Early Birds, March 10, 2022
Early Birds, March 10, 2022
Dan Kennelly - reported that steel mills (particularly in Europe) are actually canceling orders. Their inputs have become very unpredictable, they can’t guarantee delivery dates on products, so some have resorted to simply canceling orders. It doesn’t help that some of their inputs come from Russia and Ukraine two of the worlds biggest nickel miners and aluminum producers.
One outcome for TransAmPipe is that they have NO idea what costs for products will be until they arrive at their door. They can’t hold prices for any customers for more than 24 hours on many items.
Containers are also almost impossible to get their hands on overseas. There are many sitting in shipyards the world over, but they typically don’t go back empty to be refilled. They need to be filled to ship. Chicken and egg situation, but with steel containers.
Asked about Keystone, Dan’s comments was that TransCanada has the project in their rear-view mirror. Not only had most of the hard materials been sitting out for years, TC has now sold most of them off. Oh, and there’s that small matter of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit they’re engaged in with the US government over the pipeline’s cancellation.
Ian Campbell - Ian’s Calgary Hearing Aid and Audiology them continue to raise money as they prepare for the Tour of Alberta To Conquer Cancer. Every Thursday night, if you’d like to contribute $15, you can join most of Ian’s team at CycleBar just off Bow Trail. It’s an hour workout, and at the end of the night, the team raffles off the donations to a team member who gets to pad her/his totals.
In business, the clinics are busy. Ian’s been busy refining their marketing to be contiguous across every different channel. They understand that they have different clientele at different clinics, and the digital strategy and communication efforts have had a positive effect at all clinics, except for the normally very busy Marlborough clinic. The team has discovered that in that part of the city, the electronic communication strategy just isn’t landing, and part of that is due to the fact that it’s a very multicultural community that often won’t read English communications.
So, their teams looked back at what worked in the past and postcards were more effective than electronic communication, so they’re under consideration for that part of the city again.
Then it was on to the “DONS.”
Don Doolan - one tip: if you’re considering booking a winter vacation for 2022-2023, don’t wait much longer. Prices are starting to go up dramatically. Part of it will be fuel, part of it will be resurgent demand and not all travel assets being back online. He was telling the group that trying to book into next February, some folks are finding it difficult to get a firm quote.
Don Davis - had more real estate news from Canmore this week. Forty lots in Canmore went in a half hour. In at least one case, just for the LAND, $4,000,000 was the price.
Don mentioned the medical he’s now obligated to get every two years to renew his driver’s license (once you’re over 80). He was told at the clinic that would $160. Cash. No credit cards. Which made him go “hmmmm”. Then he said if you happened to be a young’un under 70, the price for that same medical was $360.
Don had a rueful chuckle at a couple of missed investment opportunities including fertilizer maker Nutrien, and nickel producers when they were better buys.
Don finally convinced Pat to go for AC. Last year his son in Canmore got it installed for around $4,000. A friend for about $3,000. Granted they were smaller houses, but Don got three estimates, the lowest of which was $9,000 😳. The other two were $12,000 and $13,000. Don Doolan is convinced there are better deals out there and advised the other “Don” to shop those estimates around.
Tony Fisher - talked about an all but forgotten 12 foot or so space between his building and his business neighbour. Both ends of this “alley-esque” space had a chain-link fence.
It turns out that some homeless people set up a “house” built with wooden pallets and other “building materials” after using wire cutters to create “exits” at both ends of the space. Hey, at least someone was thinking!
Then it caught fire, the homeless people used their “exits” and disappeared and both businesses remembered the space in a hurry. They called the fire department who responded quickly. Flames licked up about 12 feet of the wall, but no real damage done. The businesses are on the hook for the clean up.
Tony also told of Brett Wilson putting in a Sprung tent rooftop patio at Ceilis downtown location. The plan is to keep it open 365 days a year. This was the photo that accompanied Brett’s tweet about the project.
