Small Business Challenges for Espanola-Sudbury-Manitoulin
No! This article is not about what the new Espanola Municipal Council should do or should prepare to do. This essay will be about Espanola business community with remarks about the need for change in some aspects. Admittedly there is a beginning comment regarding the newly elected council.
The new council is probably already busy learning the legislation that makes the organization work. The provincial legislation related to municipalities needs to be studied and the staff must be made comfortable that the rhetoric plastered on the social media sites before and during the election campaign were something not to be feared nor a reason to fear job lose. It will take some time before even the first results will indicate the strength of those people elected. Promises at election time are one thing, positive action resulting from cooperation between department heads and council is always the true test of any council’s effectiveness.
The Sudbury/Manitoulin small and medium size business community was the topic of a report on local television that will have an impact on Espanola. Business is currently under new pressure that will not be temporary. Shoppers are changing buying habits and purchasing more of their needs on line. The effect is already felt by the big box stores. The icon Sears Canada stores are facing the possibility of going in the same direction as the T Eaton company went a few years ago by disappearing from the retail scene. Recent profit figures indicate the Sears stores already in serious financial trouble in the United States is losing the loyalty of shoppers in Canada causing profits to plunge. The same scenario is happening with stores such as Future Shop and Best Buy, Staples and Target according to news reports to mention only a few of those affected.
Espanola’s business community serves a large region that is probably only second to Greater Sudbury at least on the Highway 17 Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie corridor. Espanola’s business catchment area includes the region from Elliot Lake and Blind River to Nairn and Manitoulin Island. It is a place people travel to for a larger selection of groceries and items in Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Giant Tiger, Tim Horton’s and the Dollarama to mention only a few. Elliot Lake is included since losing the mall that collapsed according to some published reports sharply reduced business locations and local shopper traffic.
Espanola’s retail, wholesale, auto sector and service sectors employ many local people. Hiring local people often provides a second income for a family. Many businesses offer initial employment to school and university students and graduates while at home and likely looking to larger centers for better paying jobs in their chosen fields. Working for local business establishments can become a stepping stone to better paying jobs both locally and in other centers because every job adds to experience on a job application.
When it comes to rates of pay small business is usually near or slightly above the minimum wage level while medium sized business with larger income offer slightly more. All employers are required to pay for all hours worked. Some consider employee benefits such as extra vacation or even health insurance to try keeping employees the firm has already spent money on for training. Some employers might offer days off with pay or time off in lieu for extra service to the firm.
Retaining valuable employees is difficult for small and medium business firms. Each must compete with hiring programs by local industry. Those offerings usually pay much higher wages and until recently assured workers of pension, health care, vacation and other benefits. Most jobs offers wage packages far beyond those paid people in the small and medium business sectors. However recent changes in most industrial and large service enterprises are less likely to offer those tradition benefits although the base wages and more skeletal benefits packages are mostly much better than the going small/medium business rates.
With the changing customer buying practices the small business owner will be hard pressed to increase the size of the business and hire new employees even at the lower rate. With some unmatchable competition from local industry for retaining the best employees the small business industry is facing insurmountable odds to keep operating. Industrial hiring competition is only part of the problem. Losing staff to civil service provincial and federal government jobs or even the municipality’s public service paying well above the small and often medium size business wage rates is also a challenge. Civil and public service employees are usually highly unionized and the last to feel downsizing since the money to pay those wages and benefits comes from taxpayers. New taxes or service increases often offset the need to downsize the sometimes larger than need staff numbers.
To grow the small and medium size business sector both large and small municipalities need to offer incentives to business upstarts in an effort to create new jobs locally. In large cities the problem is more easily handled since the budget is larger and the impact of offering incentive financing not as difficult. Small municipalities facing mounting infrastructure upkeep and service demands for an aging population, tax increases are a difficult if not impossible and unpopular situation especially at election time.
The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce statement about the challenges to expand small and medium size business sectors in the entire region is a valid concern. Internet shopping offering low prices and often next day shipping, competition in hiring and keeping staff together with increasing product and operating expenses will undoubtedly affect business growth and even stability in the immediate future.
Undoubtedly those are the reasons for escalating youth unemployment, senior service declines and property tax increases throughout the region. The obvious cure will be an overpowering need to reduce spending, streamline programs and in the case of online spending find a way to compete with the internet sellers while remaining profitable. Comments from readers with ideas for a solution would be appreciated and widely circulated.
