A program created last year for businesses struggling with pandemic restrictions provided by Community Futures Peace Country and the Peace River and District Chamber of Commerce may be returning to Peace River in the future.
The Local Business Support Program was made to coach business owners by offering one on one training with an expert in either bookkeeping, human resources, business planning or social media marketing.
On May 10, 2021, the website launched for applications to be accepted through until August 31, 2021 for the Local Business Support Program. 36 applications were received, 11 were successful and eight followed through with the support. 10 hours of coaching came to no expense to the eight owners of local businesses and many received more than one session with an expert.
The programs focus was to be a “hand up” instead of a “hand out” as both the Provincial and Federal governments were providing grant money to small businesses at the time. The initiative was supported by the Town of Peace River, that committed up to $75,000 for expenses in the program.
Both the Program Coordinator, Dani Wearden and General Manager of CFPC, Randy Hodgkinson had similar thoughts in the final report as to why the program didn’t have a higher success rate than anticipated.
“The program was meant to help pull local businesses out of the COVID restrictions, but at the time of launching we were struck with more restrictions being implemented, making it extremely hard for businesses to focus on anything else. I
believe that if we had waited and launched in the Fall of 2021, we would have had an even higher success rate.” –Wearden
“Timing may have contributed to lower numbers as the program ran through the summer. In addition, the fall brought new and additional COVID restrictions with a new wave of infections.” –Hodgkinson
The final report was presented at the Peace River Town Council meeting on January 10, 2022, with many councillors noting it may be a good idea to bring it back if needed in the future; as business owners many have missed the opportunity the first time.
You can view the full final report by clicking here.
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
