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Resources
Interesting Links for Entrepreneurs
Government Sites
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) - Site of the federal government agency whose goal is to improve economic development in the Atlantic region.
www.acoa.ca/
Government of Canada Home Page - This site contains links to all departments, federal institutions, and programs administered by the federal government.
canada.gc.ca
Government of New Brunswick Home Page - This site includes a searchable electronic phone book of provincial government employees and links to New Brunswick government departments.
www.gnb.ca
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General Business Information
Canada Business - New Brunswick - A full-service business information resource accessible province-wide and free-of-charge.
www.canadabusiness.ca/nb
Strategis - Industry Canada's Business Information Site - The Information resources of Industry Canada. Find out about major export opportunities, the latest international intelligence and key business contacts. Take a look at new technology innovations and read reports on the latest micro-economic research and analysis.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/
Open For Business, is an international network of walk-in centres where staff can offer assistance to anyone who wants to learn more about entrepreneurship. OFB offers clients a wide variety of workshops and seminars, opportunities to network and the use of various OFB facilities, including meeting rooms, office equipment, computers, Internet and small business software. Our mandate is Entrepreneurship Awareness.
http://www.entrepreneurshipcentre.ca
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Trade / Export Information
Export Development Canada - While it is primarily known for its trade finance solutions for Canadian exporters, the EDC site also contains a wealth of economic information and industry research.
http://www.edc.ca
The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service - The Canadian Trade Commissioner's site offers access to hundreds of market reports and 500 trade commissioners in 140 cities abroad.
http://www.infoexport.gc.ca
The Export Source - This site is developed for clients eyeing markets beyond our borders. It is a valuable resource for prospective, new and established exporters. It offers guide on preparing to export, reponding to unsolicited orders, and bidding on international contracts.
http://exportsource.gc.ca
Trade Team New Brunswick - A partnership of government organizations dedicated to stimulating export activity in New Brunswick. The partnership provides potential and active exports with access to various trade related programs and services.
http://www.ttnb.ca
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General
Intellectus - The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has created an innovative interactive software package - "Intellectus" - designed to provide you with valuable information about patents, trade-marks, copyrights, industrial designs and integrated circuit topographies.
http://cipo.gc.ca
Statistics Canada: When developing a business idea, it is often necessary to include some statistics, particularly when wanting to market products and offer services. This site offers statistics on every region in Canada. Information on our Restigouche region is also available. However, a word of caution, there may be some costs associated when obtaining certain data base statistics.
http://www.statcan.ca/
Merx - Canada's official electronic tendering service.
http://www.merx.com
Industry Canada - Performance Plus, performance benchmarks for the financial planning of small business start-ups.
http://pme.ic.gc.ca/
Canadian Inovation Centre - A web site designed to assist inventors and inventors and innovative companies.
www.innovationcentre.ca/
Human Resources and Social Development Canada
www.hrsdc.gc.ca
Community Business Development Corporations - Services for entrepreneurs who require customized financing not normally available from traditional sources.
www.cbdc.ca
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, best know for high-profile actions with govemments on policies like tax, labour laws and public sector spending.
www.cfib.ca
Business Planning
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a valuable tool that provides both a reality check and framework for starting or expanding a business. It will provide you with direction, information, and answers. By developing a business plan, you will learn more about your business idea (including your target market, industry, and competitors), as well as your financial, operational, and management needs. It will help you assess the viability of your idea or project. Through this planning exercise, you will also develop a marketing strategy and set goals and objectives. You will also learn more about the opportunities and challenges that could impact your business idea.
Why you need a business plan?
Business plans are not just application forms that you submit to the bank or other organizations in order to get financing for your business. While financial lenders use the business plan to help evaluate your loan application, you - the entrepreneur - will benefit in many ways from developing a business plan.
A business plan will:
- Help you assess whether or not your business idea is viable. You may have a great idea for a business, but how profitable or feasible is your business idea?
- Help you to be focused and be a better decision-maker.
- Help you assess your management skills and identify areas where you need to improve or need assistance with (for example, you may determine you need to hire a bookkeeper).
- Identify potential risks or threats that affect your business (e.g., industry challenges, competition, market size, etc.). By identifying potential barriers to success, you will be able to pro-actively identify solutions to avoid these problems or minimize the risk if these problems cannot be avoided.
- Help you to set and achieve goals and objectives (both short- and long-term). You can also measure the progress of your business by comparing your company's actual performance to the projections and goals you set in the business plan.
- Help you determine your business needs (e.g., personnel, working capital, equipment, renovations, etc.) and your financial requirements.
Another way of understanding the importance of business planning is to look at reasons why businesses fail. Reasons for business failure - and all are related to poor planning - include:
- Poor market research or poor choice of target market
- Underestimated/overstated financial goals
- Poor understanding of industry and competitors and failure to gain a competitive advantage
- Failure to learn industry standards and regulations
- Undercapitalization
- Poor pricing and marketing strategy
- Project overruns
- Poor partnership or lack of management skills
- Poor location
Links to Business Plans:
Below are links to business plan guides you may wish to look at.
http://www.entrepreneurshipcentre.ca
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