This fictional image of the “idle” small business owner is just a myth, according to a new BDC survey of 865 Canadian entrepreneurs and decision-makers. The survey also provides insights into the key challenges facing Canadian entrepreneurs, as well as some potential solutions.
Almost every business owner has ambition.
When my team and I started this project, we thought that ambition was correlated with company size. After all, business owners who are more ambitious are expected to build and run bigger companies. Instead, we found that almost all business owners are ambitious, and they:
are able to make personal sacrifices to ensure the growth of their business;
constantly take risks to invest in new opportunities.
When we combined their responses to assess their level of ambition, here's what we found:
6%
only business owners have little ambition
32%
have a lot of ambition
Small business owners are just as ambitious as those in large corporations.
You might think that people who start a small business and don't grow it lack ambition. But we found that business owners have a lot of ambition, regardless of the size of their business.
I think it might be because business owners have a different mindset from the start. It takes a lot of courage and ambition to start a business. I would even go so far as to say that if we were to compare the level of ambition of business owners to that of employees, we would find that it is probably higher, on average, among business owners.
Small businesses often lack the resources to achieve their ambitions
Our survey asked business owners about their financing intentions and their use of financing over the past two years. We found that larger businesses are making greater use of financial services, as well as advisory services .
41%
of all companies have used a term loan in the last two years
24%
used consulting services during the same period
However, when we looked at the financial products or advisory services that business owners planned to use over the next two years, we could see that there were only a few differences between businesses of different sizes.
How can we explain these results? I would say that business owners are probably taking advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. In this particular case, the larger companies are the first to take advantage. Banks are more likely to offer you a loan if they know that you are stronger and have more collateral to offer them.
Empirical observations tell us that larger companies do not necessarily have more ambition, but they are more likely to realize their opportunities because they have a better capacity to invest and carry out their projects.
Business owners increasingly open to online financing
Regardless of the size of the business, we are seeing a shift in mindset among business owners, who are less reluctant to use online financing.
Previously, business owners were rather closed to new engineer database technological trends, which included online financing. This mentality is starting to change. More than two-thirds of business owners are now willing to apply for financing online.
Nearly 70%
of business owners are open to applying for financing online
At first, online financing was very consumer-oriented. Now, as with many other sectors of the economy, we can see that it is opening up more to businesses.
Maslow's Hierarchy Applied to Business Needs
We asked business owners about the main challenges they face in seizing opportunities.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the challenges for small businesses are essentially about money. Obviously, access to financing is less of a problem if you have collateral to offer. The more worthy a bank believes you are, the more proactively they will approach you to offer you money.
As a company grows, it begins to have more strategic concerns, such as recruiting skilled labor , improving its operational capacity, and having access to trustworthy people to whom it can delegate work.
Basically, it’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but for a business. When you start a business, your priority is simply to survive and get the money you need. Over time, needs change and business owners start thinking about how to take the next steps in their journey. They become more financially secure and, as a result, their needs become more complex and are no longer limited to money.
Another sign that labor shortages are real
One final thing that I find clear from this survey is the recurrence of labour shortages affecting Canadian businesses.
41%
Business owners said lack of skilled labor prevented them from seizing opportunities
54%
responded that hiring highly qualified personnel was an effective solution to their problems
Everything that has happened over the past year points to the existence of labour shortages. We see that all types of companies, in every sector and every region, are currently having difficulty recruiting staff.
In my opinion, these results will translate into a change in attitudes towards recruitment, salaries, etc. Business owners who want to know more about these issues can read our study: The shortage of workers in Canada and how entrepreneurs can respond .
