Special Features - Oak Bay Women In Business

WomenWomenWomenWI N BUS INESS

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By Jennifer Blyth

While women continue to make inroads into the worlds of high finance and big business, for many women, the oppor-

tunity to own their own small business is ultimately appealing.

Some appreciate the challenge of building some-thing from the ground up, while others want the diversity business ownership brings. Some appreci-ate the flexible work hours, allowing more time to share with family or to explore other passions.

Whatever their reasons, it appears women in Oak Bay definitely boast an entrepreneurial spirit.

According to the province’s Small Business Pro-file (2013) from the B.C. government at B.C. Stats, almost 36 per cent of small businesses in B.C. are owned and operated by women, the second-highest proportion in Canada.

Self-employed communications professional Heather Leary, who currently works with the 110-member Oak Bay Business Improvement Asso-ciation, estimates the number of women running businesses within the Oak Bay BIA at about 65 per cent (including both owners/co-owners and manag-ers). Heather first hung out her shingle in the munici-pality back in 2001. “Oak Bay has always been very receptive to women in business, even back then,” she reflects.

For Elizabeth Smith, owner of Athlone Travel and president of the Oak Bay BIA, “I think I wanted to have my own business since I was a child,” she says. Liz started working in retail at age 15, moving into the travel industry when her children were young as it then offered the opportunity to work her own hours – hours that then grew as her children grew.

An avid traveller herself, opening Athlone Travel has proven an enjoyable choice. “For the most part it’s a very happy business,” she explains. With prepa-rations that can begin as much as two years out for clients, “you go on this journey with them.”

Like many women who choose to own their own

businesses, the opportunity to work around family schedules was a main attraction. “Having a couple of really amazing partners is key to that because it gives you flexibility and freedom,” said Smith

That’s not to say women business owners work fewer hours; far from it. But speak to many small busi-ness owners and they’ll tell you the business allows them to drive for their son’s school field trips and cheer on their daughter’s hockey team, then catch up on emails and paperwork later in the evening.

That flexibility extends to business practices as well.

“For us in my industry, we’re independent so

when market conditions change, we have the ability to make changes very quickly,” Smith notes. After the market slowdown in 2008, for example, Athlone focused on training, “and that was a good use of time for us.”

For Leary, the diversity of being her own boss appealed to her. “For me, it just meant variety with every day (while) the flexibility allowed me to do much more in my life.”

Women at the heart of Oak Bay Business Improvement Association

Jennifer Blyth photo

Heather Leary and Elizabeth Smith appreciate the diversity and flexibility of runningtheir own business.

Did you know?n Small business – defined as employing 0 to 50 employees – accounts for 98 per cent of all businesses in B.C. The vast majority – 82 per cent – have four or fewer employees.n 55 per cent of all businesses in the province were run by self-employed individuals with no paid help.n Approximately 385,900 small businesses were operating in B.C. in 2012, and about 82 per cent were micro-businesses with fewer than five employees.n With 83.5 small businesses per 1,000 people, B.C. ranked first in Canada in small businesses per capita in 2012; the national average was 69.n 37.7 per cent of the province’s business owners in 2012 were women, the highest rate in the country. Self-employment among women was on the rise between 2007 and 2012, up 3.4 per cent, while the number of male entrepreneurs slipped 2.8 per cent over the same period. “Interestingly, the increase in self-employment among women in the province was entirely attributable to boosts among those aged 45 and over.”

According to the B.C. Small Business Profile (2013)

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[email protected] www.hazelbraithwaite.ca

CouncillorHazel BRAITHWAITE

“I am proudto celebrate

and committed to supporting the womenof Oak Bay”

1703 Monterey Avenue, Victoria, BC V8R 5V6Fax: (250) 598-2749 Web: oakbay.ca

For more information contact:250.592.9121 or email [email protected]

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Gender politics - making a differenceWomen seem to be making a break-

through in local politics in the Capital Regional District (CRD),

especially during the 2014 municipal elec-tion cycle. Two new female faces in the City of Victoria and in Sooke (mayors Lisa Helps and Maja Tait) join other CRD women mayors Barb Desjardins, Carol Hamilton and Alice Finall.

While this may not reflect a big gain in numbers for women over time at the mayor level, it suggests to me a trend by women towards greater involve-ment and leadership in local government.

Women tend to participate more proactively in mentoring and supporting other women by serving as positive role models in community leadership and, in my experience, this is par-ticularly true. Had it not been for the encouragement and men-torship of other women in my community (former North Saanich council members Alice Finall, Dee Bailin and Sheila Irving) and former North Saanich Mayor Linda Michaluk, it is unlikely that I would have become involved in public life and local government.

In a recent National Post article by John Ivison (published Jan. 7, 2015), voters were asked to choose between men and women candidates. Here are the interesting results:

n 70% of respondents said women had values closer to their own, as opposed to 30% for men.

n 65% of respondents said women are capable of getting things done, as opposed to 35% for men.

n 54% of respondents said women are good in a crisis, as opposed to 46% for men.

New Abacus Data research suggests that two-thirds of voters will choose a female can-didate over a male candidate, not so much as tokenism, but “as enlightened self-inter-

est.” This appears true for the federal Liberal Party, given that it is reported that “fully one-third” of their candidates are female.

