Local businesses look to make a change

CALEB NICKERSON
PONTIAC May 12, 2020 
The Pontiac SADC hosted an online session with a dozen local business people last Tuesday to discuss strategies for dealing with the changes caused by COVID-19. 
The call was led by Catherine Fair and Trefor Munn-Benne of Rhapsody Strategies, a business consulting company based in Ottawa.  
Amy Taylor, the SADC representative who organized the event, said that this course was one of many upcoming virtual seminars that they will be hosting instead of in-person meetings. 
“We’re trying to convert all of our training and events to online, and this was something that the Arnprior Chamber of Commerce did,” she said. “I thought it was a great idea so I reached out to them and got the contact through them.”
She said that the two businesses coaches are high calibre and were well received by the attendees, who represented a wide range of businesses and industries. 
“The two of them have great experience,” she said, noting that the event was made possible through funding from the provincial government. “If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity, because it wouldn’t be feasible, so this is pretty exciting.”
Taylor explained that there would be followup program also featuring coach Fair,consisting of a 12-week initiative of weekly 75 minute group training sessions, as well as 45 minute one-on-one sessions with her twice a month. The goal of the training is both help business owners adapt to the public health restrictions, while also using any down-time they have to experiment with new directions. 
“The past few months, people have become so used to changes that if you wanted to make a change in your business, now’s the time that customers are open to it,” Taylor said. 
She added that half of the spaces in the program had already been booked. 
SADC Pontiac will be hosting a similar French-language event, in coordination with SADC Vallée-de-la-Gatineau, for their francophone clients. 
Taylor said that local entrepreneurs looking to upgrade their skills should keep an eye out, as the SADC will be announcing several new programs and seminars in the coming days.