It has been a successful year so far for the Saugeen Shores Business Enterprise Centre.
Specifically, the Summer Company youth project has seen some real success stories this season.
Jill Roote, Manager and Consultant for the Business Enterprise Centre gave an update on the program to members of Saugeen Shores Council.
She says they were able to help four students start their own businesses.
Those businesses include retail clothing, multi-media, building maintenance, and even horse training.
High school, college, and university students wanting to give self-employment a try can apply to the program online.
However, the program operates nothing like a lottery where a name is simply drawn from a hat – you need to prepare a detailed business plan in order to take part.
Roote says they were hoping to have at least ten students operating a business this summer – but only came up with four.
She says there was plenty of interest but not as much follow up.
Roote suggest a reason for that could be that not everyone is suited to run their own business, or are not aware of the hard work involved.
She hopes to get the word out to more people next year to generate more interest and get the word out about the services provided by the Business Enterprise Centre.
The Centre provides assistance for writing business plans and holds business seminars for potential entrepreneurs.
Roote says the Centre has increased its public presence through Internet social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
One of her other goals is to improve the Centre’s Aboriginal outreach by engaging youth at the high school level.
