Community Futures Meridian offers valuable support to businesses

By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

Community Futures Meridian Region has been offering valuable support to businesses in Kindersley for a long time. Vickie Newmeyer, CEO of Meridian Futures, said it all started in 1987 at Alsask when 1200 people left the radar station. “The government of the day started Community Futures to encourage development. “The whole concept was to fill the economic void. One of the streams they started was a business development centre,” Vickie explained. Meridian Futures moved to Kindersley in 2000.

Located at 125 - 1st Ave. East, Vickie and her co-workers continue to provide loans up to $150,000, business plan development and assistance and connect their clients with the resources they need. There’s also entrepreneurs with disabilities loans available to any individual who has a physical or intellectual disability. “We accommodate the client with supports to be the best business person they can be,” Vickie said.

In their continuous efforts to contribute to developing a dynamic, resilient and sustainable regional economy, Meridian Futures offers helpful advice. This includes the “how-to” part of a business, whether it involves buying a business or starting a new one. Guidance is available at the office, through their website, via a Zoom call or phone call. “We have tons of resources for supporting business,” Vickie said.

“We encourage clients that have gone through a tough time; we can be a sounding board,” Vickie noted. “You might be struggling with your cash flow, or sales may not be what you were planning. We try to problem solve so business decisions are strategically made instead of ignoring the problem.”

She also said that even something as positive as growth and expansion could be a problem if the business owner hasn’t planned or prepared for it. “We want to be there for all aspects of business,” she said.

Support for local businesses has become vitally important during the past two years. “The situation has become dire for small businesses with all the starting, stopping, adapting and regulations that sometimes change on a daily basis,” Vickie said. “There’s a tiredness in business; that’s probably the biggest factor. They’re in a situation where they don’t know where they want to go from here. They need to find a way to adapt, and hopefully, Meridian can help. We’re trying to encourage succession and planning ahead. One of the options is selling and moving on, but that is concerning for us.” Succession concerns have accelerated since the beginning of 2020.

“We try to get businesses to look at their cash flow; it’s their masterpiece,” Vickie explained. With this in mind, Meridian Futures offers marketing strategies and gets business owners to look at the cost of their product and operating costs. “Profitability is critical to being able to sell your business someday and to transition. We want to make people viable. The real strength we provide is the reality of when you receive your check. Sometimes they have to wait 60 to 90 days before they get paid, and then spring break up comes, so we help businesses plan for these things.”

According to Vickie, the most powerful tool they offer to their clients is helping with business planning. “The ones who want to do the planning are more successful. We have to be resilient as a business community and find new ways of doing things,” she said. Meridian Futures helps clients in a variety of sectors.

The Regional Relief and Recovery Fund was an additional resource, which ran from May 2020 to the end of July 2021. This enabled Meridian Futures to help small farmers and small businesses with loans up to $60,000. “We did 65 of those,” Vickie said. “We had such an influx of applicants that we reached the maximum we could accept.”

“We’re seeing a lot more activity in food production, localized greenhouse operations and social enterprises,” Vickie added. A social enterprise is a business venture that supports a local cause; Sarcan is such an enterprise. The benefit has a more powerful impact on the community since it usually solves a social problem and provides a service.

Vickie said the folks at Meridian Futures wear a lot of different hats. One of the strategies they offer is training people in the community to be good board members and leaders by offering board boot camps.

“Municipal and other leaders are welcome to attend our supports because leaders are exhausted. They’re business people who are also community leaders,” she said. These boot camps can also help not-for-profit organizations.

Meridian Futures has access to a vast network of Community Futures offices and many other resources. They have partnerships with banks and Credit Unions so clients can tap into their best financing. These resources help connect our communities to good workshops and training events. Some of these are in-house, but others are available on Zoom calls, which makes the workshops more accessible and more affordable.

Not only is Meridian Futures helping adult entrepreneurs, they have partnered with the Rotary Club in hosting a youth entrepreneurship workshop in Cypress Hills, Alberta, in August of each year for the past twenty years.

Meridian Futures sponsors four to six youth, ages 13-15, each year. The entire week is paid for; all the youth needs is transportation to and from Cypress Hills. Once at the workshop, the youth are placed into teams where they develop a business plan, cash flow, produce commercials and sell tickets to a performance or sell their product. At the end of the week, they hold a trade show, and they get to divide the profit amongst their team members.

“The best part for me is we have junior leaders that come back for years to give back to camp. These young people learn the skills of entrepreneurship. It may not happen for them till they’re 25, but they have the skills,” Vickie said.

Youth can apply in May for camp. “We send as many kids as we can; we sent up to 9 one year. We try to fill any free spots,” Vickie said.

Meridian’s contribution to the event is a lemonade marketing game that has won a national award, been in Ottawa twice, and 120 other communities. Designed in 2000, the game operates on a “price, product, promotion and people” cycle.

“It’s a game we play with young people. It takes them from starting a lemonade stand,” Vickie explained. They work as a team, sell their lemonade to three judges for a taste test, and win cash. “We treat it like a business; they have to take it seriously, and there’s profit at the end.”

It’s all part of Community Futures’ goal to provide loans, advice and support to entrepreneurs and businesses in rural Saskatchewan and rural East Central Alberta, through a network of 13 independent development corporations.

Vickie Newmeyer, CEO of Meridian Futures Meridian Region, stand in front of all the props necessary for the Lemonade Marketing Game. The game is played at the annual youth entrepreneurship workshop at Cypress Hills in August.