Branding spaces for small business.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: TIMMINS

Like many would-be small business owners, the cost of setting up and maintaining a store long forced Timmins resident Jackie MacNeil to shelve her dream of owning an antique and collectible shop.

However, the unique open concept mini-mall, Branded Spaces, in late 2006 helped to make her dream a reality. Sharing low-cost space with other like-minded entrepreneurs has helped MacNeil complete her first year in business.

"This place has allowed me to start the business (Relics) without having to buy a building or paying similarly high rent and overhead costs, so it's great," she says.

"When this came open, I thought that this was just the thing I was looking for, and it gives me the chance to open a new store without having to pay the big bucks to start up."

Branded Spaces owner Kerry Newton says this is exactly the kind of opportunity she wanted to create for small, local entrepreneurs when she first opened the doors to the 4,000-square-foot facility

In fact, having worked for various small businesses over the last 18 years, Newton says she's strongly aware of the struggles faced by burgeoning entrepreneurs. This is especially true as Branded Spaces marks her first foray as a small business owner.

While working as a bookkeeper for a local funeral home in 2006, Newton came up with the idea of a low-cost, shared space for local business along with her friend Lisa Bryce, owner of Canticle, an event stationary and gift store. After securing a long-abandoned restaurant, Newton then recruited friends and family over several months to convert and renovate the location to a serviceable space.

As a result, the site is now specifically geared for such small local businesses as Relics and 13 other tenants currently occupying the location.

With a handful of exceptions, such as the multi-purpose conference room, most of the businesses in Branded Spaces operate without solid dividers or partitions: upstairs, a desk for the Young Drivers of Canada sits a handful of feet away from a rack of vintage clothing.

"In essence, it's a mall without walls," Newton says.

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The idea of a "small business commune" is at the heart of Branded Spaces, as it allows the tenant businesses to equally share and benefit from the foot traffic passing through the downtown location.

Tenants can also choose to share in the cost of marketing, as well as the monthly costs of a debit payment system if they choose to use it.

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