Financial Literacy Series: Cash Flow – Centre for Social Innovation
Join FEiST & WOSEN for our new Financial Literacy Workshop series! Register here.
Improving your financial literacy equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to manage your money more effectively.
Through scenario based learning we will show you how to get a handle on your debts, make easy improvements to your personal finances, be your own bookkeeper and improve your cash flow for your business.
Our workshops have been crafted with care for women and non-binary social entrepreneurs. Using scenario based learning our financial and industry experts will answer all the questions entrepreneurs often shy away from.
Join us!
Week 1: March 24 | Cash Flow | Expert: Laura Brown
We’ve all been there. A payment is due, rent is coming out, you drop your phone and smash the screen into a hundred expensive pieces. We dip into our overdraft or put it on our line of credit. It’s a cycle of spending and paying that keeps us in the red month after month. Having a cash reserve for these expenses would be amazing, but how do we save when we’re trying to pay off debt?
On April 6th join FEiST for an evening of questions and advice to create a cash flow that works for your business. Through scenario based learning, financial and industry experts will answer those awkward questions entrepreneurs often shy away from.
Week 2: March 31 | Organizing Personal Finances | Expert: Dimpl Chetnani/ Zahra Qureshi
‘It’s nothing personal, it’s just business’. But what happens when your business is tied to your personal life? Your friends are also your clients, you promote and market through your social media, your personality is one of your businesses best assets. How do we learn to separate our personal and professional relationships and finances?
Through scenario based learning, our financial and industry experts will answer these often unasked questions and show us how to keep our personal finances separate and organized.
Week 3: April 7 | Debt Management | Expert: Jason Howes
Everyone’s least favorite topic of conversation: their debt. It’s daunting, overwhelming, and most times easier to ignore in hopes it will go away. Whether you budget every nickel you make or avoid checking your bank statements for months the stress of debt keeps entrepreneurs from reaching their full potential. To this we say “No more!”. You can and will pay off your debts and here is how.
FEiST is happy to present our Debt Management Workshop. Partnering with industry and financial experts we will answer all the unsexy, stress inducing, discouraging problems and questions around your debt. Through scenario based learning we will give you concrete strategies on how to better make payments, save money, and get yourself out of debt.
Week 4: April 14 | Accounting | Expert: Kate Hall
Mia is an artist with multiple streams of income. She’s a freelance graphic designer, piano teacher, sells handmade jewelry, and rents her home on AirBnB. She loves working for herself but does not know how to manage her business finances. Her accounting system consists of miscellaneous piles of receipts, bills, and invoices. She doesn’t know how to properly write off business expenses, reinvest her revenue, and always seems to owe money come tax season. Mia is smart, creative, and wants to be an entrepreneur but feels like she lacks the financial knowledge necessary to be successful. Are you like Mia?
Laura Brown started with RBC five years ago as a Career Launch Associate. After exploring a few other personal banking roles she made the switch to Business Financial Services two years ago. In her current role as a Business Account Manager, she delivers value-added financial advice and solutions tailored to each unique small business. She gets joy from helping her small business clients grow their business and watching them succeed.
Dimpal Chetnani is a consultant with Capco, and is currently helping banks and other financial institutions with their digital transformation initiatives and to optimize their operations. Prior to that, she worked with entrepreneurs and foundations to understand their financial goals and implement investment strategies accordingly. Dimpal is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with an MBA from the Ivey Business School in London, Ontario. She is passionate about helping individuals level up their knowledge and skills in financial planning and investing.
Zahra Qureshi is an accountant turned social entrepreneur. She launched Optinum Professional Corp. in 2018 and her focus is to support social enterprises with effective business strategy development, financial planning and impact measurement for sustainable growth and impact. She is an experienced CPA, CMA and completed Canada’s first certification for professionals specifically serving the social enterprise sector. She also works for a clean tech startup, supporting them with raising and managing over $200,000 in grants and launched Social Venture Circuit as a non-profit social enterprise community.
Jason Howes, BA CFP® – President of IRP Inc. After graduating from University Jason followed in the foot-steps of some of his family members and became an Entrepreneur. Jason is the President of IRP Inc. in Kingston Ontario where I am a Financial Planner for a select group of families. The best part of my job is helping families identify the issues keeping them from achieving their Financial goals and working with them to get on track to achieve their goals.
Kate Hall graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Commerce degree with honors and a specialization in accounting, and successful completion of the co-operative program. Kate has three years of experience working in the accounting industry and is currently employed with MNP LLP in the Kingston, Ontario office. Kate is very passionate about ensuring every woman has the opportunity to succeed in their business endeavors and be financially confident.
Claire Bouvier is a Kingston-based influencer and serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of FEiST – female entrepreneurs in small towns. Claire has a background in teaching, music, eco fashion, tv hosting, and photography. She has dedicated the last decade to helping women reach their full potential through creativity, photography and entrepreneurship. Her goal is to help women find and spread their awesome by encouraging them to celebrate their creative and professional selves.
ABOUT WOSEN
The Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network (WOSEN) is a collaborative led by Pillar Nonprofit Network alongside Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), SVX, NORDIK Institute and Lean 4 Flourishing. WOSEN proposes to broaden and diversify the entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting women through inclusive program design. This will support 150 new women-led social enterprises across Ontario and help grow 75 existing ones, as well as offer 10 women-centred innovation training sessions to 250 people in 12 communities. CSI, along with members of the WOSEN partnership, are committed to moving forward a set of key design principles in our Start program & Grow accelerator. Our programs are designed to be: inclusive and accessible, systems-informed, decolonized, responsive, and human-centred.
WOSEN is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The Government of Canada is advancing gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, and supporting women entrepreneurs through the new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, announced in the Budget 2018. It is a $2-billion investment that seeks to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025. Learn more about WOSEN.