CFWR launches supports for small businesses
By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter
Community Futures Wild Rose (CFWR) announced the official launch of their Digital Economy Program to support small businesses in the Wheatland County region, on March 3.
Partnered with Digital Main Street (DMS) and Business Link and funded by the Province of Alberta, the program works to provide support and training to help small businesses establish a working online presence.
CFWR Executive Director Chantale Sangster said it’s a program that all businesses, that meet the prerequisite criteria, should participate in, even if they might only need a little help.
An applicant business must be a for-profit business with less than 50 employees, registered in Alberta and either be home based or a storefront.
Franchises, non-profits and charities will be supported with a different program, though Sangster was unable to provide details about what those supports would look like.
“The project itself has two phases. The first helps businesses with their online presence, whether claiming their Google listing, learning new social media platforms, understanding how they get their analytics and how they can use that information to shape their marketing strategies,” explained Sangster. “The second phase of the project is helping them to sell their products or services online by creating an e-commerce site through Shopify.”
The program is free for businesses to participate in and delivers one-on-one help to the applicant in order to meet their specific needs.
The program launching in Alberta and more locally with CFWR mimics that which has already seen use in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In our region, we have 16 municipalities, so we have 16 shareholder communities. And within those, our goal is to help support 500 businesses over the course of the year,” said Sangster who added that the onset of COVID-19 caused businesses to shift a great deal online, it was highlighted that their online presence was not strong enough to meet consumer demand.
“What we did find through COVID-19 … was that our businesses need to have a stronger online presence. This project, whether it’s elevating their existing online presence, or getting them to have an e-commerce site … both of those things are going to meet the need that we recognized.”
Wheatland County Reeve and Board Chair for CFWR, Amber Link, said it is an exciting opportunity for local businesses to find their online footing and get some advice on how they can strengthen their platforms.
“We are thrilled to bring these digital supports to our rural businesses,” said Link. “The past 24 months has illustrated the importance for businesses to have a digital online presence and I believe this program will help businesses get online or strengthen their digital footprint.”
For a business to register in the program, all the applicant needs to do is go to the CFWR website and find the Digital Economy Program link on the homepage.
Upon registration, the applicant will need to complete an assessment that will target the weak points in their business and identify exactly what they need help with.
“There really isn’t a set limit. We know that with some businesses, we’re going to spend two hours and some other businesses, we’re probably going to spend 20 hours,” said Sangster. “There’s no monetary value to the client, it’s just we’re going to meet their needs, whatever that is … we’re going to support them to get them into that next level, whatever it takes.”
Within the first two weeks of launch, Sangster said roughly 35 businesses had already reached out to register for the program. The program will be available to register for until Mar. 31, 2023.