Year of the Entrepreneur

Last November, more than 100 countries celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week and now 2011 has been recognized as the Year of the Entrepreneur in Canada.

There are a number of reasons to celebrate Canadian entrepreneurship. For one, small and medium-sized businesses contribute to Canada's ongoing economic success. Resilient and innovative Canadian entrepreneurs help create jobs, strengthen communities and encourage competitiveness.

Are you ready to become an entrepreneur? Maybe you have the spirit, the ideas, and the motivation to start and run a business. Maybe you already have a business, but are ready to grow or innovate. If these situations sound familiar, now could be the time to take your ideas one step further.

• Starting out

  Just starting out? Take a look at BDC's questionnaire to self-evaluate and find out if you are the entrepreneurial-type. Find this questionnaire and related information on our Is entrepreneurship for you? page.

• Ready to grow

  Wondering how you can grow your business? There are many activities you can do to expand. You could consider exporting products or forming partnerships with other businesses. Or you could develop a plan to increase sales by targeting specific niche customers and new markets. Find out how to go about these growth strategies and others in our section Ways to grow your business.

Other entrepreneurial activitiesIf you are already putting your entrepreneurial skills to use, you might want to further share your leadership skills and business expertise by becoming a mentor and inspiring others to pursue entrepreneurship.