BC Business
In the past couple of months I have received six requests for information about the BC business scene from people who have moved here or are planning to do so. And this isn’t all from the usual sources, Toronto or Alberta. It’s much wider. The requests have also come from India via the UK, Brazil, Holland and the eastern United States. Couple that with the launch of new business directions by several people I know locally and I begin to think something is happening. In almost all cases I’ve run across so far, the root of the planned change is the desire to take advantage of the BC lifestyle. The out-of-Canada connections automatically mention that they visited BC or heard of it and loved it enough to want to live here. The local changers are trying to better balance their lives with their businesses. In some cases, it’s the result of layoffs, cutbacks, and other economic problem fallout. Now, usually, I try not to extrapolate what’s happening to me on a small scale into much larger situations – it would be the height of hubris. Also, it could be completely random. But I wonder if all the economic turmoil that’s currently sweeping the world is a cause. I have been saying for a while that this recession, downturn, depression or whatever the alarmists want to call it this week, is a millennium thing. Centuries don’t end on the dot when the digits turn over on New Year’s Day. The transition from one century to another often takes a decade to play out. So today’s massive economic problems may be triggering a recognition that we really have changed centuries. This is usually followed by a realization that ideas that worked in the previous one are no longer working. Facing this change, people could be reacting by re-examining and reinventing their lives, their careers and their businesses. I’m wonder if anyone else has sniffed something in the air that indicates we’re in for major change in coming months and years. And has ideas on how that change is going to manifest.