Let’s ‘Figure’ It Out: The Rotation Room’s CDAP Journey
Jonathan Mills, owner of the Thornhill, Ontario based business The Rotation Room, found support through the Canada Digital Adoption Program to further adapt their figure skating training space in this new age of e-commerce and social media.
The Rotation Room, owned by Jonathan Mills, is a local Thornhill, Ontario training facility that provides multiple services for figure skaters, including a dance studio, a study room, and a harness gym. The Rotation Room’s mission is to provide a safe space for figure skaters of all experience levels to train competitively, improve their athletic ability, and have fun as they practice their passion.
While The Rotation Room was already finding success, Jonathan knew there was room for improvement and decided to apply for the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) with the hopes of gaining more digital marketing knowledge, growing their online presence, and creating an e-commerce store. Jonathan was looking for support to meet The Rotation Room’s goals of growing sales and reaching a wider audience.
After Jonathan applied for CDAP, they were paired with an E-Commerce Advisor and received one-on-one support to address their needs as a small business looking to adapt to the modern world of e-commerce.
“Our E-Commerce Advisor was great. He was very thorough and patient. He understood our needs as a business and took action to ensure that we received our grant. We cannot thank him enough!” Jonathan says
The Canada Digital Adoption Program provides opportunities to small businesses, like The Rotation Room, to expand their digital marketing knowledge, explore e-commerce solutions, and embrace modern tools that will benefit their business. With the support of their E-Commerce Advisor, and a $2,400 Grow Your Business microgrant, Jonathan accessed all of the benefits that CDAP has to offer.
“We were able to access resources and tools that continue to help us grow our social media following and improve our content creation. We've also been able to complete our online e-commerce (website).”
Any small business knows that to succeed in today’s world, you need a great website that illustrates your brand and provides an easy e-commerce process for clients.
During their time in CDAP, Jonathan was able to learn how to utilize different tools to benefit The Rotation Room, including the HubSpot CRM Suite, the Square e-commerce platform, and a cybersecurity platform to protect their website. The HubSpot CRM allows Jonathan to create a client database, improve their sales process, and track performance. With Square, they were able to build an online store that clients can interact with and purchase through. Finally, with a cybersecurity platform, Jonathan can keep their website safe and remove any kind of malware. This was all possible with the guidance of their E-Commerce Advisor and the Grow Your Business microgrant.
Jonathan left the Canada Digital Adoption Program with more knowledge and resources to continue growing The Rotation Room with the success. They were able to finish their e-commerce store and continue working towards growing their social media following and improving overall sales. Jonathan expressed some kind words about their time in CDAP.
“This was an incredible opportunity! We are forever grateful for the support that we have received through the CDAP grant. We’ve been able to develop so many more aspects about our business”
Jonathan also shared some advice to any small business owners who may be interested in joining the program.
“Without hesitating, join the Grow Your Business Online (CDAP) program. Sometimes small business ownership can be daunting and lonely, but there are incredible resources available to you, like CDAP and Grow Your Business Online.”
Visit Jonathan and The Rotation Room on their website and social media profiles (Website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube).
To learn more about the CDAP program, please visit here.
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
As part of the Canada Digital Adoption Program, the Government of Canada has partnered with Digital Main Street to deliver the Grow Your Business Online grant to small businesses in Ontario. The program offers eligible business owners a micro-grant of up to $2,400 to help with the costs related to implementing an e-commerce strategy and hands-on support from a network of E-commerce Advisors.
