BlogIdol 2011 – my first article

At last I got around to actually write something for BlogIdol 2011! The contest ends in a week, but I still hope to accomplish something in the remaining time.

Programs that help you fund your IT projects

If you are looking for funding to develop an IT product or hire people, here are some useful federal and/or provincial programs that may help you. SR&ED is one of the most important ones, but there are others as well, and they can make all the difference in the development of your business.
Read the rest of the article on the Blogging Idol website

Upcoming ENTERPRISE TORONTO EVENTS

FEATURE EVENTS
Innovation Camp 2011 “Growing Green”
North York Civic Centre, Council Chamber
9 am – 4:30 pm
Tues., May 17
Learn how simple green strategies can attract more customers, increase sales and reduce your business costs!
Hear from and speak to successful business founders and CEOs. Learn about sustainable business strategies and practices and meet leading experts in financing, marketing and management. Find out how the government can help your business. Make valuable
business contacts.
View full program at http://bit.ly/eTk1EW. Admission is FREE but registration is required at www.enterprisetoronto.com or telephone at (416) 395-7416.

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
ENTERPRISE TORONTO SEMINARS
MORNING SEMINAR SERIES (MAY)
10 – 11:30 a.m.
Topics include: The Power of Email and Social Media; How to Get the Attention of a Buyer in a BIG Company; Managing
Your Cash Flow; How to Market Your Business in the Changing World of Media.
Learn the tools and resources you will need to forge ahead in your business various locations. Admission is FREE but registration is required at www.enterprisetoronto.com or telephone at (416) 395-7416.

Summer Company Program
Up to $3,000 for Student Entrepreneurs
Do you have a viable business idea? Would you like to pursue it, earn some extra cash and gain invaluable business experience during the summer? If so, the Summer Company is for you!
Enterprise Toronto in partnership with Ministry of Economic Development and Trade offers the Summer Company Program.
It is an excellent initiative for enterprising students aged 15-29 to start up and operate their own business. Awards up to $3,000 will be available to selected students. Deadline for application is May 9, 2011. For more information, please see www.ontario.ca/summercompany.

Ontario Society of Professional Engineers
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Estates of Sunnybrook
8 am – 11:30 am
May 4
Whether you are looking to start a business, identify funding opportunities or turn innovative ideas into opportunities, you’ll definitely benefit from this unique learning opportunity. Keynote Address: Reza Moridi, M.P.P., Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Research and Innovation.
Enterprise Toronto members will receive their ticket for $45 + HST. A light breakfast will be served. More info @
http://bit.ly/dOsnfg, register @ http://bit.ly/elcDqL

Startup Weekend Toronto 2.0 is here!
Burroughes Building
June 3 at 6 pm – June 5 at 8 pm
Startup Weekend is one of the leading catalysts for startup creation and entrepreneur education in the world. The program educates and inspires entrepreneurs and gives them the motiviation and networking they need to take the next step in creating a successful startup company. More info @ http://bit.ly/h5ZtB8, registration @ http://bit.ly/frD5ML.

Net Change
MaRS Discovery District
June 6-10
Net Change Week (NCW) is Canada’s premier event on social tech for social change. The weeklong series of events features training workshops, evening programming with guest speakers, lab sessions and plenty of opportunity for networking. Oh ya, and every year, we throw in an art show to boot. More info @ http://netchangeweek.ca/

JVS Toronto Centre for the Advancement of Business Literacy and Entrepreneurship
How to Start your Own Business – Building an Idea into a Success Enterprise
May 20, 27, June 3, 10
These Seminars will guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the process of starting a business from a basic idea and transforming it into a viable enterprise.
The fee also includes a personal financial assessment with a Financial Planner. The total cost for the 5 part program is $100.
To register for this program please call Allen Stern, 416-636-2481 ext. 217 or astern@jvstoronto.org.org

How to Start a Food Business
North York Civic Centre
5100 Yonge Street
(various dates)
If you are a chef or foodie, these valuable workshops are for you! Hosted by The City of Toronto’s Economic Development & Culture Division and delivered in partnership with the Enterprise Toronto.
Learn how to develop your products, develop your business plan, financing, branding your identity and utilizing the Web to source information. Admission is FREE but registration is mandatory. For registration please see, http://bit.ly/9MrSBT

BUSINESS NEWS & OPPORTUNITIES
Are you 18 – 34?
Need money to start your own business?
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is the ‘go to’ place for youth entrepreneurship. As a national charity, they are dedicated to growing our nation’s economy one young entrepreneur at a time. They look at character not collateral, when providing youth, age 18-34, with pre-launch coaching, business resources, start-up financing and mentoring, to help them launch and sustain a
successful business. Enterprise Toronto is pleased to join the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) in becoming a new Community Partner aimed at encouraging local young entrepreneurs within the Scarborough community to start and build their own business by providing support and resources available to them. Contact Vikas Jain, Tel: 416-396-5243 or E-mail: jain@toronto.ca for
more information.

Enterprise Toronto – Small Business Arts Forum 2011

At 5100 Yonge St., March 29, 2011

9am-4pm

Register here

Government Services for Business: Information Fair and Workshops

Special Feature: Innovation Information Forum
4141 Living Arts Dr., Mississauga
Feb. 8, 2011

Announced in the 2010 Budget, the Canadian Innovation Commercialization
Program (CICP) is a $40 million program that aims to promote innovation
and support the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in
Canada. This pilot program provides funding for purchasing and testing of
pre-commercialized innovative goods and services by Government of Canada
departments.

