Grande Prairie entrepreneurs seem to be taking advantage of a service meant to make their dreams a reality. Since it opened a year ago, Community Manager Nicole Medeiros estimates the ATB Entrepreneur Centre has seen 1,500 people come through its doors at the ATB Financial Westview branch.
“All of the workshops, events, and programming that we do are around usually business, so like cash flow. We’ll do marketing, we’ll do succession planning, we’ll do HR, we’ll do networking events that will support entrepreneurs.”
Medeiros says cities with vastly larger populations like Edmonton and Calgary are seeing about double the uptake.
Grande Prairie was recently named the 6th most entrepreneurial mid-sized community in Canada by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. ATB Entrepreneur Centre Director Roselle Doyle says that doesn’t surprise her.
“We have so many people that come into the bank and are throwing around an idea of something to start. We’re very involved in the community so we see these entrepreneurs and we hear these ideas at the different events that we’re at and so we’re not surprised.”
The centre was the fourth to open in Alberta. It is billed as a place to support business owners with meeting space, experts, and workshops to help them start and grow their business.
