St. John’s restaurant puts winnings from national contest to good use

WINNING $10,000 is always welcome, especially if you happen to own a small business.

That’s what happened to Chinched Bistro co-owners Michelle LeBlanc and Shaun Hussey, as they recently won $10,000 from ADP Canada’s Small Business Grant contest – one of six small businesses from across the country to win a grant from the Canadian arm of this human resources services firm.

The St. John’s restaurant was one of two Atlantic Canadian small businesses to win $10,000. Halifax Mermaids was the other business from the region to reap the rewards from applying to the contest. The cash infusion came in handy for a business with just 12 employees and run by the husband and wife team of LeBlanc and Hussey.

She says they used the winnings to update the décor of their bistro, including changing artwork and the colour of the establishment. “It was winning the contest that gave us that little bit of cash we wouldn’t normally have had to do these things.”

Along with the $10,000, there was another advantage to entering the contest in this age of social media – it gave the business some free publicity. LeBlanc says once she submitted the application for the contest, anyone could vote for the restaurant to be a finalist, which Chinched Bistro promoted on its Twitter and Facebook feeds. ADP Canada also promoted the voting portion of the contest on social media.

Since being named a winner of the contest, LeBlanc says she has done some radio interviews and had the bistro featured in the trade publication, Atlantic Restaurant News. The win has resulted in advertising that would have cost Chinched Bistro thousands of its own dollars to pay for. “It definitely provided a little bit of promotion for us,” LeBlanc says.