Vancouver is the ideal place to find the perfect work life balance (Image Credit: JMV)

Find Your Right Work-Life Balance

Once upon a time, working meant clocking 40 hours each week, Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm unless you worked at a bank, or held a shift position. These days, the boundary between working and non-working hours has blurred thanks to flex-time, working from home, and the technology that we use in our work and personal lives.

Whether you work for yourself or have an employer, it’s important to set up boundaries that define the hours you work. Carve out business days and hours for yourself – making it clear where weekends and evenings fit into the picture. Let your clients, subcontractors, suppliers and business partners know when they should not expect to reach you on your cell phone, Blackberry or mobile device.

Is technology making work invade your personal life? Are PDAs, cell phones, laptops and other electronics intruding into your family time, your evenings and weekends? Turning your cell phone off and stopping from checking your email are two steps that can help restore a balance and protect your private time.

Freelance writer Anne Troy tells agents and clients alike that they should not expect her to answer her phone or reply to email during evenings and weekends. By repeating that message clearly and consistently (as well as not picking up her cell or home business phone after 6pm and on weekends), Anne got her point across.

Separate Work From Your Private, Family Life

While it`s tempting to bring work home, the experts agree that separating work from your private and family life can help to achieve a work-life balance. If you work from home, you may be more effective locating work tasks in a separate space such as a library, quiet internet cafe, virtual office or furnished office space.

Achieving a work-life balance means a state of equilibrium between the activities, roles and responsibilities in your life. Know your limits. Keep track of how much time and attention you devote to each. Are there blocks that get in your way to attain a balance?

Committed parents love spending time with their children, but with today’s pressures of work and other priorities, work life balance can be difficult to achieve. Book time with your children and family as though they were your most important clients.

It`s  important to sort out what saps your time and energy versus revitalizes you, and to say `no` to low priorities. Are there involvements and activities that you can shelve, temporarily stop, or delegate to someone else? Allow yourself to rely on others around you while you focus on top priorities.  Tag-team with your associates and coworkers for carpooling as well as attending after-hours functions and handling tasks that encroach on your private or personal time.

Play time can be as important to allow you to recharge and improve your effectiveness. You don’t need to join organized groups or spend money on equipment. Lunch hour escapes can be as simple as taking your lunch into the park or sitting beside a water fountain to read a magazine. One of the easiest and simplest ways to meditate is to watch flowing water such as a river or fountain.

Vancouver Is An Ideal City For Work-Life Balance

Greater Vancouver is surrounded by almost 20 kilometers of beaches with specially-designated quiet beaches where loud music is banned. Whether you like to skimboard, spike a volleyball or stretch out on a blanket, Vancouver has a beach for you. Sunset Beach, no more than 30 minutes from the downtown core, is a quiet zone where there is nothing but sand dunes and spectacular views of Kitsilano and the Pacific Ocean to gaze at. If green space is more your scene, Vancouver offers more than 200 parks to choose from including woodlands and ravines, display gardens and small urban parks.

If you work alone in an office or home office, it can be challenging to find social interaction but it`s important to get away from the solo setting to find balance. Make lunch arrangements with former colleagues, meet up with friends after work or connect with peers through a professional association.

Ultimately, consider the important – and neglected – aspects of your own life and make a date with the opportunities to optimize them.

Credit: Lars Plougmann

The future of work is not yet known; it is constantly changing and evolving. With the rise of virtual offices, ever-growing technology and globalization, it seems that the workplace is always going through shifts of change.

Make Work Meaningful is a website created to discuss the change of the workplace. It is a collaborative conversation about the future of work. There is a team of “top thinkers” that contribute to this collaborative conversation. It is aimed at getting individuals to be motivated, focused and in sync with the people they work with. The idea is that the community can help shape what the workplace becomes.

The Make Work Meaningful website was created by Rypple. Rypple is a Toronto-based startup that offers tools for employees to receive coaching and feedback about their work.

