Young Voices in Business

Registration is now full. To be added to the wait list email engage@stjohns.ca.

Are you an 18 to 30-year-old interested in starting your own business? The City of St. John’s invites you to join us during Global Entrepreneurship Week for a free event focused on young business owners sharing their stories and experiences. Learn more about the event agenda below.

Date: Thursday, November 21
Time: 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: St. John’s Community Market, 245 Freshwater Rd

Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Space is limited, register today!

This event location is wheelchair accessible with accessible parking and a GoBus stop. More information about the venue can be found at sjfm.ca. For further inquiries about accommodations or accessibility, please call (709) 576-8510 or email engage@stjohns.ca.

Panel Discussion

Young entrepreneurs will share their successes, challenges, and lessons learned while building a business in St. John’s.

Panelists include:

Lauren Pecore, Smoodie Bowls

Lauren Pecore founded Smoodie Bowls with her sister Joanna Pecore. Known for their delicious smoothie bowls and uplifting atmosphere, Smoodie combines fun and flavor in every serving. After a few successful years as a pop-up, they now operate from a food trailer and just wrapped up their busiest season yet!

Fadzai Muzhuzha, Continental Butchery

Fadzai Muzhuzha is with the Continental Butchery, a meat processing butchery established in 2021. The business primarily focuses on online sales, Farmer’s Markets and similar events. Continental Butchery is continually growing its equipment repository, with a current capability of producing delicious artisan products, including multicultural hand-made sausages, jerky, patties and exotic meat cuts.

Nancy Leung, Simply Wedding NL

Nancy Leung is the owner of Simply Wedding NL, a social enterprise that focuses on promoting eco-wedding in Newfoundland and Labrador. Simply Wedding NL collects used wedding items in the community and offers affordable rentals, making sustainable choices accessible to all couples. In addition to her work with Simply Wedding NL, Nancy is also working as Strategic Initiatives Coordinator at Memorial University's Centre for Social Enterprise, with the focus of driving social innovation in the community sector.

A promotional image for Young Voices in Business with images of the three panelists Lauren Pecore, Fadzai Muzhuzha and Nancy Leung

Networking

Connect with local organizations offering valuable resources, including the City of St. John's Business Information Centre and the following organizations:

A non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs aged 18-39 in Canada with loan financing, mentorship and resources they need to start or buy a business. Futurpreneur has helped more than 18,700 young entrepreneurs, across Canada, launch their small businesses.

Metro Business Opportunities (MB0) is a non-profit business development corporation that has been helping entrepreneurs succeed for more than 25 years. They offer clients real opportunities through business counselling, lending, and training offerings. MBO's knowledgeable team helps potential and existing entrepreneurs of all ages with idea generation, business start-up, and successful growth.

Youth Ventures empowers youth aged 12-29 to start their own summer businesses. Youth Ventures works with close to 300 students andhelp start almost 200 businesses each year. Since 1992 the program has helped over 7000 young people explore entrepreneurship in NL.

Youth Ventures is there from the beginning to help you come up with an idea, create a business plan, do market research, point you in the direction of financing to get your business up and running.

The YMCA Business Planning Program is committed to supporting entrepreneurs (ages 19+) as they engage in business plan development and improve their entrepreneurial literacy. The program is designed to help with ideation, business planning, resource allocation, networking, training, and professional development.

The Study and Stay NL Program is a collaborative initiative of International Education Newfoundland and Labrador (IENL), Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUNL), and College of the North Atlantic (CNA). It is a free online nine-month program for exceptional, motivated international students in or entering their final year of full-time study who are committed to living, working, and contributing to communities in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Co-operatives (NLFC) is the provincial association for co-operatives and credit unions in NL. Our mandate is to represent, promote, educate, and develop the co-operative sector. We support over 40 active co-operatives in our membership, including those in childcare, finance, environment, community service, arts and culture, housing, fisheries, and agriculture.