As the pandemic continues to shutter the doors to many small businesses, Business Link is working to open a big virtual portal for all of them.
The Edmonton-based non-profit, which bills itself as Alberta's small business hub, has just launched Support Local AB, a new web-based directory for all small businesses across the province. The website is designed to help make sure there are as many avenues available to reach customers whether they each have their own online presence already or not.
"As Business Link, we're here to support businesses in whatever way we can. We have a fairly significant reach and marketing engine that allows us to then promote this business directory for businesses across Alberta, opening up new markets for them and new abilities for them to connect with their consumers," explained Barbara McKenzie, Business Link's CEO.
Alberta small business entrepreneurs are encouraged to visit the directory's website at SupportLocalAB.ca to register their businesses for free. Consumers can then visit the site and search for them by community or category. As a value-added bonus, there are also filters to magnify businesses that are Indigenous-owned, Black-owned, immigrant-owned, LGBTQ2S+-owned, visible minority-owned, woman-owned, and youth-owned.
McKenzie emphasized the strategy of highlighting diversity as another method of bringing attention to those enterprises that might not be able to reach customers and clients through a variety of different means. She also recognized other community-centered attempts to direct traffic to small, independent operations as a way of keeping their local economies going through some of the toughest times.
She noted that approximately 30 per cent of the country's economy is comprised of small- and medium-sized businesses, revealing that more than 10,000 restaurants have already closed their doors permanently during the Year of COVID-19.
"If you take that and just magnify that across different industries and different businesses, we can really see what kind of impact the pandemic is having."
The Business Link has many other operations underway to support new and existing businesses like its Women in Business: Finding Passion in Entrepreneurship event, a half-day conference is intended to support female small business owners. It's coming online from 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday. The half-day conference is intended to support female small business owners and will feature presentations by McKenzie as well as Marcela Mandeville the CEO of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. It will feature a keynote speech by Jessica Janzen, author and executive director of the Love for Lewiston Foundation.
The organization is also working with many community partners to spread the word about this portal, especially by boosting the signal to communities' own business directories by linking them to Support Local AB.That's welcome news to Curtis Crouse, chair of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce. While no St. Albert or Morinville businesses have yet registered onto the fledgling directory, any similarly minded support will have a positive effect.
The chamber has already booted up the Support St. Albert Facebook page as well as a job connector for job postings and Lunch and Learns, virtual events and networking as just a few of the ways it's working to help local businesses get through. Its membership is down by 15 per cent since this time last year, he noted, another big reason why its newsletters, digital sign and other marketing and advocacy efforts are so important.
"We continually push the government for things to help businesses, advocate to them on things that will help the community and help the business community. That's really one of our larger roles," he expressed.
An upcoming chamber event is right in line with continuing to help small business owners with pushing through, especially with their online efforts to support their operations. The next Lunch and Learn will focus on social media basics that every business owner needs to know. It will be presented by marketing consultant Monika Adams of Monika Social via Zoom starting at noon on Tuesday, March 23. Attendance is a complimentary benefit of membership to the Chamber. Visit business.stalbertchamber.com to log on.
Crouse said despite the unprecedented tough times, there is hope for businesses and for the region.
"This has forced businesses to look at their efficiencies, and this has forced businesses to look at their online presence. We have seen a lot of change in the business landscape over the course of the last year and it's only going to continue on," he said, indicating that the bigger picture of the province and specifically the energy sector also offer a lot of things to be optimistic about.
"Lots of talks about the Heartland; lots of talks about hydrogen. I'm actually pretty optimistic about where we end up in 2022. I think that in 2021 we're going to have some some similar challenges, but we're going to be able to navigate through them as we get vaccinated. I would say that absolutely, there's excitement around the Villeneuve Airport. There's excitement around the Heartland Region. There's going to be lots of opportunities here. Further to that, there's a fair amount of development coming into St. Albert as well."
