CANDO Innovate BC Entrepreneurial Webinar Series

I recently presented at a CANDO webinar on Indigenous Entrepreneurship, covering opportunities for Indigenous people interested in self-employment and nation community leaders who would like to encourage more of it. The full webinar is available on CANDO's YouTube channel here.

As the original entrepreneurs of Canada, Indigenous Canadians are starting and running businesses 9X faster than non-Indigenous citizens. It is an ideal time for more Indigenous people to flex their entrepreneurial acumen!

There were great questions from Nation management and budding Indigenous entrepreneurs during the webinar such as; how to ignite interest in members starting their own businesses and discovering business ideas that can serve the local and wider communities. Canada's Indigenous economy was estimated at $32 billion in 2016 by TD Economics and it is anticipated to balloon to $100 billion by 2024.

Major projects between First Nations and corporate Canada will make up the bulk of this number, however, large developments mean more products and services are required in the developing regions. See the First Nations Major Project Coalition website www.fnmpc.ca for an idea of significant projects happening across the country.

There are many business ideas Indigenous entrepreneurs can choose from today, depending on the local community or if the company decides to sell online where there are no geographical boundaries. Indigenous entrepreneurs can start their business journey by assessing their talents, interests, passions and skills, and then research the market to establish its size and their ideal customer. Is a distribution warehouse required for goods and services in a rural center?

Perhaps technical support or web design services where a business operates out of the entrepreneur's home with high-speed internet? Or an artist who uses a print-on-demand service where they can upload designs to their website, a customer places an online order and the print-on-demand company takes care of the manufacturing, packaging and shipping. New digital technologies present many business opportunities for Indigenous people to become entrepreneurs no matter where they reside.

We are passionate about providing the how-to steps that ignite greater Indigenous business acumen and appreciate collaborating with wonderful Indigenous professionals at CANDO who are also working towards advancing Indigenous entrepreneurship.

Big thank you to Elsie, Danielle, Michelle and the entire CANDO team for inviting Activ8 to be a part of the Innovate BC webinar series.

Feel free to contact us for any additional information at 604-687-2004 or email edu@activ8inc.com