Futurpreneur Canada recently released the Action Entrepreneurship Guide to Growth [PDF], a report that, "outlines specific recommendations on how stakeholders can better support young entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses. These recommendations come directly from the more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, business leaders, policy makers and educators who attended Futurpreneur Canada’s 2015 Action Entrepreneurship roundtables and national summit."
The report is packed with some interesting data. For example, did you know that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to Canada’s economy, accounting for almost 90 per cent of employment, with small businesses contributing 77 per cent to employment alone?
Some good news: Canadian entrepreneurship is relatively healthy. The birth rate of new enterprises is high, and about half survive their first five years.
The bad news? Canada generates a lower proportion of fast-growing companies than other developed countries, and relatively few small businesses sell outside their local markets or export internationally.
At the Action Entrepreneurship Summit, participants were asked to prioritize solutions for making useful connections with mentors, advisors, peers and other organizations to facilitate growth.
The top five action items were identified as:
- Facilitate more peer-to-peer mentoring by groups of young entrepreneurs for the purpose of sharing experiences and learning
- Form mentoring boards with a range of qualifications and experience to work with small groups of young entrepreneurs
- Create a "matching service" for prospective mentors and mentees for young entrepreneurs in the business growth stage post start-up
- Create formal networks of young entrepreneur-led businesses to achieve scale economies through shared purchasing of services such as legal, accounting and market research
- Form young entrepreneur associations, chamber of commerce branches and/or boards of trade offering their own services and events as well as joint networking events with established entrepreneurs
Great report -- check it out.
John.