Entrepreneurs reveal secrets to small business success

According to the 2011 RBC Small Business Survey, conducted by RBC and Ipsos Reid, Canadian entrepreneurs say the most important pieces of advice that they would give to other entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses are: develop an effective business plan (44%); manage your time well (43%); engage in networking (38%); seek help/advice (28%); aggressively solicit clients/business (25%); conduct market research/planning (25%); and get financial advice before starting a business (23%).

The study also found that the top three challenges business owners say that they will face over the next year are: finding clients/developing market (60%); maintaining sufficient cash flow/maintaining growth (47%); and work life balance issues, like working long hours (35%).

Source: Canada NewsWire, 13 October 2011

SMEs are well connected but slow to take full advantage of the Internet and ICT

Canadian SMEs are now well-connected to the Internet, but are not taking full advantage of the Web and information and communications technologies (ICT) to increase their productivity and their revenues. These are the main conclusions of the 2011 edition of the NetPME survey conducted by the Centre Francophone d’Informatisation des Organisations (CEFRIO), which showed that ICT is clearly better rooted in Canada in medium-sized companies (100 to 499 employees) and, to a large extent, in manufacturing companies. These companies have the highest Internet connection rate (97.6%) and make the most use of office suites (92.3%), ERP management software packages (34.4%) and websites as Internet tools (78.2%).
In 2011, 70.9% of SMEs made online purchases. Selling online is a much less popular activity, because only 17.9% of SMEs engage in it. And despite the major development of Web 2.0, SMEs have not yet been won over by social network applications.

“Since we know how much the Internet and Web 2.0 can contribute to increasing a company’s revenue and profitability, it is clear that SME executives have every interest in further exploring the opportunities these platforms offer their companies. If they do not take action in this field, they risk losing out on a major potential for growth and innovation,” said Michel Bergeron, BDC Vice President, Corporate Relations.

Source: Canada NewsWire, 19 October 2011