Eagle Lake FN hosts Aboriginal Business seminar

News — 21 February 2012

By Ally Dunham

Hosted by the Northwest Business Centre (NBC) in Kenora and Dryden, the ABC’s of Entrepreneurship-Aboriginal Business Day took place in the Eagle Lake Community Hall on Feb. 14, 2012.

“The ABC’s of Entrepreneurship which was the Aboriginal Business Day, was an opportunity to bring together funders from the provincial level, as well as from the federal level, to help anyone who was looking for a start or opportunity for a new business,” said Stefanie Armstrong, Small Business Advisor for NBC. “Our purpose here was to bring together, not just Aboriginals but anyone was welcome to come to the event. We had a nice mix of some brand new business ideas, as well as some existing business that were looking to take it to the next level, increase marketing, or just share and network with others.”

The day included a Mind to Market panel discussion, which was taking a snapshot of the fit between a business idea and implementation, a roundtable exercise called Pulling Together Your Plan where attendees created a one page business plan and were given the Aboriginal Business Development Toolkit.

Exhibit booths and representatives were on hand by local service providers, including Aboriginal Business Canada, Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Indian Agricultural Program of Ontario, Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, Northwest Business Centre, Northwest Employment Works, Northern Community Development Services, Patricia Area Community Endeavours and Rainy River Future Development Corp.

The day included a panel discussion on where a new business can find investors to start or grow a business, and some guidelines around funding.

Keynote speaker for the seminar was Jeremiah Windego, CEO of the Naicatchewenin Development Corporation, who shared his best practices and motivation for both entrepreneurs and First Nation Communities to move their vision to reality.

“I came to speak about our development corporation, and let people know some of the services that we provide and offer help to any community who wants to begin the process of building capacity in their communities,” said Windego. “Just to let them know some of our successes and failures, and how we got to where we are today.”

Windego started in an isolated community, with no real obvious solutions to their economic development problems.

“We were able to do the required planning and consultation with the community that allowed us to go out and begin investing in off-reserve business ventures in the Fort Frances area as well as build our capacity on-reserve,” said Windego. “It’s through the support of the community and leadership that has allowed us to be successful in our economic development ventures.”

The day completed with a break-out session, going over topics such as funding, marketing, planning, research and staffing/training.

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