Last week I was invited to meet two business leaders in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. In a quiet upstairs office along main street I met Mike Temple and Jeremy Barham, young entrepreneurs who run a marketing company. St. Stephen is not the kind of place you would consider finding a business marketing startup. Many young people leave St. Stephen for the big city of Toronto or head further west to find their future in Calgary or Vancouver. St. Stephen, like many New Brunswick towns and villages, have seen a steady decline in population and jobs. The loss of fisheries, ship building, or factories have led to high rates of unemployment or underemployment. Local governments have watched their tax base dry up and with it the services and amenities that give communities a chance at becoming a long-term home for growing families. The future of St. Stephen was not looking bright.
Instead of moving to the big city, Jeremy Barham began Volution, a company that seeks to help small business thrive. As the company grew they decided to try a creative approach to building business – and they took a page from the ‘Dragon’s Den’ television show. They began by gathering together a number of successful business people in their community of 4,000. These business leaders had found a way of building stable and profitable companies in a highly taxed business climate facing ongoing decline. So Barham and Temple crafted an innovative plan: they would connect successful business leaders with aspiring entrepreneurs to coach, mentor, and possibly invest in their business idea.
Barham said that many entrepreneurs often do not have the means to afford training that will help them launch or re-shape their business plan. So they created a free ten-week Business Bootcamp for entrepreneurs where they could be mentored by successful business leaders and prepare to make their big pitch. Barham said that after the bootcamp the entrepreneurs make their business pitch in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ kind of way, inviting investment from local investors and banks. Barham said that this idea actually grew out of a desire that his church had to care for their community. “We strongly believe the church is supposed to be out in the community sustaining those communities…as business people and as part of our mission in life we feel like we are to give to our community” Barham said.
The results have been surprising. Their innovative local neighbourhood project has led to some remarkable entrepreneurial endeavours. Successful participants have turned abandoned properties into storefronts, some have new franchises, and others have created truly unique sustainable businesses in a town that had seen so many businesses move away. All of this made possible by connecting business leaders and entrepreneurs. Today there are dozens of businesses that owe their success to the St. Stephen ‘Dragon’s Den.’
Volution’s Business Bootcamp model had caught the attention of other small struggling towns in the Maritimes and may become a vital way forward for communities and neighbourhoods to build a new generation of economic activity and growth.
What began as an idea among neighbours, young entrepreneurs, engaged business leaders, and a local church has ignited a growing sense of hope for the future. This enthusiasm has spilled over into other projects. St Stephen recently built a brand new civic centre complete with arena, hockey team, and swimming pool, much of it made possible by the support of new local businesses. The town is beginning to attract young families and thrive once again.
Communities that foster an entrepreneurial spirit of cooperation are able to weather economic storms. What would a creative and collaborative project like this look like in your community?
