Entrepreneurial financing in Atlantic Canada is expanding rapidly. Halifax alone has more than 1,200 financial services firms with 14,000 employees, and Bank of Nova Scotia and Royal Bank of Canada both trace their roots back to Nova Scotia.
So it's interesting to note that only 7 per cent of small businesses in the country are in Atlantic Canada, according to data in a 2008 report from Statistics Canada. What are the reasons? What are the solutions?
Canadian entrepreneurs propel markets forward, take advantage of challenges and find solutions. They create jobs, spur innovation, and change the world. They are known for their passion and trust, which is ever more relevant at a time when there is increasing pressure for businesses to be socially responsible. One of the world’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett, understands trust and tackles the issue of economic inequality with solutions.
When he considers investing in or buying a business, Mr. Buffett places his trust in its executives. Unlike most buyers, he holds on to them, he leaves them alone, and he trusts them to make money for him.
In Atlantic Canada, business owners are a unique bunch. Most of them will never leave the region unless they are forced to do so for job opportunities. It's a wonderful place to raise a family. It’s famous for its coastline, its countryside and its unpopulated rural areas, which are rarely found in such abundance anywhere else in the world. Its port allows easy access to international trade and therefore international sales.
When it comes to shipping by sea, Atlantic Canada has the rest of North America beat. It has year-round deep-water ports that are two days closer to Europe than any port in the United States. China and India together have a population of more than two billion and global trade is focused on these markets. Their economies are moving up the value chain and providing more sophisticated products and services.
Their continued growth provides opportunities for Atlantic Canada. These markets cannot be serviced in a cost-effective manner across the Pacific Ocean. The Suez Canal offers a quicker alternative route and geography places Atlantic Canada at a trade focal point, as reported by the Atlantic Gateway.
The Canadian government is working to continue to help increase productivity and innovation in Atlantic Canada. It offers innovation programs such as the Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit and organizations like the National Research Council. Our Canadian R&D tax credits are the best in the world.
If you are an entrepreneur in Atlantic Canada looking for financing, you may be able to obtain it through a traditional bank. But if you have a few strikes on your credit score or you do not own a home, you may not get approved. You can turn to the provincial and federal governments, which have numerous agencies and programs to assist with access to financing and investment. Government funding programs and incentives began as early as the 1800s, when land grants were used to get people to settle in Atlantic Canada.
But government agencies and programs in Atlantic Canada follow the same policies as traditional banks when it comes to evaluating a loan for an entrepreneur. Boards can be made up of 14 people who review one entrepreneur's loan for $5,000. The boards are usually stocked with government workers – no small-business owners.
