By: Karra Barron

Most entrepreneurs feel stressed out when they have to twist themselves in different directions in order to run their business. Sharan Sumal, on the other hand, thinks that getting herself into a twist is absolute bliss.

“Yoga is a way of life for me,” says Sharan. “[As a child] yoga helped me deal with my abundance of energy and bring that energy level down without tiring out the body and mind. In fact, I would often feel more focused and refreshed after meditation.”

After working for seven years in the Mental Health and Addictions field, Sharan found herself wanting to change gears but still stay close to the health and healing part of her career. With a baby on the way, she found that opening her own business would give her the freedom to do what she loves and be a full-time mom. Sharan is now the owner of Yoga on the Flow, a mobile yoga studio that specializes in Yoga Therapy.

A practitioner of yoga for over 17 years, Sharan only discovered this unique form of yoga a few years ago at her old job. She would bring her clients to Yoga Therapy classes and began to notice not only physical changes in them, but that they were dealing with their emotions in a more positive way thanks to this therapy. She explains:

“In Therapeutic Yoga, practices are adapted to suit each individual’s specific needs. Poses are modified to each individual’s body and we do this by using props such as blocks, bolsters, straps and chairs. Modifications help to maximize the therapeutic benefits of the pose while significantly reducing the risk of injury.”

Sharan knows that Yoga Therapy is a flourishing industry and hopes to open a studio in a permanent location one day while hiring more Therapeutic Yoga teachers who’ve graduated from Yoga Therapy International. For now, she’s happy to keep her business mobile, coming to her clients whenever they need her or inviting them to one of her two Downtown spaces- one of them being The Network Hub.

“Through [my] business, I get to help people learn how to do the very thing I have enjoyed doing for much of my life.  How many people can say that?  Being able to share a part of my life with others is a real blessing,” adds Sharan.
For anyone looking to relieve stress at the end of the day, Sharan shares her favourite restorative pose.

“I most often call it a ‘transitional’ pose, it helps me to transition from work to home life.  We all need to reset and recharge for home life – try it out! Namaste.”

Wall Hang

 Cues

• At a wall, sit with your left or right side of the body to the wall
• Swing your legs up to the wall and rest your back on your mat – arms are at your sides with the palms facing up
• If your hamstrings are tight, move your buttocks away from the wall until you no longer feel them (your legs should not distract you in this pose)
• Place a blanket over yourself if you are cold
• Use an eye bag (or place a folded face cloth over your eyes) to facilitate relaxation
• Breathe softly, quietly and gently
• Stay in the pose anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes
• When coming out of the pose, first bring your knees to your chest and hug them for a few breaths, then roll over to your side and come up safely

Benefits

• Rests the heart
• Rests tired legs and prevents varicose veins
• Soothes the sympathetic nervous system
• Relieves palpitations, breathlessness, asthma, bronchitis and throat ailments
• Reduces indigestion and nausea

5 years ago, Gordon Skillen started the Institute of Professional Bookkeeping of Canada and grew it into the largest bookkeeping association in Canada. Despite 30 years of industry experience, Gordon was a victim of fraud

It’s the same story you’ve probably heard a number of times. A “professional” who looked and sounded normal, and even had references stating how fantastic he was. Instead of doing his Due Diligence, Gordon believed the information that had been shared with him. Information that, at face value, showed the professional to be nothing less than a saint among men. Glowing references, a professional designation, and membership in respectable and well known organizations.

Unfortunately, this is what snakes in suits look like. They do their best to blend in, trying to look exactly the same as every other professional. It’s not until you look a bit deeper do you learn that the story they’re telling isn’t quite true. The glowing testimonials were fabricated by their friends. The professional association has never heard of them. And the criminal record they neglected to mention is proof that they’ve suckered someone else before. Yet there they were, offering their services to the next victim, and this time it was Gordon Skillen. He fell for it and it nearly ruined his life.

To ensure he would never have to feel the embarrassment and shame of being a victim, Gordon sought a third party verification system to investigate future business relationships. He was looking for an easy to understand verification system to identify people and businesses; a verified level of trust and transparency. He couldn’t find it, so he created iHonest.com, allowing professionals to prove their honesty and demonstrate a commitment to transparency.

