THUNDER BAY -- For more than 30 years the Business Development Bank of Canada has been celebrating entrepreneurship through its BDC Small Business Week.
Small and medium-sized businesses make up more than 98 per cent of all Canadian businesses and they are responsible for 90 per cent of Canada’s employment.
Business Development Bank of Canada manager John Guarasci said Small Business Week is about recognizing the contribution of small businesses.
“We want to help entrepreneurship, because of the level of impact they have on the economy,” Guarasci said.
“They are truly the backbone of the economy, and this is just our part of bringing different partners and resources together to recognize the whole idea of entrepreneurship.”
Local businesses have made up a calendar of events next week to recognize small business and their contributions.
The four-day event will feature various workshops, which will cover topics on customer service, succession planning, energy savings and financial literacy.
BDC will be hosting an event on Tuesday with Communitech’s Craig Haney in Mariner’s Hall at Marina Park.
“The idea behind that is we want to see what else is being done in other cities, and we want to see how that can help entrepreneurs (in Thunder Bay),” Guarasci said.
“When you look at how innovation is being done in cities across Canada, it’s being done by business working together.”
Guarasci added that everybody has different resources, but when you bring those resources together more is better than one.
There will also be an event Thursday evening geared toward woman entrepreneurs.
This Woman Means Business is a panel of women in business who will be touching on a variety of topics facing women entrepreneurs.
Guarasci said this week is about taking the time to recognize the importance of small businesses.
“They’re basically the major employer when you some them up on an individual basis,” he said.
“You may have one to ten employees, but when you talk about the volume of businesses that are out there you can definitely see how much of an impact it has on the economy.”
