Spend your summer doing what you love with the Summer Company program (Fanshawe’s Interrobang)

Erika Faust
Interrobang (Fanshawe’s Student Voice)
Click here to read more Interrobang articles written by Erika Faust

From landscaping to jewellery design to pretty much everything in between, the Summer Company program, one component of the Ontario Government’s Summer Jobs Strategy, has funded all sorts of startups by students.

The Summer Company program is available to students aged 15 to 29 (as of April 30, 2012) who will be returning to school in September. All applications need to be submitted by May 7, but the sooner you send in your application, the better, as space is limited.

Part of the program is a grant is worth up to $1,500 – an amount that depends on how much start-up money is estimated to be required in the business proposal, which is submitted as part of the application process. Program participants will also receive business training and mentoring to help them get started; local participants will work with staff at the London Small Business Centre (316 Rectory St., sbcentre. ca/summer_company.htm). At the end of the summer, participants are awarded an additional amount of money – the same amount they were given at the beginning of the summer – if they have met all eligibility requirements, including keeping detailed logs of business operations.

Jennifer Broxterman, a Registered Dietitian and Sports Nutritionist, was a full-time student in London completing her Master’s degree at the University of Western Ontario in Food and Nutrition in 2011. She participated in the Summer Company program last May, creating NutritionRx (nutritionrx.ca), a business that offers clients one-on-one nutritional counselling, meal plans and nutrition seminars designed to help them reach their health and sport performance goals.

Broxterman learned about the Summer Company program at a seminar at the London Small Business Centre, and advisors there helped her organize her ideas and write a business plan. She applied to the program and was “pleasantly surprised” when she landed a spot in London. “Not only did I get financial support, but also professional support from (the Small Business Centre’s) mentors to help me with marketing, accounting, human resources and all those different parts of running a business that maybe you haven’t had practice or training in.”

NutritionRx was a hit, and Broxterman has kept the business open throughout the school year. “It’s amazing. The snowball effect of word-of-mouth referrals – it’s literally on the cusp of just exploding. I think in the next year or two I’ll be ready to hire on some more dietitians to support the volume of clients that I see,” she said. “It’s completely exceeded any of my wildest expectations of how successful I could be with running my own business.” NutritionRx currently operates in the CrossFit gym facilities in London (353 Bathurst St., crossfitlondon.ca), which are owned by Broxterman’s boyfriend.

“It’s such a great message to other students because I get to set my own hours around my busy school schedule, I get to be my own boss, I can take off time when I need to take off time, and it pays for my cost of living quite comfortably, doing what I love and what I’m passionate about,” said Broxterman. “If you have a plan and you care about what you do, you can actually support yourself as a student entrepreneur.”

To apply to the Summer Company program, visit ontario.ca/summercompany and click “How to Apply” and then “Check Eligibility” to answer a short questionnaire to find out if you are a good candidate for the program. Every applicant must be a Canadian Citizen or Landed Immigrant living in Ontario, a current student who is returning to studies in the fall, prepared to devote at least 35 hours each week to their company, proposing a new business idea and the business must be operated in Ontario, among other criteria.

View the original article at Interobang (Fanshawe’s Student Voice): http://www.fsu.ca/interrobang_article.asp?storyID=8418&sectionID=1&issueID=203