The Woodstock and Area Small Business Centre is hoping to continue their partnership with Oxford County.
The Woodstock and Area Small Business Centre is hoping to continue their partnership with Oxford County.
They are asking the County for a yearly contribution of $40,000 to the Centre. Manager Rhonda Stewart explains what they do.
"We offer the Summer Company Program, which is a youth exploration program who are returning to school in the fall. Applications are in January and it is a program that offers support in business plan development, support through business plan execution and the students get $1,500 for startup money and another $1,500 at the end plus they keep the all of revenues they gained but all of the life experiences."
Stewart says they also offer the Starter Company Plus program.
"Starter Company Plus is meant for long term sustainable businesses, so for start ups or businesses looking to expand. So those start ups or existing businesses that are looking to expand they can receive training, mentoring and up to a $5,000 grant. The grants because we are limited in Oxford County for this pilot project are limited to Agricultural based businesses or main street based businesses."
The centre has helped 26 start up businesses and assisted 4 expansions in Woodstock and Oxford. They have also assisted 7 students to start up their own summer company. 5 of those youth have scaled their business and plan to continue operating it part time.
Oxford County received their delegation as information and will make a decision during their budget talks in November.

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