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Requirements include a profitable company, with committed shareholders, good financial controls and reporting, and preferred is a company with a market advantage in a growing industry.
The AFER Program for Women in Rural Communities
Available to women in rural areas of Quebec, this program promotes entrepreneurship, makes access to capital for women more equitable, and offers financial assistance to women who wish to become entrepreneurs in rural communities. Non-repayable funding can include a maximum of $3000 to develop your project and carry out your business plan, and a maximum of $25,000 to cover start-up costs.
How to seize the opportunity to grow
$32,000 arrives at crucial stage in music store's growth
For many small businesses, it's a struggle to grow in your first few years. The problem was the opposite for Rob Edney; he was growing so quickly, he couldn't keep up. From the day he opened The World's Coolest Music Store in the small town of St. Mary's, Ontario, he was shocked by the numbers. He'd hoped for 50 students in the beginning; 66 signed up the day he threw open his doors. A year later he was maxed out. With the existing building, he could handle, at most, 120 students in a week. And there were already 25 more on the waiting list.
"I realized we had to expand," says Edney. "They could lose interest rather quickly, or they could go to Stratford or London, which are only 20 minutes away. What was the point of creating a market and only creating it for other stores?"
But he faced an ironic dilemma. His early success, combined with the importance of growing, now made him a bad candidate for a bank loan. "As a business, you can't get a loan until you're two years old," he says. "It's unfortunate if you need to grow, if it turns out there's a market for what you're doing. So I couldn't get a loan from the traditional banks. But then I found Perth Community Futures, who base their involvement on what it does for the community and on the character of the person that owns the business. And here I am."
The $32,000 loan – federal government financing administered by the local office -- allowed Edney to move to a new downtown location, which was three times the size of the original shop, and reconstruct the interior of the building . More important, it allowed him to keep the customers he'd cultivated and take his business to the next level. Today the shop is celebrating three years in business, has 11 teachers, and caters to hundreds of students.
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