From left, Red Brick owner Emily Ford, and Futurpreneur business development manager Hussam Tungekar during a workshop for entrepreneurs in Vermilion on September 20. Photo Angela Mouly
The Red Brick hosted a Futurpreneur Workshop on September 20, in collaboration with Lloydminster Community Futures and Lakeland College. Futurpreneur Canada’s business development manager for northern Alberta, Hussam Tungekar, travelled from Edmonton to deliver the session. The workshop was a condensed version or bi-product of the Rock My Business Plan that is run in partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada all across the country. It was geared towards people who are wanting to start businesses, or who have started and seized the opportunity to better structure their business. Tungekar has been an entrepreneur since moving to Canada in 2007, having had numerous businesses. He now owns and operates an international consulting company doing communications strategy governance aside from his work with Futurpreneur. “This session feeds off the knowledge that I have gained from the hundreds of businesses that I’ve interacted with over the years, and enables people to mitigate risks for their future. Entrepreneurship is something that has always been close to my heart. After getting into it, I realized that there are a lot of pitfalls, and I like being able to offer people the opportunity to learn how to avoid them. One of the core principles is that a business needs to be nimble and utilize its size to its benefit. A large corporation is less nimble and has a slower ability to react to market demands,” said Tungekar. The Red Brick’s owner, Emily Ford, has been a client of Community Futures and Futurpreneur, and shared her experience with participants. “Being a client of Futurpreneur has definitely helped me out in establishing a business and in the process of planning. I’m very happy to have it come full circle and facilitate other young entrepreneurs with their business aspirations,” said Ford. Futurpreneur is a funding and mentorship program. For more information, you can visit futurpreneur.ca or email htungekar@futurpreneur.ca.