Hardy business

Leanne Shea Rhem, owner of fledgling textile design business Gold & Ginger, works at her home office in Picton. Shea Rhem participated in workshops this November to improve her marketing skills.

Local organizations help businesses and job seekers survive winter

Winter can be cold and hard in the County, even when the weather is mild. Agricultural jobs are on hold until spring, and jobs in food service and tourism are depleted. For many who make a living in the County, this is a lean time in the seasonal economy.

Sandy Abbott, consultant for the Ontario Small Business Centre (OSBC) and Grace Nyman, coordinator for the County’s community development department, are collaborating to assist small businesses with the help they need to grow and thrive.

Their work includes the Winter Survival workshop series for small businesses and a large job fair for local employers and job seekers. Both are now in their second year.

The workshops came about when Nyman and Abbott’s work began showing a pattern of needs that were being echoed by many small businesses. So they began to prepare the series, asking for support from the municipality and OSBC, along with the chamber of commerce and the Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Community Futures Development Commission (PELA CFDC).

“If we had just sat around the table and brainstormed what we thought were training needs, we probably all would have had different ideas. But some of us were just coming to the table saying, okay, I have a whole bunch of people who need to know about food traceability, do you want to help on this?” says Abbott. “We already had a speaker, we already knew we had a lot of clients that needed it. And all we were really doing was just asking if they wanted to help expand it so more people would benefit.”

The workshops would fill up almost immediately upon being advertised. This year, two workshops have already taken place, and both were full. There are two more workshops in January. Both have waiting lists. Workshops will continue to be offered until March.

Leanne Shea Rhem grew up in the city, but when she wanted to get serious about her business, Gold & Ginger, she chose Prince Edward County, where she had spent her summers growing up.

“Our lease was ending in our apartment and we were thinking about buying a house. To buy a house in Toronto is totally out of sight, so I’d grown up coming here and loved it so much,” says Shea Rhem. “Zac grew up in Kingston, so it was a good in-between place for families and to be close to a bunch of different major cities as opposed to just kind of rooted in one. I think for the kind of lifestyle and quality of life that you get to experience here, it’s a no-brainer.”

Shea Rhem has a background in textile design. Her fiancée, Zac Kenny, in graphic design and painting. The two of them collaborated to create art, which spurred a series of fabric prints for accessories that Shea Rhem produces in their Picton home. She says participating in the workshops not only helped improve her skills, it has given her the drive and support to push her business forward.

“The most valuable part was things other people were willing to share. Just talking about the different stuff in their business when they were starting out.”

“There’s always someone that’s been through it before you,” says Shea Rhem. “So in that workshop, there’s a lot more room for an open discussion and dialogue between business owners. You always pick up something, because someone does just one thing differently from how you do it. And it just blows your mind that you didn’t think of that before, and it changes everything.”

Penny Morris is no stranger to the programs available. Through the support of the Ontario Self Employment Benefit (OSEB), Morris started her own business in Picton in 2011. Penny’s Pantry is a dried-goods store and also offers after-hours workshops preparing specialty foods.

Since opening, Morris and her partner, Diane Ferrier, have attended every workshop possible.

“They’re really well targeted,” says Morris. “I’m really appreciative that they are offering these workshops. They’re helpful to draw people here, entrepreneurs and other people who are thinking of opening and starting some kind of business here because they have workshops such as these and support systems and services that are available.”

Shea Rhem, coming from Toronto, was impressed by the availability of such a service.

“Just that amount of support, to have workshops and programming funded by the municipality was amazing. That would never have happened in Toronto. You would have had to pay, probably, $100 and there would have been a waiting list to help people,” says Shea Rhem. “It was great for that, accessible.”

In order to put together the job fair, organizations like Career Edge also participated. Each organization began to realize their services were not well linked. The process has enabled workers from each organization to learn about services offered by the others, making referrals easier.

“The kind of seamless service has really improved since we’ve started working on the workshops and the job fair. For example, Career Edge, they’ll do employee screening for employers, they’ll help you write job descriptions. In some cases, they can help you find wage subsidies,” says Abbott. “If I’m going to hire three people, people who work at PELA CFDC just know now that if you call the job developer at Career Edge, you might get some help with that.”

For Candace Wilkins, the job fair was very helpful. Wilkins arrived in the County from New Brunswick in the late fall of 2013. She had a keen interest in art, but expected to find work in agriculture. Wilkins attended the job fair last February after seeing it advertised in the paper. She was delighted to find Oeno Gallery represented, and is now working for the gallery.

“I was expecting lots of farm work, maybe some restaurants. The booths were laid out well, and I was able to speak with lots of employers,” says Wilkins. “I was actually looking to work on a farm, but really loved the gallery. I had no idea the gallery was hiring until I went to the job fair. So the fair is a good way to see what is available.”

Abbott remains grounded about the County’s economic realities, but to her those realities highlight the calibre of people who are making their lives here.

“I just don’t think we’re going to be employing and keeping everybody. I think that people coming here to start businesses need to be very mindful of that, because you have to find a way to make ends meet 12 months of the year,” says Abbott. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you have to be really resourceful.”

This year’s job fair is on Tuesday February 18 from 1 – 5 p.m. at the Picton community centre.