Do you sell software? The City of Nanaimo is seeking quotes for a SAP Software Upgrade Project.

The City of Nanaimo is requesting quotes from interested parties for the upgrade of their existing SAP BW and EP environments to the latest versions. For more information visit The City of Nanaimo or for more bid opportunities visit BC Bid.

Closing Time: Tenders must be received before 2:00 PM Pacific Time on: June 2, 2010

Loose leaf tea is the highest quality and better for you says Coreen Green, the owner of Tea Leaf  Specialty Tea and Cafe on Commercial Street in Nanaimo.  Here is my interview with Coreen:

Mid Island News:  How did you get interested in tea?

Coreen Green:  Originally I was thinking of operating a cafe, but then I realized the health benefits of tea, so I thought why not combine the two and create a trendy tea/cafe.  I’m working with the former owner of the Shanghai Tea Emporium, who travels to China five times a year to import teas and he has also introduced me to another high quality line of teas which are unique to Vancouver Island.    Just recently, I have shipped tea to people in California, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

MIN:  What are some of the health benefits of tea?

CG:  One of the major benefits with tea is that it has 1/3 less caffeine than coffee and contains nutrients that can help you stay calm, fight colds and generally bolster your immune system.  I also carry a selection of medicinal teas.

MIN:  Is there a difference between loose leaf tea and tea sachets?

CG:  There is a huge difference.  Here, when you come into the store, you can smell the flavours of each type of tea and that is exactly how the tea will taste once it’s brewed.  When I make a chai latte for example, I brew the tea first.  Everything that goes into that latte is natural; there are no syrups or artificial ingredients.  It takes a bit longer to make, but it’s worth it.

MIN:  Do you offer baked goods and sandwiches?

CG:  Right now I’m working with a baker to create a large variety of scones, everything from bacon to chocolate that will be a complement to our teas and coffees.

Coreen also carries books on meditation and inspirational plaques and notes.  So if you’re feeling harried and want to calm down and let your mind and body relax, visit the Tea Leaf Specialty Tea and Cafe in downtown Nanaimo at 13b Commercial Street (across from the Vancouver Island Conference Centre) or visit online at www.tealeafteas.com.

On November 12, the City of Parksville hosted an open house, providing the community with the opportunity to review the work being done by the City’s consultants, Boulevard Transportation Group on the City’s Master Transportation Plan and Downtown Core Area Parking Study.

Over 400 residents attended the open house and presentations!  Give your feed back by Friday, November 20.  Go to the link below and find out more..

http://65.39.188.149/cms.asp?wpID=286

Are you a woman in business in the Oceanside area? Need help facing  the challenges of better business practices.  Their is a group, made up of six to eight women, that will meet six times and discuss different business topic at each meeting based on member interest and need (e.g. work/life balance, marketing, networking skills, cash flow management).

This program is offered by the Women’s Enterprise Centre and there is no cost to join. If you are a woman in the first three years of business development and would like to become a part of the Parksville Peer Mentoring Group click here to apply.

Looking for a community cause to get behind?  The shovels and tools are getting into action to give a facelift to the old E&N train station on Selby Street in Nanaimo. First, a little history for you: In 1920 the new E&N Station was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company on the site of the original station and remained in continuous use until it was gutted by fire in 2007.

Who is behind the rescue of the Nanaimo train station?  The Nanaimo Train Station Partnership which was created to raise the funds necessary for the restoration of Nanaimo’s E&N Train Station.  The Partnership includes the Young Professionals of Nanaimo, the Downtown Nanaimo Partnership Society and the Island Corridor Foundation.

The Nanaimo Train Station Partnership hopes to raise the remaining $400,000 for the full restoration of the E&N Station.

To find out how you can be a part of rebuilding Nanaimo’s E&N Station contact Andre Sullivan of the Young Professionals of Nanaimo or Matt Hussmann of the Downtown Nanaimo Partnership Society.

Are you living in Nanaimo and working in Victoria?  How would you like to take the train into work? Imagine boarding the Vancouver Island Dayliner at the E&N train station in Nanaimo at 6am and arriving in Victoria at 8am.  Have a relaxing trip: read, sleep or catch up on some work on your morning commute. Then the train would be back in the evening for the commute home!  The Island Corridor Foundation is working on this with other groups in the hopes this can become a reality.

Congratulations to The Beach Club Resort for being a Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s award finalist this year.  The resort is a contender for the New Business of the Year Award sponsored by Delta Hotels and Resorts.  There are two other resorts that are award finalists:

* The Beach Club Resort (Parksville, British Columbia)
* Éco-odyssée (LaPêche – Secteur Wakefield, Québec)
* Great River Journey Inc. (Whitehorse, Yukon)

The awards will be presented at a gala dinner November 3, 2009 during Canada’s Tourism Leadership Summit in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Good Luck!

