It's small business week in Canada and a time to shine the light on another successful small businesses in Kelowna. Roy's Shoes has been a fixture downtown on Ellis Street for 45 years.
The original owner was Roy. The second owner was Dan. The third and current Roy is Jim Belshaw. He never thought he'd be telling customers their shoes will be fixed in 3 or 4 weeks but that's how busy they are, the demand for shoe repair is growing. The business has doubled or tripled since he became the latest Roy. Belshaw says it's him and his son fixing the shoes because they can't find anyone with experience to join them.
"We've been running ads, but no qualified applicants" says Belshaw, "looking for someone to come on board with sewing experience or leather stitching experience". Jim adds, "it's an old trade but sure needed".
When asked what is the toughest thing about being a small business today, he quickly replied, finding employees and customer parking downtown.
In 2010, Jim Belshaw founded what is now Shoe Bank Canada. Over the years, the charity has collected 40 thousand pairs of still useable shoes and given them away to those who need them here in the Kelowna area, Ottawa, and soon to be expanded into Toronto and Vancouver. Jim says, "we need more shoes so we can do more good stuff".