Celebrating Local Entrepreneurs

Friday, 14 June 2019 07:43

From left to right: General Manager Allan Simm, Urszula and Duane Kumala-Thomas. (submitted)

Community Futures Oxford handed out some hardware to three local entrepreneurs at their recent AGM.

OXFORD COUNTY - Three local entrepreneurs were presented with awards at the Community Futures Oxford AGM.

Owner of Nerd Teas Jocelyn Trim was among this year's winners, receiving the Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

She says she was happy to get recognition from the community.

"It feels good. I've been working for this for a while and it's kind of nice to see that other people see the effort I'm putting into my business."

Nerd Teas is in Woodstock and it has been open since 2016. Trim says when she started the business, her initial goal was just to sell tea online. After receiving the award, she says she still has plans to grow her business.

General Manager, Allan Simm says it is great to see businesses grow and that the CFO is all about helping them grow in the community.

"It's great to see these businesses grow. We're about building relationships and building relationships with our clients and working with them and coaching with them, and being a mentor in some cases. Sometimes you don't have anywhere to look when you're a sole proprietor, you work on your own, so it's really great to talk to somebody, to get some feedback, to bounce off ideas and we have business consultants that do that. We're available to meet with our entrepreneurs, to meet with potential clients to help them grow, to help them work on their business plan. We want them to be successful, we want them to succeed. And we know that when you plan, then you are taking steps to being a successful entrepreneur."

The CFO disbursed $1,146,250 to small businesses in Oxford County. They also gave $50,800 in grants to community economic development projects.

The other winners were Hylander Studios, who won the Access to Capital Entrepreneur of the Year and the Rural Oxford Economic Development Corporation who received the Community Economic Development Project of the Year, a new award this year.

They won for the Zorra Township Farm Gate Signage Project, which was in partnership with the Oxford County Federation of Agriculture and Oxford Fresh.