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Community Futures gets more funding to continue business support program

Programs such as Business Ambassadors help small businesses, not-for-profits, and First Nations
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The Community Futures Business Ambassadors — pictured here in January 2018 — will be able to keep helping businesses and other groups impacted by the 2017 wildfires.

In December 2018, Community Futures British Columbia was busy wrapping up its programs designed to support small businesses, not-for-profits, and First Nations that were impacted by the 2017 wildfires.

Now, thanks to additional funding from the Red Cross and $540,000 from Western Economic Diversification, those programs will be continuing to the end of 2019.

The Wildfire Business Transition Project has been helping small and medium-sized businesses, Indigenous communities, and not-for-profits to rebuild through outreach and advisory services, workshops, and customized training delivered through five Community Futures offices: Community Futures Sun Country, Cariboo Chilcotin, Central Interior First Nations, North Cariboo, and Thompson Country.

READ MORE: Business transition training funds available for small businesses, not-for-profits

Some 464 people have taken self-directed training, which was to have finished by December 2018. However, Deb Arnott, general manager of Community Futures Sun Country, says that Community Futures began lobbying for an extension to March 2019 months and months ago, when it became apparent that some of the training would not be completed until January, February, or March 2019.

“Not only did we get an extension, they said ‘Here’s some more money,’ and we were told to keep up the good work supporting small businesses and not-for-profits in the regions that were affected by the wildfires,” says Arnott. “Our heads were spinning.”

The project extension allows Community Futures to continue providing a full range of support to businesses in the impacted regions, including the one-on-one support provided by the Business Ambassadors and Outreach Workers, and the self-directed training program developed by Community Futures Sun Country, Cariboo Chilcotin, and North Cariboo.

READ MORE: Ambassadors available to help find and access funding for fire-affected businesses, not-for-profits

“The Business Ambassadors will be staying on until October 2019,” says Arnott. “We’re quite excited to provide that support for small businesses. We want to make sure we have people on the ground who can go into businesses and say ‘Are you aware of this great program that might help with the great work you’re doing?’”

A recent survey asked businesses and not-for-profits about their priorities and how Community Futures could facilitate more workshops in the region. A series of workshops began in May 2018, and 1,384 participants throughout the region took part in at least one. “That’s more people than I ever imagined,” says Arnott. “I was blown away.”

She notes that the Food Safe workshops have been very popular, but that they can’t keep doing those kinds of workshops.

“We have to work on a strategy. We want to have a plan, not just react.” She adds that workshops about financials, strategic planning, and marketing are needed, as well as more education around the use of social media and its importance to business.

“I see that [social media] gap in small communities,” says Arnott. “Many businesses don’t even have a Facebook page. I’ll ask ‘Gee, where’s your Facebook page so I can “like” you?’ and I’ll be told ‘I don’t have time to set that up.’ Maybe we can talk to the Business Ambassadors and see if we can set something up.”

She adds that given the difficulty in finding dates that work for everyone, it might be possible for the Business Ambassadors to give tutorials to individual businesses.

The Wildfire Business Transition Project started in October 2017 with $200,000 from Northern Development Initiative Trust and $140,000 from the Cariboo Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition to hire a team of Business Ambassadors to work with businesses in the regions served by Community Futures Sun Country, Cariboo Chilcotin, and North Cariboo. An additional $1.3 million from Western Economic Diversification allowed Community Futures to extend the Business Ambassador program, develop targeted training programs, and expand the project to include Community Futures of the Central Interior First Nations and parts of Thompson Country.

The funding was set up to be as flexible as possible, to allow each Community Futures office to design the types of programs that would most benefit the unique needs of their communities. As of Dec. 31, 2018, the Wildfire Business Transition Project has assisted more than 3,250 small and medium-sized enterprises, including 567 Indigenous-owned and 844 female-owned businesses.

That assistance has allowed those businesses to invest in the adoption of new technology and sound management or business practices, create new and/or maintain existing jobs in their local communities, and expand or diversify their businesses to take advantage of new opportunities.

Three new videos that were released earlier this month document Community Futures’ support for businesses impacted by the 2017 wildfires. The first video provides an overview of how the project came together; the second focuses on the work of the Business Ambassadors and Outreach Workers; and the third looks at some of the businesses that were affected and the help they received from Community Futures.

All three videos are on the Community Futures Sun Country Facebook page, YouTube, and at the Sun Country website (https://www.cfsun.ca).

“We started talking about the videos last summer,” says Arnott. “What the government appreciates is that they give something that can be referred back to. It’s very important, because it gives them a visual regarding the work of the Business Ambassadors and the help that was given.”

Arnott says that the self-directed training will also continue. “What we hear from businesses all the time is ‘I need to do my own training plan,’ because they have different needs to other businesses. We ask them to tell us what the gap is, then we support and fund them.”

Arnott knows that 2019 will be another busy year. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and things are starting to rock and roll. Applications are already flooding in. We were in the process of shutting down, and now we get to keep going.”



editorial@accjournal.ca

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