The Co-CEO of Rypple, David Stein says, “Based on these conversations, it’s clear that there is a movement afoot. Work is changing.” The three big changes he points out are:

1. The new leadership philosophy: don’t just manage-coach
2. The feeling of continuous growth and appropriate recognition goes further than a paycheck.
3. The way people value ongoing development over periodic evaluation.

Stein continues, “This is what top thinkers… are writing about.”

Make Work Meaningful was created with the idea that leaders and aspiring ones can come to learn, grow and share ideas together.

Charney, a contributor for the site, wrote an article about coaching, said, “One of my hot buttons gets pushed by people who enjoy finishing my sentences. It amazes me that the older we get, the less we seem to listen. Here’s my theory: We’re taught that we need to demonstrate we’re smart, or an expert, by talking.” She suggests that we need to learn how to listen more in order to be coached.

Asmus, another contributor for the site, wrote an article about the difference between coaching and feedback in the workplace. One of the things she said was, “In the end, coaching is about “letting go” of advice-giving and assuming the person being coached is whole, smart, and understands the best direction to head in. When we give feedback, we believe that the person we are giving feedback to requires our advice to figure out the actions they need to take. There is a time and place for feedback, as there is for coaching. But they are not the same.”

Finally, another contributor for the site, Beth Steinberg, who is an HR Executive for Nike, writes about “doing what you love.” In this article she writes about the importance of working in an environment you enjoy. She gives suggested criteria for making the right decision about a job change. This suggested criterion is, “the mission of the company, the people, the company culture, the ability to learn and grow and work/life balance.”

The site is full of articles just like these three examples. It’s great for sharing ideas to figure out how to make work more meaningful and discuss the future of the workplace.

Virtual offices are quickly becoming the new go-to working environment for business professionals, law firms, accountants, and start-up entrepreneurs. The virtual office combines off-site live communication and office services so that people can work remotely, but still easily access business amenities.

Virtual offices are gaining popularity, especially with the shift toward self-employment caused by the recent economic downturn. People can now work remotely or from home, but still be able to communicate with their clients and co-workers. Small businesses no longer have to concern themselves with renting office space, and can instead pay for virtual office services which are much less costly.

Virtual offices first gained prominence by way of global businesses that required the use of a temporary or shared office space when traveling on business. The clientele for these virtual offices now seems to be changing, however, with more companies simply seeking a space that will provide them with a business address, telephone number, and temporary meeting space. Not only are virtual offices cheaper for big conglomerates, they also allow small business owners to access services like remote receptionists and remote assistants.

The benefits of virtual offices enable businesses to work remotely with all the required amenities and services within easy reach. Office services such as reception, boardrooms, telephone lines, mail services, executive suites, temporary meeting spaces and support staff are available within virtual offices. This kind of office space can be personalized and tailored for individual businesses by providing them with their own business address, telephone number, voicemail service, and administrative office staff.

Virtual offices are quickly becoming the solution for finding support services that allow companies to focus directly on their own clients and work. Clients of virtual offices are largely comprised of law firms, accountants, real estate workers, entrepreneurs, start-up companies, people working in finance, and remote workers. Virtual office facilities can be utilized by any kind of business in an economical way that allows them to access office space and communication services on an as-needed basis. Businesses can trim costs by eliminating the expense of having a personal receptionist and paying monthly rent, for example.

Rent is often the second highest expense for smaller businesses. This has led business professionals to work remotely from home, at coffee shops, or other public locations. Virtual offices are providing such individuals with access to a professional working space equipped with the technology and support services to benefit their overall efficiency. Business professionals can access virtual offices to check in on their messages, mail, and get administrative support while still working remotely.

Virtual offices pride themselves in providing exceptional customer services for business clients. They work hard to maintain the professional image of individual businesses utilizing their office services. Virtual offices offer businesses all of the comforts of a full-time office without all of the costs. Perhaps the biggest draw towards virtual offices is the reassurance of administrative support services while being able to focus on what matters most to a business: their clients, their products, and providing their services to others.