“…there were 90,932 actual incidents of fraud in Canada in 2008.”
- Statistics on Fraud in Canada - Parliament of Canada

“According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 95 per cent of people who are scammed never report it.”
- Canadian fraud cases rose in 2010 - CBC News

“…the poll of 802 firms estimated employees cheated their employers out of a collective $3.2-billion in 2010, the study’s author reckons the true figure is much larger.”
- Canadian small businesses lost $3.2-billion to workplace fraud last year, study finds - Financial Post

“More than half of the businesses in Canada…had been the victim of fraud in the past year.” “…a quarter of the businesses said their losses exceeded $500,000 and a significant portion of those crimes were committed by someone working for the company.”
- Helping prevent businesses from falling victim to fraud - The Guardian

“In 2010 there were 126,655 calls made to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center.”
- Annual Statistical Report 2010 - Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Criminal Intelligence Analytical Unit

For more on iHonest check out their website http://www.ihonest.com/ 

Latest Reach Magazine produced feature for Vancouver View Magazine. Feature on  Nanon de Gaspe Beaubien-Mattrick was written by Karra Barron and pictures were taken by Cindy Wu.  Check it out in the latest issue of Vancouver View Magazine.

As you all know, on Thursday November 24th 2011 – 6:30pm, Reach Magazine, VancityBuzz, Yellow Hat Mediaand new partner Blenz Coffee, will once again present The Buzz Entrepreneur Event at the Xi Shi Lounge in the Shangri-La Hotel.

Putting this event together would be impossible without our sponsors. We would like to thank the following sponsors, for their contribution to making this November 2011 – Buzz Event the best one yet.

1 -Blenz Coffee

2 – Xi Shi Lounge

When we first set the date for The Buzz Event we weren’t anticipating such a busy date for November 24th. Especially in the creative or innovation space! Who were we kidding? Vancouver is a great city for creative professionals and here are 4 events to check out. Too bad I can’t be in four places at once!

The Buzz Event

We are proud to be hosting our 6th Buzz Event on November 24th, 2011. Thanks to great support and a healthy demand, we have been successful in selling out! Visit Networking in Vancouver to win our last few tickets! Learn more about our event here. 

“Our city is brimming with remarkable entrepreneurs who are reshaping the competitive business industry and paving the way for new and innovative advances,” says Dammy Og, Buzz Event Founder. “The Buzz Event brings together leading thinkers on a platform that promotes idea sharing, mentorship, and networking. As a fellow entrepreneur, Buzz has been truly rewarding to build and grow so far.”

Lean Startup 101

Lean Startup Vancouver, Ideahack, and UBC Entrepreneur Society presents Lean Startup 101. This night is all about plugging students into the lean startup movement and the local tech community in Vancouver. We want you to start something, so we are connecting you to people who can help you make it happen. Learn more.

Pecha Kucha

PechaKucha Night began in Tokyo in 2003 as an event for young designers to share their work, but has since grown into a global event held in 447 cities around the world. As PechaKucha Night spread geographically, it also expanded in focus and now gathers local creatives from across many fields to share their passions in a unique, concise format: each presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds each. In Vancouver, PechaKucha Night is a fun and informal hour and a half of culture, ideas, creativity, passion and opinions. It’s a place to share your thoughts, gather as a creative community and have a good time.  Doors for this event are at 6:30. Learn more. Buy Tickets.

Startup Drinks

Startup Drinks is a casual gathering at the end of each month for anyone who’s interested in startups. We meet at a bar in downtown Vancouver and we chat about all things #startups…projects, funding, challenges, and people in the scene. Learn more about Startup Drinks on Meetup.

Make It Fair

Make It is devoted to creating positive opportunities for artists, crafters, designers & musicians. On the flip side, Make It is a shopping event that gives enlightened shoppers the opportunity to buy unique, ethically made goods from top artisans from all over Canada. The vibe at the show is funky, hip and modern very different from you traditional granny craft show!(not that there is anything wrong with that) Music is performed by up-and-coming local musicians and there are always tasty treats to be enjoyed. Make It is about appreciating creativity, connecting entrepreneurs, and giving conscious shoppers an alternative to the mall. Learn more on their website.

By: Karra Barron

It’s no secret that real estate in Vancouver is soaring to increasingly unattainable heights, but what many consumers might not realize is that most housing prices are inflated for your realtor’s benefit. This is to ensure that he or she receives a substantial commission from the deal- regardless of how much or how little work they may have put into selling or buying your home.

“The reality is that many real estate agents are overpaid,” says Barry Allen, co-founder of real estate startup, Click Realty. “94% of consumers start their real estate search online. They are information hungry and in fact, they do most of the legwork required in figuring out which home they want to buy or how they’re going to go about selling their homes. By the time a real estate agent gets involved, the consumer has done most of their job and yet, they’re the ones that reap the financial benefits.”

