Start Up Lloydminster continues to be a growing service to the community.
Council heard the most recent update at the Oct. 15 Governance and Priorities committee meeting.
The presentation was made by Corrine McGirr, Start Up Lloydminster executive director.
The mission of the group is to accelerate business to start, learn, grow, and thrive. Its historically functioned to support entrepreneurs by offering business coaching, networking opportunities and professional learning events.
They offer a variety of services including, business advice and coaching, business model canvas, planning validation, strategy sessions, and mentor referrals amongst various other services.
Some updated numbers were also given from April 2023 to March 2024. They served 302 unique clients, up from 172, 84 new clients, up from 76 and 47 companies were formed up from 42. Start Up Lloydminster did have less referrals down to 205 from 225 but they hosted 29 events and supported 7.
The City renewed a three-year contract in December of 2023 running until 2026.
During the question-and-answer period Coun. Lorelee Marin asked asked if they’ve started to see other municipalities engaging or providing support to Start Up.
McGirr clarified they are looking to work with municipal partners.
“It’s been baby steps for sure, the key is trying to get the right person at the right time excited about what we do,” said McGirr. “We are hoping to gain some more traction in that world of working with our municipal partners.”
Coun. Jonathan Torresan had high praise for how efficient the operation has become.
“I’ve had the pleasure of being on this board for the past few years, some of the stuff that is context that’s sitting in behind this that was said but I can’t express it enough how much over even the past year, year half how much more efficient of an operation its become,” he said.
Torresan says having McGirr come on has made the operation much more efficient and has created more synergy.
In terms of funding some of the money for the group comes from the Alberta Government which Mayor Gerald Aalbers says is important to show them the value of that investment.
“I’ll be sharing this with our federal MPs as well as our MLAs and try to take that forward, this certainly it’s got some merit, it is provincially funded, I think it’s also important to remember we need to reconfirm with the Government of Alberta the value they’re getting for those dollars. One year left in a funding agreement we know provincial budgets are what they are, we want to make sure they see the value going forward, I’ll be supporting you on that.”
Council accepted the presentation as information.
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