Business Help

Business Advisory Centre of Durham

The Business Advisory Centre of Durham (BACD) is a great place to start thinking about working for yourself. The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the business landscape, leaving many businesses in need of guidance and support. If you are looking to grow your small business, start a new venture, or just need support in these trying times, the BACD has the tools, resources, advice and guidance to assist you. The BACD offers free confidential one-on-one advisory meetings, helping business owners develop essential business processes and ultimately achieve their business goals.

The BACD has easy to navigate pages on starting a business, check it out here.

BACD Business Fundamentals

If you are getting started, you may want to attend a Business Fundamentals workshop.  They are free and help you work on your business roadmap – Business Planning; Marketing & Sales; Financial & Operations.

BACD offers several resources, checklists, templates and tools to help you along your entrepreneurial journey. The resources cover start-up fundamentals, business planning, grants & funding, marketing, and sales. You can view all of the resources BACD offers at the Resource Library.

Community Innovation Lab

Community Innovation Lab (iLab) is a not-for-profit organization based in Durham Region. Community Innovation Lab is a central access point to collaborate, convene, and co-create solutions to gaps in social and industry areas.

The programming is designed to help entrepreneurs grow their ventures at any stage of development. iLab’s entrepreneurship programs support Durham Region’s economic development and employment goals by empowering youth, women, social enterprises, and seniors, strengthening small businesses, and promoting community economic development.

Spark Centre

Spark serves technology and innovation entrepreneurs who require knowledge and support to launch, develop, and grow. In order to be a client at the Spark Centre your business needs to be under five years incorporated and earning less than 1 million dollars in revenue annually.

Your product or service must be innovative, either by creating something new or improving an existing product or service. It must also have some level of technology such as breakthrough research, ICT devices, or products or services based on the internet.

Spark focuses on industry sectors including Energy, Health, Manufacturing, Digital Media, Agritech, Health Tech, Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Tech, Information Tech, Incubation, and High Tech.

Need more training before you start your business? Visit our Skills Training page to get started.