Glen Korstrom
A
nger over the harmon-
ized sales tax (HST) has
spread to Vancouvers entre-
preneurial Wreck Beach.
Te retail sector has long
had some of the loudest
voices against the :: HST,
which applies to more items
than did the previous ,
provincial sales tax and ,
goods and services tax.
Now even sarong and
dress merchants who deal
exclusively in cash sales are
joining the chorus of nay-
sayers against the contro-
versial tax.
Fierce competition for
those products at Wreck
Beach keeps prices low and
forces retailers to absorb the
tax.
I cant raise prices un-
less he does, too, said dress
designer and retailer Mari
Muray whi le gesturi ng
across the beach at compet-
ing merchant David Kolb.
So how am I supposed
to charge HST? I cant. So
it comes out of my pock-
et. It pisses me of, Muray
said while sitting on a log at
Vancouvers famous cloth-
ing-optional beach.
Drummers beat tribal
rhythms nearby.
Skeptics might think
Wreck Beach vendors pock-
et their sales and dont re-
port them to Revenue Can-
ada.
Several, however, told
Business in Vancouver that
they report every dime.
Both Muray and Kolb
spend half the year in India.
He buys bed sheets, custom
block-painted sarongs and
clothing to resell.
She contracts Indian
sewers to manufacture her
designs for dresses, skirts
and other clothes.
Kolb, who claims to gen-
erate about s:,,ooo in an-
nual sales, is more ambiva-
lent about the HST than
Muray is.
That might be because
hes under the s,o,ooo in-
come threshold that enables
him, as an individual, to get
a quarterly HST credit, ac-
cording to Berris Mangan
accountant and principal
Stan Dong.
He added that Kolb is
also not required to register
to collect the HST.
However, Muray must
register to collect HST be-
cause she estimates her an-
nual sales at about sa,,ooo
thanks to revenue from sell-
ing wholesale to stores such
as Ethels Boutique on West
Fourth Avenue.
She has no desire to open
a store of her own because
she has seen the economic
downturn ravage the bot-
tom line for those who have
to cover lease and employ-
ee costs.
She said stores that she
used to sell to, such as North
Vancouvers Flying Fish
International and Main Wreck Beach textile vendor Mari Muray: you go to Wal-Mart and
it makes you cry because you know you cant compete
G
L
E
N

K
O
R
S
T
R
O
M
see Permits, 7
[Semi-permanent
eyelash extensions] isnt
an added service its
our only service
Joyce Poon,
president and founder,
Noir Lash Lounge
Business in Vancouver August 31September 6, 2010
6 NEWS