Duane Hicks
The Rainy River Future Development Corp. has begun a monthly “Business Spotlight” in print, radio, and social media to bring attention to business success stories in the district.
“We are planning on doing it for a year,” noted RRFDC business investment officer Angela Halvorsen.
“And then we’re going to look at the cost and effectiveness of doing them and re-evaluate it,” she explained.
“Hopefully, it will continue because we’re getting some very good responses.”
This month’s “Business Spotlight,” which appeared on page B5 of last week’s Times, profiled Curvy Chick, a women’s clothing store located on Scott Street.
Future instalments will be published in the Times on the first Wednesday of the month.
Radio spots and social media postings will be done in conjunction with those.
Halvorsen said the reason for the campaign not only is to highlight successful businesses the RRFDC has helped over the years, but also underscore its role in helping them get off the ground.
“I’ve found over the years [that] most of the stuff that I do on the lending side, and working with the businesses on an individual basis, is all confidential,” she noted.
“So we really can’t communicate a lot about what we do on this side of the organization [as opposed to the economic development side].”
For instance, Halvorsen has been with the RRFDC for more than 17 years, and helped a lot of people during that span, but really isn’t allowed to talk about it.
“So we decided to get some testimonials about the folks that we’ve helped–with their permission,” she remarked.
“I’m glad to be able to celebrate some of the businesses that we’ve helped over the years.
“We have some that in Fort Frances, others in Emo, Barwick, Rainy River–all the way across the district because we are, of course, district-wide in our mandate,” she added.
Halvorsen said the RRFDC gives support, information, and planning services to small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as provides access to capital (i.e., start-up loans).
“There’s a lot of people who come and get help here and don’t necessarily get a loan with us,” she noted.
“We’re one of the few places in the area that give that help as to how to get started, what are the steps, what the regulations–the so-called “red tape”–to get yourself legal and registered and insured as a business.
“I certainly help a lot of people just get going, without necessarily needing financial backing from us,” she remarked.
There’s been the odd business over the years that does not “make it,” Halvorsen conceded, and those stories sometimes spread faster than the success ones.
“You might hear people say, ‘I don’t know why they lent to that business or that person,’ but they don’t know of the number of businesses that have been successful,” she stressed.
“That they don’t hear from because they’re successful, right?”
The RRFDC was started by the federal government when FedNor noticed there was a gap between people who were able to get financing through traditional lenders, like a bank or credit union, and those who had good ideas for businesses but were unable to access it.
But they also help existing businesses expand, and can provide referrals to other lending programs available.
“We try to match the entrepreneur with the different programs,” Halvorsen explained.
“For example, the province has one through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and there’s some youth programs out there and ones for aboriginal entrepreneurs.
“Depending on where you fit, we try and look and see what other programs might be available to assist with the start-up or, in some cases, an acquisition,” she added.
“In our community, there’s a lot of people looking at retiring and they want to sell their businesses, so we help with that sort of thing, as well.”
For more information about starting a business, contact Halvorsen at 274-3276 or via e-mail at info@rrfdc.on.ca
