Insights

Notes from the work.

Practical notes on public procurement, funding programs and the business market in British Columbia and across Canada.

  • The Gastown Steam Clock standing on a foggy street in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood

    Public Sector & Bids

    BC procurement changes this fall: what bidders should act on

    Five changes since mid-September affect how BC firms price, schedule, and manage public bids. Most need an hour of checking, not a new strategy.

    Photo by Indraadityan Logamurugan on Unsplash

  • Two men at a café table reviewing charts and figures on a laptop screen

    Growth & Ventures

    Market sizing a lender will accept

    A lender checks your market size claim by claim. This autumn's Statistics Canada releases mean many base numbers in BC plans now need a second look.

    Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

  • Two men reviewing documents together at a desk in a bright office

    Deals & Investment

    Selling a business confidentially: when to tell your staff

    The timing of telling staff about a sale depends less on nerve than on deal stage and BC employment law. A staged plan keeps the deal intact and keeps your people informed when it counts.

    Photo by Jelly Marketing on Unsplash

  • Fishing boats and sailboats moored along a marina dock in Steveston, Richmond, with calm water reflecting a partly cloudy blue sky

    Growth & Ventures

    Nation-owned business feasibility: build it in stages

    A feasibility study is not one document. For a development corporation, it works best as three rungs, each sized to the funder and the decision in front of the board.

    Photo by Zion C on Unsplash

  • A large crane on a dirt road at a construction site

    Public Sector & Bids

    Writing an Indigenous participation plan that holds up

    Once a contract is awarded, the plan in your bid becomes an obligation that is tracked and enforced. Federal rules on what counts toward the target are getting stricter.

    Photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash

  • Two people reviewing paperwork together at a conference table

    Deals & Investment

    Business valuation: what you expect versus what buyers pay

    Owners often price a business from what they need for retirement. Buyers price it from risk and from what a lender will finance, and you can narrow the gap before you sell.

    Photo by Olena Kholina on Unsplash

  • Public Sector & Bids

    Most bids are lost before they are written

    The decision to pursue a tender matters more than the quality of the writing. A five-question test helps you make it well.

  • Growth & Ventures

    Feasibility before financing

    A lender will test your new venture with a predictable set of questions. Answer them yourself first, while changing the plan is still cheap.

  • An interior mid-renovation, with steel stud framing, drywall sheets leaning against the walls and a work light hanging from the ceiling

    Growth & Ventures

    Opening a second location: questions to answer first

    A successful first location is the best evidence that a second can work. It is also the most misleading. Test the new site on its own numbers before you sign.

    Photo by Olek Buzunov on Unsplash

  • The British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria lit at dusk, seen across the Inner Harbour marina

    Funding & Grants

    Preparing a grant application before the intake opens

    Most of what decides a grant application is ready, or not ready, before the intake opens. Use the quiet months to build the file.

    Photo by Veronica Dudarev on Unsplash

  • A metal fabrication workshop with a CNC plasma cutting table, a hoist chain and industrial fans under high windows

    Deals & Investment

    Getting a business ready for sale: the two-year runway

    Buyers pay for a business that runs without its owner and whose numbers need no explaining. Both take longer to build than most owners expect.

    Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash

  • A SkyTrain on a curving elevated guideway beneath a road viaduct, with traffic and towers behind, in Vancouver

    Public Sector & Bids

    Where public spending is heading, and what it means for BC firms

    Federal buyers now favour Canadian suppliers, defence budgets are rising fast, and the Province is repacing its capital plan. Each change shifts where the work is and how it is scored.

    Photo by Ewan Streit on Unsplash

  • Power lines strung across a steep, forested mountain valley near Lillooet, BC, under an overcast sky

    Funding & Grants

    Indigenous loan guarantees for equity in major projects

    Federal and provincial guarantees now help Indigenous Nations borrow to buy ownership stakes in major projects. They lower the cost of the loan. They do not replace the work of judging the investment.

    Photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash

  • Downtown Vancouver towers seen across False Creek, with a marina below and the North Shore mountains behind

    Growth & Ventures

    A financial model a lender will believe

    Lenders rarely reject a model because the arithmetic is wrong. They reject it because they cannot see where the numbers came from, or because the cash runs out in a month nobody checked.

    Photo by Alejandro Luengo on Unsplash

  • Stacked shipping containers and red gantry cranes at the Port of Vancouver, with snow-capped Mount Baker in the distance

    Funding & Grants

    Grant stacking: combining programs without losing them

    Most programs allow other government funding on the same project, up to a limit. Know the limit and the counting rules before you apply, not after the money arrives.

    Photo by Anastasiya Dalenka on Unsplash

  • A red tower crane above a new student housing building under construction at BCIT in Burnaby, under a blue sky

    Public Sector & Bids

    Indigenous participation in public bids: what evaluators want

    Federal buyers now track how much of their spending reaches Indigenous businesses, and they are checking the claims. Firms that bid with Indigenous partners need arrangements that stand up to that scrutiny.

    Photo by Chad Montgomery on Unsplash

  • A row of independent shopfronts on a city street, with a western-wear store, power lines overhead and trees behind

    Deals & Investment

    Small business succession in BC: the retirement wave

    Most owners plan to leave within a decade, and few have a written plan. That gap shapes the market for sellers and buyers alike.

    Photo by Matt Hanns Schroeter on Unsplash

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