With new businesses popping up and old ones being restored, it’s safe to say the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here in Alberta. One demographic, in particular, demonstrates a strong desire to enter the world of entrepreneurship – youth.

Studies have shown that over the past ten years, the number of individuals involved in entrepreneurial endeavours grew by 50%, with young entrepreneurs (age 18-34) representing a healthy chunk of that number. The global events over the past few years have many young people re-evaluating what their idea of success is, and how they plan to get there. The pandemic shone a light on a lot of flaws in the long-standing “9-5” system and has inspired many youths to want to work for themselves.

Unfortunately, women entrepreneurs do not have access to capital and the same resources as male-led businesses. For example, startups created by women receive much less funding than men from investors. A big reason for this is that there can be biases these women have to face when they meet with venture capitalists.

Women also face challenges, such as:

• Many industries are not women-friendly
• They lack social and institutional support
• And with fewer women business owners, they can’t access professional networks
  Read more …

The Indigenous economy is continuing to grow rapidly. Indigenous entrepreneurs are creating businesses at nine times the rate of non-Indigenous Canadians. However, even with their projected growth, according to the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA), Indigenous entrepreneurs face challenges that other businesses don’t.

Many Indigenous entrepreneurs come from lower-income situations, limiting their ability to build the equity needed to invest in a business. Also, many Indigenous communities aren’t equipped with the basic infrastructure to support businesses, such as reliable internet and working spaces.

ECommerce has opened a whole new world for small businesses when it comes to selling their products and services. While eCommerce may fit your business model, and you may be able to reach customers across the globe, it creates a lot of competition for your business. It's estimated that there are 12 - 24 million eCommerce websites worldwide. This means that you not only need to be found within a crowd, but you also need to prove that your product is the best option. 

It is important to plan ahead and get a leg up on your competitors for your eCommerce business to be successful. So, to get that necessary head start, here are 5 things you should know before getting started with eCommerce.

Read the article here: https://www.canada.ca/en/prairies-economic-development/campaigns/success-stories/alberta/rural-businesses-support-community-futures-covid-19-pandemic.html

Check out the success video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewv1ir5avyI

The Government of Canada, through PrairiesCan, launched the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF). This program supported small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that faced challenges during the pandemic. Many Alberta businesses needed financial relief. In order to meet those needs, we partnered with the Community Futures Network of Alberta and 27 local offices to deliver RRRF support in rural areas.

Community Futures in Alberta were able to:

• disburse over $85 million in loans
• support over 1,700 businesses
• help support over 9,500 jobs

Way to go Community Futures of Alberta for the success in delivering the RRRF loans.

Read the full article here: https://www.canada.ca/en/prairies-economic-development/campaigns/success-stories/alberta/rural-businesses-support-community-futures-covid-19-pandemic.html

Check out the success video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewv1ir5avyI

As part of the Canada Digital Adoption Program, the Government of Canada has partnered with Business Link and Digital Main Street to deliver the Grow Your Business Online grant to small businesses across Alberta.

Eligible businesses will receive a micro-grant of up to $2,400 to help with costs related to adopting e-commerce, with support provided from a network of E-commerce Advisors. The Grow Your Business Online Grant will provide small businesses in Canada with $1.4 Billion in grants. Please note, the grant is administered by Business Link and is not administered by Digital Main Street.

Funded by the Alberta Government, Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Innovation, Capital Growth Initiative (CGI) provides flexible low-interest small business loans and business advisory supports to women entrepreneurs in rural Alberta and will give women entrepreneurs easier access to capital to start or grow their businesses in the local community. 

For more information on eligibility visit:

https://central.albertacf.com/services/capital-growth-initiative-loan

On June 8^th we came together as a SMARTstart community to celebrate our entrepreneurs and thank our mentors and sponsors for their contributions.

A total of 8 entrepreneurs registered in the program in its inaugural year.  As part of the program 13 jobs were created/maintained, 3 new businesses were launched, 4 businesses were maintained, and 55 leads were created for our workshop presenters.