How to start your own micro, part-time or “side” business from nothing! This one-day intensive will cover coming up with ideas and evaluating them, the mechanical side of starting a business (naming, taxes, etc), marketing, and planning for launch.
If you are interested in starting a small food, farm, service or craft business, this is for you!
Kevin Wilson will be teaching all sessions. He has been self employed since 1984 in various businesses involving computers, writing, crafts, food, and gardening, and has plenty of experience with what works (and what doesn’t!).
Class Schedule
| Saturday | at Sycamore Commons (Townsite Anglican Church) |
| 8:30 am | Check-in and coffee |
| 9 am – 11 am | Creating and Evaluating Ideas – for new businesses, new products and services, and marketing |
| 11 – 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 – 12:15 | Mechanics and Logistics: name registration, taxes, zoning and more |
| 12:15 – 1:00 pm | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 2:30 | Marketing: online and offline, free and cheap. |
| 2:30 – 2:45 | Break |
| 2:45 – 4:15 | Getting ready to launch: planning everything that needs to happen to get you started. |
Session Details
Creating and Evaluating Ideas
To start a new business, you need a great idea. Existing businesses need new product, service and marketing ideas.. This lively interactive session will cover multiple methods of creating ideas, and how to evaluate them against your own needs once you’ve created them.
Mechanics and Logistics
Here are the nitty-gritty details every new business peson needs to know: business name registration, taxes (GST, PST and income tax), bookkeeping, location, zoning, and food regulations. We’ll take a quick tour of all of them so you know which ones apply to you.
Marketing Online and Offline
No business can thrive without marketing – but that doesn’t mean just advertising! We’ll look at a wide range of ways to get the word out, online and offline, free and cheap.
Getting ready to launch
This is where the rubber meets the road. We’ll take your idea, and use a framework to build a plan to launch it that you can use in the real world, once you’ve fleshed out the details.
Location & Cost
This session aims to be zero waste and support local producers. Please help us reduce our carbon footprint by carpooling, biking, walking or using the bus to get to and from the site. Snacks will be provided, but please bring a bag lunch.
Location:
Saturday: Sycamore Commons at the Townsite Anglican Church, 6310 Sycamore St. Please enter through the rear basement doors. Bus route 1 stops right outside, or across from, the church.
See below for information useful to out-of-town visitors!
Cost:
This full day intensive session is Pay What You Want!
You can pay up to 100% of the fee in Powell River Dollars
Work trades welcomed – contact Kevin directly. Work traders are needed to make the session happen, so don’t be shy!
Scholarships available – contact Kevin directly at 604 483 9052 or uhspr@fiddlersfarm.com
Cancellation policy
50% refund up to 2 weeks before (Nov 7)
No refund after that but you are welcome to send a substitute
Out of Town Visitors
How to reach Powell River:
By Road:
From Vancouver: take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, drive North on Hwy 101 to Earls Cove (about 1 hr 20 mins), take a second ferry to Saltery Bay, then drive North on Hwy 101 to Powell River. Continue as Hwy 101 becomes Marine Ave until you reach the Westview ferry terminal.
From Vancouver Island: take your best route to Comox, then take the ferry from Little River to Powell River Westview terminal.
By Bus
Malaspina Coach Lines runs buses up the Sunshine Coast between Vancouver Airport and Powell River once daily. However, there have been some service interruptions recently so please call and check with the company before relying on it.
By Air
Pacific Coastal Airlines flies from the South terminal at Vancouver Airport (YVR) to Powell River 4 times daily.
How to reach the site:
For both: on Saturday, take Marine Ave North to the Historic Townsite, turn R up Oak St to Sycamore St, turn R and the site is the second church on the right. On Sunday, head East on Duncan St from the ferry to the four way stop at Manson Ave: turn left. Continue on Manson until it forms a T junction with Cranberry St: the Seniors Centre is right there on your left.
Accommodation
In Townsite:
Old Courthouse Inn
Rodmay Hotel
Island View Lodge
In Cranberry:
Only 5 mins drive from Townsite so I recommend the hotels above. There is a motel opposite the Seniors Centre but it’s combined with a bar, pool hall, liquor store and convenience store and is noisy.
