WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2010

NEWSLEADERNew Westminster

2 5 11Electric BIKES

Fire hallOPEN HOUSE

K-KIDSvulnerable

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MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADERKaren Smecher will be putting the sign board for her kids toy store, Pedagogy Toys, out on the sidewalk for the last time after the Christmas shopping season. After pursuing her passion for being able to sell high-quality toys for three years, the harsh realities of small business ownership and nine months of construction along Columbia Street in front of her store have taken their toll.

Karen Smecher knows the stresses and strain of owning

a business. Her dream of running her own shop in New Westminster has become a

nightmare as unexpected costs, bad weather and construction

have hit her business hard.

RiskyBUSINESS

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“It kind of hits you all at once,” says Smecher.

Even before her fi rst busy Christmas season, the long hours and stress were taking their toll; pregnant with her third child, Smecher’s doctor ordered her to take some time off. Her husband took a leave from his job to manage the store, adding to their fi nancial pressures.

Snowstorms in her second Christmas season kept custom-ers at home. She was working 10 hour days, seven days a week. She was never able to relax with her family. Her marriage was suffering and she had an anxiety attack that sent her to hospital.

“You realize you’ve dug a hole, you think maybe we can keep going,” she says. “But then you think do you need the stress?”

Even as Dance Addicts enters its pivotal fourth year, Ferreira knows he still can’t rest easy. When last year’s recession kept people from spending money on new activities like dance lessons, he started offering inexpensive workshops and social dances. When road construction on Hastings Street blocked his storefront, he posted maps showing parking options and access routes on his website.

“We have to constantly adapt,” says Ferreira. “It’s still a battle for us.”

The one-two punch of the recession and a three-month watermain construction project that turned into a nine-month streetscape rehabilitation proved too much for Pedagogy Toys.

After two weeks of soul searching and “a lot of crying,”

Smecher decided this Christ-mas season would be her last.

“I really wanted to keep this alive,” she says, her voice quivering. “Every retail store-front is a huge sacrifi ce. When you have a regular job, it’s nine-to-fi ve, you check out and you’re done. But here you’re consumed with it, it becomes an entity of who you are. That’s why when businesses close, it feels like a personal failure.”

But she’s not bitter. She says she’s become more self-reliant, and much more appreciative of anyone who chooses to pursue their passion.

“It really takes a lot of balls to throw those doors open.”

October is Small Business Month in Canada. For a listing of events around B.C., go to http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/calendar/

CONTINUED FROM PAGE A3

Takes a lot of guts to start own business these days

“It feels good to be environmentally-friendly, it is effi cient and easy to use, I don’t have to worry about fi nding a parking space, and most of all it’s fun to ride, In fact, I am thinking of getting one for my personal use too.”

E-bikes require as little as four cents of electricity to charge them, compared to the $40 to $50 needed to fi ll up the tank of a small car.

It’s not just about saving money. The end goal is to lower the city’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, said Jenyfer Neumann, New Westminster’s transpor-tation demand management coordinator.

A survey of city hall staff found many needed their cars for work. So the obvious solu-tion was fi nding ways to get them to park them.

Some of the initiatives include:- discounted transit passes- a guaranteed ride home program- membership in the Co-operative Auto Net-

work- increased access to the city’s fl eet of vehicles- membership in the Jack Bell ride-share, ride-

matching program- personalized transportation planning.

“It’s taking some time to change (car driving) behaviours,” said Neumann, who believes the program will take several years before substan-tial results are seen.

She fi nds one of the best ways to get people out of their cars is to show them what owning a car means to their “bottom line.” With an average cost of $8,000 a year, most drivers begin to see the benefi ts.

“When they see how it impacts them in that way, a lot of people become very interested,” said Neumann.

New Westminster got involved in the program because it’s a major emitter of greenhouse gases through its staff and facilities but also to encourage residents

and businesses to do the same.“We want to engage people and get them

excited about what we’re doing,” she said. “We need to be a role model for people in the com-munity.”

• The city is also working with major employ-ers to encourage their staff to reduce auto trips and is developing a best-routes-to-school map for parents as part of its transportation demand management program.

mmcquillan@newwestnewsleader.com

CONTINUED FROM PAGE A2

City tries electric bikes

An upcoming travel slide show at the New Westminster Public Library will pay tribute to Pegeen McAskill, who helped organize the shows for 38 years.

McAskill, who passed away in April at the age of 93, worked with the University Women’s Club of New Westminster and the library to put on the shows.

An afternoon show on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 2:30 p.m. will feature Debbie Smith presenting the World Travels, a sampling of the many places the travel slide shows have visited over the years.

Smith will repeat her world travel slide show on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Both shows will be followed by a tribute to McAskill with refreshments being served.

