With cases of COVID-19 still on the rise, the so-called "return to normalcy" in the southwest small business community has been a hit-and-miss affair as new restrictions and measures come and go from the provincial government.

Most businesses have long ago learned to adapt, and the economy is slowly working its way back, while at the same time finding new and safe ways to help their clients and patrons.

With that in mind, it was declared Small Business Week in the city during Monday's meeting of city council.

CEO of the Swift Current & District Chamber of commerce Karla Wiens joined council via video conferences to help with the proclamation. She spoke with Swift Current Online afterwards.

"The idea of proclaiming or declaring a month is (...) just to remind people, especially going into the holiday season, even though it's only October, just to remind people of the different ways that they can support local doesn't always involve spending money which can be a barrier to some.

Since the pandemic began, The Chamber of Commerce has been busy with various projects around the southwest; the biggest of which since the pandemic began has arguably been the "Shop Southwest" online market portal launched in April of this year. But a new project is just coming to fruition as well in the form of a video series showcasing some of the businesses in the region.

"This week we're going to start releasing our support local videos which feature our local businesses and they themselves are reinforcing the message of how important it is to support local and in addition to reminding people that they are there and showing the interconnections. Small business month will culminate of course with the SCBEX awards at the end of the month."

The Shop Southwest portal has seen over 385,000 viewers since launch, with orders placed both in the province and as far away as Prince Edward Island. It has 100 vendors in the southwest region, but Wiens says that the number of products fluctuates as things sell out and are replaced.

While some people have not been able to be added to the portal due to primarily geographical concerns (ie. they're not in the coverage area), Wiens is happy that a lot of other centres are beginning to bring to bear online shopping portals of their own, allowing those clients to find homes elsewhere.

For those that are online, and those that are new to the process, Wiens says that they've spent a good deal of time during the summer ensuring that businesses were comfortable with the onboarding process.

"Walking people through the setup. We concentrated on that hard this summer whereby we physically went out to various different businesses and walked them through the onboarding. Many people are not tech-savvy and there is the fear that they could make a mistake and they want to represent themselves well."

One of the next challenges for her, she adds, is to bring those businesses into the portal that don't necessarily have a traditional product to sell; businesses that don't fit the traditional "online marketplace" motif.

Between those large projects such as Shop Southwest and the video project, The Chamber holds to its regular chamber activities of connecting people and promoting the local business community. As Wiens puts it, whether it's a month in October or any other month for that matter, the bottom line message is about supporting local in whichever way, shape or form.

"There are so many different ways to do it. Some include money. Some not. A lot is just goodwill and a public thankyou. But our bottom message would be to think local first when making your spending decisions whatever those happen to be."