Women in Business Frontenac

Feb 05, 2025

The first year of being a business owner can be an isolating experience. Between the constant juggling of time management and business management, along with learning all of the other skills that come with being an entrepreneur, building a community can be quite difficult.

For Nicole Potter, the owner and Founder of Scarlett and Rosie Floral Co. in Sydenham, finding a community and mentorship in the area was important to her but after a year of running her business, she found that she was not having any luck.

“I went to a few events in Kingston and thought to myself why don’t we have any thing like this locally,” she said.

While there are business support agencies in Harrowsmith and Kingston, Potter was finding that the times when workshops were offered were during business hours, which did not work for her one-woman TOWN HALL show, and that the support that was being offered locally, did not foster the community she was looking for.

That is how South Frontenac Women in Business, a Facebook group for women in business in Frontenac was born.

“When I can’t find something that I’m looking for, I create it myself,” said Potter.

The group, which was started about a year ago and has about 25 members, is for women in South Frontenac who own businesses at any scale to find community and mentorship locally.

Once a month, the group meets to socialize, commiserate and learn something about business ownership that they may be struggling with. They try to have a different topic at every meeting and everyone comes with a different skill set so they can contribute what they know. The group is also for finding friendships and other people who can relate to the struggle of being an entrepreneur and a woman in Frontenac.

“I made it for women because women are unique in trying to balance work and home life,” she said. “I wanted to start a group that was supportive and under standing of the lifestyle of being an entrepreneur. It can be really overwhelming to balance the mental load so to have a space where other women can relate to each other is valuable to keeping the motivation going.”

For Potter, keeping the group local is important as a rural business owner. “I am someone who encourages local business and I think it is important that we get together to support one another, we are all just trying our best so it is important to have our group separate from one in town because we have different struggles and unique issues out here.” The group has also helped Potter dis cover businesses in the area that she did not know about prior to the group. “It is really important to me to be a part of the community and get to know other entrepreneurs.”

If you are a womsn in business in Frontenac, find the group by searching “South Frontenac in Business” for more information on how to join.