{"id":220212,"date":"2025-10-17T12:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220212\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T12:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:37:11","slug":"small-businesses-share-cost-burdens-to-get-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220212\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses share cost burdens to get ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharing a lease has eased the burden of paying \u201castronomical\u201d commercial rent in Victoria, B.C. for the owners of Benjo\u2019s Tacos (Johl Green, left) and Empire Doughnuts (Melanie Laverick, right).James MacDonald<\/p>\n

When a fire destroyed the commercial kitchen for Samantha and Johl Green\u2019s taco business, Samantha was unsure how her team would recover. As luck would have it, Melanie Laverick, owner of Empire Donuts<\/a>, saw the news on social media and reached out. Ms. Laverick had extra kitchen space after winding down a fried chicken side venture, and she thought it might be a good fit.<\/p>\n

The two businesses first tested the waters with a pop-up, and the response was overwhelming. \u201cIt turned out to be a huge event, attracting hundreds of customers,\u201d Ms. Laverick recalls. <\/p>\n

She offered to sublease the space to Ms. Green, and within a month Benjo\u2019s Tacos<\/a> had moved in. Nearly three years later, the two businesses are still thriving side by side.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

“We bring each other customers, we share bills, but we also give each other space,\u201d Ms. Laverick says.James MacDonald<\/p>\n

For Ms. Laverick, the partnership eased the pressure of \u201castronomical\u201d commercial rent in Victoria. \u201cWith just making doughnuts in that space, I was pretty much spinning my wheels to pay rent,\u201d she explains. \u201cWith Benjo\u2019s Tacos being in the space, it has drastically reduced my stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Green agrees, saying the arrangement has been a lifeline. \u201cIt saved our business after the fire. Having a kitchen already set up meant we could get back on our feet quickly, without the huge costs of starting over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both owners credit mutual respect and communication for making the shared space work. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the major key in this working is that we both respect each other and each other\u2019s business,\u201d Ms. Laverick says. \u201cWe bring each other customers, we share bills, but we also give each other space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Green prepares the day\u2019s taco ingredients ahead of the lunch rush while Ms. Laverick gets ready to serve customers craving a delicious doughnut.James MacDonald<\/p>\n

Dave Gens, CEO of Merchant Growth<\/a>, a digital financing and growth solution provider for small businesses, says partnerships like these show how entrepreneurs are adapting in a tough economic climate. <\/p>\n

\u201cInflation is still one of the top concerns for Canadian small businesses, but what stands out now is how entrepreneurs are adapting. Instead of just cutting back, many are finding creative ways to team up, whether it\u2019s joining buying groups, consolidating shipments or pooling bulk orders to get better supplier terms, steady cash flow and ease borrowing pressures,\u201d Mr. Gens says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat often starts as a quick fix is turning into something bigger. SMBs are leaning into collaboration as a way to stay resilient, and in some cases those tactical moves are evolving into longer-term partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Samantha Green, co-owner of Benjo\u2019s Tacos, says the partnership with Empire Doughnuts has been a lifeline for their business.James MacDonald<\/p>\n

Len Senater built an entire business on the principle of sharing. As the Toronto-based founder of The Depanneur<\/a>, he saw the potential in creating a co-working-style space for food entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

More than a decade ago, Mr. Senater noticed that pop-up dining was thriving in cities like San Francisco and London, but it was lagging in Toronto. \u201cThe main reason we didn\u2019t really have an interesting pop-up scene in Toronto was because it was so expensive. The barrier to entry was so high to set up all of the infrastructure to host a one-off pop-up event.\u201d<\/p>\n

He flipped the model, creating a space with a commercial kitchen where chefs could host events without the upfront costs. That idea became The Depanneur, a corner store turned collaborative food hub that has welcomed more than 600 cooks from around the world.<\/p>\n

By lowering the barrier to entry, the space allowed food entrepreneurs to experiment, to fail safely, and to occasionally grow into thriving businesses. \u201cIt invites people who would otherwise be marginalized by the high startup costs to participate,\u201d Mr. Senater says. \u201cIf it didn\u2019t work, it wasn\u2019t a catastrophic failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dep has incubated dozens of food projects, from pickle makers to jam producers. One of its most celebrated initiatives was the Newcomer Kitchen Project, which provided Syrian refugee women with a space to cook. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy giving them a place to come and cook and make food, we were able to put $150,000 into the pockets of 80 Syrian families over three years,\u201d Mr. Senater says.<\/p>\n

For him, the model is about more than food. \u201cI sometimes say that I\u2019m not even in the food business, I\u2019m in the community connection business. I just happen to use food because it was the easiest way to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partnerships also help The Pint Public House<\/a> in Toronto stay competitive. Owner Cesar Mesen leans on purchasing groups to bring independent operators together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey take a bunch of single, independently owned restaurants and put them together as a purchasing group. Then we can approach big food distributing brands and alcohol distributing brands for better prices and rebates,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mesen also partners with breweries and distilleries on co-sponsored events. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to work with the smaller breweries that are also struggling. Through the summer, we run activations on the patio, social media campaigns, and cross-branding. It\u2019s very good for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strategy that matters in an industry where, as Mr. Mesen notes, \u201c46 per cent of restaurants in Canada are operating at a loss right now. We are one of the lucky ones to be in the 54 per cent that aren\u2019t. Being part of a purchasing group and doing activations and co-branded events helps take some of the load off us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trend isn\u2019t limited to food. A commercial-scale medicine production facility<\/a> located at the Life Sciences Campus in the Edmonton Research Park<\/a> allows multiple pharmaceutical firms to share regulatory-compliant production capacity \u2013 without each company investing in their own multimillion-dollar plant. <\/p>\n

The lesson is clear: collaboration can mean the difference between treading water and moving forward. \u201cGet out there, talk to your colleagues, talk to your friends, find out where they need help,\u201d Mr. Mesen says. \u201cThey\u2019ll also try to find out where you need help. Then, collaborate.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Mr. Senater, it\u2019s the secret to unlocking business opportunities you might not have otherwise. \u201cThere are things we can do together that we can\u2019t do alone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Sharing a lease has eased the burden of paying \u201castronomical\u201d commercial rent in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,63,99,134236,198,21363,125425,26130,12587],"class_list":{"0":"post-220212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-collab","12":"tag-entrepreneurship","13":"tag-noastack","14":"tag-ordid3844959281te","15":"tag-partnership","16":"tag-small-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}