Supporting small business growth
Akaitcho Business Development Corporation honours successful clients
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, December 3, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Small business owners and members of the Akaitcho Business Development Corporation convened at The Explorer Hotel for its annual general meeting and awards ceremony last week.
Darrell Beaulieu, chair of the Akaitcho Business Development Corporation, left, presents a $500 cheque to Nicole Redvers of Gaia Integrative Clinic while Premier Bob McLeod looks on, during the organization's annual general meeting at The Explorer Hotel on Nov. 27. Redvers donated the money to the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo
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The assembly was also attended by Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley, Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro, and Premier Bob McLeod.
Founded in 1998 with a $617,500 capital growth loan from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, the not-for-profit organization has increased that sum to $1,198,590, according to Sr. business analyst Corinne Kraft-Bailey.
The corporation offers repayable loans up to $125,000, amortized over five years, for start-up expenses, expansion, or special projects.
In the 2012-13 fiscal year, the corporation met with 21 small business owners who requested $1.2 million in loans, 14 of which were approved for a total of $689,000 in financing. The corporation also provided business counselling services, such as marketing on a budget and income tax basics, to 26 entrepreneurs, which resulted in 17 storefront businesses and nine home-based businesses, Kraft-Bailey said.
Those businesses generated 34 full-time and eight part-time jobs, she added, or about $2,414,672 in payroll disbursed annually.
"Statistics Canada reports that only 20 per cent of businesses survive the first five years of business," Kraft-Bailey said. "Through Akaitcho Business Development Corporation programs and assistance, 86 per cent of the loan and self-employment option clients from 2008, five years ago, are still in business and 57 per cent of those clients still utilize the services Akaitcho Business Development Corporation provides."
The board honoured three area business owners for their contributions to the community by presenting each with a $500 cheque, with which to donate to the local charity of their choice.
Akaitcho chair Darrell Beaulieu made the presentation to Nicole Redvers of Gaia Integrative Clinic, Dr. Michael Hughes of the Yellowknife Veterinary Clinic and Victor Crapeau of Akaitcho Bay Trucking Ltd. They donated the money to the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre, Food First Foundation, and the Salvation Army, respectively.
Redvers said the organization has supported the growth of her naturopathic business from day one.
"We utilized them right from the inception of the clinic, which originally was a home-based practice and evolved into what it is today," she said.
The three-year-old business grew from rooms in a home on Bigelow Crescent into its present 2,000 square-foot space on 47 Street, which now employs six full-time and five part-time practitioners offering chiropractic, massage, yoga, acupuncture and other health services.
"We just keep growing and growing and growing," she added. "(The Akaitcho Business Development Corporation) basically provides any support that a new business needs and really supports that process all the way through, literally at no cost."
Redvers, who is of Chipewyan descent, chose to use her award to support the Tree of Peace because she admires the work the organization does to support aboriginal youth, she said.