It’s for this reason that Barry, along with co-founders Fiona and Victor Therrien, started Click Realty. They call it a digital real estate company because it provides consumers with the online tools and information they need to sell or buy their home themselves, such as access to live updates on the Multiple Listings System. This ability comes from recent changes to the Canada Competition Act, which gives Canadians the ability to choose and pay for the services they want from a real estate agent, thus saving them more money.

To access these exclusive tools, consumers simply sign up on Click Realty’s website and create an account. “When we were selling our home a few years ago, we were frustrated with the lack of transparency in the real estate system,” explains Fiona. “With Click Realty, consumers can access the same tools realtors use, which leads to quicker and more efficient sales. We then give them back half the commission fee on the sale or purchase of their home.”

This commission is transferred to Click Realty users in the form of a rebate for 50% of the fee that would normally go into a realtors’ pocket. Their specialized technology eliminates the need for massive advertising and promotional expenses associated with a traditional company, thus allowing them to pass on the savings to their clients.

“We know that consumers are smart and we want to empower them throughout the real estate process. Whatever they need from us, whether it’s just access to information or the full spectrum of real estate services, we’re here to help them and share all the benefits of working together,” adds Victor.

Click Realty plans to continue growing and sharing their unique business model with the rest of Canada. They also hope to continue growing their affiliate partnerships to include everything from financing to moving services.

“The bottom line is that you need to be armed with the best information to make a good decision. The more educated the consumer is, the better the whole [real estate] system will be for everyone,” says Fiona.

Entrepreneurs are of a different breed. They are creators, thinkers, philanthropists, daredevils, and down-right hard-workers. It is only amongst their peers are they able to foster their uniqueness.

On Thursday November 24th 2011 – 6:30pm, Reach Magazine, VancityBuzz, Yellow Hat Media and Blenz Coffee will once again present The Buzz Entrepreneur Event at the Xi Shi Lounge in the Shangri-La Hotel. The Buzz Entrepreneur Event is known to host young and upcoming entrepreneurs Vancouver has to offer. This event will showcase a host of new start ups and award winning entrepreneurs from different industries.

Speakers for this event include Amielle Lake CEO and Co-Founder of Tagga and Lucas Roberts of MacinHome. http://lucasroberts.com/.

Doors Open at 6:30pm. Click here to buy your tickets.

The Buzz Event – June 2011 from Yellow Hat Media Inc. on Vimeo.

For those that don’t know, we now have our own section in the Vancouver View Magazine. It is also awesome that the Vancouver View Magazine is now a monthly magazine. Starting from this month October 2011, we will be giving you a monthly update of those that we feature in the Vancouver Magazine.

For the month of October, you can read up on Kym Banguis from Herro Hachi
… So make sure you pick up a copy of this months Vancouver View.

By: Karra Barron

ReachMag.ca is excited to bring you Cybele Negris’ answers to our 6 Question Series. Cybele is the President and Co-founder of Webnames.ca. You can learn more about Cybele in our “REACH for Success” section of this month’s  Vancouver View Magazine. Check out her answers to our 6 Questions below:

1. What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?

I believe that business is about building relationships. So I think the best advice I can think of is essentially from the book Dale Carnegie wrote, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

The key point I remembered most and one that my father had also taught me (he took the Dale Carnegie course decades before I did) was to “give the other person a fine reputation to live up to”. The idea is that by giving the person a good vs. bad reputation to live up to, they will achieve that reputation. If you cast doubt on what that person can do and are constantly discouraging or negative towards them, that’s what that person will be. If you are positive and encouraging and trust that the person can achieve something, then they will. This has direct application from a leadership perspective when interacting with and driving your team but can also be applied to any area of your life including raising your children.

2. What 3 things are in your business toolbox that you can’t live without?

Blackberry – I get a lot of emails every day, typically 100 to sometimes 200 per day. If I didn’t have a Blackberry, keeping up would be pretty tough.

.TEL – I use my Cybele.tel as my virtual business card. It is much easier to give that out to people, have them easily remember it than giving out a paper card that someone will end up tossing in the garbage later anyway. The benefits of using Cybele.tel is that I store all my social media links (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) as well as a map of my office, various contact information, blogs, websites, my involvement with various boards that I serve on and even a page with all my favorite quotes!

