Now is the time to start YOUR small business
Shove the excuses aside and capitalize on Your opportunities.
Tired of your job? Feeling bummed out about the economy? Have an idea, but not sure Canada is ready for it? Or maybe you don’t think you have an idea at all. Worse, you’ve been there, done that and closed doors before your first year.
Good.
Want to start a business and not sure where to start? Here are answers to your roadblocks. We’re here to alleviate your fears, debunk your excuses and convince you that today is always the best time to start a successful small business in Canada.
Excuse 1
“The economy sucks. Now is not the right time to start a business.”
Yeah, there is always an expert ready to tell us that we are heading for the next recession, the next downturn. In the real world, there is always a silver lining to any gloomy prediction:
There are always problems that need solving: Consumers and businesses want solutions that present opportunities for any entrepreneur. It’s easy to start small with one service or product and to expand.
Digital and Ecommerce opportunities are expanding at a staggering rate.
Pull from a qualified labour pool: With the world-wide gig economy, it's easy to find highly qualified, talented and effective individuals to supplement your own skills.
Excuse 2
“There’s just no market for my service or product here.”
Every business is unique. Your offering will be different from your competitors.
Depending on your service or the product you are selling, expanding your business outside Canada can be an incredible opportunity. Online business has opened up amazing opportunities.
More and more people are shopping online. By setting foot in the world of ecommerce, you are opening your business internationally. You’re expanding into an international market that keeps growing. In fact, ecommerce sales are predicted to be at $6.3 trillion this year.
Hefty and overwhelming statistics, right? Well, Amazon, Shopify, Thinkific and Kajabi, among many other platforms, are making it easy to start small scale businesses, ready to grow.
Excuse 3.
“I have nothing to offer.”
You have more to offer than you realize. Consider your daily routine at work or at home. How often do thoughts like, “this would be so much easier if…” or “I wish I had a…” cross your mind? Next time those thoughts pop up, focus on how you could solve them and watch your idea come to life.
Remember these 4 actions:
Successful business ideas are those that create solutions to real problems.
Analyze old ideas and think about opportunities to change and improve them.
Focus on making something easier, cheaper or more convenient. Be careful here - never price your product under its value.
What do you want to know more about? Do you think other people might also be interested in learning more about what you know?
Excuse 4.
“Many small businesses fail. Why risk it?”
According to an Industry Canada study, "… the main reason for business failure is inexperienced management. Managers of bankrupt firms do not have the experience, knowledge or vision to run their businesses.” At the core of this? Poor planning and poor financial control.
Thankfully, business failure because of poor planning is completely avoidable. Though planning is typically harder and more time consuming than executing your business strategy, it's really worth the investment. If you’re still stumped, a consultation with a business advisor is a good use of your time.
STEPS TO SUCCESS
Setting up a business and running it is initially hard work for sure. The joy of the work is that you are working hard for yourself and not for someone else.
Step 1 - Learn, learn, learn. There is a ton of free information from your library, podcasts, online, on the seller-platform websites, on the marketing software websites. Take scraps of time during the day to absorb every bit of information you can find, all without paying a penny.
Step 2 - Assisting you with your plan, mentoring your startup, helping you with financial management, at Guildstreet we enjoy helping business owners to optimize your operations, and to run your business more profitably.
Our tactics to set your business up for success include: strategic planning, cash flow management forecasting (effective cash flow management is a huge predictor of success), scaling for growth, and key performance indicators (also huge).
Plus we look after your business accounting needs - yes, tax compliance too.
Step 3 - Unless you are a marketing guru, consider hiring a marketer to help you out. Remember that gig economy? There are a ton of solutions available at reasonable prices.
NO EXCUSES LEFT?
Great, but just in case you needed more convincing, consider how your small business can be part of something bigger. Here are 10 facts you probably didn’t know about small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their impact on Canada’s economy. We love to geek out, so here are some stats from the Government of Canada, Business and Industry (Highlights).
There are almost 1.19 million SMEs in Canada. 97.9 per cent of the businesses in Canada are small businesses. Amazing, right?
Small businesses employed 67.7% of the total private labour force. 8.2 million people across the country.
In the 2020 to 2021 period, small businesses were responsible for 69.0 percent of all jobs created in the private sector, an increase of 494,300 jobs.
Of businesses that began operations with 1−4 employees, 63.0% were still active after 5 years. Don’t let this scare you - many business are sold. So the message here is to build your exit strategy into your plans.
Small businesses are the true economic engine in Canada and contribute to the diversity of the thousands of businesses that employ less than 100 people.
Whether you are starting a small business, optimizing your operations, want to understand your cash needs, looking for mentoring, scaling for growth or launching a product line, the Guildstreet team would love to help you both create your best strategy and design an optimal environment for your business. You can promote the seeds of your vision to establish those deep, healthy and resilient foundation roots of an amazing and successful business.