This week marks Small Business Week in Canada.

Most communities in the Foothills are surrounded by dedicated businesses facing the everyday stresses of trying to make a profit and making sure they are still in business, as most of them have their owner's hard work and life savings put into them.

Owner of Expressions in Okotoks Kerri Van Hell says working within the community has been special for her since her humble beginnings of working from home.

"It's been a great place to do business, we've lived here for over 20 years and we've grown with the community and our business has kind of evolved and changed to meet the needs of our customers," she says.

As her business began to prosper, Van Hell's Expressions has grown quite a bit over the last 10 years.

"We decided it was time to get a bigger space so we rented a location and that was a big jump and about five years ago we decided we'd like to have a place of our own so we built a building here in the industrial area and that was a great move."

Expressions did recently win Small Business Of Year at the Okotoks & District Chamber of Commerce's Business Excellence Awards and says if you're going to be working for yourself, you had better like what you're doing from beginning to end.

"Pick something that you enjoy," Van Hell says. "Being a small business is not always easy, but if its something that you enjoy doing everyday, it's a lot easier to stick with it if it's something you enjoy."