The article goes on to sug-gest that being female and also being a local candidate is a rec-ipe for potential election suc-cess. Certainly these two quali-fiers are evident throughout the 13 CRD municipalities where new and returning local female candidates did well in the 2014 municipal election.

The article also quotes Cath-erine McKenna, Liberal can-didate in Ottawa Centre, run-ning against NDP MP Paul Dewar. McKenna says that she

“is encouraged by the sugges-tion that local candidates do mat-

ter” and is “happy to see the trend of male candidates being favoured by voters may be over.” She concludes that “this could be related to voters being less cynical about women candidates.”

Whatever the reasons are, the increasing number of women participating as candi-dates in local, provincial and federal elec-tions is significant, bringing new perspec-tives, leadership styles and balance to poli-tics, to elected office and, hopefully, to how we govern.

Cairine Green is a former councillor with the District of Oak Bay.

Cairine Green

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Business world bridges gender equalityBy Korina Miller

Gone are the days of Darrin Stephens, Mike Brady and Ward Cleaver – the days when the furthest a woman ever

got in a business was the secretary’s desk. Women have been steadily infiltrating the business world and, although statistics continue to show us that few yet reach the top, women are undoubtedly changing the business landscape.

At the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, women account for around half of enrolment. “I don’t see any particular career accessibility issues related to gender currently or in the recent past,” says Ian Robertson, asso-ciate director of the MBA program. “This may be related to the fact that we work very closely with our students one-on-one around their career development. We coach students throughout the program, helping them clarify career goals, build professional networks and gain experience that will help them forward in their career.”

Sheryl Karras, director of Gustavson’s Business Commerce program, agrees that increased sup-port networks are improving women’s success in business. “There are more and more strong female role models and mentors in business. There are business clubs like Young Women in Business, which help attract women to careers in business.”

Camosun College is seeing similar trends.“Over the past four decades, we have seen

considerable growth in women entering busi-ness programs,” explains Richard Stride, dean of Camosun School of Business. “Well over 50 per cent of our BBA graduates have been women.”

Stride sees business careers as increasingly accessible to women. “We are finding that the employment rates of women with business degrees, diplomas and certificates are at least as high as those for men. Over 54 per cent of accounting and finance roles in B.C. were filled by

women in 2013. Women are most strongly repre-sented in business fields requiring excellent com-munications skills and service orientations, such as marketing, human resources management and public relations positions. While areas such as information systems administration continue to have a fairly significant gender gap, there has been headway as more women take on leader-ship roles in the IT sector.”

But there’s more to it. In 2011, Forbes pub-lished a report that discussed the value of having gender-diverse management teams. These teams had better return on equity and assets as well as higher scores on organizational effectiveness.

“Changing societal values may be having some effect on employer expectations over time,” explains Stride, “but from a pragmatic business perspective, the proof is in the quality of the work. As the numbers of women have grown in the business workforce, it has been the demonstrated skills, dedication and quality of work that have closed much of the gender gap.”

One area where women have made an increas-ing dent is entrepreneurship. “One of our spe-cialization areas in the MBA is entrepreneurship,” explains Robertson, “so there is a strong focus on this particular area.”

Women now own more than one-third of all small businesses in B.C.

“As the numbers of women have grown in the business workforce...the demonstrated skills, dedication and quality of work have closed much of the gender gap.”

- Richard Stride, dean of Camosun School of Business

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Longtime volunteers make Thrift Shop an integral part of the community By Jennifer Blyth

he Oak Bay Thrift Shop may open just one day a week – and a half-day at that – and close for two full months in the sum-

mer, but at 33 years and growing strong, it is one of the municipality’s most successful businesses.

Buzzing with activity each Friday since Sep-tember 1982, through the support of the com-munity and countless volunteers, the enterprise has helped fund repairs to the church sanctuary and supported numerous other outreach efforts.

The concept originated with two members of the congregation who saw a similar endeavour while vacationing in Hawaii, recalls Thrift Shop manager Jean Elliott, who joined the shop when she retired to Oak Bay in 1984. “That will be 31 years ago in March and I’m still here,” she says with a laugh during a break from business.

You’ll find Elliott each Friday in the shop – home to a variety of men’s and women’s cloth-ing, shoes and accessories – along with assistant manager Lucy Holland, marking 26 years at the Thrift Shop, and longtime volunteers like Betty Thanker, who oversees the neighbouring annex building, where shoppers will find furniture, jew-elry, artworks, toys, books, electronics and other treasures.

As her 90th birthday approaches, “It’s my rea-son to get up in the morning – it’s what keeps me going,” Elliott says.

“Some customers come every Friday – they never miss. They come and tell us they’ve had a new grandchild or their husband has gone into the nursing home, and we talk to them and lis-ten. So fellowship and outreach is a big part of it; it’s not just selling.”

Because the thrift shop is completely staffed by volunteers and all its wares are donated, its overhead is extremely low, meaning virtually all the money raised can go towards the church,

programs and outreach initiatives.Each week, a variety of goods are donated to

other local organizations like Our Place, Com-passionate Resource Warehouse, Sandy Merri-man House, a women’s shelter operated by the Cool Aid Society, and Reading Tree.

