Anne Prichard celebrates 20 years at Frontenac Business Services

Jeff Green | Oct 11, 2023

Until the fall of 2003 Frontenac County was one of the only communities in Eastern Ontario that did not have a federally funded corporation in place to support small businesses. Starting in 1986, the federal government had been working with local communities to set up Community Futures Development Corporations.

The corporations helped small businesses set up shop, or expand, by providing business advice, helping develop business plans, providing loans when bank loans were not available, and managing business grant programs.

In October of 2003, Frontenac County began to catch up.

Anne Prichard came on as the founding Executive Director of the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (FCFDC), a couple of months before it was formally established as a corporation, which happened in January of 2024.

She has been working ever since, along with a small but mighty team.

In 2004, The Frontenac CFDC had two disadvantages in relation to the CFDCs in other parts of Eastern Ontario. Frontenac County is also one of the smallest jurisdictions in the region, which impacts funding. FedDev, the economic development arm of Industry Canada, provides seed money when setting up a CFDC, and that gets the loan program underway. But the idea is that as loans are paid back, with interest, the pool of money available will increase, and each local CFDC will be able to fund more and bigger projects.

Starting later than everyone else meant that Frontenac had a much smaller pool of money to loan out, and being so small it has been a challenge to catch up.

Anne Prichard took on that challenge by developing partnerships, with other CFDCs, with the local townships, Frontenac County, and the Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO). She also made a point to get to as many business owners in Frontenac County as she could. If she heard anything about a new business setting up, she would call to establish contact, not being content to wait for businesses to contact her first.

It took the FCFDC four years to loan out its first million dollars to local businesses, but by 2006 the annual loan amount had hit $460,000. In 2022, that number was $1.2 million, which has been steady for a number of years, even through COVID.

And in addition to loans, Frontenac Business Services (FBS), the new name of the FCDC as of the spring of 2021, has managed a number of business grant programs, mostly with federal funds but with provincial funds as well.

The difference Anne has made in the rollout of those programs, from the way it is done elsewhere, comes down to the relationships she has established. In addition to announcing programs through the Frontenac News and social media, Anne works the phones and uses her email list. She has been known to call business owners that she thinks might be eligible and could make use of funding, encouraging them to apply.

This part of her skill set came to the fore during COVID. Instead waiting for things to happen, Anne made sure businesses were made aware of emergency funding that was available, particularly when FBS became the delivery agent for some of that funding. A number of Frontenac County Businesses were able to not only pivot during COVID thanks to FBS advice and support with funding, but have even expanded.

Meanwhile she also asks something in return. The strength of the FBS Board of Directors over the years is a testament to Anne's ability to convince business people to join and participate fully in the board.

Ian Murdoch, the current chair of FBS, met Anne Prichard when he was working in Kingston with KEDCO. He is now at Cambium Environmental Services, and living near Harrowsmith, and is in his 4th year on the FBS Board.

“Anne has been the face of the organisation for 20 years, building community partnerships, being an ambassador for our organisation and Frontenac County. She has worked hard to put Frontenac on the map from a provincial standpoint, and also works hard to help spotlight some of our local businesses across the country or throughout the province,” he said.

Frontenac Business Services remains a small, but strong organisation, which has thrived in a changing environment, in great measure due to the continuity, and ingenuity, that Anne Prichard has brought to it for 20 years.