Fanshawe College is a natural choice for a lot of Londoners who seek out post-secondary education. It’s a great educational institution that gives students hands-on experience, real-world applications for the knowledge and skills that they learn, and hosts plenty of opportunities to make long-lasting connections in their industry.
We can all agree that now, more than ever, it’s so important to support local businesses. Shopping local means helping our local economy to thrive. It means helping your fellow Londoners to feed their families. It means giving the city so many unique, innovative, and high-quality options for restaurants, shops, and services! We wouldn’t have some of our most favourite local brands if it were not for Fanshawe and the programs they offered and the opportunities they afforded them.
On top of that, Fanshawe has created ways to help support the alumni that graduate and go on to start their own small, local business! From an online marketplace, spreading the word, and helping through starting and growing, Fanshawe has created plenty of ways to lift up the small, local business and shine a spotlight, making the choice for consumers an easy one.
Take a look at all of the different ways Fanshawe College helps London support local.
Fanshawe Alumni Perks
Did you know that being a Fanshawe Alumni gives you perks? Well, it does. There are over 40 different businesses that offer Fanshawe Alumni discounts and deals! Not only are you getting access to fantastic deals across Canada, but their perks also offer you the chance to support local and get rewarded for it by teaming up with Locorum!
Locorum is a virtual marketplace that is exclusive to small, local businesses. Not only is it your one-stop shop for all of your favourite local vendors under one roof, but you actually get rewarded for choosing to support local through Locorum. For every purchase you make, you earn Locorum Credit, which you can then use, like cash, towards your next local purchase! IT’s like getting paid to shop. Fanshawe has partnered with Locorum to offer perks to Fanshawe alumni to make shopping local even more rewarding.
Fanshawe Alumni Stories
Because Fanshawe can help to give you the practical skills and tools that you need to have a successful and thriving business, London has a vibrant and booming small business scene. You can find high quality, fantastic service, and unique approaches throughout the small businesses that fill this city. Many of those business owners went to Fanshawe.
Through the Fanshawe Alumni Stories, you can learn about so many Alumni who found their schooling as Fanshawe absolutely essential to leading them down the path that eventually brought them to starting, owning, or participating in the success of small, local businesses.
In fact, some of Locorum’s own got their start right here in London from Fanshawe College. Through the Alumni Stories, you can read about how the hands-on approach from the faculty in the Business Accounting program helped Matt Santagapita (the founder of Locorum) become a small business owner! Matt, knowing what a thorough learning experience Fanshawe is has hired several Fanshawe grads over the years in his two small businesses that he runs.
Locorum’s Marketing Director, Carlon was also featured in the Fanshawe Alumni Stories. You can learn about how his experience in the Digital Marketing program and the connections that he built while he was there helped him to become the Marketing Director of two local businesses while also a small, local, seasonal business himself! He also talks about how the Business Administration – Marketing program was a challenging program but was the most useful for the positions that he holds today in terms of real-world situations.
Matt and Carlon’s stories are just a drop in the bucket. Fanshawe Alumni Stories gives a platform for so many of London’s small business owners to talk about their experience and how it helped to equip them with the skills necessary to run the small local joints that we love so much in this city.
Business Programs
Supporting local is great…as long as there is local to support. It’s scary starting a small business. There are no guarantees in life, and investing your time, money, and hope into a business that then fails is an absolutely terrifying thought. Luckily, Fanshawe has helped so many Londoners to take that leap of faith and open a small, local joint by providing them with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities that they need to succeed. London is so much greater for it.
Sustainable Local Foods Program
Through this program, you can learn all about local food system development. You’ll learn about regional food initiatives across Canada, best practices, sustainable farming, urban agriculture, and food system trends and policies in Canada. The knowledge and skills learned through this program have helped many Londoners create the delicious restaurants and fooderies that Londoners have come to love dearly. Plus, the program helps to create a strong connection between local farmers and the local restaurant industry.
Business Administration – Marketing
Through this program, students will have access to real companies and solve real marketing challenges. You’ll also get to have experience in market research, event marketing, customer relationship management, sales management, new media marketing, web design and more. You’ll get real-world experiences that translate directly into the small business world.