We have over 25 years in the executive office industry, please visit our Vancouver Virtual Offices page for more information on our services.

“Since moving the company to 999 West Broadway in 1994, it has always been my ambition to take over the entire 7^th floor,” says Owner/Manager Karline Mark-Eng.  “Over the years we have been gradually expanding, and now we are happy to announce that this dream has finally become a reality.”

When she purchased the company in 1989, it offered just 8 rental offices. With her office move to 999 West Broadway, Mrs. Mark-Eng expanded to 12 furnished executive offices. As additional space came available on the same floor, she saw her bigger picture coming together, one suite at a time. An expansion in 2000 gave her 5 more offices, and four years later she expanded again by 9 offices, bringing her total number to 26 executive offices.

Then in the summer of 2008 Mrs. Mark-Eng received a phone call from her Landlord to advise that the last remaining suite on her floor would become available. In September she began the construction process to join the three separate 7^th floor units with one common hallway.  The reception area, staff data processing room and boardroom were all relocated to the centre of the floor, capturing the impressive north views overlooking False Creek and the North Shore mountains.

With this expansion, a new state-of-the art VoIP telephone system was installed, complete with new phone sets for every office.  The new telephone software enables the company to offer many new features to greater enhance the flexibility of her telephone answering services, as well as providing cost-saving options to her clients.

At the launch party held on December 17^th, 2009, owner Karline Mark-Eng gave an emotional and heartfelt impromptu speech, thanking her exceptional staff, her husband and sons, her parents, her mentor – Diana Gray, and all past and present clients whom have helped to pave the way for 28 successful years in business. The crowd was large, the food excessive and delicious and the mood was jovial.

This expansion to the entire 7^th floor at 999 West Broadway will allow MPS Executive Suites to better meet and serve the needs of its small business clientele.

Mrs. Mark-Eng proudly looks forward to an exciting 2010 and beyond.

Office Business Centres Ready for Growth

The mood at last week’s Office Business Centre Association International’s (OBCAI) Annual Conference in San Diego was positive and uplifting. In keeping with the conference theme of “Evolve and Thrive,” speakers reiterated the fact that business isn’t down, it’s just different. Business owners need to recognize the changes, new trends, and global opportunities, and be able to quickly adapt.  It was predicted that small, flexible, and agile businesses will do well in this economy. There is a stronger than ever need for business efficiency, so those businesses ready with the seamless provision of services and technology across borders will do extremely well.

Office business centres provide the ideal environment for consultants, professionals and small business owners to flourish. These centres serve as an “incubator” for small businesses to grow, and frequently provide the internal opportunities for client acquisition and referrals.

Diana Gray, owner and General Manager of Central Park Business Centre (CPBC), located in Vancouver on the west border of Burnaby, attended the conference along with owners and managers of office business centres from the US, Britain, Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. As an entrepreneur herself, Gray enjoys working with her clients and seeing them succeed in business. She spontaneously shares her expertise and business network with her clients. Published twice on small business (The Complete Canadian Small Business Guide and Home Inc.: The Home Based Business Guide), Gray has a lot to offer.

Having started in the office business centre industry almost 30 years ago, this is not the first business recession Gray has experienced in Vancouver. In fact, she started her first centre during the real estate crunch of the early 1980s and was ready to service clients who were downsizing from excess and unused leased space.

Providing fully furnished offices inclusive of phones and internet, plus all the administrative and reception staff, Central Park Business Centre has everything ready for small- and mid-sized businesses to move in and start up instantly. Her company is a safety net and one-stop office business centre for her clients. She removes a lot of the stress and financial risk of high overhead costs such as staffing and carrying long term leases. A very familiar statement she hears from her clients is: “Being in the centre saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent managing the office. Now I can concentrate those hours on running and marketing my business.”

