Business different here and there

BY BRENT FOX

Kings County Register



Nova Scotia offers many advantages to begin and conduct a business here at home, but there are ways to improve internationally.

The second Kings County Small Business Conference took place in Greenwich March 22. Nick Kasteljanov of Kasting Computers and the Wolfville CAP lab, Hanspeter Stutz of Domaine de Grand Pre and Ian McKenzie of Isabella's B&B took part in a business owners’ panel on operating in other countries.

A native of the former Yugoslavia, Kasteljanov noted his homeland had been a communist country that permitted small business to operate alongside state-run medium and large entities. Small businesses were the best operated and, when the country split up in the early 1990s with various wars erupting,“it was very difficult to do business,” Kasteljanov said.

But enterprise did flourish during the war: “some shady people did some successful business.”

Afterwards, with separatism, boundaries were difficult for business - especially when one republic would close its borders.

“But the big-scale businesses had more problems with that,” Kasteljanov noted. “Small businesses found more ways to get around things.”

Smuggling developed as a novel means of doing business, Kasteljanov said. Racketeering took place, and it was hard to know who to trust.

Still, he noted, “small businesses found ways to survive.”



A world of difference

Things are different in Canada, he has since found.

“In Canada, I learned it is so easy to register a business.”

Money transfers - debit and credit - are easy.

That there are two types of immigrants coming here, Kasteljanov said: those with money and those without. The second category has problems raising investment capital because they have no known business or financial history here. He suggested better means for newcomers to establish partnerships with Canadian businesspersons.

A former Swiss banker, Stutz, said things are done differently elsewhere - not necessarily better, but there are things that could be done better here.

“We can ask government for more support.”

Government can help proactive development through research for trends and markets. The government is able to ease access to export markets. There are funding resources, but it's hard to find them.

At the same time, businesspeople need to get more of a team attitude instead of the “single-fighter” mentality.

“Let's start a new culture; let's do more together.”

Stutz noted, however, Nova Scotia has much quicker development approval systems than Austria, Germany or Switzerland.



Differences and similarities

Recently returned from working and operating a business in Bermuda, McKenzie noted some businesses differences and similarities.

The former Wolfville Coffee Merchant owner found the labour in Bermuda had attitude issues; in Wolfville, labour is transient because of the student population. The loss of skilled tradespeople is universal. Skilled people who can give you an estimate and stick with it are getting more and more rare, everywhere, he noted. This affects business.

McKenzie said Canada is great for small business because government support is there.

“But you have to go out and find things. The government doesn't call you up with it. You have to do a lot of research on it.”

Since returning to start another business, McKenzie noticed there are fewer American tourists than before, but more European visitors. An effort has to be made to get the Americans back, he said, and to promote the area as a destination for Halifax residents. McKenzie said Prince Edward Island is an example of how a place can be prepared and marketed for visitors.