Slide show a tribute to founder

PEGEEN MCASKILL

GIBSON

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HARD HATS FOR HEROESVancouver’s construction industry is launching an industry-wide campaign called Hard Hats for Heroes to raise funds for the renovation of Honour House, a facility for families of returning troops and fi rst responders injured in the line of duty and receiving care in Metro Vancouver.On Nov. 9, construction companies across the Lower Mainland will collect cash donations from employees and workers on site, as well as at corporate offi ces, to help make the Honour House dream a reality.

news

By Mario BartelNEWSLEADER

For more than three years, Karen Smecher lived her dream.

An environmental engi-neer, she’d combined her professional background with her desire to provide safe, durable and stimulat-ing toys to her own young children as well as to other families, by opening a spe-cialty toy store, Pedagogy Toys, in New Westminster’s Sapperton neighbourhood. The location was close to home, so she’d be able to spend more time with her family. She’d be her own boss. She’d be giving quality life experiences to other young families.

“I love seeing children when they have a really neat toy,” says Smecher, 34, and now a mother of three. “I love seeing the parents who want to play with the toys. There is this richness in their relationship.”

But sometime after the hustle and bustle of this coming Christmas shopping season dies away, she’s going to close Pedagogy Toys for good.

Shoppers passing by the empty storefront with the For Lease sign in the window will probably just shrug; some likely won’t even remember what was there just a few weeks earlier. They’ll have no idea of the hope and heartache, opti-mism, anxiety and sacrifi ce that went into that little toy shop. They’ll be oblivious to the emotional and fi nancial toll owning a small business can exact.

Running a small busi-ness is “a roller coaster,” says Mari Lou Shoulak, the marketing manager for the Self-Employment Program at Douglas College, which has been helping prospective entrepreneurs start their own businesses for 15 years.

Yet there’s no shortage of people willing to climb aboard for the professional and fi nancial ride of their lives. In 2008, there were 383,300 small businesses with less than 50 employees in British Columbia. Of

those, 82 per cent had fewer than fi ve employees, and 55 per cent were self-employed with no paid help. Those small businesses account for 46 per cent of all employ-ment in the province, and 34 per cent of its gross domestic product, the highest rate of any province in Canada.

Every time someone hangs up the Open sign, the odds are stacked against them; 23 per cent of new businesses fail in their fi rst year, and only 41 per cent are still operating after four years, according to Shoulak.

“It’s extremely daunting to start a business,” she says. “There’s a lot of hopes behind it, but when you get down to it, reality sets in.”

Smecher was bursting with hope on April 7, 2007, the day she opened her store. She’d set aside her career to enrol in the Douglas College program where, through 18 intensive seminars, she learned the nuts and bolts of starting and managing a business and the intricacies

of fi nancing, cash fl ow and marketing.

That background would improve her chances of suc-cess to 95 per cent in the fi rst year, and 72 per cent after

four years, says Shoulak.“I was very nervous,” says

Smecher of her opening day. “It was very much like having stage fright but it was such a rush. I’ve never expe-rienced a rush like that.”

Peter Ferreira knows that excitement.

When he and his partner Geraldine Goyer opened the doors to their Dance Addicts dance studio in Burnaby Heights on Oct. 11, 2007, they had no idea if anyone would even come in.

“We couldn’t sleep the night before,” says Ferreira,

44. “We were anticipating a pretty decent turnout, but we didn’t know because we didn’t get a lot of calls.”

But they had done a lot of preparation.

Ferreira’s passion for dance was ignited at a cross-roads in his life. He’d spent fi ve years working in invest-ment banking and another six as an independent home renovation contractor. But a car accident left him debili-tated and depressed to the point of suicide. Then he met Goyer, who turned him on to dance as therapy. He says it saved his life.

They decided to team up and turn their passion into their livelihood. They spent two years developing their business plan by researching statistics and demographics, talking to owners of other dance studios, searching for the perfect location. They started advertising and building their brand three months before they opened.

“‘If you build it, they will come,’ does not work,” says

Ferreira. “You’ve got to believe in what you’re doing and have an understanding of what needs to be done. Confi dence is everything.”

That’s not an uncommon scenario, says Douglas College’s Shoulak. Many independent businesses are launched by mid-career professionals who’ve been downsized out of the tradi-tional workforce or who’ve always dreamed of owning their own business.

“Most people have a dream,” says Shoulak. “They usually have a set of skills or a hobby they want to turn into a business. Sometimes they just have an idea.”

Karen Smecher’s dream started to unravel almost immediately. Renovations to the store fell behind sched-ule, shipments from suppli-ers got messed up, overhead costs like window washing, utilities, bank fi nancing charges and even light bulbs proved a little more expen-sive than she’d anticipated.

MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADERPeter Ferreira is pursuing his passion by running a dance studio in North Burnaby with his partner. They will be starting their fourth year of business in October.

“ ‘If you build it they will come,’ does not

work.”

- Peter Ferreira

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