Julie Druker | Sep 16, 2015


In an effort to share ideas and to encourage networking amongst the area's local small business owners, members of the Central Frontenac Development Committee held their most recent “Business over Breakfast” event at the RKY camp in Parham, where camp staff served up breakfast and offered guests a cozy and campy backdrop to the meeting.

Though just 20 guests attended, a wealth of important information was shared with small business owners thanks to committee member Karen McGregor, who is also the coordinator at St. Lawrence College's Employment Services located in Sharbot Lake.

McGregor spoke on a number of topics, including the hiring incentives that are available through St. Lawrence, and how business owners can use social media to improve their business profile, build their customer base and promote their services.

On the first topic, McGregor spoke of the various supports her organization offers small businesses, one of which is to help find a job matching process that would work for employers, and which could include planning a job fair, collecting resumes, or providing pre-training to potential employees. Employee training could include health and safety training, WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System), and more and McGregor said that these types of training opportunities would ensure that potential employees are properly trained for new jobs. Once an employer decides whom they wish to hire, the employer can then access certain incentives that can help support the employee for several weeks and that could support them through the initial transition period until they are working independently in the new job.

Regarding social media McGregor stressed, “It is free, it is out there and for business owners who say they do not have the time, they should get someone to do it for them. It takes just a few minutes a day and it will definitely pay off in the long run.”

One idea that came from the meeting was for the CF Business Development Committee to start a local community business association, which would help small businesses promote the products and services that they offer. “We feel that as a network of businesses in a rural area, we would have more strength in a group than we do independently and that many of our marketing and advertising campaigns could be coordinated so that they could be more effective and less costly.”

The CF Business Development Committee has plans to coordinate a local business association list in order to have a comprehensive data base of all the businesses in the area. McGregor said she was very surprised to learn at the meeting that many people who attended, some of whom have lived in the community for as long as 50 years, have never been to the RKY camp before. “That really surprised me and is just another indicator that we have a wealth of resources in our community that we are not tapping into. By forming a local business association, we can share that information so that everyone is getting equal billing and opportunities can be made apparent so that we do not have go outside our community to find what we need.”

Those who missed the meeting but who might be interested in being a part of community business association can visit the Central Frontenac Development Committee's Face book page.

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