Welcome to E-News! from The Business Link. We hope you enjoy this quick monthly e-newsletter to keep you informed of upcoming events and services at The Business Link and other items of interest to Alberta's small business community.

Your feedback is welcome at any time to help us improve and enhance our services for Alberta entrepreneurs. Simply use the "Feedback" function located on the toolbar at the top of E-News! to send us your views.

The Business Link's Fall 2002
Seminars and Brown Bag Presentations

Our new Fall season is about to begin! Economically-priced Small Business Seminars and FREE Brown Bag Presentations feature the basics of business from start-up to marketing to e-business...and more! All sessions are held at The Business Link at 10237 - 104 Street in Edmonton. Pre-registration is required for the seminars; no registration required for the “brown baggers”, however there is limited seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information on our Small Business Seminars and to register on-line, visit our web site at:http://www.cbsc.org/alberta/seminars.cfm. Details on the "Brown Baggers" are available at: http://www.cbsc.org/alberta/brownbag.cfm.

Quality Council of Alberta Brown Bag Session

The Quality Council of Alberta (QCA) invites you to attend their FREE monthly Brown Bag Sessions, held every third Friday of the month at noon from September to June, 2003. Bring your lunch and take in this series on “Performance”. Attendees will examine and learn what organizational performance is, approaches to improve it, and challenges to maintain it.

This month's session on "Defining Organizational Performance & its Relationship to Share Performance" will be held at The Business Link on Friday, September 20, 2002 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. Seating is limited and allocated on a first come - first served basis.

For more information and to register for this session, contact Ann Beaque at the Quality Council of Alberta at 780-436-5609 or by e-mail at: abeaque@telusplanet.net.

Deal Generator, a regional initiative to develop high-quality deal flow for early-stage enterprises, was launched by Economic Development Edmonton (EDE) on July 25, 2002. Designed by experienced angel investors and investment professionals in conjunction with EDE, Deal Generator will help prepare new entrepreneurs to present their business plan to prospective investors through a unique arrangement involving local providers of professional services (e.g. accounting, marketing, legal etc.).

Entrepreneurs go through a rigorous formal process of screening, assessment, pitch readiness and finally, presentation to select investors from an established angel investor network. There are no guarantees with the Deal Generator but the program aims to encourage budding entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas into quality investment opportunities that angel investors are looking for.

More information on Deal Generator can be found on-line at: http://www.dealgenerator.com/.

If you are looking for a way to identify business opportunities with government department and agencies, MERX is for you!
MERX, owned and operated by Bank of Montreal, is Canada's official, public-sector electronic tendering service. MERX is the window through which Canadian businesses of all sizes can access billions of dollars in contracting opportunities with the federal government and billions more from participating provincial governments and MASH (municipal, academic, school and hospital) sectors.

Using MERX you can expand your business by having access to government departments and agencies that you may not have considered as potential clients. This economically-priced service provides an easy-to-access location for you to view opportunities and order only the documents relating to opportunities that make sense for your business.

The Business Link works in partnership with 34 Regional Access Sites located throughout the province, plus the Calgary Business Information Centre (CBIC), to provide information and resources to Alberta entrepreneurs. One of these Regional Access Sites is the Lloydminster Region Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC).

The boundaries of the Lloydminster Region CFDC include the following communities: Lloydminster, County of Vermilion River, Dewberry, Kitscoty, Lashburn, Marshall, Marwayne, Onion Lake, Paradise Valley, R. M. of Britannia, R. M. of Wilton, Vermilion.

The organization offers services to potential and existing entrepreneurs, including: a business library called "the Entrepreneur Centre", business planning services offered by a professional staff, information packages, small business loans, the Self-Employment program, training seminars and a training bank.

For more information, contact the Lloydminster Region Community Futures Development Corporation at:

#5 - 4010 50 Avenue
Lloydminster, Alberta T9V 1B2
Phone: (888) 875-5458
Fax: (780) 875-8026
E-Mail: info@lloydcfdc.ca
Web site: www.lloydcfdc.ca

Stay tuned for the launch of our Small Business Week in Alberta site on October 1, 2002.

This new online tool will feature a calendar of events held across the province to celebrate Small Business Week, some interesting statistics on Alberta small businesses, and information relating to this year's theme: "You have genius, let's bank on it now!".

If your organization is involved in or hosting special events for Small Business Week (October 20-26, 2002), we can register them in our calendar of events at no cost. For more information, please contact Gaëlle Gagné at: (780) 427-1100 or by e-mail at: gagne.gaelle@cbsc.ic.gc.ca.

September 2002
Issue 4

In this Issue... Upcoming Events Business News Flash Feature Web Site Regional Access Site in the Spotlight Coming Up At The Business Link!

Our Guest Advisors are Back!