Small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Ontario have an opportunity through the Northern Technology Accelerator Program to reach new markets, improve efficiency and increase sales by implementing innovative technology.
A partnership between the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and Blue Sky Net has made the grant available for small businesses. Funded by Blue Sky Net, the program is being delivered by the Innovation Centre.
“Starting a business is a big challenge in itself, but once you start your business and develop into a certain level, you probably want to grow further, and that’s when you experience lots of bottlenecks and challenges,” said Chathura Jayasinghe, a business adviser for the northwest region with the Innovation Centre. “The Northern Technology Accelerator Program is about supporting a business when it needs to grow further.”
For this program, Jayasinghe says this has to be an established business that has been successful within the last year.
“The business should have hit the minimum threshold of $30,000 annual sales during the last year, and it has to have been operating full-time for the last year. These are the basic bare minimum qualifications needed to be able to apply for the program,” he said.
He added that the program can support multiple things required to grow a business.
“If they need to build their website further, making sure that they can provide additional services to their clients to grow the business, that’s one aspect we can support,” he said. “If they need to buy some very specific equipment that will allow them to offer a new service, that’s another one we’ll support.”
The program will also support cybersecurity upgrades to make sure that client information is safe, as well as broadband equipment safety and improvements.
“This program is likely to be continued for the next three years, but the whole lifespan of the program only allows you to submit one application,” Jayasinghe said, adding the program will cover up to 50 per cent of eligible technology project costs to a maximum of $10,000.
Once a project is approved for funding, the project must be completed within three months of approval.
“We are getting a lot of applications, and we want to make sure that the applicants who are approved will move forward and complete their project so that we can process their payments and make sure that they are on track for growth,” he said. “If the project is not completed, it’s blocking the money, because once we approve a project and we commit some funding for those projects, if they just hang in there without completing it, they are blocking the access for the other applications, and we don’t want to see that.”
Costs that are ineligible from the program include graphic design and photography services, website maintenance, hosting fees, HST costs and ongoing costs incurred before the project start date.
There is no deadline for applications and Jayasinghe says they will be accepting them on an ongoing basis.
Visit www.nwoinnovation.ca/programs/ntap/ for more information on applying.
