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Take Action & Find Free Support

Free and/or local support initiatives

• CIRA Canadian Shield is a free enterprise-grade web-security for all Canadians. Protect yourself against theft of personal and financial data and keep viruses, ransomware, and other malware out of your home.
• Gift Card Program by Support Local BC The organization has created a website to allow customers to purchase gift certificates for local, independent businesses in British Columbia. To find out more about the program and how it works click HERE, to register your business click HERE.
• DailyHive offers free advertising space for local small businesses HERE.
• Vancouver Is Awesome is setting up a free section to encourage takeout and delivery orders from local restaurants HERE if you’d like your restaurant to be added to that, fill out this FORM.
• Five Senses Branding started the ‘Five in 5 initiative’ to help other small business owners for free with creative strategies to survive during and after Covid-19, click HERE to learn more.
• For restaurant owners: get listed on Breaking Bread. It’s a system where restaurant owners can self-report on their current status & services to let the people of Vancouver know that you’re open for take-out and delivery business. Click HERE to learn more.
• Adopt My Shop by DailyHive.  A small collective of local business owners is pooling our tech resources and help each other find support online in this time of need. Be nominated for adoption or suggest your business yourself and you’ll receive support getting online, they have teams of students to help you sell digital gift cards, accept online orders via food delivery apps, or sell online with Shopify or square for your store and get featured by DailyHive more regularly.
• We’re open! …is a no-frills tool to help COVID-19 impacted communities know what local Canadian businesses are open and how they’re serving you. No sign-up needed!
• Heritage Vancouver Small Business Map Is an interactive map and list of neighbourhood businesses that are still open during the COVID-19 pandemic, with information on how these businesses are operating and how the public can support them.
• Get listed in Small Business BC’s ‘Small Business Marketplace’ 
• Food & Beverage Industry Resources from Small Business BC
• “Support Local” Auction by Postmedia/Vancouver Sun & The Province provides the opportunity to gain advertising dollars at Postmedia through providing them inventory for an auction. Find all the details HERE and HERE

Here are some suggestions that you can implement to prepare for business recovery:

• Digitalize your business, here’s your starter kit. 
• Do your customer research and create customer personas.
• Give your website a facelift.
• Think about quality photos and evergreen content, that you can use for a long time.
• Add keywords to your blog posts, practice your SEO skills.
• Rework your communication strategies, find more info, tools and resources here and here.
• Take advantage of free offers right now:
  • Hootsuite offers free access to its Pro Plan to NPOs and small businesses until July 1
  • Shopify offers a 90-day free trial
  • later.com started a relief program for customers who are on a paid plan
  • yelp.com waived its advertising fees temporarily

• Research if you qualify for:
  • Facebook’s small business grant
  • BC Hydro’s relief fund 
  • the Canadian Hospitality Worker Relief fund by Vikram Vij and other Canadian chefs, open for application from May 6th 

There are several things you can do to let your government know that you need help and support during Covid-19:

• Send a letter to your parliament member(s) regarding your concerns, your struggles, what help and support you need.
• Sign petitions that support local businesses and are directed to governmental representatives. For example, these:
  • savesmallbusiness.ca/#petition
  • COVID-19 Shutdown and Rent Relief to the Vancouver Hospitality Industry