Social Media – I’ve been using LinkedIn and Twitter for many years as a business tool to connect and engage with people whether it be clients, suppliers, and others in the community. I’ve been a more recent adopter of Facebook. I don’t post anything personal on any of my social media networks and use them specifically as a business tool. I find these to be extremely great ways to get our message out beyond the traditional methods of push marketing. Social media also allows me to connect with clients and others on an individual level and engage in meaningful conversation that builds relationships beyond just trying to sell a product or service.

3. What is the most rewarding experience you’ve had since starting your business?

There were so many over the years it’s hard to pick a single one.

The startup stage was a lot of fun when we grew really quickly to 30 people in 4 months and had people working shifts pretty much 24 hours a day and sleeping in sleeping bags at the office. Those were great memories that I will never forget. These days, it’s hearing from customers who write me or tell me at different events that I attend how they love our customer service. We have such a phenomenal team and I’m so proud of each and every one of them!

We also had a great 10 year celebration of our business last year with hundreds of people in attendance from past employees, clients, suppliers and partners who travelled from across the country to join the festivities. It felt so great to see all the people who helped over the years and contributed to our success. To be able to celebrate with all of them was extremely rewarding.

Also our participation in the Canary Derby, an annual event where the technology community in Vancouver and Victoria join forces to build and race soapbox cars to raise money for early cancer detection research. HYPERLINK “http://Webnames.ca/”Webnames.ca was named top fundraiser for 3 years in a row by the Canary Foundation of Canada. Being able to give back and make a positive difference in the community and potentially save lives…well it just doesn’t get better than that.

4. If your business had a theme song, what would it be?

“Everything I do I do it for you” by Bryan Adams (kind of speaks to Webnames.ca’s dedication to customer service and aligns with our #1 Core Value to “Amaze Every Customer with Exceptional Service”. Plus it’s Canadian which is such a key part of who we are.)

Or another good one “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive!

5. Where is your favourite place to hang out in Vancouver?

I don’t actually have a lot of time to hang out between Webnames.ca, the various boards I serve on, chairing an annual charity event and especially family.

I do love the Greater Vancouver zoo, Aquarium and Science World though. The Urban Safari Rescue Society is pretty cool too although it is a bit of a trek out to Surrey towards the US Border. The place is small but they have all sorts of lizards, snakes, turtles and insects for kids to check out and you can even touch some of them during the personal guided tour.

6. What is your favourite non-business blog or online resource that you love to read for fun?

Yikes, I don’t really have one that’s non-business related. That’s bad right? Truthfully, I don’t have much time to read for purposes other than business related. I spend enough time at the computer already so for fun, I’d rather get out with the family to do stuff.

Vancouver Freelance Camp is having their second annual, information packed UNconference on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at The Network Hub New Westminster. Experienced business personnel and successful local freelancers will be sharing their stories as well as insight on how to grow a freelancer’s business. This is a true UNconference, the schedule is created the morning of when the attendees arrive. We start the day off with guests pitching to be presenters for the day and the freelancers vote on who they want to hear speak.

Topics from landing a freelancer’s dream project to dealing with the nitty gritty details of doing business will be discussed. The Freelance Camp is the opportunity to make connections with like-minded people across many fields. Over 130 people attended last year’s event, including freelancers from Victoria, Kelowna and Seattle. The UNconference hosted 22 presentations where 196 cups of Waves Coffee was consumed. You won’t leave empty handed either because $5400 worth of goodies and $448 worth of door prizes were given to attendees last year to make being a freelancer even better. Attendees were also part of a wave of social broadcasting with 1478 tweets mentioning the event and were also a top trending topic in Canada on twitter for three hours.

The success of Freelance Camp raised $1100 last year and donated all its proceeds to Mental Health Camp – a conference on examining the possibilities of using social media to achieve and maintain mental health. It is important to Freelance Camp to give back to local initiatives and was excited to have Mental Health Camp as the benefactor.

The satisfaction of last year’s event has propelled Vancouver Freelance Camp to make this year’s event even bigger and accessible to more freelancers. We’ll be the first local event to use Google+ Hangouts to engage a maximum of 25 attendees per session off-site. Through live streaming video, participants can view and ask questions in Google+ Hangout allowing for 725 online viewings.

Registration to Freelance Camp is just $10 with the proceeds going to charity. For more information, or to register for the event, visit the website at http://www.thenetworkhub.ca/freelancecamp/ and follow Vancouver Freelance Camp on twitter at @604freelancers.

Freelance Camp

September 10, 2011, from 9am – 5pm