Opinion: Economic Development articles— Quarterly summary #2: The Entrepreneur

Submitted by the Anishinabek Nation Economic Development Department

It has now been a year since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic response brought many aspects of our daily lives to a screeching halt and forced many of us to shift our work environments to our homes. Pre-pandemic, many parents were struggling to keep their kids off of their gaming consoles and other devices, and now they are encouraging them to find a new game or browse social media just so that they are entertained and there is some peace and quiet. With all of this time at home, more and more people are re-evaluating their career choices either as a result of the changing work environment or as a result of a job loss due to the pandemic response.

The most recent series of articles were meant to provide some insight or start a dialogue on how our communities and governments could support people who need to make changes in their personal situations or just want to become entrepreneurs and join the ranks of the self-employed.

To start us off, the article Economic Diversification-A Fancy Term or a Path to Financial Freedom? examined how changing the way we look at our local economies could result in the creation of a network of small-to-medium enterprises that support each other and augment the products and services that could be available locally. The article explained that by diversifying the product and service offerings within a community, an ever-increasing percentage of local wealth would stay in the community. The examples of how one person spent their hard-earned paycheques in various economic situations showed how important one person’s spending habits are to sustaining the local economy. Also important to note was the explanation of how expanding our focus to include other opportunities off-reserve could augment the return of monetary leakage from our local economy.

Since we had the discussion about diversifying the economy, it only made sense to talk about how important the network of small businesses in our communities really is. The next article, Small Business the Way to Kick Start Local Economy, provided an explanation of the importance of small to medium enterprises in supporting our economy and how with some drive and determination anybody can follow their dreams of self-employment.

Many First Nations in Ontario have mostly been left behind and are not big players in the province’s resource-based economy. For the most part, these First Nations’ only real involvement comes from the negotiation of Impact Benefit Agreements that do provide financial resources but do not build stable local economies. The article provided statistical information that showed it is not big business and multinational corporations that provide the most jobs or inject the most money into our economies, but the small-to-medium enterprises that employ the most people and are the real economic drivers. Links to resources and supports that are available to budding First Nation entrepreneurs were provided in the hope that it would be the nudge that some people needed to follow their dreams.

Now, it only made sense that if we are going to discuss the importance of diversifying our economies and state that it is local small businesses that are the foundation, and then telling people that they too can be their own bosses, that we talk about the supports that are out there to ensure that these budding small businesses are successful.

The next article in the series, Business Incubators and Innovation Centers outlined the various supports available to First Nation entrepreneurs. Whether it helps with refining their ideas into workable plans or assistance with writing their business plan, which is every entrepreneur’s road map to success, there are resources available to aid in your success. The article highlighted the importance of having not only support in the development stages of a business but also the need to be surrounded by like-minded people. Business incubators or innovation centres are places where other people trying to get their businesses or ideas off the ground can congregate and support each other.

We hope that you have found the articles in this series both informative and thought-provoking. The next series of articles will continue to build on the topics that we have covered to date and will hopefully engage more people in the discussions regarding how we can build stable and sustainable economies that support and augment each other locally, regionally, and nationally.

We look forward to hearing more of your thoughts and ideas for future articles.