Updated April 15, 2013
A new opportunity for young entrepreneurs is coming up later this month in Penticton.
Young, in this case, means anyone aged 35 or under who is willing to invest $20 and a day to develop their business idea or learn how to take their current business to the next level.
Community Futures Okanagan Similkameen partnered with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Business Development Bank of Canada and the Penticton Junior Chamber International to put on the first annual Young Entrepreneurs Aiming High workshop, or Y.E.A.H.
“Young entrepreneurs are increasingly becoming more important to our rural communities as we have a large population of small business owners getting ready to sell or retire from their business,” said Denise Blashko, the event co-ordinator. “This event is going to be a high energy day with our attendees leaving armed with an action plan and lots of tips, resources and new connections to help them succeed.”
The workshop includes interaction with successful entrepreneurs and local small business experts to support the attendees in fine tuning their business ideas, including a successful young entrepreneurs panel featuring Victoria Baschzok of Safety Solutions Inc, Chris Boehm of Burger 55 and Diana Stirling of Loco Landing.
The day also includes a Perfect your Sales Pitch workshop Imre Togyi and Value of Peer Mentoring with Nikos Theodosakis along with “speed mentoring” with experts in social media, marketing, financial, web making, legal and insurance, human resources, graphic design, customer service and more.
This is a full day, $20 workshop being held at Cowork Penticton on April 19 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. More information is available online at www.cfokanagan.com or contact Blashko at 250-493-2566 ext. 205 if you are interested in attending the event.
“This day is a perfect opportunity to practice your sales pitch and to access over 15 small business experts in one room,” said Jennifer Vincent, co-founder of Cowork Penticton, a shared working environment that offers meeting spaces, work desks and business tools on an as-need basis.
“When you’re starting or growing a business, it’s so valuable to talk with as many knowledgeable people as possible and the Y.E.A.H event is designed to elicit those conversations,” said Vincent. “We are very enthusiastic about hosting this event in our coworking space.”
After the event, attendees are invited to stay on for a social with Cowork Penticton and other community members.