PRAIRIE WEST BUSINESS SERVICES - BORN ON THE PRAIRIES AND PROUD TO BE FROM WESTERN CANADA
Sharon Coolican is the driving force behind Prairie West Business Services. She has been self-employed since 2007, full time since 2009, and brings extensive business experience spanning over 30 years, with 20 years of management experience, 25 years of training experience and over 15 years of self-employment. She's seen it all.
Five of those years were with Canada Revenue Agency as a Tax Collector, Tax Auditor and Training Coordinator for Audit, and there's not much she hasn't dealt with. She has lived and worked all over western Canada including Vancouver, Canmore, Fort McMurray, Saskatoon, Regina, Calgary, and now Medicine Hat... and each area taught her skills and gave her experience unique to those areas and the industries that go along with each region.
Her company started off as Saskatoon Corporate Services and was created out of a need to find more flexibility in the daily grind, as well as to find an outlet for the many skill sets Sharon had acquired over the years. Working in various large corporations like Cameco and the federal government in departments like CRA, Census Canada, and Corrections Canada just wasn't working. Working in CRA put in the direct path of many incredible small businesses with incredible products and services that couldn't sustain themselves in the long run. They had no training, no understanding of the rules and regulations, and nowhere to turn to. The programs that governments used to provide were cancelled and small businesses had nowhere to go. And as Federal Government Officer, she couldn't tell them how to do it, just that it needed to be done.
So Saskatoon Corporate Services was born, and later Prairie West Business Services came to life. Software training started first and rapidly expanded into 1-on-1 customized training, specializing in accounting software. Then business process audits and startup business consultations came out of that. Those services then naturally progressed into adding bookkeeping services, since most small businesses are great at what they do, but not at keeping books! 1-on-1 business coaching came out of that, and lots and lots of training material. Sharon wanted to fill the gaps that traditional training lacked when it came to small business skills. If she hasn't come across a situation, she definitely knows how to find the answers.
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She also expanded into laser therapies in 2014 and had a thriving business that transformed into laser therapy training and business packages. After selling her laser business in 2019, she moved into online certification training in many different laser modalities, affordable and accessible laser training was hard to come by in Western Canada.
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Her experience has covered many companies and many different industries including: construction and construction related (painting, drywall, heating and cooling), home inspection, real estate, restaurants (franchises, single and multiple locations), retail (ink supply, tobacco, clothing, jewelry), non-profits and religious organizations, financial services, property management, oil field services, engineering and drafting, personal services (massage, esthetics, make up) and personal coaching, just to name a few. She has also worked with online only stores utilizing Square Up, Square Space, Shopify and Wix online platforms.
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Work is done out of the office Medicine Hat and with many remote work processes in place, she can find a solution that will work for your company. She is a certified Pro Advisor with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online so you can say she knows her stuff.
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Since Medicine Hat is now home, there is also a whole new set of services designed from the perspective of supporting small business even more, with affordable business visibility, office rentals and mailbox/mail forwarding services.
As with any small business, Prairie West Mailbox and Business Services is always evolving and trying to move forward to help clients be the best they can be. Sharon hopes to continue that for a long time to come!