The Rural Alberta Business Centre (RABC) in Cold Lake is expecting provincial funding to fizzle out in June 2019.
Bob Bezpalko, executive director for the Northeast Alberta Information HUB, told the City of Cold Lake council during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 11, “There are three other (RABC programs) in the province that are being funded, and they’re all in the same scenario.”
According to Bezpalko, the provincial government never intended on funding the program long-term. Instead, they would like to see a similar provincially-driven initiative in all communities, not just select areas.
With this in mind, Kathryn Hotte, small business advisor with RABC, has made some adjustments to the local program’s future endeavours.
“We’ve looked at different scenarios, and one of them is that we could move the RABC office to another location… we could coordinate and operate some of these services, like operating costs, marketing, the website, the workshops, seminars, and online training from that office,” she explained.
They would also cut down their staff to part-time only, operating at “the bare minimum.”
It also means the end of the business incubator program, unless the city is willing to cover the costs.
In order to keep their doors open on a much smaller scale, the RABC would need to come-up with $62,500 annually. This doesn’t include the $12,000 needed to run the business incubator program.
Hotte plans on meeting with the MD to share the same statistics and request their financial support, although, Hotte said most of their clients are from Cold Lake.
“In 2016, 20 per cent of our clients were outside of Cold Lake, and in 2017 less than 10 per cent of our clients came from outside of the city.”
The RABC works with small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting, maintaining, and running a business.
Since opening up shop seven years ago, they have worked with hundreds of locals, meeting with them one-on-one, brainstorming marketing techniques, and getting them started through the business incubator.
“We give free advice and consultation to business owners at any stage of the business lifecycle, so whether they’re just starting up, existing and struggling, or existing and growing, or they have to close their doors, we can help them at any stage of that lifecycle,” explained Hotte, adding while they can offer advice and help, one thing they can’t give entrepreneurs is funding.
Hotte said last year, the RABC in Cold Lake assisted 90 clients through one-on-one counselling.
“Those are the ones that gave me a call and said they need to come and see me because they wanted to start a business,” Hotte detailed. “Seventy-five of those were concepts or ideas, or start-up businesses, while 15 were established businesses.”
In the end, 22 of the 75 actually started a business, 19 of which are still up and running. Fourteen of the previously established businesses have managed to keep their doors open.
Hotte said since bringing the RABC to Cold Lake, they’ve had 1,151 new clients, which works out to around eight per cent of the city’s population.
About 72 per cent of their clients are women, which is one of the reasons why they created WOW events, where local business women can network, socialize, and share ideas.
“In seven years of learning and connecting, we’ve had over 100 business workshops and events, and 1,800 participants. It’s been a phenomenal ride, and those are just an example,” expressed Hotte.
The RABC event offers advice to some of the area’s young entrepreneurs.
Hotte explained, “We partnered with Community Futures a few years back on the Biz Kids program. We started in 2015, and over the three years we have partnered with them, we’ve assisted about 50 kids. A few of them are still in business today.”
She added, a lot has been accomplished over the years, but if they can, they would like to take it a step further.
“Other ideas that I think are really great, and I would love to be able to do this, is to have a co-working space, where you can just show up to the centre with your laptop… it’s working really well for other communities.”
Pop-up shops was another idea Hotte was hoping to bring to the area, however with their future funding unclear, they aren’t even certain there will be an RABC locally once the June 2019 deadline approaches.
But, it doesn’t have to be the end of the Cold Lake program, should the city step up to the plate.
“I did look at the City of Cold Lake’s annual report, and it was a little disappointing to see such a low percentage when it came to economic development and when it comes to what we do. This is the city’s opportunity to invest in economic development, because that’s essentially what we do is business support, and business retention and expansion is essential part of economic development and the growth of the community,” Hotte noted.
Council decided to discuss the opportunity during their 2019 budget deliberations.
