Since 1961, the Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP) seeks to increase the availability of loans for establishing, expanding, modernizing and improving small businesses. It does this by encouraging financial institutions to make their financing available to small businesses. By sharing the risk with your financial institution, the program may help you secure up to $500,000.
Visit the program’s website for more information.
Some interesting facts…
- As of December 2007, there were 1,077,047 employer businesses (having a payroll of at least one person) in Canada.
- Small Business accounts for 98% of all businesses in Canada.
- Each year, approximately 139,000 new small businesses are created in Canada.
- On average, small businesses that have fewer than 100 employees contribute about 30% to Canada’s GDP.
- As of 2007, small businesses employed approximately 5 million individuals in Canada, or 48% of the total labour force in the private sector.
- Approximately 15% of all employed workers in the Canadian economy in 2007 were self-employed.
Membership benefits for small business
Business planning: toolkits
Resources for small business
Benefits that small business can take advantage of
The Canadian Chamber assists businesses of all sizes in improving their bottom line through a number of benefit programs. These include: preferred rates on credit and debit transactions; savings on gasoline; home, auto, and travel insurance; pre-paid legal services; and SME-oriented online training opportunities. Along with offering these affinity programs directly to its corporate members, the Canadian Chamber makes these benefit programs available for its local chamber of commerce/board of trade members to use with their members.
Aside from a healthy balance sheet and a viable business plan, marketing is another important tool that small businesses owners can use to grow their business. Effective networking can be a small business owner’s best form of marketing as it is affordable and productive. Membership in a local chamber of commerce/board of trade provides plenty of opportunities to engage with the local business community, develop relevant contacts, and obtain personal referrals. Small business owners will attest that word of mouth advertising is invaluable and highly effective.
Contact your local chamber of commerce/board of trade today to learn how your business can benefit by being a member of the chamber network.
Business Planning
Pandemic preparedness: helping Canadians prepare
In light of the recent outbreak of swine flu, the Canadian Chamber would like to remind chambers of a kit that the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) has prepared for pandemic preparedness. The Canadian Chamber was involved in the start-up of the project that brought together national organizations in health and home care, labour, business, local government, emergency response and planning, and faith communities. The result was that the CPHA made available a toolkit which includes useful information pieces for you and your communities.
Tools for Everyone: includes five fact sheets and three short videos and basic information about pandemic flu; Canada’s preparations; how to prevent the spread of influenza; how to prepare for a public health emergency; and how to protect individuals’ health during a pandemic.
Tools for Organizations: includes risk communication guidelines, a poster for bulletin boards, a template article for use in a newsletter, and a template news release - in short, a variety of tools to communicate the risk of a flu pandemic to employees and their families, clients, and partner organizations.
The toolkit is available in hard copy in English and French and it is also available on-line. Visit www.pandemic.cpha.ca for further information.
Additional tools are available on a website www.BusinessFluPlan.ca newly launched by ICID and the Canadian Chamber. This Web site was created to help small and medium-sized businesses plan for a pandemic.
The website features online planning tools for small businesses, Q & A with advice from health and business experts, and current information on the pandemic as it progresses.
A French-language website will be launched shortly. www.Plancontrelagrippe.ca
Additional tools:
Human Resources Planning Checklist
Establishing a Business Continuity Plan
Ontario Chamber’s Pandemic Planning Toolkit
Calgary Chamber’s “A Pandemic Planning Toolkit for Business”
Surrey Board of Trade’s Pandemic Planning Toolkit
Resources for Small Business
Canada Business
Business Development Bank of Canada
Canadian Business Magazine
