Quinte Business Week is officially underway. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the annual event’s official opening took place online via ZOOM.
Belleville Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Jill Raycroft opened the kickoff by saying that businesses have been and will continue to
create and innovate to stay alive and hopefully even thrive during unusual and “very difficult” times.
Greetings were brought by Belleville city councillor Bill Sandison, mayor of Quinte West Jim Harrison, mayor of Prince Edward County Steve Ferguson, Bay of Quinte riding MPP and cabinet minister Todd Smith, and Bay of Quinte riding MP Neil Ellis.
All acknowledged the tough times most businesses were going through and how their respective governments were helping. MPP Smith asked that anyone with ideas on how to provide better assistance and ease government “red tape” issues contact him and he would bring them to a special provincial business recovery committee.
Local businesses were praised for their innovation and perseverance through the early stages of the pandemic.
The kickoff’s feature speaker was Derrick Morgan of the financing group of the Business Development Bank of Canada.
Morgan said that 76% of small businesses had fewer sales while 45% of them had to reduce staff because of the pandemic and that in August one million Canadians were still unemployed after two million had lost their jobs earlier in April.
Some businesses like manufacturing and those in the food industry are recovering well while those involved with tourism, hospitality, and travel continue to hurt badly and could do so for some time into the future.
“One out of two Canadians lost purchasing power and more people are cautious about spending, and are purposely spending less than before and buying local has become more popular because of the pandemic,” said Morgan.
He went on to list priorities that businesses should focus on in order to be successful.
On top of the list was cleaning up the balance sheet. Others were taking advantage of technology and increasing online sales.
Reviving revenues also needs to be stressed. Morgan suggested that 80% of successful companies were increasingly building long term strategic plans to guide their recovery and growth.
Find more detail about Quinte Business Week events here.