Gray feels CPBC is ideally positioned to face the new economy. “We have bundled our service offerings to make it easy for our clients to enjoy a comprehensive, all-inclusive office space solution with many value-added features, for one low competitive price.” She also provides Virtual Offices for those working from home, allowing them to have a business presence in just one or multiple locations through the umbrella organization of Elite Business Centres.

Inspired with new ideas and contacts generated at the conference, Gray is enthusiastic about embracing the change that is in the air, and helping her clients succeed through the changing tides of this economy.

Contact Info:

Diana Gray, Owner and General Manager
Central Park Business Centre
604-435-2500
dgray@executivesuite.ca

Some walls come down, others stay up, says entrepreneur Barr
By: Diane Strandberg – Tri-Cities News

After some 25 years in business and involvement in provincial and local politics, Irene Barr can offer a unique perspective on both worlds.

Women are making great strides in business but only baby-steps in politics, says Irene Barr, a longtime Tri-Cities business woman and provincial Liberal.

In an interview across her polished desk in the elegantly-appointed Headquarters Office Services in Coquitlam, Barr was asked to consider the changes faced by women in businesses since she started her own company 25 years ago.

Like many entrepreneurs, a passion for pursuing challenges prompted her to start a word-processing business out of her home with a $22,000 hybrid between a computer and  typewriter. With previous experience in computer conversions, she soon branched into technology training, starting Headquarters Office Services and moving into a 7,000-square foot space on Lincoln Avenue. A federal contract then enabled her to expand the business to 70 training seats.

She got involved with the Tri-City Chamber of Commerce, became its president in 1988 and made connections that helped her students get jobs.

“It’s about building relationships,” Barr said of her network that grew withher community work.

Throughout the Tri-Cities, Barr said, women are becoming successful by helping each other. They might not do deals on a golf course but they build relationships with other professionals through business exchanges, and community service, through groups such as such as Sunrise Rotary, where Barr was a member.

But breaking into the world of local politics is a bigger challenge. It’s not just her own experience running for office as a Liberal candidate she cites. She tried for years to get more  women involved in politics as the president of the BC Liberal Women’s Commission. Barr said getting nominated is the first stumbling block. She narrowly lost a 1996 bid for the Westwood Plateau/ Port Coquitlam seat and tried twice again, failing to get the nomination each time. (As a north-east Coquitlam resident, she also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Port Coquitlam.)

“I see it as this barrier stopping us. When we do see women make it, they do a great job. They use their power well,” she says.

“Everyone recognizes we need more women in politics but women have a tough time getting nominated. The local community still has these back-room boys – they call the shots.”

Stalled in her drive to get a seat in the B.C. legislature, Barr focused her attention on her business, which had expanded to include branches on North Road and in PoCo. But even there  she was discouraged. The federal government pulled her contract while it proceeded with other job training models, and Barr had to retrench, firing staff and closing one of three offices.

It took years to rebuild, she said, but the effort was not without a silver lining. Women she met through informal networks came to her aid, some acting as sounding boards for major decisions, others holding her hand through the rough spots.

“That’s when you know who your friends are,” she said.

Capitalizing on the trend toward business incubation in which small start-ups need an office presence but don’t want the hassle and the cost of starting their own, Barr was able to evolve once again, leasing office space and providing communication services to a wide variety of clients. It’s a model that has been successful: Barr has secured a marketing relationship so she can provide even more services to her clients as a division of Elite Headquarters Office Services Inc.

Unlike politics, the business world is much easier for women to enter, Barr says. Women entrepreneurs are more common now than when she first set up shop and more successful than they’ve ever been. It may be a way to get out from under the glass ceiling but, whatever the reason, Barr applauds women’s business success and plans to mentor women entrepreneurs coming up in the ranks.

“I just think there are no barriers [for women],” she said. “They don’t expect barriers and they don’t receive them.”

Photos from Irene Barr’s 25th Anniversary: