Local Entrepreneurs Get A Head Start
With the recent loss of hundreds of jobs in the South Okanagan and Similkameen, there are now plenty of people on Employment Insurance.
For some, starting a business of their own is the answer to providing themselves with a decent income.
Community Futures Okanagan Similkameen offers a program named SEEB (Self-Employment Employment Benefits) that will get them started and keep them going. Along with four weeks of formal classroom business training, two weeks of supported business plan development and another four weeks of refinement of the plan, those who qualify will continue to receive 42 more weeks of EI. The funding is supplied by Service Canada.Currently, it’s a federal program, said Su Baker, a business analyst with Community Futures. In Alberta, however, the province began funding the program and cutting back the time to six months for new business owners to receive EI.
In February of next year, B.C. will also begin funding the program, said Baker, and she’s not sure how that will affect her clients. “We’re hoping that British Columbia doesn’t do that.”
“Six months would have been tough because of the glitches that happen in the first few months,” said Nadine Allen of Keremeos. She and her husband, Chad Allen started up a business, Crossing Time Fine Woodworking, through the program. “Something always comes up,” she said.
Theresa McPhillamey, owner of 24-Karat Salon and Spa in Summerland also used the program to start up her new business a few years ago. “One of the big problems I would see, basically the first six months, you’re just throwing everything against the wall to see if it sticks.”
Prior to opening her own business, McPhillamey was working as a national trainer of managers for an international cosmetic company. The company was restructured.
“I was a year-and-a-half away from retirement and they said they didn’t want me any more.”
She was offered a severance package, and one of her daughters said, “Mom, you better apply for EI.” She could not receive EI or enter the program until her severance package had been spent. She had considered setting up a tea shop at her home in Summerland, but she would have had to have the property rezoned. “I didn’t have a few years to wait for that.” So she spoke to Summerland’s city planner who suggested she open a salon instead because it would not require rezoning. Though she had lots of experience in the field, she had not been a hair stylist, so she took at course in Penticton.
For the first several months when few clients appeared, McPhillamey went knocking door to door with flyers and brochures to let people know she was there. Her target market is baby boomers, people with high-end careers and she takes no drop-ins.
“To percolate, you’ve got to circulate,” she said. With every form of marketing you use, you’re trying to see what brings in clients, she said. “I spent a lot of money on radio advertisements, but it didn’t work for me.”
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