Three early morning workshops were held over the past week for residents of Sparwood during Small Business Week. Organised by the Sparwood Chamber of Commerce, business owners had the unique opportunity to learn about several different aspects of businesses success.
The first workshop held on Monday, presented speaker Tess Menges, from the office of Small and Medium Enterprises with the Government of Canada. She provided members information on how to become a supplier of goods and services to the federal government, how the government does its buying, and how to keep track of opportunities to bid on Canadian government purchases. An introduction to the MERX and SRI systems was explained and all those who attended found the workshop very informative.
During the second workshop, Seargent Will Thien from the Elk Valley RCMP and Jim Jones, Sparwood Fire Chief, educated business owners on how to keep their businesses safe. They touched on many aspects of loss prevention, including ways to prevent robbery, security, display and lighting, as well as the importance of having proper business fire plans and ways business owners can assist the fire department in the event of a fire.
The last workshop instructed business owners in the ways of social media marketing. Speaker Marcia Johnson,explained the advantages of online marketing and how businesses can navigate in the ever changing ways of social media marketing.
At the end of each workshop one lucky winner walked away with a Halloween movie night gift bag donated by Vantage Point, and the grand prize draw of one year worth of roadside signage was awarded to Sparwood’s new Remedy’s RX Pharmacy.
“Overall the week went really well, there was a lot for people to learn and those that attended gave really positive feedback. Things like this are what the chamber hopes to continue to do for the Sparwood business community,” says John Himel, Manager of the Sparwood Chamber of Commerce.
