Women’s Day event helps female entrepreneurs ‘bloom’

Local female entrepreneurs descended on Bloom Bistro on Ferndale Drive in south-end Barrie this afternoon to network and listen to advice from panel speakers.

The International Women’s Day event, hosted by Scotiabank, focused on customer relationship management, return-on-investment strategies and financial wellness.

One of the many panel speakers, Kelly Letourneau, of Kelly Letourneau Media, says her company’s mandate is to elevate the voices of women entrepreneurs in Barrie. She says women, as a whole, do better when they are supported by other women.

“So, when women gather to support, cheerlead, help, empower and boost up other women, not only in business but in personal life, we get a belief, and we start to know that we can do things,” Letourneau told BarrieToday at the event.

She says being a woman in business can be isolating.

“We need that community of women with the same experiences we have, to let us know we are on the right track and, yes, I can do this,” Letourneau said. “We can have that message come from other people, but when it comes from a woman who has the same shared experience, it just hits different.”

Local community leaders on hand at the event included Barrie-Innisfil MP John Brassard, Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin, who is also minister of the environment, and Dr. Mira Ray, executive director of research, innovation and entrepreneurship at Georgian College.