Advice & Mentorship

Free Business Consultations

Community Futures South Georgian Bay works one-on-one with our clients. We build on-going relationships that help clients be successful. This service is available to all businesses in the area we serve, whether or not you are a loan client of CF South Georgian Bay. If you want to discuss your business idea or you need help in a particular area of business, Book a FREE Consult. We can provide you with advice and guidance on developing your business and marketing plan, completing and reviewing your financial projections, and many other aspects of running your business. We want to help you.

Business Coaching & Mentoring

What Can Coaching and Mentorship Do for Your Business?

When you ask the most successful entrepreneurs what’s helped them through periods of plateau, downturn or external pressure, or help with pivoting their business, they’ll tell you that finding mentors within your community and connecting with fellow entrepreneurs is the surest way to keep growing. Mentors – whether they are peers or people who have already traveled the path you are going down – are particularly valuable.

Mentorship offers a fresh perspective for business owners and the opportunity to have someone in their corner helping identify and tackle whatever is holding them back and to help them achieve success. Our mentors can give advice on how you should run your business, give you tools to think outside the box, or how to make that next step and operate on a larger scale.

“Business owners face a lot of complex challenges, especially while they’re growing…There’s no faster way to shorten the learning curve than to tap into the knowledge and experience of someone who’s been there.” – Gillian Fairley, General Manager of Community Futures South Georgian Bay, formerly known as the Centre For Business and Economic Development.

Community Futures South Georgian Bay offers two successful mentorship/coaching programs to help entrepreneurs grow their business – T3 Accelerator and the PowerUp Mentoring Program.

T3 Accelerator Program

Independently owned and operated tourism businesses in BruceGreySimcoe can now access support through the unique T3 Accelerator Program. Launched by RTO7 and the Community Futures South Georgian Bay and Economic Development, the program allows established businesses to apply for coaching assistance to develop their business and to succeed. For more information click here: T3 Accelerator Program.

PowerUP Program

The PowerUp Business Coaching and Mentoring Program has been established to connect small business entrepreneurs with experienced business professionals to help grow their business.

The PowerUp Your Business Mentoring Program is a program that enables entrepreneurs to connect with mentors to help them grow their business. Mentored businesses have been proven to have better survival rates and make more money. Many also find that mentoring helps them expand their networks, stay current, learn about new trends, hone leadership skills, and connect in the community.

Eligible Applicants must meet all the following requirements:

  •  must have been operating for at least one year
  •  business located in catchment area

PowerUP offers established business owners a personalized approach to help achieve success by:

  • Hosting workshops with guest speakers on topics of sales, marketing, finance, operations, and growth
  • Opportunity to connect and network with other business owners in the community

South Georgian Bay is a thriving business ecosystem experiencing significant entrepreneurial growth.  We can help business owners take their business to the next level. For more information about the PowerUP mentoring program contact Gillian Fairley, General Manager at:[email protected]