Teresa Sanders, left, and Gabi Dubland, right, celebrate reaching 100,000 plastics saved at FILL Vernon’s Refill Store. (Submitted photo/Community Futures of North Okanagan)

By Pete McIntyre

Public can vote

Local entrepreneurs nominated for Small Business BC Awards

Feb 19, 2021 | 1:00 PM

Two Vernon businesses that got their start through a local competition have been nominated for a Small Business BC Award.

NUMU Technologies, which uses data to help businesses grow their profits, is a nominee in the category of Best Innovator, while FILL, which helps people refill containers for household items and keep plastics out of landfills, is nominated in the category of Best Community Innovator.

(Submitted photo/NUMU Technologies)

FILL owner Teresa Sanders and NUMU owner Mitchal Derksen are no strangers to business competitions. Both have participated in Community Futures North Okanagan (CFNO)’s Enterprize Challenge, a competition designed to give entrepreneurs a head start as they compete for more than $35,000 in prizes.

Being nominated for Small Business BC Awards means they will be competing with other businesses from across the province.

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Derksen was part of Enterprize Challenge in 2018 with a dream of helping small- and medium-sized businesses make better growth decisions and improve revenue with data and insights—the kind large companies have entire departments of analysts to support. After going through the competition, his focus shifted beyond offering a service and towards developing software to make “helpful data” even more accessible to a wider market.

“We feel very strongly that the work we do is innovative and helpful for clients so we’re very excited to be included in a category that lets us celebrate that,” Derksen said. UMU’s work has been especially rewarding given the current business climate, he said.

“Forecasting cashflow helps develop resiliency so you can get through this and get through it stronger.”

Sanders and FILL, located in the Polson Place Mall, are helping businesses cope with COVID with natural hand sanitizer she created last year. The store’s passionate community of “refillers,” everything from shampoos to laundry soap, is also growing. After winning the 2019 competition, Sanders opened her refill store in December 2019, and recently celebrated 100,000 plastics saved.

“I am super excited to be recognized for this award and am touched that our community continues to see the value of saving plastic and our earth,” Sanders stated. “FILL couldn’t save so much plastic without the support of the community. I never could have dreamed that the community would get so behind our little store.”

Public voting for the Small Business BC Award is open until March 7 at https://smallbusinessbc.ca/awards/ and CFNO encourages everyone to participate.

CFNO said excitement is also building for the 2021 Enterprize Challenge. A total of 23 participants are now in the learning stages as they work toward creating a promising business and a compelling pitch for judges. Derksen is among the one-to-one mentors supporting participants along the way.

On April 28, the finalists pitch, awards and challenger showcase will be live-streamed from the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. Tickets are open to the public through Eventbrite.