Consultant Fee Program
Building Opportunities with Business is pleased to announce that we have launched another phase of our Consultant Fee Program in June 2010, thanks to funding from Western Economic Diversification Canada. As in the previous phase which ended March 31, 2009, recipients of support will receive in-depth business consulting services designed to build their business or improve their operations. Support has been fully allocated and no further applications are being taken. Most recent recipients include:
- Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden $5000
- EMBERS Staffing Solutions $5,000
- Saul Good Gift Co. $7500
- Recycling Alternative $4200
- Strathcona BIA $5,500
- Potluck Cafe and Catering $8,000
- Megaphone $1300
- Vancouver Aquaponics Initiave $N/A (Limited funding for initial phase < $600)
Previous support recipients during 2007-2009 phase include:
- Hope in Shadows $7,500
- Smart Living TV $10,000
- Gallery Gachet $15,000
- Edible Planet $5,000
- Chinatown BIA $10,000
- Potluck Cafe $1,000
- DTES Neighborhood House $10,000
- Frogfile $10,000
- Eclipse Awards $7,500
- Vancouver Police Museum $5,000
- Agents of Change $10,000
- Vancouver Women's Health Collection $10,000
- Offsetters.ca $10,000
- 901 Main Artist Collective $5,000
Hope in Shadows
Hope in Shadows offers a glimpse into Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside through the lenses of those who know it best. Literally.
A project managed by the DTES legal advocacy group Pivot Legal Society, Hope in Shadows gives local residents an opportunity to showcase their community through photography while offering tangible financial and learning experiences.
Using disposable cameras, interested participants take photos of their community as they know and experience it: going beyond the notoriety and capturing the hope, courage and spirit of the DTES. From the photos submitted, the Hope in Shadows calendar is made. Selling the calendar helps hundreds of people both financially and through providing work experience.
“Every year we’re trying to give more value to the project and to the people involved,” Paul Ryan, publications manager at Pivot Legal, describes, “So we decided a training program needed to be developed for those who were doing the selling of the calendar.”
“Because the funding for Hope in Shadows comes from sponsorship, it was really hard for us to get the funds to put together a training program,” Paul continues, “BOB helped pay for the first training session last year…If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have done it. BOB paid for the day and the session, including food and other expenses. It was a really good start.”
“The training program is called ‘Train the Trainer’ and we not only go to different community centres to host training sessions but we also involve previous years’ top sellers. They’re not only getting experience selling, but also of training other people and being role models.”
“BOB has helped in such an important part of this project, it’s really helped with the core growth of Hope in Shadows,” he says, “It’s very much appreciated.”
Sustaining Sustainability: The Smart Living Story
by Krystle Yeung
Smart Living Media is a social enterprise starting up in the Downtown Eastside with a passion for sustainability and multimedia initiatives. Started in 2004 by Wayne Soper, it combines these two passions to create a platform for promoting public awareness and environmental conscientiousness. Through a website and television station that is currently in the start up stage, Smart Living hopes to support and promote more sustainable lifestyles.
At the beginning of this year, the organization was at a crucial point in its development. Don Woodman, Chief Financial Officer of Smart Living, described it as follows:
"We were at the point, writing our business plan for the television station, that we were in need of some consulting expertise from the broadcasting area to help us finish the financial projections on the business plan. We also needed some expert advice on how to set up the corporate structure as we were committed to setting up our business as a social enterprise, where part of the profits flow back into the community that supports us."
The challenge facing many start-up organizations and businesses lays in getting the financial resources to hire professional consultants to write a business plan and give advice. "Without a viable business plan that had the financial projections done by an expert in the field, we could not proceed with trying to raise money for the next stage of our business," Don said.
"That's where BOB came in," he continued, "and was extremely helpful in allowing us to go out and do that".
Don worked with Iqbal Alam and Brian Smith from BOB's Business Development Services to make a "viable business plan" a reality. BOB granted $10,000 out of its Western Economic Diversification Project Consultant Fund towards hiring industry experts, something Don stated they would've had difficulty doing financially on their self financed, start-up budget.
"It was fantastic," he described, "because we ended up hiring somebody from Channel M, which is a few blocks away and a local company. They became very interested in what we are doing at Smart Living and are interested in coming to work for us".
With the business plan completed and beginning to be implemented, prospects are looking bright: "It was a bonus for us to be able to obtain funding from BOB to help us get the financial plan completed, which is the critical part. Absolutely the critical part."
"We hope that implementing the business plan and raising the money will lead to us building the station and broadcasting from down here [the Downtown Eastside]," Don said, "Our whole goal is to stay in this area. This is where we want to be centred; this is where we're committed to".
Their website, SmartLiving.com is set to launch this September while Smart Living TV is moving towards launching next year.