BDC emphasizes digitization
CITY OFFERS POTENTIAL FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Business Development Bank of Canada president and CEO Michael Denham paid a visit to Lethbridge on Thursday to mark Small Business Week in the city.
Denham and Grant Stegen, president of Lethbridge-based EnviroFlame Technologies Inc., sat down for an interview with the Herald to talk about the importance of entrepreneurship in the city, and the necessity of small businesses updating their operations to better compete in the digital marketplace.
“One of the things we are focused on for Small Business Week is digitization,” said Denham. “That has been our theme for the week. The research shows that 60 per cent of the companies we surveyed are not digitally mature, which is a problem. About 20 per cent are, and those companies show good growth in terms of sales and profitability.”
Denham said BDC is trying to help bridge this gap by offering new products and services which encourage companies to make the digital leap forward, even in traditional industries.
“Digitization can mean having a website, being able to transact through e-commerce, and being able to use advanced software in your design,” explained Denham. “It is really opportunity for any type of business. As the research shows, the more you digitize, the more markets you can access and the more you can grow. Or, the cheaper and more rapidly you can get things done to become more productive. We think, regardless of what community you are in, all entrepreneurs should look at ways to digitize what they do.”
EnviroFlame Technologies is ready to take up that challenge from the BDC, said Stegen. His company has designed and constructed a new energy efficient oilfield water heating unit used in fracking which marries traditional engineering with a digitally-savvy branding and marketing campaign to get the word out about it, and to reach new customers.
“It has actually been a fun process,” Stegen said. “The old days of sending a salesman out to beat on doors are gone, and if you are not catching up with the digital wave you will get left behind.”
BDC gave EnviroFlame a loan which helped inject much needed cashflow to get their new heating unit out to market faster. Denham said companies like Stegen’s, which are established in traditional industries and show a strong willingness to embrace digitization, represent an attractive investment for BDC.
“We will happily lend to any entrepreneur with a high-quality business plan, regardless of that digital component or not,” said Denham. “But we are making an effort with our product development and our solution development to make sure we are offering more to companies wanting to digitize ... So it’s not so much rewarding people (who digitize), but making more things available for them which are very specific to digitization.”
Lethbridge is also a very attractive market to invest into, stated Denham.
“Lethbridge we see as a nice, stable community where the economic growth has been in the two to three per cent range for the past number of years,” he explained. “In all communities, but particularly here in Lethbridge, entrepreneurs play an important role in the economy and economic growth. The more we can support and work with city officials, the Mayor and the economic development folks locally to support entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, the better.”
Stegen agreed wholeheartedly with Denham’s assessment.
“Lethbridge is a very industrious city,” he stated. “There are a lot of products and services you can utilize here. It’s a good place to be manufacturing (our new unit).”
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