Entrepreneurs thrive at Southcentre Mall

Event celebrates small businesses Watch: Small business owners were given a special chance to be recognized at Southcentre Mall. Kevin Fleming has more.

Wednesday marks World Entrepreneur Day and about a dozen small business owners with retail space in Southcentre Mall are celebrating.

Sashi Behl has owned her own business for the last 20 years. Her latest idea, Joydrop, sells all kinds of locally made jewelry out of a retail space on the second floor of the mall.

"Someone told me when I first started that the definition of an entrepreneur is you work 12 hours a day, you just pick those 12 hours," said Behl. "You can only do that if you’re passionate about what you’re doing so it doesn’t seem like work."

A little farther down the way in the mall is where Oak & Tonic is located. Wil Lakatos started out selling online but has embraced the idea of meeting his customers face to face.

"The idea was to have that exposure that I would have and the opportunity to meet and greet people and educate them on the ingredients and what differentiates the product line from another person down the street right," said Lakatos.

Southcentre Mall actively seeks out small businesses who can benefit from having a presence in a shopping centre environment.

The mall offers support with design and construction, the logistics of operating in a shopping centre, marketing and social media, and general coaching on entering a 'bricks and mortar' space.

Rashmi Aimiuwu, the marketing director at the mall, says Southcentre aims to create connections within the city by introducing Calgarians to budding local businesses and brands that are curated and helmed by other Calgarians.

"We like to not only support them and remove barriers for them to enter the retail space but we really want to be a resource for them to help them incubate their brand and incubate their business so they really can be successful and grow it in the long run," said Aimiuwi. "That would be our ultimate goal."

Southcentre is a huge supporter of the 'Made in Alberta Awards' and will host a one-day-only curated market on September 20th for Calgarians to experience what some of our provinces best entrepreneurs have to offer.