Every year, an average of 130,000 new Canadian small businesses are established. But despite this entrepreneurial drive, only 35% survive their first five years. While startups are critical to Canada’s innovation and overall business competitiveness, they face extreme pressure to maintain tight cash flow and survive streamlined operations. It can be tough, but entrepreneurs aren’t…
Developing value-added products and services is critical to Canada’s knowledge economy and competitiveness. More than ever, startups and early-stage businesses are being called on to support innovation and respond to new consumer/market preferences. Because of the rising demand for new consumer products, Canadian startups should focus on finding and establishing themselves within this market. Thankfully,…
I love hockey. I love the intensity, the camaraderie, and the tradition. Growing up, hockey was, and still is, a centrepiece in my household. Many other sports bring my family together – baseball, football, the Olympics – but despite our love for watching sports, neither my sister nor I ever played team sports and we…
Female entrepreneurs are becoming an increasingly powerful and vocal group of influencers within Canada’s business community. A growing number of women are becoming entrepreneurs – 950,000 women were self-employed as of 2012, accounting for nearly 36% of all entrepreneurs in Canada. Still, two main challenges face women who are starting and growing their own business….
The Interactive Digital Media Fund provides Ontario government grants for businesses that are conceptualizing or producing interactive digital media content. Through two unique streams, the program provides small business funding worth up to 50% of project expenses to plan and produce content. Ontario companies may wish to pursue this opportunity if they are producing interactive digital…
As a technology startup or small business, it can often be difficult to consider your growth potential outside of your current Canadian market. Tech companies have reason to look outside of Canada though. In the artificial intelligence field alone, global investments have risen by over seven times from their 2010 levels. This market is now…
Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDCs) across Ontario play a key role in administering government funding programs to startups and small businesses. In total, there are 60 CFDCs located across Ontario (36 in eastern and southern Ontario, 24 in northern Ontario) who have helped over 120,000 entrepreneurs with a variety of funding and business planning services….
Branding plays an important role in our capitalistic society. It takes a product or service and transcends it beyond its features and specifications into something that consumers form an emotional bond over. This bond leads to consumer loyalty, defending and endorsing brands, and a willingness to pay more solely for the brand. Apple has evolved…
Canada’s youth (those aged 15-24) face significant employment challenges despite their skills and education. During December 2015, Ontario’s youth unemployment rate held at approximately 13%,more than double the unemployment rate of adults (those aged 25 to 54) and seniors (those aged 55 and older). To earn money and build skills, youth in Ontario are now…
Millennials, those of us born between 1982 and 2004, have received a lot of bad press; we are often associated with the personality traits of being “bratty”, narcissistic, lazy, and entitled. However, Millennials now make up a third of the Canadian and American population and are the largest customer demographic in the North America. With…