Business Administration Leadership and Management
Students get to study cutting-edge innovations in the business world. You’ll get to take your visions for sustainable and socially responsible businesses and put them to the test in the real-world economy! You’ll learn all of the skills required to make your small, local business a success, including strategic planning, leadership principles, and performance management.
Business Fundamentals
There are fundamentals that every business owner needs to have under their belt in order to have a successful company. Those fundamentals include skills like communication, business mathematics, accounting, marketing, and computer skills. This class gives you a taste of the business world and the very basics of what you’ll need to arm yourself with to start your own small business. It’s a great launching point for anyone and is a great way to get your feet wet and see where you want to go from there.
Business – Accounting
While the accounting side of a business might not be the flashiest or the most exciting sounding, it’s the foundation that helps to determine whether or not your business will succeed or fail. Managing your household’s finances is not even remotely the same as managing the financials of a business. This course can teach you how to balance the books in different sectors, from manufacturing and merchandising to financial institutions. You’ll also learn about analyzing numbers and how to use the latest accounting software!
Business Entrepreneurship and Management
This program is a great way to become realistic about the business dreams. Through incredible support and guidance, you’ll be given the skills and knowledge (as well as the practice) that you’ll need to start your own business. When you leave this program, you’ll be equipped with a comprehensive business plan for your dream. That plan will have been workshopped by both your peers as well as your professors.
You’ll learn all about how to conduct market research and how to conduct a feasibility study so that you can take all of your entrepreneurial ideas and run with them in the future. You’ll also get practical computer, advertising, and marketing skills to help you turn dreams into realities.
On top of all of that, you’ll get experience with real business situations, have networking events, and will partner with real business mentors.
And More
On top of the business-specific programs at Fanshawe, there are so many others that can help Londoners to gain the skills, knowledge, and experience they need to start up their very own small, local business. In fact, Fanshawe has over 200 different programs to choose from. Music, construction, culinary arts, photography, web development, and more, whatever your passion and dream is, Fanshawe has the program to help you develop not only the skills and knowledge that you’ll need but to also give you the experience and the connections required for true success.
The Center for Research & Innovation at Fanshawe College
The Centre for Research & Innovation lends expertise, resources, funding, and partners to local businesses in need. They help small businesses with the details and hold their hands through the hard parts so that the small business can do what they do best: innovate.
Their Services
- Proof-of-concept product development
- Product testing and validation
- Proposal development, project financial management, and grant administration.
- Connecting industry to funding, partners, and research expertise
- Professional development for researchers
Fanshawe Alumni Marketplace
Fanshawe created an Alumni Marketplace. It’s a directory for Fanshawe alumni-owned businesses! It helps Fanshawe students, other alumni, and Londoners support local businesses! The marketplace not only serves as a quick-reference business directory, but small businesses can have their social media, websites, and information of who they are and what they do available. Supporting local has never been so important and Fanshawe is there helping to make it easier.
You can check out the marketplace here. You’ll find all kinds of small, local business brands there. Some examples of the A+ small, local business you can find on the marketplace include The Hot Sauce Co, Locorum, Soul Runners, Taxably, Greenocation, Harcroft Estates Artisan Preserves, Studio KVR, and Growe Outdoor School!
Whether it’s artisan goods, services, innovative new businesses, or superior products, you can find it all at Fanshawe Alumni Marketplace, giving Londoners the opportunity to support Fanshawe grads and keep the local economy thriving.
Leap Junction
Leap Junction has helped so many alumni on their path to opening their own small, local business. They foster all things entrepreneurship through consultations, collaborative workspaces, events, workshops, funding, and incubator programs. Learn everything from creating a pitch, branding and storytelling, SEO, and even customer relationship management tools!
What They Offer
- Coaching through personalized, one-on-one consultation as well as mentorship and access to valuable resources and business analysis.
- Workshops that help to develop entrepreneurial skills for both growing and launching a business.
- Opportunities to earn the funding that you need to advance your startup
- Events that can help you build connections through networking, expand on your skills, and build relationships with other small business owners right here in London.