Chatham-Kent Economic Development and the Small Business Centre are at full throttle and ready to help entrepreneurs drive their business down the road of success during the 2019 October Small Business Month. The month is packed with education sessions, seminars, and community events all designed to help Chatham-Kent businesses be ready to start, grow, and invest.

“It’s an action-packed month, the first week alone will see events such as Chatham-Kent’s Workforce Planning Job Fair, the Small Business Centre Selling on Etsy event, and Economic Development’s Mentors of the Universe event,” said Andrew Tompsett, Marketing and Communications Officer with Chatham-Kent Economic Development. “Add to that, we are also working with local school boards to host a Manufacturing Day event for students on Friday, plus there are several grand openings going on starting today, and you can start to see just how much activity there is going on.”

Tompsett added, “In terms of core business training, we have sessions on bookkeeping basics, funding opportunities through Community Futures, disaster planning for business and manufacturing, and workplace safety.”

In addition to supporting businesses, the October events are also designed to help local residents improve their business connections and skills.

“We want to further encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and culture that is so vibrant in Chatham-Kent. We are bringing a renewed focus on networking to many of our events; something we have heard time and time again from the community,” said Tompsett. “There is also a focus in developing tech skills thanks to our partnership with WEtech Alliance. For example, on October 22^nd we are hosting two Ladies Learning Code sessions, located at SOAR Innovation, to help people develop both their HTML skills and looking at coding for virtual reality.”

“WEtech Alliance is hosting a special Practical Steps to Scale Your Business session on October 15th as part of our TeCK Tuesday series,” said Adam Castle, Director of Venture Services with WEtech Alliance. “I am so excited to be in Chatham the third Tuesday of every month to meet with businesses one-on-one to help them with their growth and development needs. I look forward to helping more businesses across Chatham-Kent succeed.”

The team at Economic Development and the Small Business Centre is also asking residents to keep an eye on their social media news feeds as they will be doing another community business blitz.

“Over the past several months we have visited communities such as Tilbury, Dresden, Thamesville, and Wheatley in an effort to highlight amazing things happening across Chatham-Kent and uncover some of the hidden gems,” said Tompsett. “We have everything lined up to do another community blitz in October as well, so keep a watch out for more activity. Be sure to show your support by liking and sharing as it means a lot to the business owners.”

For more information about Chatham-Kent Economic Development, the Small Business Centre, and activities happening during Small Business Month, please visit their website at www.investck.ca.