Start or Expand Your Business

We are thrilled to announce our successful Digital Main Street Service Squad Grant. We now have funding to help our local small businesses grow online. Your business can access free support for online marketing, social media, 360 photos, and more. Contact the Economic Development Coordinator to participate.

Port Hope Marketing and Tourism currently hosts a Business Directory of our local business community. This Business Directory contains listings pulled directly from your Google My Business listing. To be included in our Business Directory, your Google My Business listing must be completed correctly.

Google My Business is a free tool that allows your business information to be shown on Google Search and Google Maps. It is an excellent and easy way for your business to be found online. Your business information should be accurate and complete. You can learn how to set up a Google my Business account below.

To Create a Google My Business Listing:

1. Sign up or log into your Google Account.
2. Go to google.com/business and select “Manage now”.
3. Enter your business name.
4. Enter your business address.
5. Choose your business category. Choose as accurately as possible, however please choose from the provided list of categories specifically to be listed on the Port Hope Business Directory.
6. Add your business phone number or website.
7. Choose a verification option.
8. Once verified, on your Google My Business dashboard, click your listing and select “Info”. Here you can add additional information such as your hours, attributes, and photos.
9. 360-degree photos are an excellent option to optimize your Google My Business listing. If you would like a 360-degree photo taken, please contact the Business Outreach Coordinator by email.
10. Maintain accurate information of your listing by checking regularly, answering questions, and responding to reviews.
11. You can also download the dedicated app to use your Google My Business listing on the go.

Community Improvement Plan

The Port Hope Community Improvement Plan (CIP) is a series of funding incentives available to property owners and business owners within the Downtown CIP Area. These incentives encourage redevelopment of aging buildings and provide funding for various projects.

ShopHERE

ShopHERE creates online stores for independent small businesses and artists at no cost.

Eastern Ontario Development Fund
Fund Business and Community Development projects that create jobs, attract and encourage private sector investment, lead to growth and positive economic impact, and encourage innovation.

Next Application Deadline: April 27 - June 15, 2023
Eligibility checklist due by June 1, 2023

AgriInovate Program
This program provides repayable contributions for projects that aim to accelerate the demonstration, commercialization or adoption of innovative products, technologies, processes or services that increase agri-sector competitiveness and sustainability.

Canada-Ontario Job Grant
The Canada-Ontario Job Grant provides direct financial support to individual employers who wish to purchase training for their employees. It is available to small, medium and large businesses with a plan to deliver short-term training to existing and new employees.

The Municipality of Port Hope was granted Rural Economic Development (RED) Funding in 2021 for the purpose of contracting Environics, a leading data and analytics marketing services company, to create an economic development tracking report. This report includes information regarding visitors to Port Hope, seasonal population and flow, and local employment data.

The information included in this report has been made available to local organizations and non-profits to provide accurate tourist and economic development statistics. These statistics may be cited to support funding applications, projects, plans, and studies. 

For a copy of the Environics Analytics Report please email us or call 905-885-7090. If using this report to support a proposal or funding application, please inform us when you request the report.