The Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce is celebrating entrepreneurship with Small Business Week.
Chamber President Corrine Kelly-Hyde kicked off the week with a speech emphasizing the importance of small businesses in the community at the weekly Rotary Club of Lloydminster meeting.
“Ninety-seven per cent of our business members are small business representing 100 employees or less. They are the backbone of our business community because there is a significant amount of them that create economic activity within Lloydminster.”
The Chamber of Commerce currently has 520 members. Kelly-Hyde says despite a weak economy, businesses in the Border City are still able to succeed.
“Our community has suffered from the lack of movement of oil and gas and our community is largely in that. There’s a lot of retail businesses that are thriving and there are businesses that are able to change their platform to meet the changing needs of the community.”
The chamber released a survey to members earlier this year and gathered information on businesses’ quality of internet service. Kelly-Hyde says the chamber is looking at helping businesses in Lloydminster with proper internet services.
“The Industrial park is an area that was suffering in terms of having high-speed internet. It’s an advocacy issue for us this year and we’ve created a policy around it. We were able to get in front of some governments to speak on that issue and hopefully, we can work with the city to find a service provider.”
The Chamber will cap off Small Business Week with the Business Excellence Awards on October 24 at the Gold Horse Casino.