Resources for Businesses

Starter Company Plus is a training and mentoring program for start-up businesses less than one year in age. This program offers opportunities for FREE training in Business Planning, Marketing, and Social Media, as well as Bookkeeping and Financial Management. PLUS, there is an ongoing FREE mentorship opportunity and funding opportunities of up to $5,000 for eligible businesses approved into the program.

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Looking for FREE tools and resources to better help market and operate your small business? Want to learn a new skill so your small business can grow and thrive online? As a small business, expensive software and online subscriptions are often not within the budget.

The Hamilton Business Centre has put together a collection of the 200+ best FREE and freemium tools and resources so you don’t have to spend hours online searching. Each tool and resource listed is either free to use or has a free plan to help you get started.

Visit the 2022 HBC Digital Resource Hub today and start exploring everything that’s available.

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The Province of Ontario is helping businesses by providing a six-month interest- and penalty-free period to make payments for most provincially administered taxes. This will:

• support businesses in the immediate term while capacity restrictions are in place
• provide the flexibility Ontario businesses will need for long-term planning

The six-month period started on January 1, 2022 and will end on July 1, 2022.

This measure will make available up to $7.5 billion in relief to help approximately 80,000 Ontario businesses. Businesses will have the option to delay their payments for the following provincially administered taxes:

• Employer Health Tax
• Beer, Wine & Spirits Taxes
• Tobacco Tax
• Insurance Premium Tax
• Fuel Tax
• International Fuel Tax Agreement
• Gas Tax
• Retail Sales Tax on Insurance Contracts & Benefit Plans
• Mining Tax
• Race Tracks Tax

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Ontario COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit Program availability has been recently extended until July 31, 2022. Paid infectious disease emergency leave is available for certain reasons related to COVID-19. For more information visit the infectious disease emergency leave chapter in Your Guide to the ESA.

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Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) provides businesses heavily impacted by COVID-19, access guaranteed, low-interest loans of $25,000 to $1 million to cover operational cash flow needs.

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Find information about programs that may be right for you based on your mental health, wellness, and addiction needs, and the type of support that you prefer.

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Providing main street businesses with a digital assessment, online training modules available as a resource, and municipalities with grants to implement a Digital Service Squad.

Free Social Media Content Strategy
Bring clarity to your social content strategy, hone in your voice and message, create social content pillars that you can create content around for years to come. The Digital Main Street Service Squad can help with their FREE, in-depth social media content strategy planning session. Book your free session now.

Free 16-Point Social Media Audit
Are your social media profiles set up properly? Are you utilizing all the options available? Are you posting regularly? Find the answers to these questions and more with the Digital Main Street Service Squad’s FREE 16-point audit for your Facebook and Instagram profiles. Learn more by emailing digitalmainstreet@hamilton.ca.

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The Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturism, joined by DMS, TABIA and OBIAA, announced the RAISE program.

Racialized and Indigenous Supports for Entrepreneurs (RAISE) is a service and grant program developed and administered by the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association (OBIAA), the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA), and in partnership with the Parkdale Centre for Innovation (PCI), to support Indigenous, Black and other racialized entrepreneurs in Ontario to start and scale their business.

Funded by the Government of Ontario, the RAISE Grant program provides access to business development training, culturally responsive support services, and grant funding.

The objectives of the RAISE Grant program are to:

• Increase economic inclusion by supporting Indigenous, Black and other racialized small business owners with one-to-one culturally responsive services
• Transfer knowledge through relevant online training and business plan mentorship
• Provide funding to facilitate innovation and growth within the Indigenous, Black and racialized small business community ($10,000 Grant)
• Determine Main Street Readiness through the applicant assessment phase

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The Hamilton COVID Concierge for Business is a one-stop online resource centre and phone line dedicated to supporting Hamilton businesses with their COVID-19 business questions and concerns. Local businesses can access the new COVID Concierge for Business phone line at 905-521-3989 or by visiting www.hamiltoncovidconcierge.ca.

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WorkWise Hamilton is a new campaign launched by the Hamilton COVID Concierge Team and Hamilton Public Health Services. Here you can find sector-specific guidelines to reopening, workplace safety resources for businesses, a Workplace Safety Checklist, and more.

WorkWise Hamilton’s goal is to provide workplaces with resources to help navigate the Province’s new regulations and continue to learn about effective ways to prevent COVID-19 spread in the workplace.

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The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce is pleased to provide free rapid testing kits to businesses (including non-Chamber members) with fewer than 150 employees.

The goal of the program is to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in the workplace that might otherwise be missed, helping to curb the spread in the workplace, at home and around the community in Hamilton.

The Hamilton Rapid Testing centre is located at 44 Frid Street and operates from Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 3 pm.

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Pride Hamilton and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce have launched the Pride Community Pages. The Pride Community Pages aims to be a directory of Hamilton businesses that are owned by, friendly to, or providing safe space to the Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ community. Register your business today.

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The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and Canada’s LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC) are partnering together to offer Hamilton businesses the Rainbow Registered Accreditation.

Rainbow Registered is a nationally recognized safe space accreditation program developed by the CGLCC, Tourism HR Canada, and funded by the Federal government. It recognizes Canadian businesses and organizations that are LGBT+ inclusive, and in turn helps customers, clients, partners and prospective employees to identify LGBT+ friendly businesses and organizations.

Canadian businesses and organizations of all sizes and from any industry can apply.

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