Small business forum the first public appearance for SBA
The Scarborough Business Association made a successful public debut Thursday, with a booth at the wildly popular Enterprise Toronto Small Business Forum 2015.
The forum, an annual event, featured speakers on many small business topics as well as a trade show with well over 100 booths. Attendance was expected to be around 3,700 participants.
“Wow, did we ever meet a lot of interested people,” said SBA board member Peter Haggert, one of four SBA members manning the booth.
The group distributed about 200 flyers about the association and invited people to attend both the Thursday, Oct. 22 launch of the association and the first training session offered by the SBA, Using Social Media and Digital Strategy to Grow your Business.
The two-hour session will be Nov. 10, 6-8 p.m. at Rm L102, Main Building, Centennial College, 941 Progress Ave., Scarborough. Cost for the session will be $35. The event is free for SBA members.
“We learned a lot through speaking to potential members. Of course networking is top of mind with entrepreneurs, but we realized just how popular a member affinity program would be too,” said Haggert. The SBA is organizing a member affinity program, where member merchants can offer discounts of at least 10 percent off the price of goods and service to other members. Participating members will be listed on the SBA website.
The event also led to a spike in registrations for the official launch of the association, and the event, limited by the venue to 200 persons, was officially reached Sunday.
“It’s just another sign of the need for this association in Scarborough,” said board president Marg Middleton.