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Bryce Evans connected with photography well beyond just the art form, the 24-year-old Vancouver resident thanks photography for his life.

Over five years ago, Bryce used photography as a way to start dealing with his severe depression and anxiety. He started a personal photo series and passion project to help him cope with the mental health issues he was struggling with. Since then, this project has grown into much more than just a project, it’s grown into a grassroots movement and a social enterprise called The One Project. “I consider myself an artist of social change, being passionate about many causes and always looking to have my work positively impact the world,” Bryce said.

The One Project is a photography community for people living with depression and anxiety. It was created to teach people how therapeutic photography techniques can help you better express, understand and eventually overcome these issues through their private online platform and courses.

The project has been in development for around five year with lots of testing, customer development and community building; however Bryce was looking for more guidance on finalizing his business plan to get him in the right position to apply for financing. That’s when he found Rock My Business Plan, a free workshop series hosted by Futurpreneur Canada in British Columbia. The workshops help attendees build their business plan in a record time, while also allowing them to get the support they need and a chance to work with other local entrepreneurs in a peer-mentoring setting.

Bryce found that the workshop reminded him of the things he had learned through past business experiences and education, and gave him the time, space, assignments and support to help create a viable business plan to move his business ahead. “It will help you poke holes in your plan, get different perspectives and have a deadline for moving forward,” he shared.

From finishing the series of workshops in May 2016, he has since applied for financing and received a mentor through Futurpreneur Canada. The One Project also launched the Beta of their online platform earlier this year, and recently launched their online courses just this month (August). “Now people finally have a space where they can learn about these techniques and find support from other people who are dealing with similar things in a private community,” Bryce explained.

Bryce is thankful for the support he received through the Rock My Business Plan workshops along with the financing and mentorship offered through Futurpreneur Canada. His advice to other entrepreneurs is: “Stop thinking about it and just do something. It’s about action. Yes, you will need a plan and you need to try to control and mitigate risks, but you also need to create, decide and act. Ideas are worth very little until they are put into action.”

Rock My Business Plan workshops are happening in Nanaimo, Kelowna and Prince George throughout fall 2016. Register now for an upcoming workshop in your area by clicking here.

Written By: Lauren Marinigh, Social Media & Content Creation Coordinator, Futurpreneur Canada

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