Sarah Forrester-Wendt was in Grade 11 when she wrote a business plan for opening a restaurant. She started out working as a dishwasher, and today, she’s the head chef and proud owner of the restaurant she’s always wanted to create.
The organic, vegan eatery in Charlottetown is called My Plum, My Duck — a term of endearment her father used for her mother — and it showcases the best of P.E.I. produce.
But opening a restaurant isn’t easy, and Forrester-Wendt says she’s grateful to Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Central P.E.I. for helping her secure an IMPACT loan.
CBDC Central P.E.I. provides business loans, skills training, business counselling and other financial assistance to local entrepreneurs. While CBDC has a rural mandate, they have stepped forward to offer the IMPACT loan to urban entrepreneurs in the Greater Charlottetown Area.
“I’ve always been on the cooking side of the things. I’d never done bookkeeping,” says Forrester-Wendt. “I had to get extra training on accounting, marketing, social media and building my own website, and there’s no way I could have done all of that without IMPACT.”
“I still come in every day and think, ‘Woohoo! This is my restaurant!’”
The IMPACT loan helps foster small and medium-sized businesses in urban Atlantic Canada. Entrepreneurs of all ages can apply for a business start-up loan, while established business owners between 19 and 39 years old can avail of expansion financing.
Business owners can apply for low-interest loans of up to $25,000 that come with flexible repayment terms and no penalty for early repayment of the principal. The application process is fast and straightforward, so entrepreneurs can reach their goals faster.
“Sometimes, people don’t quality for traditional bank loans because of little-to-no credit, a ding on their credit rating or they have an unusual business idea,” says Abigail Snook, the marketing lead for IMPACT Atlantic. “An IMPACT loan is flexible and more supportive for a small business owner.”
Unlike a bank loan, every IMPACT loan comes with access to business skills development training on everything from bookkeeping and management to social media marketing and customer service. By utilizing IMPACT’s training opportunities, entrepreneurs can focus on what they know best.
Pepeto Pinto is just one of many Charlottetown entrepreneurs whose life was changed forever by an IMPACT loan.
He was never one to shy away from a challenge. His hobby was building and tuning steel drums, which led to someone requesting a handpan — an eight-note rhythmic instrument played with hands instead of mallets.
Very few people knew how to construct the tricky instrument, and Pinto spent 15 years figuring out how to make one with the perfect pitch. But the raw materials were expensive, and he didn’t have the cash to turn his hobby into a business.
His wife, Natalie Arsenault, encouraged him to approach CBDC Central P.E.I., and the team there helped him secure an IMPACT loan to launch Solos Handpans.
Today, he runs a successful home studio building handpans and says it wouldn’t have been possible without IMPACT’s financial assistance — as well as the marketing and business skills development training he received.
“My customers appreciate what I do, and their feedback inspires me to continue with this work,” says Pinto. “I’m making people happy every day.”
Although he’d worked as an interior designer across P.E.I. for more than six years, Damien Packwood didn’t think he’d ever have his own firm. The most he’d hoped for, he recalls, was maybe working for himself out of a little home office.
But when Packwood checked in with CBDC Central P.E.I., he discovered he could apply for an IMPACT loan. He was approved, and the financing allowed him to transition from a home office to a sharply decorated space that showcased the expertise of damien Morris Designs. The IMPACT loan also allowed him to purchase state-of-the-art 3D rendering software to better serve his clients.
“It allows clients to walk through, room-by-room, and visually see where this is going to go,” says Packwood.
He says the IMPACT loan also provided him with valuable training in marketing and bookkeeping — two skills he never had to worry about when he worked for someone else.
“It’s a ton of fun owning my own business,” says Packwood. “Yes, there’s stress. But I’ll take the stress any day to have what I have now.”
Do you live in Charlottetown, Stratford or Cornwall and have a business (or a business idea) you want to take to the next level?
Visit www.impactatlantic.ca/princeedwardisland to learn more about the IMPACT loan and to apply online.
