TIMMINS – The 75th annual celebration of Small Business Week in Canada has begun.
In Timmins, the week has started with a session about different ways of financing a business.
The session was co-hosted by the Venture Centre and Métis Nation of Ontario, geared at raising awareness about the services they offer.
"There are some significant resources available to businesses and that's the typical response that we get from local entrepreneurs is that they know of their regular financial institutions and banks, but they don't know all of the other programs that are out there to support," said Roxanne Daoust, The Venture Centre.
"We have the Métis Training Program, we have the Métis Wage Subsidy program, we have the mobility program, so there's a lot more so it's for the individual to come and see us at the office and we can see where they fit and how we can help them," said Angele Ratte, Métis Nation of Ontario.
Rene Turgeon co-owns Missinaibi Drilling Services. He says it's a new business and he's attended to learn how to acquire some financial banking.
"A lot of it is just going ot be for in the future, for the next phase, the next steps of our company that we're going to grow… but definitely the training programs available are something that's going to help a lot," said Turgeon.
He and other entrepreneurs say the 90 minutes they're taking out of their day to do some research is worth it.
"It's an opportunity to expand into regions we didn't think we'd be able to attain. So it's not just concentrating on Timmins, but maybe going into some of the smaller communities: Iroquois Falls, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock, and so forth… I am pretty excited about it," said Caryn Smith, Boreal Asset Management.
A variety of other events in celebration of Small Business Week are taking place over the next few days, including: networking socials, tips on bookkeeping and photography for social media.
