By: Rob King of Fraser Lake Supplies – Ace Building Centre

Some may say that business is business, whether in the city or a rural area, and that it’s all the same. While there are certainly similarities—everyone needs to make money, manage staff, and remit taxes—there are many things that folks in larger centers may never encounter.

According to census data, there are around 3,000 people living between Endako and Fort Fraser, with just under a third residing within Fraser Lake’s municipal borders. That’s not a lot by any standards. One of the great things about this is that you know almost everyone, and we get to spend the day helping our neighbors. This means we spend less on marketing than in other places; we personalize our services, and our reputation spreads largely by word of mouth.

I’ve often been asked how I sustain my business with so few people. The answer is simple: diversify! In 2011, when we took over the store, we were a small lumber yard with little else besides building supplies. Thirteen years later, we still sell lumber, but we also offer everything from work clothing to animal feed. Our market may be limited in size, but that gives us the opportunity to expand into many different categories that couldn’t sustain a whole business on their own. Every retailer says they’re a “one-stop shop,” but we REALLY mean it at Fraser Lake Supplies!

There are endless benefits to operating a business in a small town, but there are also challenges. One of the hardest is shipping; we’re quite a distance from many of our suppliers. We belong to the Ace & Orgill national distributors to purchase at scale and keep our prices competitive, but there’s not much we can do about being at the end of the supply chain. Up to 12% of our price is taken up by shipping costs on most products in our store, and if you think we have it bad, our sister store on Haida Gwaii deals with closer to 20%!

At the end of the day though, the pros outweigh the cons. Doing business in a small town is a wonderful experience. Our customers are our friends, and there’s almost always an opportunity to learn about a new product category. It keeps things interesting, challenging, and a whole lot of fun!