In SML’s world, custom products are hard to price to quote because of all the uncertainty in the logistics chain. One thing SML has been dealing with is items literally having their shipping costs evaluated and priced separately on each.leg.of.their.journey. SML is hedging by building in larger profit margins up front.
They’re in good shape at the moment from an inventory standpoint, but all of it is sold, and they want to move it OUT.
Partly due to the custom nature SML has always secured deposits up front. Some customers will pay the whole shot, and that’s down to SML’s long history in business and their reputation.
Brett Bain - also has marketing top of mind. He’s been talking to two different marketing companies looking at possible directions for OSI.
One of the principal areas that’s grown organically, but has now taken on a new importance in the business mix is cybersecurity.
One of the possibilities is hiring a certified ethical hacker internally. OSI is looking to build a reputation in that area. I can imagine the pitch now: “Give us 7 minutes in your server room, then we’ll hand over the blank cheque for you to fill out so we can address the deficiencies we found….”.
In cybersecurity news Russian and Chinese hackers attacked 6 states in the US with varying degrees of damage and compromised information.
Off-site backups will not necessarily protect you in the event of a ransomware attack. Some of these attacks lie dormant and resident in your systems for a very long time and can be triggered remotely. They’re in the backups too.
Reid Colbran - continued on the cybersecurity theme saying that a lot of commercial insurers are doing pre-loss work with policies. I jotted notes to quickly here, but I believe the industry is considering, or is already offering companies cybersecurity downloads as part of their insurance policy.
In a company-wide Brokerlink seminar these 4 points were pointed out
1 - Compelling companies to download and apply updates and patches to all of their software - mobile devices especially, but obviously, brick and mortar bound hardware as well.
2 - Enable 2-factor authentication
3- Phishing scams are still around because THEY WORK. Take great care reading emails to avoid phishing issues. DON’T click on links in emails. Don’t react to emails you weren’t expecting that are “urgent,” etc., etc.
4- Ensure that a website is actually secure - look for the lock icon in the address bar on your browser. If it’s not there, do NOT enter or send any sort of confidential information.
Paul Boucher adds his years old advice on getting a password manager to come up with your passwords and store them securely. Adding a different number to the same set of words, or reusing passwords is a recipe for potential disaster. It really isn’t a matter of if, but when. Paul’s preferred choice is still 1Password, made by the Canadian software company Agile Bits. You can find more information here: Password Manager for Families, Businesses, Teams | 1Password.
Michael McLennan - sold his business a while ago, and that journey ended this week as the last of the financing came through from the buyer. The Azores are calling!
Speaking of the Azores, the house Michael and Maria are building, they installed AC, and it cost them 5 thousand EUROS. Cough, cough. That’s $7000 CAD according to currency conversion site Xe.com.
Brad Pachal - on inventory and supply woes. Near the end of a kitchen reno he found himself short a set of drawer slides. They’re normally $30 at Richelieu, his preferred supplier. They had none, so he eventually found some at Lee Valley for $70.
A good friend of Brad’s is an ER nurse, she’s currently in critical care at the Strathmore Hospital. 38 years old. Prolonged COVID has damaged her badly.
Andy Lockhart - Spencer, grandson number 4 and his hockey team won the Double AA championship and will compete in the provincials. If I noted this correctly, he indicated that after the tournament, the entire team or close to it came down with COVID. Better now than in a week was the verdict.
Andy has been concerned about an email purporting to be from Microsoft warning him that his email storage was almost full. As he said, the BAD news is: every day Microsoft says he won’t be able to send or receive emails. The GOOD news is: …that he can - 95% sure it’s a scam, and the scam has been verified. It’s well done, incorporating Microsoft logos, etc. and enough accurate information to make you really consider and react to it. If you receive a similar email, please discuss with Andy or Paul first.
Rob Beasant - reflected immediately on how life is pretty good here in Alberta. Then he went on to say that 50% of his business right now at the Justin Havre group is Ontario and Vancouver clientele.
Having said that, every segment of the property market is more active.
Everyone is much more optimistic.
