The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, August 14, 2014 | 6 Making the most of Summer Company by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Spotlight "Connected to your Community" T he Halton Region Small Business Centre has joined forces with the Province of Ontario to give a dozen young entrepreneurs the tools to turn their business dreams into reality. The centre assisted the youths in opening their own summer businesses through the provincially-funded Summer Company program. Summer Company provides participating student entrepreneurs with hands-on business training, mentorship opportunities and potential funding of up to $3,000 from the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. "First, it's funding. It helps out with a start-up budget, which is kind of a big thing," said Anna Starkova, who is in the program this summer and opened a caricature drawing business, Blue Hat Caricatures. "You get mentors who direct you how to market yourself, how to gure out what to do with your business and the logistics of it. The accounting, the registering, the nancial aspects, which I was completely clueless about -- they helped me with that stuff." Starkova, a third-year animation student at Sheridan College, said she has been drawing caricatures for the last three years. The college student said she learned about Summer Company from classmates who had participated in it previously and decided it would be a great opportunity to gure out how a business works and what she would have to do to run one. "Caricatures are kind of a passion of mine. I think people are really great to draw and make fun of, slightly," said Starkova. "This program helped me target my customers better...I draw people at festivals, golf courses, parties...They showed me where to get events and how to get events." She said she was able to use the program's start-up capital to do things like rent booths at festivals and start a website to advertise her work (www.annastarkova.com). Starkova said she hopes to keep her business going during the school year, but noted her ultimate goal is to nd work in an animation studio. The Sheridan student's caricature business was only one idea that bene ted from the Summer Company program this year. Trevor Clost of Burlington founded Hockequip, an ecommerce platform focused on making hockey equipment more affordable and accessible to Canadians. Oakville's Luke Corbeth opened Corby Car Cleaners, an on-demand interior and exterior car detailing service. Paul DeMarco of Oakville set up the temp agency DeMarco Business Services. Cory Hudson of Oakville introduced Ambient Audio Anna Starkova is a Sheridan College animation student who has used money from the Halton Region Summer Company program to fund a caricature drawing business, Blue Hat Caricatures. Above, Starkova shows off a caricature of herself. | photo by Franki Ikeman ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) Caricatures are kind of a passion of mine. I think people are really great to draw and make fun of, slightly. This program helped me target my customers better... I draw people at festivals, golf courses, parties... They showed me where to get events and how to get events. Anna Starkova Ward 3 Canada, a producer of high quality and immersive sound systems. Burlington's Yara Kashlan, created A Ray Creative Publishing, which produces multicultural children's books. Oakville's David Kong established Eco-Space, a producer of high quality beanbag chairs for the of ce or home. Burlington resident Tom Lethbridge set up Cutting Edge Language, a language education service. Oakville's Jason Lum founded JXL Apparel, which specializes in custom T-shirt designs. Cameron Mulligan of Oakville opened First Waves Swim School, which provides private backyard swimming lessons. Georgetown resident Thomas Neely established The Boys of Summer Landscape and Lawn Care. Oakville resident Dragos Rotaru created Orchard Audio and Design, which creates musical electronic instruments. The young entrepreneurs were assisted by a number of business leaders from the community who volunteered their time and experience to mentor the youths as they got their business ideas off the ground. Phil Von Massow, co-owner of condominium marketplace supplier CPL Group, has volunteered for the Halton Region's mentor programs for the last four years. He said the group of mentors would meet with the young entrepreneurs every Wednesday at the Halton Region facility to discuss customer targeting, advertising, challenges see Summer on p.7 NEIL OLIVER Vice ­President and Group Publisher DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Halton Region Editor in Chief Volume 52 | Number 97 447 Speers Road, Oakville ON (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Editorial Department: (905) 632-0588 Advertising Department (905) 845-3824 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4444 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 DANIEL BAIRD Director of Advertising ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor