Last Monday I was invited along with a handful of other entrepreneurs to speak at a roundtable discussion with Federal Minsters Filomena Tassi (FedDev) and Minster Marci Ien (Gender Equality & Youth), and also MP Lisa Hepfner and MP Chad Collins regarding our experiences leveraging government programs.
At the round table I shared about how it’s because of the investment in government small business support programs that Les Petites Pommes exists.
When I was a humanities student at McMaster University back in 2009, I had no formal business training and didn’t consider the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur. It was through my discovery and then successful application to a program called Summer Company that I was able to make my dream for a happy place for students to learn French come to reality. It was so exciting! What I thought was only going to be a summer business is now in it’s 15th year and we have helped thousands of students learn and feel confident in French not just in Hamilton with our In-Person Camps and Tutoring, but across Canada with programs like our French Learning Circle and Individual and Group Tutoring. I am also now a mentor for Summer Company and I highly recommend it to our LPP students who want to see if entrepreneurship is for them.
Other programs we have since also benefited from include Canada Summer Jobs and Digital Main Street. Canada Summer Jobs allows us to hire more teachers in the summer and it was thanks to Digital Main Street that our online shopify store was built for our Les Petites Pommes Scholarship Program.
Following the round table, we had the opportunity to attend the Budget Echo Announcement where we were among the first to learn about the new funding budget for Ontario Entrepreneurship and development programs. Specifically, a $60 million dollar investment into a program called Futurpreneur.
Overall, it was an amazing afternoon of connection with other entrepreneurs and sharing stories followed by the exciting announcement!
Pictured above is Federal Minster Filomena Tassi, who is also our MP for our LPP riding, sharing some of our stories to the wider audience before the announcement.