Three lucky charms for thriving in a tough economy – Okanagan business style

Lucky Charm One – Keep Overhead Low

In these tough economic times, Tammi Berzins, co-owner of Berzins Designs in Vernon, B.C. says, “People are still building, renovating and doing a bit of everything.” Tammi has been in business for four years. She says, “I love what I do and enjoy working in the Okanagan.” Tammi and her business partner Carley Sawka travel to interior design related trade shows to make sure they are current in the design world.

Berzins Designs recently completed an FF and E (the interior design and installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment) at Firelight Lodge at Silver Star Mountain Resort, but Tammi does admit these times are difficult. Tammi says, “We try to keep things minimal, and not have a large overhead. We were fortunate that the (Firelight Lodge) hotel project happened at a good time. My best suggestion for business owners is to keep expences and overhead as low as you can.” 

Berzins Designs does commercial and residential interior design work for a handful of builders in the Vernon area.

Lucky Charm Two – Fill A Need, Even if it’s only temporary

Elizabeth Sweezie has a background in accounting and a Business Administration diploma from Okanagan College. She has been organizing offices and their paperwork systems for twenty years. She started her business Office 2 Office one year ago because she knew it could fill the gap for a “temp” service.

Now, she steps in temporarily to help small businesses who are bursting at the seams with paperwork, lack of efficient systems, or expansion to organize their offices. She does collection letters, customizes forms, creates invoices, puts payables and receivables into one place and labels it all so they can find it. She says that the companies she helps just need, “a little specific organizational business to be done. This frees owners up to take care of their business.”

To find clients, she keeps herself involved with several organizations including:

Vernon Women in Business (Website Director)
North Okanagan Referral Association
Toastmasters (Acting VP of Education)
Okanagan Business Exchange.

Next, she will look at helping bookkeepers and accountants.

Lucky Charm Three – Diversify

When Adrienne Harris’ phone stopped ringing, she diversified to survive in business.

Adrienne Harris has owned Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design for four years and she helps the homeowner or real estate professional prepare the condition of a home or property to sell. She says, “This enhances marketing, because 90% of home buyers look on line before purchasing.” According to Adrienne, when a homebuyer works with a realtor, they look at location and what they can spend. Once those needs are met, they buy that home based on its condition….that’s where she comes in.

(Before shot)

Her husband Adam Harris is a real estate agent with Century 21. Her and Adam have been buying, renovating and selling houses (also called “flipping”) for the past three years. This has led to doing small renovations for others.

“To survive in business, we’ve had to diversify. My husband went from full time real estate to taking on more renovations. I’ve had to diversify too. I’ve had to recreate my business. My phone was no longer ringing. I may do the work myself rather than sub it out to a sub trade. I’m not going to hire someone to powerwash a client’s dock when I’m more than capable of doing it.” Adrienne remarks.


Recently, Adrienne and Adam combined two businesses they own, Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design and Portico Property Concierge, into a corporation called North Okanagan Property Services. She says, “We want to be a one stop shop service for homeowners whether they need maintenance, renovations or want to sell their home.”

You can follow Adrienne on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/okanaganstager

What are you doing to survive or thrive in these tough times? I would love to hear from you. Comments can be left at the bottom of this blog by clicking the comments link below.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Business Survivor

Follow me on Twitter (@vernongirl) or subscribe to my blog.

Comments

[Elizabeth - Office 2 Office]

I love what you have written and really hope it helps your business

[Elizabeth - Office 2 Office]

Wow, this is great, so exciting to read your blog and with such great company, three lucky charms.