Small businesses make our town unique: Small Business Month
The North Peace was built from the hard work and ingenuity of many small businesspeople, from the family stores to the contractors, the region wouldn’t be what it is today without small businesses.
“It’s the small businesses that make the town unique,” Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce executive director, Tiffany Hetenyi said. “I love the small businesses, and I try to support local wherever I can.”
Small unique businesses like 548 Trading Co., Knux Gallery, which opened recently in Fort St. John, as well as the soon to open Bean UpNorth Coffee House, are good examples of the community’s uniqueness and entrepreneurial spirit.
Hetenyi says there are approximately 2900 businesses in the community, 340 of which are Chamber members, and although Canadian statistics show that one in twenty businesses closed in June 2024, she thinks that this region might be bucking the trend.
“I think its on a climb,” she said. After Covid, there was a big loss, but now, “to me it looks like we’re actually growing, because there’s a lot of home-based businesses too.”
Local small businesses have advantages over big box stores in that owners and employees can actually have relationships with each other and the community.
“In the community, there’s pride, and they also know all the extra things about the town, so it’s an experience to go into a small business. They really know their products and can refer you to somebody else if you’re looking for another product that they don’t carry. It’s more of a community,” Hetenyi said.
What also makes Fort St. John unique, according to Hetenyi, is the number of restaurants.
The number of restaurants in Fort St. John, which is abnormally high for our population, she says, “is partly because we have so much industry traffic here. It wouldn’t be possible to have that many businesses without the industry traffic, but the culinary experience is actually something that attracts people to the community. It’s the small businesses that make the town unique.”
Hetenyi says that since her arrival in January, she’s been getting to know the local businesses, so that the Chamber can better support them.
“I’m trying to figure out how we can help them more. To make it more worth their time to be a member,” she said. “We’re talking about doing a street fair-business expo, trying to promote our local businesses.”
Currently, the Chamber supports members in a variety of ways.
“We have our basic components, advocacy, benefits – which is advocacy at every level of government; benefits, some of them are BC Chamber benefits, some of it is education; other things are like, you can submit content to our newsletter, or do a mixer that gets your name out there,
said Hetenyi.
“A lot of it is mostly advertising so far, it’s going to take a little bit of working together, because there’s a lot of businesses to develop the benefits further. And then there’s connections, which is basically networking and getting your name out there, and that we do events.”
During October, which is Small Business Month, the Chamber has a number of events planned to help members get to know each other, their businesses and provide some educational tools for entrepreneurs.
There’s the Business After 5 mixers, the first one was held at Izon on October 4, but two more are planned – one at Scotiabank on October 23, followed by Northern Lights College on October 24 which is also promoting the Stronger Skills grants and program, Hetenyi said.
Also on October 23, is the WeGrow Workshop for women entrepreneurs, and will be held at 548 Trading Co. from 5 to 7 p.m.
These events are all taking place during Small Business Week, October 21-27, which is the culmination of Small Business Month.
The Chamber, in conjunction with Moose FM wants to get local residents and employees to celebrate local businesses and their owners with a contest where residents can nominate a local entrepreneur for Best Boss.
“We’re having a contest during Small Business Week, where you nominate an entrepreneur, and explain what they do for the community,” she said. “One will be picked each day that week to win a gift card.”
There are a variety of prizes donated by local businesses such as Baking Me Crazy, Northern Rustic Co., Soul Sweet Café, and 548 Trading Co.
Check out the Moose FM website for more details.
Fort St John has the first body sugaring studio now open as well!! Samantha Payette has opened The Lippy Lemon Body Sugaring Studio beside Nature’s Way on October 1st 🥳🥳