Strathmore business makes finals in entrepreneur challenge

Times Reporter

 

For the first time in nine years a Strathmore business made it into the finals in the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge, a business planning competition, which wrapped up on June 12. Colleen Best and Janet FitzGerald, owner/operators of Kindred Companions, entered their business plan into the competition. 

Community Economic Development Coordinator Carolyn McIntyre with Community Futures Wild Rose said over the course of the nine years there have been approximately 39 business owners from this area who have entered the challenge. 

“The big draw to this training is just that, the training. There’s eight weeks of free business training,” said McIntyre. 

The eight weeks of training covered topics like financial management, market analysis, operations management and legal advice.

“The business plan is so detailed, and it is a lot of work but at the end of it you know the ins and outs, and even if you don’t know it all at least you know kind of where to go if you have a question,” said McIntyre.

“It makes you think of questions you might not have thought of if you had not taken the training. I was quite thrilled to have three people submit out of the participants we had this year.”

The proposals are then submitted, judged and whittled down to the top three finalists. After the three finalists are picked they each then have to make a presentation to the four judges, all business experts, in sort of a Dragons Den style. 

“It feels really good, it’s quite an honour,” said FitzGerald about being the first Strathmore business in the finals. 

“We were really fortunate that we had kind of a bit of a base to work from. So with the classes then we kind of fixed it, tweaked it and improved it. It was a lot of work,” said Best. 

“It was a really good learning experience and it really forced Colleen and I to have some long hard conversations about what we wanted out of this and how we were going to get there,” said FitzGerald.

The women didn’t walk away with first place in the challenge, but they did receive prizes as runner up. They won $2,500 for the business and a list of in-kind services, media services, radio advertising, business coaching and so on. They will also be invited to attend the 10 anniversary celebrations, as will any other finalists over the years. 

Kindred Companions offers just what its name says: companionship. 

Taking care of an aging parent can be tough, and the time isn’t always there to visit with them daily, or even weekly. That’s where the two women come in; they visit with seniors, and are also able to update family members on how their loved one is doing.