Lindsay Leckie celebrates small businesses all year round

In celebration of Small Business Week, we caught up with Lindsay Leckie – Business Development Manager for small businesses here at Efficiency Nova Scotia. We chat about how her role supports small businesses across the province, why she’s passionate about working in this field, and how she’ll be celebrating small business week this year!

Q: Tell us about your background and your role with Efficiency Nova Scotia.

A: As a business development manager, I work with small businesses and non-profits across the province to help them access rebates and connect them to resources that will support their energy efficiency projects. Through our programs, we can help with everything from heating and lighting upgrades to fuel switching, so these are powerful changes that can have a huge impact on energy bills.

It’s really about understanding the challenges small business owners are facing and where you can help them grow. Over the past ten years I held various roles supporting farmers markets, so I got to work with a lot of small businesses with a focus on finding creative solutions to help support them.

Q: What kinds of small businesses do you work with?

A: Our team works with lots of different small businesses including bakeries, restaurants, car dealerships, mechanics, faith-based organizations, local theatres, as well as businesses within the hospitality and tourism sector. For our purposes, small businesses are classified by their energy usage, so any business that consumes less than 600,000 kWh annually (approx. $6,0000/month in electricity costs) may qualify for rebates.

There are about 40,000 businesses in Nova Scotia within that range, so we do our best to reach as many as possible. We have rebates available for businesses of all sizes, so if someone doesn’t qualify for our small business rebates, we’ll connect them to the members of our team that can support them through another program.

Q: How do you connect with small business owners day-to-day?

A: In addition to getting out into communities one-on-one, we work with local chambers and partner organizations to help reach as many businesses as we can. Because business owners wear so many hats and have so much on their plates, we like to partner with other organizations to deliver information sessions that offer lots of helpful information in one sitting. We have a session coming up on October 31 called Efficiency in Action which we’re delivering in partnership with Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS) and Halifax Partnership. Events like these are great opportunities to connect with business owners who can really benefit from our programs and make it easy for them to get started.

I also work with ISANS throughout the year to deliver information sessions to new Canadians. Many of the participants have owned businesses before moving here, so they have lots of great questions and keep me on my toes!

Q: How do you support small businesses throughout the lifecycle of a project?

A: While my involvement is mostly up front – introducing our programs, answering questions, and getting a project off the ground – I’m always there to provide support as things progress. Small business owners are so busy, so it really helps when they have a trusted contact who’s familiar with their project and doesn’t have to be brought up to speed before answering questions or advising on next steps. Some projects like lighting upgrades are fairly quick, but things like heating upgrades and fuel switching are more involved – so having that relationship throughout the process can be a tremendous support.

I also work closely with our Efficiency Preferred Partners team. Contractors in our preferred partner network are trained in energy efficient technology and are familiar with our programs, so they really play an important role in helping spread awareness about the supports we can offer. Because they’re out in communities working directly with small businesses, they can provide education about our programs and rebates and can help get us connected with businesses we might not have reached otherwise.

Q: How will you be celebrating small business week this year?

A: We’ll definitely be visiting our local farmers markets and picking up our pumpkins! We live just outside of Windsor, so there are some incredible local markets, shops, restaurants, and cafes that we visit regularly. And obviously our incredible Nova Scotian breweries and wineries are always worth a visit!

Our daughter is two years old, so we’re always taking her to explore local farms, shops, and markets. Supporting local is really just part of our lifestyle and we want to instill those values in her as well. With about 40,000 small businesses in our province, it’s pretty easy to shop locally, but it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Even if we all shifted to buying 20% from small businesses it would have a huge impact.

Q: How can small businesses learn more about available supports?

A: You can reach out to us anytime at business@efficiencyns.ca and we will follow up with you directly. You can also check out our website to review our business rebate guides and get a sense of the different options available.