A new survey has ranked Canada among the best nations in the world when it comes to starting a small business.
The report on entrepreneurship, compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Canada third, behind only New Zealand and Australia, in terms of ease in starting a new business.
The countries were compared using 2007 data on the cost and time involved to start up. Thanks to many recent improvements at both the federal and provincial levels of government, the bureaucratic red tape has been kept to a minimum, and most entrepreneurs are relatively headache free at the start.
“There’s no question there have been steps taken to make it easier to get into business,” says Dan Kelly with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “The challenge is that when firms start to grow, when they start to take on more staff, the rules and red tape start to balloon.”
Small Canadian businesses in certain sectors, such as service, tend to do better as they grow than others in, for example, the manufacturing industry. This trend is unusual among OECD countries where service companies tend to struggle.
The report also noted that immigrants are more likely to be running their own business than their Canadian counterparts. It is often easier for newcomers to start their own company, rather than to try to find an employer who will be able to fully utilize their skills.
Source: Globe and Mail