Sometimes the shop helps individuals getting back on their feet – a young man who needs appropriate clothes to start a new job, for exam-ple, a young mom needing assistance, or a refu-gee family getting settled in their new country.

“Outreach is a really big part of what we do,” says Thacker, who’s been with the thrift shop since the late-1990s.

After many successful years, the shop began to outgrow its confines, and the twice-yearly garage sales for larger items weren’t enough to keep up with demand. In 2010 they were able to expand into the annex building, “and it just boomed,” Elliott says. After all, “people like bargains.”

An expanded menswear section has proven popular and “the furniture just goes like hot-cakes.”

Jewelry is also a favourite, thanks in part to the tales woven by volunteer June Carver. “You get a story with every piece of jewelry,” says Thacker.

Donations are easy to come by, thanks to the

shop’s reputation, not only with the congrega-tion but also with the greater community. In fact, people come from all over the Capital Region, says Elliott, who will often find donations out-side her condominium door. Volunteers are also available for pick-up or delivery of larger items, or when people are downsizing and have a lot to donate. “That’s always interesting and fun because you never know what you’re going to find,” Thacker says.

Sometimes they even get more than they bar-gained for, like the time they discovered $125 tucked into a brassiere. “We’ve all said we could write a book about this place,” Elliott laughs.

What has made the Oak Bay Thrift Shop so successful over the decades? “I think it’s because we don’t have high prices. If you start putting the prices up, people won’t come. They love the half-price sales – that’s the favourite – and the customers love us, they really do,” she says.

Tea, coffee and cookies are available until noon on selling days, and the neighbourhood dogs all know to visit Elliott for a biscuit.

For Thacker, “It’s the people who come time after time. We have people who tell us their sto-ries and we have people we share stories with. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s a lot of fun,” she says, noting that rubs off on others, and many volunteers are not even church members. “They say, ‘You look like you’re having a lot of fun – can I come and help?’”

It’s also knowing the donations and purchases are doing good, she adds, pointing to the refur-bished sanctuary. “I think that’s why people want to come too. People see what we’ve done with the money.”

Jennifer Blyth photo

Jean Elliott, left, and Betty Thacker stand in front of some of the goods available at the Thrift Shop Annex.

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The women behind the

207A - 2187 Oak Bay Ave.

www.oakbaynews.com250.480.3205

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Women in Business PROFILE

When it comes to your vision, there’s no substitute for regular, professional eye care.

It’s a message Dr. Suzanne Sutter brings to her patients each and every day at Oak Bay Optometry.

Offering complete optometry services for ten years now, Dr. Sutter and her staff provide full vision and eye health assessments, in addition to the sale of glasses and contact lenses.

“One of the best parts about my job is being able to meet and connect with people. I love kids and also love having time to visit with my elderly patients. You can learn a lot from them!” Dr. Sutter emphasizes.

“We have a friendly clinic with a lot of character,” Dr. Sutter says. With a caring,

knowledgeable team of eye care specialists, “we have a fun, relaxed atmosphere while at the same time offering top-quality eye care with the most advanced technology.”

Originally from Saskatoon, Dr. Sutter moved to Victoria

after graduating from the University of Waterloo. She and her husband are happy to be settled in Victoria and are glad to be raising their young daughter in such a

wonderful city.

Dr. Sutter works four days a week with evening and

weekend appointments available. She is welcoming new patients.

For more information, call Oak Bay Optometry at 250-595-8500 or check out our website at oakbayoptometry.com.

When it comes to your vision, there’s no knowledgeable team of eye care specialists,

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Dr. Suzanne Sutter

Group helping women dress for success

T he Oak Bay News has partnered with Wear2Start to help

women in need dress their best for that all important job inter-view or their first few days on the job.

The non-profit society pro-vides suitable clothing, shoes and accessories, as well as other essential services such as hair-cuts, makeup and alterations. Clients are referred by agencies that provide job training, skills development and job re-entry services for women of all ages and backgrounds.

The Oak Bay News sees the partnership as a perfect fit. Women who are successfully achieving their goals want to help other women do the same.

“The people of Victoria have been so generous with cloth-ing donations that we can’t take any more at the moment,” said Val Sharp, volunteer co-ordina-tor. “However, we still require shoes, purses and jewelry.”

The organization relies on donations and fundraising to pay the rent and keep the orga-nization running.

“We don’t receive any government funding, so tax-deductible monetary donations of any amount are really wel-come,” said Sharp.

Donations can be made online at www.canadahelps.org or cheques made pay-able to ‘Wear2Start Society’

can be dropped off or mailed toWear2Start, 216 – 733 John-son St., Victoria, B.C. V8W 3C7.

Donations and cheques may also be left at the Oak Bay News office, on the second floor of Athlone Court, 207A – 2187 Oak Bay Ave. For more

information call 250-472-9327 or visit www.wear2start.com.

Rosie Jullion, a volunteer with Wear2Start, finds a great blouse for her client to try on.

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Special Features - Oak Bay Women In Business