Kingston Economic Development Offers Free Digital Support for Local Businesses – Kingston | The Canadian News

For the past 22 months, Wendy Leonard has had to adapt and innovate to overcome blockages and capacity limits.

“For us, it was a very difficult time to overcome those blocks,” says the owner of the Kahiko Bay store.

With limited foot traffic in physical locations, some companies have adapted by creating a strong digital presence.

“It has really been a benefit to many different companies who have found that they have been able to generate more traffic, more sales and increase their overall presence within the community,” says Rob Tamblyn of Kingston Economic Development Corporation (Kingston Development CE).

The Kingston Ec Dev team is currently in its third iteration of a partnership with Digital Main Street, a Toronto-based nonprofit that helps small businesses adopt technology.

They now offer free digital marketing support to local businesses to help them better serve customers through e-commerce, social media, and more.

“When it comes to nonessential business, they locked us up three times,” says Leonard. “Which means your door is locked so no one can come in and just browse or whatever. So having that online presence is good, since everyone is stuck at home, they can Google it, get information online before making purchases and go in. “

Leonard is part of a grant program to help local businesses adopt digital skills, but free consultations are available to all local businesses in the Kingston region.

“We have a team, our digital services squad, that is experienced in a number of things in terms of the digital space,” says Tamblyn. “So they can go out and visit your business and do an assessment of where you are, where you need to be, where you want to be and then give you the steps to get there.”

Kingston Ec Dev is also running a series of online workshops on digitization, the next one being available on January 25.

Tamblyn says that businesses can book individual consultations with a digital services advisor and learn more about the programs offered at Kingston Ec Dev. website.