According to a report by CIBC World Markets, Alberta has the strongest projected growth along with good demographics and immigration trends, making it the most favorable place in Canada for small businesses to flourish.
The Deputy Chief Economist at CIBC Benjamin Tal believes that these characteristics “offer a steady stream of future entrepreneurs and workers to drive operations in tomorrow’s small and medium enterprises.”
“The province does lack an advantage in export orientation, with a concentration in Alberta’s outbound flows in larger, energy-focused firms,” he added.
As per the report, small businesses in Canada have been growing since recession. The number of small firms with 20-49 employees has increased by 18%, those with 10-19 employees has gone up by 12.5%, while those with less than 10 employees is up by 10.3%.
CIBC had released its report early on Monday, identifying Alberta and British Columbia as the top two places in Canada that provide the maximum advantages to start-up businesses.
According to Tal, “Looking back at the recent history, we see that small business activity outperformed the broader economy in the earlier part of the recovery, but now at the more mature stage of the cycle, things are changing and small businesses are the ones lagging the economy as a whole. Exports have been on the upswing, helped along the way by a meaningful drop in the Canadian dollar below parity. Just as small and medium enterprises are less responsive to a rise in the value of the loonie, they are just as insensitive to Canadian dollar weakness.”
The report also established the importance of small businesses in the Canadian economy. According to it, they make up for nearly 40% of the GDP in the private sector.
“While economic conditions have deteriorated for them recently, small businesses have been contributing a greater-than-normal share of hiring recently. That’s partly because hiring in the rest of the economy has been muted, but small businesses have also been adding to their workforce at a greater rate than they have historically,” says Tal.
Another research report was released on Monday by the Business Development Bank of Canada. This report titled ‘The Five Dos and Five Don’ts of Successful Businesses’ provides tips on how Canadian businesses can be successful.
The report identifies the following five key rules to success: innovation; asking for outside advice; having a solid plan and measuring progress; building strong relationships with suppliers; and hiring the best people and keeping them engaged.
Source: Calgary Herald