Opening doors

David Walsh and Corrina Sands both had entrepreneurial dreams. They just didn’t have all the money to realize them.

Refusing to give up, with a little seed money from the province, today both Walsh and Sands are among a growing number of new business owners forging their own economic path to success in Northwestern Ontario.

Sands, a dental hygienist, opened Nipigon Hometown Hygiene with the aid of a $66,000 grant through the Northern Ontario Entrepreneur Program, an offshoot of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.

The decision changed her life.

"I’m a business owner now. So that in itself is amazing. It’s opening doors. I’m able to provide a service in a community that didn’t have any dental hygiene care prior, so that’s great," Sands said on Friday, as the province celebrated the success of a program that has seen 200 applications filed, $540,000 doled out, 13 new businesses begun and a number of new jobs created.

"The program has meant that I’m actually able to do this. It’s a huge financial undertaking to open up a dental hygienist practice, and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund has made it a lot easier," said Sands, the first successful applicant to receive money through NOEP.

Walsh, the president of Down To Earth Equipment Rentals, said he’s always wanted to have a stake in the construction business, but with the high capital costs needed for start-up, figured it would never happen.

On Friday his latest venture finally opened for business, thanks to $39,000 provided through the program.

"This program meant the difference between starting it up and not being able to launch at all. This program funded 50 per cent of my start-up costs. Without it there would be no company," he said. "I’ve wanted to do this most of my life … but never had the opportunity to get into that business," Walsh said.

Steve Demmings, chairman of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission, said any program that promotes entrepreneurs to take the plunge and start their own businesses is OK with him and good for the local economy.

Demmings called NOEP a key to making it happen for people, who otherwise might not have the wherewithal to open their own company.

"Eighty per cent of growth comes from existing businesses. As a part of business retention and expansion, it’s absolutely critical," Demmings said.

"And it’s local. The money’s staying here. The money’s growing here. It’s an absolutely wonderful time to be an entrepreneur here in Thunder Bay, especially with all the buzz that’s happening here."

Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle said the popular program was created to help creative, resourceful and talented northerners with businesses ideas get them off the ground.

"I think it reflects the fact that there are people out there with great ideas, and with some help from the government, and obviously their resourcefulness, they can create businesses, and that’s what’s happening here in Northern Ontario, here in Thunder Bay and here in Northwestern Ontario," Gravelle said.

Gravelle said essentially the sky’s the limit, calling it virtually limitless in terms of the potential ideas that can be generated. The idea grew from another successful provincial venture, the Young Entrepreneurs Program, which provides similar seed funding to potential business owners under age 29.

Why not take it full circle, Gravelle said of the creation of the new program, which provides up to $125,000 to successful applicants.

"There were a lot of people, particularly with the downturn in the economy, who had some good business ideas and just needed support to make it happen. Right now we’re talking about a couple of hundred jobs. That won’t solve all the problems of our economy in the North, but there are many, many hundreds more that will do so," Gravelle said.