Alberta's Youth Volunteer executive director Leslie Oliver and volunteer Andree Patenaude in Calgary in this 2009 handout .Handout/The Canadian Press
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More important than salary?
"Social entrepreneurship is the new black."
So begins a post in Forbes on Gen Y and its trend toward simultaneously doing good and making money. In a recent study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mathew Paisner writes, 90 per cent of MBAs polled ranked social good as a more important factor at a potential employer than salary.
"Over 75 per cent of our applicants were willing to turn down well-paid internships with Fortune 500 companies to join the AltruHelp team," the author writes of his own experiences as an entrepreneur. (AltruHelp uses online tools to boost interest in volunteer work.)
Mr. Paisner profiles three of his interns and examines their thought processes on the topic. Ultimately they want to work for companies that best reflect their values, allowing them to make a difference.
Mr. Paisner suggests companies be mindful of this during the hiring process.
Answers to the $5,000 question
More than half of all small businesses manage to get off the ground with less than $5,000. Sole proprietors are significantly more likely than those with one or more employees to have started their business with less than $5,000. These are two of the findings from The $5,000 Question, a new survey from Intuit Canada, which "wanted to unlock the wealth of knowledge that successful small business owners have gained. What made them successful? What do they wish they'd done differently? What are their priorities going forward?" Looking back on year one, the survey found, successful owners wished they had learned financial management, found a mentor, created a business plan, and sought professional advice earlier on.
Diaries from Vancouver
The Globe and Mail hosted a pair of small-business events in Vancouver last week. On Tuesday, Young Entrepreneurs Night at the Railway Club downtown brought a group of early stage startups together for an informal networking event. We shot video with some of the business owners in attendance, which we'll unveil in coming weeks, and you can view an archive of the photo blog to see who was there. On Thursday, at the Small Business Summit at the Renaissance Harbourside, several hundred entrepreneurs came out to hear a series of keynotes, case studies and panels. You can view the extensive blog of what went on, or check out a photo gallery. The next summit takes place in Toronto on Nov. 22.
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
Uncover new opportunities
Full Speed Ahead is the focus of Enterprise Toronto's Small Business Forum 2012. On Oct. 16, more than 1,500 small-business owners will gather to seek insights from veteran entrepreneurs. Investors, marketers, social media experts, incubator managers, product and service providers and government funders will all participate to help attendees leverage existing assets and uncover new opportunities. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Disaster planning
A free session entitled It Will Never Happen To Me introduces basic concepts of protecting vital business records in the event of a disruption or disaster. It includes what a business continuity plan is versus a disaster recovery plan, how to identify vital business records, how to classify records according to how valuable they are to your business, strategies for managing risk to business records, and guidance for preparing a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. The event takes place at CMBSC in Winnipeg from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
EDITOR'S PICKS FROM REPORT ON SMALL BUSINESS
Time to get out of the way
If you find yourself owning a manufacturing company, want to spend all of your time on the shop floor and have to be dragged kicking and screaming into finance or marketing meetings, you may recognize this: You were the right person to seize the opportunity and start the business, and have earned your majority shareholder position, but you are holding up growth by not demoting yourself and hiring a more suitable person to be president and chief executive officer.
FROM THE ROSB ARCHIVES
Business hurdles in the West Bank
Starting and running a business in a conflict zone comes with its own set of hurdles: political tensions, bureaucracies, trade barriers, checkpoints, telecommunications obstacles, along with many of the other usual difficulties of working in foreign countries, as Vanessa Farquharson found in this story from September, 2011.
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Sean Stanleigh