The purpose of the Innovation Information Forum is to provide an overview of
the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP) and other similar
programs, including the National Research Council’s Industrial Research
Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Engage and Interaction Grants, and the Canada
Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Scientific Research & Experimental Development
(SR&ED) Tax Incentive Program.

Register here

Women in business may qualify for grants in Canada

Canadian women looking to start a new business or expand a business should investigate Leadership Grants Organization. This organization allocates grants of up to $100,000 for entrepreneurs and small business owners. New businesses must be ready to launch within six months, and any grants allocated must be used within six months of funding. These grants are especially suitable for women who want to start a home-based business or develop their existing business.

1920 Yonge Street, Suite 200
Toronto, ON M4S 3E2
416-572-7694

Other grant programs for women:
http://www.cdnwomen.org/EN/section07/1_7_1-intro.html
http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/account-resp/pd-dp/dgc-dsc/index-eng.html

Entrepreneurship 101 – free courses by CIBC and MaRS

Interested in learning more about entrepreneurship? Looking to start a new venture? Look no further! Entrepreneurship 101 is a free, non-credit introductory course about entrepreneurship offered by MaRS. Over 29 weeks, Entrepreneurship 101 takes you through all the steps of building a successful business.

In this lecture, get a sense of the scope of the course and how it applies to your start-up. Future lecture topics include financing, business modelling, defining markets, hiring teams, protecting intellectual property and raising capital.

Part of CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101

Register on MaRS webpage

Get government funding for your technology-related business – SR&ED seminar

SRED Unlimited and RBC Steeles && Dufferin branch are hosting a SR&ED seminar on October 13, 2010. The event starts at 6pm. Admission is free.

Come learn about SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development), an incentive program by the Canadian government that refunds companies involved in Research and Development (R&D).

If your company is dealing with technology, or at least has production environment, there is a good probability that you are entitled to some refund of your R&D expenses. Come to our seminar to find out.

Keywords: Government funding, technology, startups, small and medium business, tax refund, software, hardware, telecom, printing, mechanical engineering, food technology, biotech, free, event

Intended For: Companies that spend money on creating or modifying products or processes through experimenting. Any company that deals with technology (software and hardware development, machinery, printing etc., even food technology and biotech) may qualify for SRED.

Register on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Websites sell incorrect info on government grants. Where can you get the right info?

Websites sell incorrect info on government grants. And, to add insult to injury, they would charge you for that.

Where can you go for the correct information on grants and loans? I have good news for you. Canada Business Ontario provides the information for free. Their website is a single source for information on all grants and loans. Just select from the list what you want to do (e.g. “Hire or train people”), et voila: a list of all government grants you are entitled to!

In addition to that, CBO can do marketing research for you and many other things that your start-up business may need. Everything is free! If you need some business-related information they cannot provide, they will refer you to someone who can. (The referral is free as well!)

CBO contact information

New Toronto self employment program

The name of the program is SED but, as far as I can see, it is very much like the late SEB program

http://www.toronto.ca/socialservices/pdf/Self-Employment.pdf

There is also Ontario Works program that may help you financially while you are looking for a job.

My article for Blog Idol contest: Resources for technology-related startups in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This article contains some useful information that I inevitably accumulated over the past few years, as a SR&ED consultant and as someone who has recently started a business. It might save you some time that took me to figure out all this. Good luck with your startup!

Various camps, startup drinks, green drinks

Startup entrepreneurs and people who has been there and done that regularly meet to have a drink, exchange battle stories, get a sound advice and find a potential business partner or even an angel investor. Startup Drinks is a simple concept: a grassroots effort to make sure startup folks get in touch and stay in touch.

The same refers to Green Drinks which is a casual, monthly forum for environmentally-oriented individuals to have a few drinks, mingle and toss around ideas.

By the way, the next Green Drinks together with Startup Drinks will happen on May 26 at Grace O’Malleys – 14 Duncan Street, Toronto, from 5:45 to 9:00.

Various camps are also held in Toronto every month. See the description of some in this article. The admission to them is affordable or free. (Some impose a nominal fee to ensure that people who register do indeed show up, and your admission pays for your first drink.) Among other nice get-togethers, I should mention Product Camp and Girl Geeks Dinner.

Democamps

Democamps are such an important feature in the life of Toronto technology scene that it is worth a separate mention. An evening of beer, cocktails and tech demos for designers, developers & marketers, Democamp became quite an institution. It was conceived in Toronto, but now there are democamps in other cities and towns, too.

http://democamp.com/

Creative spaces for independent entrepreneurs

When you work from home, it is very difficult to concentrate! Independent business owners know that better than anyone. Besides, sitting between the four walls tends to get lonely. Because of that, several creative spaces opened in Toronto. Their founders, entrepreneurs themselves, formed a community of like-minded people and opened spaces downtown, offering reasonable monthly rates in a comfortable space. Born from the feeling of collaboration and connection found at events such as BarCamp and tech conferences, coworking is the social interaction of independent entrepreneurs, consultants, freelancers, developers, and writers out of their homes and cafes and into a creative space. A coworking facility is the shared office space for these individuals, where they can work independently in a social way. Rachel Young and Wayne Lee cofounded Camaraderie. Tonya Surman founded Centre for Social Innovation at 215 Spadina, and CSI recently acquired another building in the Annex to expand their space.

(Read more at BlogIdol website…)