Here is my interview with Jan Kretz of Adventuress, an eco-kayaking tour company based in Nanoose Bay:

Jan Kretz has been operating Adventuress Kayak Tours for 7 years, offering kayaking adventures for anyone who wants to see the beautiful areas around Vancouver Island.

Jan Kretz:  I first got inspired by a conference I attended in Banff on eco-tourism.  At the time, in 1994 eco-tourism wasn’t a common idea and it wasn’t until some years later when I was living in Victoria that I heard about the tourism program being offered at what was then Malaspina College.  So I moved up from Victora and earned my diploma and afterward, returned to complete my degree at Vancouver Island University in recreation and tourism.   In 2003, I went about getting my truck and kayaks and off I started.  Now I’m based in Nanoose and the word is getting out about my tours.

Mid Island News:  One of your trips included outdoor therapy, could you expand on that?

Jan Kretz:  These particular kayaking tours are like transformative journeys.  I have a really great therapist who comes with us and we do things like medicine walks, where each person goes on a short walk, looks at nature around them and then we come back and share our interpretations and observations.   Being close to nature has a calming, de-stressing affect on people.

Mid Island News:  what is the biggest challenge for a novice kayaker?

Jan Kretz:  Probably the biggest challenge for a novice is facing one’s fear of the open water.  I teach everyone about safety techniques and I keep up to date with Coast Guard training so I make sure that everyone knows exactly what to do and how to do it.  Once you’re facing the wind and waves and you overcome these obstacles, it is the most exhilarating feeling in the world.

Mid Island News:  Have you had any encounters with wildlife?

Jan Kretz:  We’ve seen sea lions, eagles, turkey vultures and just the other day we came across a newborn seal pup.  There is just so much to see, some of the visitors don’t want to go  home!

Mid Island News:  What about food?

Jan Kretz:  I prepare all the food in advance.  I go over any special requirements with every client so everyone is accommodated and I pack an abundance of fresh fruit and a few chocolatey surprises!

Mid Island News:  Your website, www.adventuress.ca, highlights trips for women – do you offer trips for men as well?

Jan Kretz:  Yes, I do.  I offer trips for men, couples and families.  I enjoy helping to build comraderie and in the end we’re all sorry to see the trip come to a close.

Here is an interview with Ron Jarvis of the Mad Mechanic in Nanaimo:

Mid Island News:  What inspired you to come up with the name the Mad Mechanic?

Ron Jarvis:  I used to have a logo for my shop of a mad scientist.  It seemed appropriate for some of the situations I ran into. I haven’t used the logo anymore because of advertising costs, but the name stuck.

MIN: What types of vehicles do you repair?

Ron:  We repair cars and trucks, both domestic and imports for all sorts of repairs from brakes to air conditioning.

MIN:  Do you have any tips?

Ron:  No, not really.  I’ve been a mechanic for 43 years so I’ve seen just about everything.

MIN:  How many of those years have you spent in Nanaimo?

Ron: About 30 years.  I’m planning to retire in the next two or three years.

MIN:  Whereabouts are you located?

Ron:  Just around the corner from the Jinglepot Pub.

So the next time you’re visiting the Jinglepot Pub and your car or truck won’t start, there is help close by.

This month’s Small Business BC newsletter features an  interview with Joel Morrison, CEO of Morrison Equipment, which started its roots here in Mid Vancouver Island.   The following is just a snippet of the interview:

Joel Morrison (JM): We were in the heavy equipment repair and rebuilding business — working on excavators, doing welding and so on. About 20 years ago, one of our customers — a contractor who wanted to secure a private road — asked us to build an anti-ram gate. Gates were a side-line for us for a long time.

About eight years ago I started market research on the barrier business and discovered that there were virtually no products commercially available that were as robust as our systems. So I set out to market our products to the world. This has been a long and difficult road. Without a means to support the business through lean times — that being the original heavy machinery equipment servicing business — we would not have made it here.

Our customers now include the U.S. Military, U.S. Government, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, armored car services, power utilities, nuclear power plants, and so on.

SBBC:  What advice can you offer other entrepreneurs?

CJ:  Growing the business took a lot of perseverance — to not give up while waiting for that big break, to not lose heart. I’d had the website up for nearly 2 years, it was just a money pit with nothing to show for it. In fact, I was walking to the phone to call the web hosting company to tell them to pull the site down, and just then the phone rang and I got my first big sale. My advice to anyone with a marketable idea is: Don’t give up, keep looking for why it is not working and, while you do that, try to have another source of income to keep your business going.

For the entire interview it is on Small Business BC enews.