Many people don’t know what Community Futures does and in many cases they’ve never heard of Community Futures. Fair enough. Unless you’re starting up or expanding a business, or unless you’re involved in one a number of economic development projects in the region, why would you need to know about Community Futures?
Some important facts that you should know about our business and community development activities in the 2014-15 fiscal year (April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015):
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We were the facilitator for $10 million worth of investment in our Mt. Waddington region.
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In that year Community Futures Mt. Waddington itself loaned over $2 million.A record for this office.
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We also partnered with several other Community Futures on Vancouver Island and on the Mainland, to bring in an additional $4 million in loans in this region.
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And finally, that $6 million in loans leveraged further investments by the entrepreneurs totalling $4 million.
$10 million dollars for business development and expansion in one year in this region is a laudable accomplishment!
Our lending activity is helping to create or maintain jobs in our region; more than 300 last year alone and since we started over 20 years ago we have helped to create or maintain over 2000 jobs in the region.
People in this region are independent and self-reliant in many ways. Those are two key characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. Our success is based on connecting with an ever-growing network of entrepreneurs, individuals who just want assistance and support to start their own business or to expand the one they’ve already got.
Community Futures Mt. Waddington understands what new or aspiring business owners are going through. We understand the challenges of getting the business off the ground and surviving the early ups and downs. We understand the “seasonality” of many tourism and hospitality businesses.
We have built those understandings into our lending model. We work with our business “partners.” We don’t just lend money and sit back and wait for payment. We assist new business owners as they develop, launch and then maintain and grow their businesses. Your Success is Our Success.
So if anyone asks, Community Futures is an organization that is having a positive impact in this region. What we are today is a community-oriented, business-based success story! We’ve got 10 million reasons why we can make that claim.
Come and see us. You won’t regret it.
- ~ David Mitchell, General Manager
