The Town of Oliver and the South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce have joined forces to gauge how the business community is doing in Oliver. The “Business Walks” initiative was designed to help local businesses thrive. At left, Paul Eby from OK Photo Lab listens to Chamber president Brian Highley (middle) during one of the surveys last week. At right is Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes ready with his questions. Photo by Trevor Nichols
On an overcast afternoon October 30 Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes stood inside OK Photo Lab in Oliver with owner Paul Eby and Brian Highley, the president of the South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Hovanes had just asked Eby what the town could do to make his business better, and as Eby talked about the need for more parking downtown, Highley scribbled notes onto his clipboard.
Hovanes listened, nodding, occasionally interjecting with comments about some of the Town’s plans, or getting more information from Eby.
The conversation lasted about 10 minutes, during which Hovanes asked Eby five questions and Highley copied down his answers.
By the end of the afternoon, the pair of volunteers had hit just about every retail business downtown, as the last of October’s Business Walks came to a close.
The Business Walks are an initiative of the Town of Oliver and the Chamber, supported by the provincial government.
During small business month (in Oliver’s case Oct. 29-30) volunteers visited each business in town and asked them a series of questions to gauge how they are doing.
The questions range from how many employees each business has, to what the owners’ retirement and succession plans and greatest challenges are.
“The questions are quite broad, but that allows us to get a lot more information from businesses,” explained Denise Blashko, executive director of the Chamber.
Blashko is currently entering all the information volunteers collected during the two-day survey anonymously into a database, which will then be turned into a report on the state of small business in Oliver.
“Hopefully there are some small things that can be tackled right away, and get on to the momentum. Whether it’s starting a signage conversation with town hall, or other points that are brought up we can bring to council quickly,” Blashko said.
“We’re really going to look through what we as the chamber and the town can do in the short term.”
The information will also help on a broader, long-term scale as well. Business Walks also happened across the province in October, and information from all the communities will be combined at the provincial level to help identify province-wide small business trends.
By Trevor Nichols
