Small Business Month Time to Support and Celebrate
Tuesday, October 2, 2012 @ 12:05 PM
Krista Larsen of BDC and Jennifer Brandle-McCall of the P.G. Chamber of Commerce talk about contributions of small business- photo 250News
Prince George, B.C.- It is small business month in B.C. and the Prince George Chamber of Commerce has joined forces with some business development groups in the city to promote and celebrate.
P.G. Chamber CEO, Jennifer Brandle- McCall, says its difficult to say just how many people are employed by small business in Prince George, but, close to all of the near 900 members of the Chamber represent small businesses which typically have no more than 12 employees. So the total impact on the local economy is significant.
So why celebrate Small Business Month? “There are three main reasons I can see” says Brandle-McCall, “one is that we need to celebrate and recognize the contributions of small businesses and the role that they play not only to the economy but as builders of our communities. The second is to highlight the services that exist for small business owners, managers and employees in our communities and to let them know that they are not alone. The third reason is to remind the community that supporting small business is important. That we can’t take it for granted that small business will always be here.”
She says small business owners take enormous risks when they start up, sticking their necks out with hopes they will be successful. She points to the initiative called the 10% shift “It s really the new ‘buy local’ campaign, and its all about shifting 10% of your spending as a family to locally produced products and small businesses in your community. If we can even shift 10% of what we spend as consumers to local, it has a huge trickle down effect to improve the quality of life in your community.”
Krista Larsen of BDC says small business month is about celebrating the contribution of entrepreneurs to our country’s economic viability “Small and medium sized businesses make up 99.8% of all Canadian companies and they account for 64% of private sector jobs. So, small businesses are truly the engine of Canada’s economy.”
There are several events planned over the month in Prince George to celebrate small business month:
Oct 3 & 4 Welcoming Winter, Team Up to Clean up for Businesses
October 11th Small business Celebration at Community Futures, by invitation
October 16th BDC Small Business Week Coffee Open House
October 17th Tough and resilient: why your brain doesn’t let you success and what to do about is lunch workshop
October 20th Chamber Business excellence Awards Gala
October 25th Candlelight Conservation Dinner
Comments
Yup I like how the BDC supports “some businesses” and then walks away from others. Just like the “Chartered Banks”, if you fall in the list of “acceptable businesses” they will be more than happy to help you out. However should you choose to open a business that doesn’t fall in there list of “acceptable business” you are sure out of luck getting and financing or even opening an account. Tax dollars ear marked for developing business in Canada and they still “filter who gets business funding assistance”. So if you have a business plan and most of your own funding, you’re on your own.
The only assistance to small business is the credit unions, they at least sit down and talk to you about what your goal is and what the plan is. Blah Blah the BDC supporting small business, yeah right.
The big banks are quite often the death of small businesses!
Or would like to be.
Community Futures provides financing to small businesses. They have a great track record of helping out those high-risk businesses that no one else will work with.
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