Originally from the U.K., Andrea Percy was first introduced to The Little Brit Shop in Waterdown, Ontario as a customer. The shop specializes in British delicacies and grocery staples and provided Percy with a little taste of home during her visits. Through a series of unexpected events, Percy became the store manager and then ended up purchasing the shop. While owning the store was something she often joked with the owners about – ”Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by chocolate?” – after 16 years of being a stay-at-home mom, Percy found herself in need of acquiring both knowledge and resources necessary for the future evolution of this long-standing business.
In searching for support, Percy discovered Digital Main Street’s Digital Transformation Grant (DTG) program through the city of Hamilton website. The program provides small businesses with a digital assessment, online training, and a $2,500 grant to implement their Digital Transformation Plan (DTP). The program appealed to Percy for many reasons, but the educational component was especially paramount. “The advice is great. [It’s] not just the resources in the videos, but [the] personal one-on-one advice [too],” remarks Percy, who worked closely with a Hamilton Digital Service Squad member on both her grant application and the execution of her DTP. In fact, Percy says she’s still in touch with her contact at Digital Main Street, and they continue to provide support and recommendations as she navigates entrepreneurship for the first time.
Percy used the grant funds to purchase a new laptop and immediately noticed a huge difference in her ability to run the business efficiently and effectively. “Every day, I have a woo-hoo moment when I’m using it!” Percy also budgeted funds for video content production to announce the change in ownership and the updates being made to the business. With the help of a videographer, she produced three new videos and shared them on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages. These videos were an instant success, each generating more shares, greater reach, and more new customers than any previous social media posts. “My numbers are slowly going up and part of that is because of those videos [that] would not have been possible without the grant. […] Every little bit helps,” she notes.
With new knowledge and upgraded tools, Percy is now looking forward to The Little Brit Shop’s next phase of digital transformation. She is enrolled in Digital Main Street’s shopHERE program to set up an online store. Although managing an e-commerce business will be a new challenge, she feels confident that, with the right support, small business owners can successfully tackle digital transformation. “I would wholeheartedly recommend new businesses struggling with digital transformation to get in touch with Digital Main Street and have them help you with training, financial aid, and support. Having someone at the end of an email to answer your many questions is invaluable.”
