Celebrating Small Business

As an entrepreneur, I make it a goal to support others in a similar situation.  I also make it a point to support my community.  Often, these two goals coincide with each other as supporting local business will benefit your community.

Recently, while chatting with another small business, we realized that we were both celebrating our first anniversaries - mine as a full-time storefront and theirs as a new business in Barrie.  As this company (PC Service On Site) did not have a physical location, I suggested they join us and celebrate together.  Thus, the event has been booked and on October 11, 2012, we will both celebrate our first anniversaries.

To add to our lunch-time event, we have decided to include hot sandwiches with all proceeds going to the Barrie Women & Children's Shelter. In addition, in support of their upcoming Walk a Mile in Her Shoes on October 14, we have invited male participants to test-drive their favorite heels.  There may even be some extra entertainment (stay tuned to see if we pull it off!).  This is just one way we, as small business owners, can support our community.

In small business, the first year of business is vital.  Many businesses fail right out of the starting gate; others fail by the six month mark.  As you talk with entrepreneurs, you will realize that many businesses have a rocky first year and the important thing is to keep adapting and push through.

If you are an entrepreneur, think about how you can help small businesses in your community. Make it a point to offer some advice or encouragement to another entrepreneur, or join forces to accomplish a mutual goal.

Small Business Week is October 15 - 19.  Get out and meet your local business owners!

Events:

October 17 - Barrie Chamber of Commerce Business After 5 - Barrie Food Bank
October 18 - Ask the Experts at Barrie City Hall Rotunda
October 19 - Speed Networking

Visit www.barriechamber.com or www.barriebusinesscentre.ca for more information on the above events or contact me at Rebecca@simcoenorth.ca and I will update you!

Business After 5 - July 18, 2012

Recently, we hosted the Barrie Chamber of Commerce Business After 5 at our office at 166 Saunders Rd., Unit 8, Barrie.  It was quite a crush with well over 110 people in attendance!  I wish I had pictures but the camera was left behind!  Stay tuned for the August Snap as there are bound to be pictures in it.

Thank you to all who visited and an extra thank you to Buffalo Wild Wing for providing hot wings throughout the night!

One common response from many of our guests was "I didn't know you do this." It is an ongoing issue for us to find exactly how to best market the company as we truly do a wide variety of things ranging from store fixtures, promotional materials, packaging, printing, garage systems and more.  Overall, all of our products and services go together to make us a "one-stop shop" when setting up or promoting your business.

We can help businesses in a variety of ways:

• Business cards
• Storefront signs, vinyl lettering for windows or walls
• Vehicle lettering or graphics
• Banners, promotional displays or stands
• Pamphlets, brochures, stickers, labels
• T shirts and other promotional items
• Wall systems for product displays
• New store set-up and design
• Packaging for goods including bags, tissue paper, boxes & ribbon

Please drop in to see us soon.  Regardless of whether you need our services, we like to meet and get to know the people in our local community so that we may refer people looking for products or services we do not provide.

Rebecca and Shawn Palmer