By Sheldon Spackman

Supporting Local

Resiliency a key theme during Small Business Week

Oct 19, 2020 | 4:27 PM

This week is small business week across Canada and the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce is reminding you to support local.

CEO Rick More says the week is meant to celebrate and recognize the important contributions small businesses make to their local communities.

“I think this year more than ever for what businesses have had to adapt to with COVID, it shows the strength of how great our entrepreneurs are in this Red Deer area,” suggests More. “Small businesses in Canada, they employ about 92 per cent of the workforce. And when you start looking around, it’s taken for granted sometimes what the impact is on community non-profit organizations – their sponsorship of certain non-profits, their volunteering and what they do to make fundraising events a success and help keep those less-fortunate going.”

More says small businesses often have a greater vested interest in the communities in which they serve.

“Because you’re living it, you’re living what happens here in central Alberta. There’s that passionate, emotional side of it and I think that brings a lot of energy.”

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More feels that small business in Red Deer and the surrounding area have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic courageously.

“They’ve adapted a lot and their resilience has been incredible. Some have brought different aspects of revenue to their business just to survive and they’ve recognized for the most part what Alberta Health’s standards are and how important it is to keep their consumers safe,” he says.

“They’ve proved beyond a doubt that they really think it’s important to stop this pandemic. We can ill-afford to go back on a lockdown.”

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 71 per cent of Alberta businesses are fully open at this time, compared to 65 per cent last month. Forty-two per cent are fully staffed, compared to 33 per cent last month, while 24 per cent are making normal sales, compared to 18 per cent last month.

A recent survey conducted by KPMG indicates 31 per cent of small and medium-sized business owners or decision makers in Canada worry they won’t have the capital to make it through a second wave of COVID-19 if the economy craters. Simply surviving is the focus for 54 per cent of the survey’s respondents.

According to Travel Alberta, small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs make up almost 99 per cent of Alberta’s tourism-related businesses – playing a vital role in not only the industry, but in the province’s overall economic recovery.

This Wednesday, the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce will host its Business of the Year Awards 2020 at the Cambridge Red Deer Hotel & Conference Centre, where 200 people will be in attendance and following public health guidelines.

More says 84 local businesses have been nominated for this year’s awards – a new record.

As the pandemic continues, More says to pay attention to the fine people that make up our local small business community.

“Totally support local, there’s so much importance to that now to keep this community thriving,” says More. “It’s about what these employees and owners do in this community, that every dollar you spend is something that revolves around something that we’re doing here.”