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Self-employment helping the economy rebound
Since the global economic crisis hit, the number of people in Canada with jobs has been steadily decreasing. Every day, you hear about another series of lay-offs, another bankruptcy, another industry in trouble, and so on.
Experts didn’t expect April 2009 to be any different. In fact, economists expected employment to drop by around 50,000 jobs in April (Source: CBC.ca article “Canada added jobs in April: StatsCan).
However, according to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey employment in Canada ended up growing by around 36,000 jobs in April 2009. The number of jobs in the private and public sectors both declined slightly in April, but a surge of 37,000 newly self-employed people helped the employment numbers rebound.
A lot of people are finding it difficult to get jobs at the moment. There are few positions available and even if you do get a job, you may question how secure your position is. This is likely one of the reasons that people are turning to self-employment.
Are you out of work? Maybe self-employment would be a good option for you. It requires some thought and planning, but becoming your own boss can be rewarding and help you overcome the recession.
To determine if entrepreneurship is for you and to find out how to get your business off the ground, see:
Hello,
I came across your site while doing some research on the internet.
I have been a self employed entrepreneur running a small publishing business in Ottawa, Canada for 16 years. I developed 4 management reference handbooksin checklist format
and have sold these books to hundreds of customers in 85 countries around the world.
Recently, I have had a very significant decline in business, to the point, that I need to move on and find new business opportunities.
As an entrepreneur (it’s in my blood), I would love to come up with another business opportunity. After a lot of googling, I have not come up with an idea so far. I even contacted some entrepreneurship centres across the country. They could provide lots of help with the process of starting up a business but not with helping to come up with another business idea.
I know I’m not the only small business person who is facing the situation of having to move on as a result of the economic circumstances. I just need to find another business idea. I have developed a business model that identifies how I want to work but I don’t have the “what” yet. I’m looking for online sites or other resources that provide a list of business ideas (I have found a few through google searching) that one can consider. Then, based on my passions (which I have written down), the ideas found on these lists would trigger my thoughts into generating a business idea that I would be passionate about and could start to pursue.
Can you please offer any suggestions on where I might search to come up with lists of new business ideas. As mentioned, I have been on google a lot and have come up with some ideas but, so far, not one that I’m passionate about.
Thank you.
By Mark Hiltz on October 21st, 2009
@Mark Hiltz
Thank you for your comment. While we do not have a list of business ideas, we do have a document on developing your business idea that may help get you off on the right path:
http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/125/106/
We also have a section of our website dedicated to growth and innovation, which may provide you with some resources or ideas for growing your business:
http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/145/
Continue to check back as we will be adding more content to that section over the months to come.
I hope this information is useful.
The Canada Business Web Team
By Canada Business on November 3rd, 2009
I have started import business which comprises of purchase of used workshop machinery generators small used equipments and even large machines from developed countries and supply to middle income countries like India and African countries through UAE market countries, as the same is in great demand as such machinery is still useful.
By Mohammad Afzal on November 4th, 2009
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