N.B. Business Webinars Help Answer Entrepreneurs’ Top Coronavirus Questions
MONCTON – New Brunswick business owners looking for answers to questions related to COVID-19 can now access a series of recorded webinars, in both official languages, facilitated by Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick (CÉNB), in partnership with the provincial government and chambers across the region.
The weekly video series called NB Business Webinars is free to access. It’s a collaborative effort by CÉNB, Opportunities NB, CFIB, the New Brunswick Business Council, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, and others.
By inviting subject matter experts, the group aims to answer some of the most frequently asked questions that businesses have when it comes to staying afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. The questions come from chambers of commerce across the province, based on what they hear from their members.
CÉNB CEO Thomas Raffy, who is the moderator for the webinars, said the videos aim to clarify and simplify the information that business owners have to sift through. He says business owners are generally already very busy, and not everybody knows how to pick the right keywords to search the most appropriate support programs on Google.
“It’s a lot of different measures coming from the province, coming from the federal government. Who’s doing what? What are the amounts? There are all these questions,” Raffy said. “You come to realize very quickly we have to simplify the message, and make the information very simple, concise and provide the information in a different way.”
Raffy says the top topics businesses are concerned about currently are related to human resources and financial support from governments and organizations. He says businesses owners are wondering about their obligations and responsibilities to employees, as well as how to access government help to keep their business afloat.
The videos can be accessed anytime on the websites of ONB, CENB, and others, as well as on social media and YouTube. The group decided not to do live webinars so business owners and operators can watch the videos on their own time if they’re busy.
One video on human resources has been published, and another video on government financial support will be published Friday, featuring speakers from ONB, CBDC, ACOA and the provincial government. Documents in both official languages used in the videos are also accessible to businesses if they want it.
The group aims to publish the videos once a week to cover the questions businesses are asking.
“There’s not a set amount of webinars being scheduled. We’re going with what the questions are, what the needs for the topics are,” he said. “The purpose of the webinars is not to answer all the questions, but it’s to answer the most frequent ones that we’ve heard, and of course invite the viewers to contact these experts from the webinars.”
He says as businesses are now facing an uncertain future and unprecedented times, they’ve had to adjust very quickly.
“I think it’s forcing innovation very quickly,” he said. “We do not know how long this will take, so we’re kind of on standby. Businesses still have to adjust.”