Robert Barron: Writing Business Notes column loads of enjoyable

Robert Barron: Writing Business Notes column loads of enjoyable

Published 5:45 am Saturday, March 28, 2026

I keep in mind when my editor on the day by day I labored at in Nanaimo referred to as me into his workplace about 25 years in the past and recommended (ordered) that I ought to start writing a weekly “Business Notes” column.

The concept was to attach with individuals within the native enterprise group who had been opening or increasing their shops, those that had been offering distinctive providers within the space, in addition to those that had been retiring and desirous to thank their prospects for his or her patronage over time.

I figured that this task was actually a type of punishment.

After all, what did I find out about enterprise writing?

My undergraduate levels had been in historical past and English and I keep in mind my economics lessons in highschool had been as painful to take care of as my editor.

But I sucked it up as a result of I used to be given no actual alternative within the matter and I started to analysis a few of the native companies by way of the chamber of commerce and different associated organizations and began to make some calls to rearrange interviews.

The first few columns had been a flop, in my view, as a result of I attempted to focus an excessive amount of on the small print of the companies, together with investments, gross sales and tax charges, that are points that I had no actual experience to write down about in any respect.

But I found that the majority readers didn’t care to examine that stuff anyway.

What they actually wished was to study in regards to the individuals who had been behind the companies; together with who they’re, the place they arrive from, and what made them resolve to open a enterprise within the first place.

What they had been promoting was an vital a part of the column, after all, however it turned clear to me that the individuals angle ought to be essentially the most important aspect of the Business Notes column.

I continued writing Business Notes each week at that newspaper for the subsequent 15 years till the day by day shut its doorways in 2016, like so many different day by day newspapers on the time.

I handled tons of, if not hundreds, of individuals and their companies in that point and the group appeared to actually take pleasure in and admire the column (most instances anyway), however I figured the column had died with the newspaper after I was transferred to the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

However, just a few weeks after that, a Black Press editor I had labored with in Nanaimo requested that I begin a Business Notes column right here, and I wasn’t as opposed to it as I used to be when requested (ordered) to take action a few years earlier than.

I noticed it as a pleasant approach to introduce myself to the individuals in the neighborhood, and that’s additionally useful in reporting native information, so I shortly agreed to resurrect the column.

I’ve met so many attention-grabbing individuals within the Valley since then.

Just not too long ago, I used to be delighted to speak to Rhonda Campbell, who’s the proprietor of the brand new Cowichan Links Bar & Grill on the Cowichan Golf Club, after which there’s Kyrie Melnyck, proprietor of the brand new Now & Then Supply Comp, which makes a speciality of nostalgic throwbacks from 1990 to 2010, positioned at 51 Trunk Rd. in Duncan.

And, after all, there’s Chris Steel, basic supervisor on the Old Farm Market.

I’ve met few people who find themselves as enthusiastic and entertained by their jobs in my a few years writing the column, and Steel’s ardour exhibits within the continued success of the Old Farm Market.

It’s nice to have met such individuals, and I’m trying ahead to assembly extra as we go.

I simply hope another person takes on writing the column after I’m gone.