KEYS TO SUCCESS
Mentoring & Resource Program Targets Boomer & Junior Entrepreneurs Story And Photo By Dave Hall
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hen Carl and Rita Hulme moved to Oxley almost four years ago, they didn’t realize how much their retirement life would change. The Orangeville couple have quickly been transformed from active retirees with time on their hands to busy independent business owners. The Hulmes, who operate Blimeys British Store & Gift Shop in Harrow, were drawn to this area by an initiative started in mid-2008 by the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors, the Windsor Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation’s Small Business Centre, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island and the Windsor Essex Home Builders’ Association Inc. The “Windsor Essex Active Retirement Community Initiative” (WEARCI) project was designed to attract active retirees to the area, allowing them to sell their homes in areas such as Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa, where real estate prices are much higher than in Essex County, and spend their retirement years with money in the bank. “We have decided to build on that initiative by encouraging active retirees to invest in the region by starting their own businesses,” says Krista Del Gatto, Executive Officer of the real estate association. The initial phase of the “Start Something New” mentoring and resource program was recently introduced in early July 2016 to encourage active retirees who have moved to the Windsor Essex region to use their experience and networking contacts by opening small businesses. The program is open to anyone of any age to tap into mentorship opportunities in preparation for opening a new business. Specifically this
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Taken at the Ciociaro Club during an early July 2016 info session on the “Start Something New” mentoring and resource program, Blimeys’ owners Carl and Rita Hulme, were the perfect examples to illustrate how relocating to the Windsor Essex region can help you launch a successful small business and retire in style.
potential “key to success” serves the needs of retired boomerpreneurs and juniorpreneurs eager to connect with a wealth of expertise and knowledge for shaping their decisions. Del Gatto adds, “We have found local business people who have volunteered to be mentors.” The Hulmes fit the bill in two regards. Not only have they agreed to be mentors to fellow active retirees, but they have opened their own business since moving here full time. “We started out by looking for a house on the water and we were attracted to this area by its advertising campaign in the Toronto
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area,” says Carl Hulme, who retired after 30 years with a multi-national company. Carl continues, “It would cost upwards of $2 million to find that near Toronto. We saw this region’s marketing campaign and took a drive down here one weekend. We bought a house and used it as our summer home for a couple of years before deciding to take the full time plunge.” Within a year of moving here, they had also taken the independent business plunge by opening Blimeys in Harrow, a store which sells products from the United Kingdom (there are also some items from France and Canada; find out more at: Blimeys.ca).