Canada - A Business Startup Heaven?

A local bike rental business near Stanley Park in Vancouver

I walk pass the Small Business BC office on my way to work every morning and my feet itch to go inside and check it out.  But of course I always have just enough time to make it on time so I kept telling myself that I'll do it tomorrow.  I have found out online though that they have seminars that go for  as little as $25 and a pretty nice range of affordable services for entrepreneurs.

I read a very interested article on the Financial Post that says that Canada has been ranked as the best place out of the G20 countries to start a business.  Here, it only takes 5 days to start a business as opposed to 22 days to start one in a G20.  Some of the reasons for this is that Canada has a very strong banking sector, good coaching and education programs available, and that start up costs are not as high as in some other countries.  In a study for the Youth Business Foundation from the firm Ernst and Young Canada got 93 points and the United States, its closest competitor, got 75 points .  So this gives you a good idea of how favorable the business climate is here.  Canadian entrepreneurs can count on the education system to provide them with a large pool of qualified employees, more opportunities for collaboration and less regulatory burdens than in other highly develop economy.

Being an entrepreneur is, of course, not all that easy.  One tip that might help your business success is that Canadians spend more time than anybody else in the world online (see article here).  This explains why it is so easy to get in touch with my husband and family here just by using facebook. I can send them a message and get an almost instant reply like with text message.  So maybe blogging or getting your business its very own profile page can help you reach out to your customers not only more effectively but also cheaply.  So what do you think, would you like to start a business in Canada?

A short video with advice  to help your business keep up with trends