Businesses honoured for having 'write' stuff for business plan contest
Posted Feb 11, 2010 By Conan De Vries
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Tweet ThisEMC Events - Some of the best and brightest local entrepreneurs were recognized for their hard work and business acumen last week at the third annual Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Business Plan Competition.
Thirty-three small business owners from throughout the region gathered at the Prescott Golf Club on Thursday, Feb. 4 to be honoured for their participation in the contest and to find out who won.
All entrants drafted a comprehensive business plan and submitted it for review by a panel of five local experts Kim Benson, Judy Rogers, Mike O'Keefe, David Keenleyside and Chris Williams.
A winner was chosen from each of the three counties and awarded a cheque for $1,000 by their respective community futures development corporations. An overall winner was then selected and given $5,000.
Valley Heartland Community Development Corporation selected Patricia McConnell and her Carleton Place-based junk removal company, GetJunkAway. The company takes an environmental approach to the disposal of unused household items and yard waste, recycling most of it and providing clients with a green alternative.
The 1000 Islands Community Development Corporation chose an equestrian facility called North Stone Farm. Located along County Road 26, east of Brockville, the year-round stables is owned and operated by Linda Amell and Raymond Blair and offers boarding, training and lessons to both experts and beginners.
The Grenville Community Futures Development Corporation decided the best business plan submitted was from Alex Skacel, owner and operator of Eastern Ontario Computer Consulting.
EOCC provides computer services to home users, home-based businesses and small- to medium-sized enterprises in and around Brockville. Skacel specializes in networking, data security, data recovery and virtualizations.
The final award handed out last Thursday went to a complementary health care provider based in Smiths Falls called Restorative Health.
Dr. Robert Rodine and Dr. Christine Cordick took home the overall prize and a $5,000 cheque for their multidisciplinary clinic, which offers chiropractic and massage therapy and naturopathy.
"Going through this process and developing the business plan involved a lot of stress and worry, but in the end, we pulled something together that we're both very proud of," said Rodine.
The business plan competition is put on by the Leeds and Grenville Small Business Enterprise Center, and both Wendy Onstein and Cindy James, managers of the Brockville and Smiths Falls branches respectively, were on hand to congratulate the winners.
"We're one of the few enterprise centres that can do the business plan competition," said Onstein, acknowledging the contribution from each of the regional development corporations and from the Eastern Ontario Center for Advanced Technology (EASTCAT), a division of Brockville's St. Lawrence College, which provided the $5,000 for the overall winner.
Onstein recounted how EASTCAT's Michael Laking contacted her three years ago with an offer she couldn't refuse.
"He called me and said, 'We've got some money to spend. How should we spend it?'" she recalled. "It was amazing."
Both Laking and the vice-president of student affairs for St. Lawrence College, Gord McDougall, attended the luncheon to help hand out the prizes.
"We're absolutely thrilled to be part of this event," said McDougall.
It was no small task for the five judges to whittle down the 33 entries to the four best business plans. Even those business owners who didn't walk away with any prize money left with the knowledge that their business is on good footing.
"Almost without exception, the business plans were extremely well done," said Keenleyside, of the Toronto Dominion Bank.
"I wrote in the margins of most of them 'I want to be your banker.'"
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