[PETERBOROUGH] The Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corporation (GPA EDC)’s Business Advisory Centre is excited to announce Silver Bean Café as the monthly EPIC Venture. Located in downtown Peterborough within the beautiful Millennium Park, the Silver Bean Café started in 2002 by owner-operator Andrea VanDerHerberg. Married shortly thereafter to Michael VanDerHerberg and now with their new son William James, they are a family-oriented business. Opened from May 1st to Thanksgiving weekend, the Silver Bean has grown to 10 employees and is often nicknamed “the Cottage” because of the warm, welcoming atmosphere and customer experience evident throughout every aspect of the Café.
The Silver Bean is very involved in many community events. They pride themselves on promoting Peterborough with the Downtown Business Improvement Association and other community organizations and have a strong focus on locally grown food initiatives and events. They can often be seen hosting various events – including the Shifting Gears Awards – many of which feature local artists and musicians. The VanDerHerbergs do a great deal of catering in the community and are quickly becoming a place where people frequent for sweets and treats. They have helped to highlight Millennium Park as a destination place for weddings. Spend one afternoon at the Silver Bean and you will see a very busy café with people coming to hold their work meetings, friends catching up, someone reading the paper, a group surrounding a Scrabble board, a busy knitter, or a group of cyclists ending their ride with a cup of java. The Silver Bean has created an attractive, fun, warm and inviting atmosphere in the downtown.
“We’re just tickled pink,” says Michael. “We feel very strongly about creating a positive experience for our customers and friends at the café and this award is very encouraging.”
“We award clients as Customer of the Day to brighten their days, remember our customer’s names, and we involve them in our community. To be rewarded for that is very encouraging to us.” Andrea says, “We feel very privileged to operate in such a central location that involves us in community events. We hope to be here for many years to come.”
Michael and Andrea are also actively promoting in the social media world with Twitter and Facebook used effectively to attract customers and coffee lovers to the cafe. They also use it to attract and promote the downtown as well as the #thinkPtbo hashtag on twitter which promotes positive thinking about Peterborough, inspired by the Chamber of Commerce’s Think Peterborough campaign.
The Silver Bean Cafe will receive a promotional prize pack that includes a “My Peterborough” radio feature on the KRUZ FM, a profile on PTBOCanada.com, on-line recognition on the Peterborough This Week and Peterborough Examiner websites, downtown display space provided by DNS Real Estate Limited Brokerage, a profile in The Business Beat, a one hour marketing insight session with Lazer Graphics and a one hour social media consultation with Sofie Andreou.
EPIC (Entrepreneurs Proudly Investing in our Community) Ventures is a program that has been designed to recognize the Peterborough region’s small business community’s contribution to economic growth, quality of life and creative business opportunities. Each month the BAC will collect nominations from the City and County of Peterborough and a winner will be chosen to receive the promotional prize pack. Nominations for the EPIC Ventures program are due by the 20th of each month. Check out our new online nomination form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EPICnomination
The Business Advisory Centre, a member of the Ministry of Economic Development & Trade’s Small Business Enterprise Centre network, is a resource centre for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Our professional consultants advise business owners in the City and County of Peterborough on key aspects of startup and maintaining successful businesses. For more information, visit www.businessadvisorycentre.ca
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For additional information please contact Kate Young, Communications Officer
705.743.0777 Ext. 2134, kyoung@gpaedc.on.ca