The new council is probably already busy learning the legislation that makes the organization work. The provincial legislation related to municipalities needs to be studied and the staff must be made comfortable that the rhetoric plastered on the social media sites before and during the election campaign were something not to be feared nor a reason to fear job lose. It will take some time before even the first results will indicate the strength of those people elected. Promises at election time are one thing, positive action resulting from cooperation between department heads and council is always the true test of any council’s effectiveness.
The Sudbury/Manitoulin small and medium size business community was the topic of a report on local television that will have an impact on Espanola. Business is currently under new pressure that will not be temporary. Shoppers are changing buying habits and purchasing more of their needs on line. The effect is already felt by the big box stores. The icon Sears Canada stores are facing the possibility of going in the same direction as the T Eaton company went a few years ago by disappearing from the retail scene. Recent profit figures indicate the Sears stores already in serious financial trouble in the United States is losing the loyalty of shoppers in Canada causing profits to plunge. The same scenario is happening with stores such as Future Shop and Best Buy, Staples and Target according to news reports to mention only a few of those affected.
Espanola’s business community serves a large region that is probably only second to Greater Sudbury at least on the Highway 17 Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie corridor. Espanola’s business catchment area includes the region from Elliot Lake and Blind River to Nairn and Manitoulin Island. It is a place people travel to for a larger selection of groceries and items in Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Giant Tiger, Tim Horton’s and the Dollarama to mention only a few. Elliot Lake is included since losing the mall that collapsed according to some published reports sharply reduced business locations and local shopper traffic.
Espanola’s retail, wholesale, auto sector and service sectors employ many local people. Hiring local people often provides a second income for a family. Many businesses offer initial employment to school and university students and graduates while at home and likely looking to larger centers for better paying jobs in their chosen fields. Working for local business establishments can become a stepping stone to better paying jobs both locally and in other centers because every job adds to experience on a job application.
When it comes to rates of pay small business is usually near or slightly above the minimum wage level while medium sized business with larger income offer slightly more. All employers are required to pay for all hours worked. Some consider employee benefits such as extra vacation or even health insurance to try keeping employees the firm has already spent money on for training. Some employers might offer days off with pay or time off in lieu for extra service to the firm.
Retaining valuable employees is difficult for small and medium business firms. Each must compete with hiring programs by local industry. Those offerings usually pay much higher wages and until recently assured workers of pension, health care, vacation and other benefits. Most jobs offers wage packages far beyond those paid people in the small and medium business sectors. However recent changes in most industrial and large service enterprises are less likely to offer those tradition benefits although the base wages and more skeletal benefits packages are mostly much better than the going small/medium business rates.
With the changing customer buying practices the small business owner will be hard pressed to increase the size of the business and hire new employees even at the lower rate. With some unmatchable competition from local industry for retaining the best employees the small business industry is facing insurmountable odds to keep operating. Industrial hiring competition is only part of the problem. Losing staff to civil service provincial and federal government jobs or even the municipality’s public service paying well above the small and often medium size business wage rates is also a challenge. Civil and public service employees are usually highly unionized and the last to feel downsizing since the money to pay those wages and benefits comes from taxpayers. New taxes or service increases often offset the need to downsize the sometimes larger than need staff numbers.
To grow the small and medium size business sector both large and small municipalities need to offer incentives to business upstarts in an effort to create new jobs locally. In large cities the problem is more easily handled since the budget is larger and the impact of offering incentive financing not as difficult. Small municipalities facing mounting infrastructure upkeep and service demands for an aging population, tax increases are a difficult if not impossible and unpopular situation especially at election time.
The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce statement about the challenges to expand small and medium size business sectors in the entire region is a valid concern. Internet shopping offering low prices and often next day shipping, competition in hiring and keeping staff together with increasing product and operating expenses will undoubtedly affect business growth and even stability in the immediate future.
Undoubtedly those are the reasons for escalating youth unemployment, senior service declines and property tax increases throughout the region. The obvious cure will be an overpowering need to reduce spending, streamline programs and in the case of online spending find a way to compete with the internet sellers while remaining profitable. Comments from readers with ideas for a solution would be appreciated and widely circulated.
