Are you an entrepreneur that could use a hand getting the word out about your venture? You’re not alone. 

Because Canadian women are starting businesses at a higher rate than women in all other G20 countries, The Common Good Project is stepping in to help these entrepreneurs clinch their professional goals. 

The project offers start-ups a collaborative pro bono PR and marketing workshop designed to help them better engage their audiences. “By opening The Common Good Project to women-led business only, our program grew 4x since last year, our inaugural year,” says Amanda Shuchat Managing Director of The Colony Project. 

“Based on this year’s applications,” she says, “we can see that female entrepreneurs are forming businesses around innovations to better the lives of other women. As an example, we saw applications from companies who aim to support women during pregnancy and after pregnancy. Ultimately, we see entrepreneurs identifying gaps in the way the we live, and developing solutions to enrich our lives.”

This year, Jacqueline Leung (creator of Pressed, a publishing company that aims to share real news in real words) applied to The Common Good Project in order to get some tactical ideas and tangible advice from PR pros. “The thing about starting a company is that you’re guessing most of the way,” says Leung. “The reality of trying to do something new is that there’s no proof that it will work. I was impressed with how the experts at The Common Good customized their recommendations for Pressed. We got some great advice about how we can leverage our current platforms and readers to grow our community, and we were given organic options as well as paid options.”

Amanda Shuchat

Shuchat is looking forward to the next session, where she will be meeting with local entrepreneurs to learn about their stories and dive into a communications plan. “As an entrepreneur, I can understand the ‘struggle’ of entrepreneur life,” says Shuchat. “We know that for many, every dollar counts that much more when you’re starting out, so we aim to support our partner companies with reasonable ideas that are in scope.”

Got a business venture that could use a boost in the PR/marketing department? Learn more about The Common Good Project here. Learn more about The Colony Project here.