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She Means Profit

The She Means Profit Podcast is devoted to helping entrepreneurs master their finances and launch, grow, and scale their businesses. Simple, digestible, actionable advice from Melissa Houston, an accredited CPA with over 20 years of experience. Real business owners, real talk, real solutions.

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She Means Profit

Empowering Women Business Owners Through Financing

February 27, 2023 • Melissa Houston / Devon Girard & Wendy Curtis • Episode 137

“We are lending across one end of Canada to the next, on a microloan basis.”

— Wendy Curtis

Are you taking advantage of all of the resources available to you as a business owner? Based in Cobourg, Ontario, the Northumberland Community Futures Development Corporation, known as the NCFDC, provides financing and strategy for entrepreneurs. In this episode, I sit down with two of the NCFDC’s incredible leaders, Devon Girard and Wendy Curtis.

Devon is the Program Lead for Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, and is committed to supporting women entrepreneurs to advance economic recovery, while Wendy is the Director of CF Ontario East and is described by the Government of Canada’s Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario as “Northumberland’s Woman of Influence”!

In this conversation, we dive into the amazing initiatives and programs developed by the NCFDC to help women entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses with more ease.

Listen now to discover:‌ ‌

The risks that women are willing — or unwilling — to take when it comes to securing funding for their businesses
How you can use the NCFDC’s DELIA platform to access microloans
Why you need to check out the StrikeUP Digital Conference for Women Entrepreneurs!

Guest bios: Formerly Director of Trade Marketing, Pillsbury Canada Ltd, Wendy Curtis is a recognized multi-award-winning leader in our regional innovation ecosystem. Devon Girard is an accomplished strategic communications professional with more than fifteen years of experience in government, community, and media relations.

Highlights:‌ ‌

00:50 Intro

02:14 Meet Devon Girard & Wendy Curtis

04:05 Women, loans & risk-taking

05:14 Bias & access to capital

08:28 Applying for NCFDC loans

10:00 StrikeUP

13:17 Future of women in business

18:26 Final takeaways

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Links:‌ ‌

NCFDC