Sheridan offers free digital marketing training for small businesses hit hard by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many small businesses experiencing financial hardship, amongst the worst hit being underrepresented small business owners. As part of the Building Small Business Resilience research project, Sheridan’s Pilon School of Business (PSB) and EDGE Entrepreneurship Hub is offering them the opportunity to participate in a free 12-week digital marketing training program, including $500 for the business to use towards digital marketing activities and expenses. The training session will run from January 24 to April 15, 2022. Underrepresented small business owners in Canada are encouraged to apply now before the deadline of December 5, 2021.

The Building Small Business Resilience Digital Marketing Training Program is a key component of the collaborative research project between PSB and EDGE and is funded by the Government of Canada Future Skills Centre. The project aims to help underrepresented business owners including women, Indigenous people, racialized people or visible minorities, immigrants, individuals who identify as LGBTQ2S+, persons with disabilities or persons without a postsecondary education.

Facilitated by EDGE, one of Sheridan’s six research and incubation centres, participants of the training program will learn how to develop and execute a digital marketing campaign plan specifically for their own business and customer base. They will also learn to identify elements of success and failure so they can adapt and optimize results. The training will be experiential (learning by doing) with technical support provided.

The research is led by PSB professors Garrett Hall and Dr. Sujinda Hwang-Leslie who specialize in digital marketing with experience in running and growing a small business.

“We were small business owners ourselves, so we understand the challenges of having limited resources and investment and trying to make the most of everything,” says Hall.

“In a 12-week intensive program, we aim to support participants to gain the necessary digital marketing skills to successfully grow their business online,” adds Dr. Hwang-Leslie.

Visit www.digitalmarketingresearch.ca to find out how to participate in the project.