Category: GoForth Institute Small Business Training

Discussion about GoForth Institute small business courses

Entrepreneurial inspiration for your weekend

Bill-Gates-1 (1)

According to Industry Canada, an average of 150,000 new small businesses are created in Canada each year. But just 51% of new businesses survive five years.

Out of those small businesses that didn’t make it – what do you think happened to those entrepreneurs?

Some probably determined that entrepreneurship wasn’t the right path for them. Some probably tried again, but tweaked things here or there compared to their first try. Some probably decided small business education was in order to fill in the gaps in their entrepreneurial knowledge.

What all these three types of entrepreneurs have in common was that they learned from their failures. And at GoForth, we don’t think “failure” is a bad word at all! Most of us have learned valuable lessons from not accomplishing what we set out to do.

Entrepreneurship is a hard road that can ultimately be one of the most rewarding things you can do in your life. But you’re not going to be perfect at anything the first time you try. So take heart, and take a lesson from Bill Gates about how to face your failings!

 

Share this post:

Can you turn your hobby into a small business?

hobby-based-small-businessWe’ve talked recently about your own work experience being a source of new small business ideas. On a similar note, your hobbies are a good source of business ideas too! In fact, it’s estimated that about 60% of new business ideas are related to the entrepreneur’s hobby.

The perks of hobby-based small businesses

One of the main reasons we have a hobby is because we love it, whether it’s gardening, restoring antiques, weightlifting, or pottery making. That can mean we’re passionate about it. And passion is one of the elements of psychological capital needed to run a successful business — why spend your time on a business you don’t like? It’s a pretty safe bet that you also know quite a lot about your hobby, which will be an advantage if you choose to make a small business out of it.

Considerations about hobby-based small businesses

Passion is fantastic, but turning passion into profit takes serious work, and a serious understanding of how to run a business. You may know a lot about your hobby, but you know it from a hobbyist’s point of view, not an entrepreneur’s. You may be able to compose, shoot and develop the perfect photograph, but can you source suppliers? Negotiate contracts? Find tax breaks? Ask yourself if you’ll still enjoy your hobby once the more stressful everyday components of entrepreneurship are mixed in.

Entrepreneurship is a lot of work, and starting a small business doing something you already enjoy is a huge motivator in getting up every morning and doing all that hard work. You can turn your hobby into a small business, but make sure that you have a good foundation of small business knowledge and skills too – that’ll help turn your great business idea into a successful business.

Share this post:

We’re proud to help entrepreneurs in Airdrie and Nunavut

GoForth is proud to share two recent partnerships:

  1. With the Nunavut Economic Developers Association, bringing our small business training to entrepreneurs in Nunavut.
  2. Once again, we’re providing online small business education for the SMARTstart Program serving Airdrie’s entrepreneurs.

Thanks to our partners who share our belief in the importance of small business education, and who provide great services and support to entrepreneur-students to help Canada’s entrepreneurs succeed.

Share this post: