News & Updates

NANAIMO – Nanaimo’s Michael Naprawa of iBC Business Brokers Inc. received his Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI) certification from M&A Source® November 16, 2019. This certification makes him one of only nine Canadian business broker professionals with this designation. Naprawa has been a successful business broker since 2005, handling the complex sales of multiple western Canadian businesses. After earning the International Business Broker Association’s CBI certification in 2007, he advanced his qualifications to the specialized M&AMI certification so he could better serve clients in higher value, mid-market acquisitions and mergers. “More clients were qualified to participate in the mid-market sector [...]

Dwayne and Lisa Norman are enjoying life on Vancouver Island. September was fresh start for two Port Alberni couples: newcomers Dwayne and Lisa Norman who purchased Paulette’s Cleaning Services Ltd., and Detlev and Anke Braatz, who sold the 30-year-old business. Sale broker was Michael Naprawa of Nanaimo-based iBC Business Brokers Inc.  He had sold Paulette’s to Detlev and Anke a decade earlier, so when they were ready to sell, they called iBC. Buyers Dwayne and Lisa Norman came to Vancouver Island to warm up. Native Albertans, they recently returned to Canada after three years exploring Mexico and Costa Rica. [...]

A semi-trailer truck flipped on its side, a stock photo which illustrates the danger of untrained, immigrant drivers who are pressed into working for shady trucking operators as they attempt to gain Canadian permanent residence. Mahan Singh remembers feeling terrified he would lose control on an icy highway and kill someone. His new employer had sent the 26-year-old rookie driver out to navigate a semi-trailer through treacherous mountain passes. “There was no training,” says Mr. Singh, who had been in Canada as a visitor for just a few months when he got his first job here under a temporary [...]

Think bigger, think smaller or think outside the box - top tips for a sustainable business. When chief executives from many of Canada’s fastest growing businesses gathered Oct. 8 for The Globe and Mail Growth Camp, they shared their insights to help others build a sustainable business. Here are the top five pieces of advice and how they applied during the development of some of Canada’s most successful businesses. 1. If Plan A doesn’t work, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet At first, Carinne Chambers-Saini and her mother Francine, struck out big time when they  tried to [...]

Canada's open immigration policy results in a culturally diverse workforce. Why did grunge music emerge in Seattle? Business strategists and development economists may have an answer that can at least partly explain why, and it relates to something called regional competitive advantage. Regional competitive advantage is the “secret sauce” that enables regions and industry clusters to compete on a global scale. The same concept can be used to explain why Silicon Valley emerged around San Francisco or why Southern Ontario’s Toronto-Waterloo corridor is emerging as one of the premier innovation ecosystems and technology clusters in the world. Silicon Valley [...]

Demand for Canada Scooters' core product, mobility scooters, is high on Vancouver Island. Justin Reynolds still has high hopes for the successful expansion of the business he recently sold. “It’s an excellent little business and I think there is a great opportunity to grow this business to the next level,” he said August 13, almost two months after selling Canada Scooter on June 19. The business included two strategic locations, one in Victoria and one in Courtenay. Each showroom offered scooter sales and rentals, scooter maintenance, and other products to support personal independence. Justin predicts future success could include [...]

Harvesting the crop, a job that is sometimes done by temporary migrant workers in Canada. (Stock Photo) Canada's federal government says it would like to give migrant workers more mobility and freedom by allowing them to work for any Canadian business approved to hire temporary foreign workers, within a specific sector such as agriculture, instead of being tied to just one employer. The sector-specific open work permits would be available to farm workers and migrants employed in other low-wage jobs, which the government says would make them less susceptible to abuse. The move, announced formally in The Canada Gazette, [...]

Judy Stephan is thriving as publisher of Nanaimo Magazine and Voyager Magazine, a decade after buying the business through iBC Business Broker. A decade after buying Nanaimo & Voyager Magazine Inc. and re-inventing herself as a writer and publisher, Judy Stephan is thriving. It started in 2009 when Judy, a recent immigrant from South Africa, sought out business broker Michael Naprawa. In South Africa, she had worked as a high school teacher but to teach in BC she would have had to go back to school.  She decided to change careers but finding the right business wasn’t easy. “I [...]