As an entrepreneur in this country you may not be aware of all the help available to your business, and frankly, who has time to research? In this special bonus episode of Just Good Business we do the work for you. James Hicks, President and CEO of Moneris has a sit-down with the Honourable Rechie Valdez, Federal Minister of Small Business to talk about the state of small businesses in Canada, and some of the supports available to entrepreneurs and small business owners and where to find them.
As an entrepreneur in this country you may not be aware of all the help available to your business, and frankly, who has time to research?
In this special bonus episode of Just Good Business we do the work for you. James Hicks, President and CEO of Moneris has a sit-down with the Honourable Rechie Valdez, Federal Minister of Small Business to talk about the state of small businesses in Canada, and some of the supports available to entrepreneurs and small business owners and where to find them.
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Allan: [00:00:00] As an entrepreneur, you've likely heard the adage, small business is the backbone of Canada's economy. And that's not just lip service, it's fact. According to Statistics Canada, in 2022, small businesses, which are defined as a business with fewer than 100 employees, comprised 98 percent of all employer businesses in Canada and employed 10. 7 million individuals, which is almost two thirds of all employees. They contributed 38 percent of Canada's GDP. That's some very heavy lifting for something with the word small in the title. That's why it's so imperative that small business owners and entrepreneurs have the support they need to succeed.
In this episode we're going to learn all about the support available for small businesses and entrepreneurs in Canada. Why? Because. It's just good business.
Hey everyone, Al here. Now, I know what you're thinking. It isn't August yet, why am [00:01:00] I hearing from this guy so soon? Well, I've got a special bonus interview, chock full of so much amazing information, it warranted its own episode. Last week we had the pleasure of hosting a visit by the Honorable Rechie Valdez.
She's the Federal Minister of Small Business. She got a chance to see all the great products and services our team is working on to help small business and entrepreneurs in Canada succeed. And during her visit, Manera's president and CEO, James Hicks had an opportunity to have a sit down with minister Valdez to learn about some of the programs her ministry and the federal government have been working on to support small businesses.
It's a great conversation filled with so much useful information. You're going to want to hear this. So here's James's chat with the minister.
James: Mr. Valdez, welcome. I'm very happy to have you here at Moneris and at Just Good Business. The purpose of this podcast for us was really always about just helping inform and update small [00:02:00] businesses and entrepreneurs and what they need to know and how we can help them grow their businesses. And I can think of no better person to have with us than the Minister of Small Business for the federal government. So thank you. It's a true honor.
Minister Valdez: Well, thanks for having me. I think it's really good that you're having these conversations to further benefit small businesses across the country. So I appreciate the conversation.
James: Well, I'm excited, by the way, to talk a lot about what the government's doing and you're doing in the portfolio, but before we get started, I know that your journey into politics and into this role is not a straight line.
Minister Valdez: No.
James: You know, you've been in corporate banking, an entrepreneur and a small business person in media. The first Filipino Canadian as a member of parliament, you know, so I thought it'd be interesting to, to hear a little bit more about that journey and what that journey was like and how it prepared you for your new role.
Minister Valdez: Yeah. So exactly as you described it, um, did 15 years of corporate banking. And to be honest, I got to this like really great place in my life where, you know, I had benefits. I was able to feed my family and everyone was good. And I thought that was it. That was the definition of success that my parents raised me to believe. But then the long and the short of [00:03:00] it is when Cassidy, so I have two kids, Kyle and Cassidy, but when Cassidy turned one, I decided to make her first birthday cake, but that led me to discover my own creative passion, which I didn't even know existed inside of me. And so this creative passion is the very thing that led me to entrepreneurship and discover my own passion, what it takes to hustle as an entrepreneur while working full time as a mom with kids. And so all that hustle while working full time, you know, taking my kid to hockey practice, it really taught me what it's like to build a business from the ground up, to believe in yourself as an entrepreneur, to put your brand out there. And that hustle really taught me everything that I needed to know about entrepreneurship and how difficult and challenging it can be as well.
James: Sure.
Minister Valdez: But, rewarding. And so having that background as an entrepreneur and knowing what the hustle is like certainly helps me in this role because I am supporting entrepreneurs across the country and just knowing what the journey is like and understanding their challenges really helps in the role as well.
James: And since you've taken on the role, you know, there's a [00:04:00] few highlights you've had so far and just aha moments as you've been on the other side of it.
Minister Valdez: Yeah. And, you know, there's not like one thing that I can highlight, but I think given my experience as an entrepreneur and how challenging it's been, the most rewarding thing for me is when I can help someone else move further from where I was at . So with the supports that we provide as a government, like some of these didn't even exist when I started off in my entrepreneurial adventure. And so when I see someone get the help that they need or get the capital they need or get the support or the mentorship that they need it's amazing to see how quickly they can grow as opposed to what I had, which was like bootstrapping everything and like, it was my husband and my brother, you know, hustling with me, but we've built entire ecosystems, which I'll talk about over this conversation that has really helped empower entrepreneurs and help them right where they are.
James: Well, let's talk about that. It's hard to believe, at least for me, that it's been. Four years now plus since we've had the pandemic started and [00:05:00] ended, but the reverberations are still going on around the world and even in Canada and it's, it's a tricky macro environment. It's a tricky operating environment for people as well as businesses, but for small businesses in particular. And I know earlier this year, obviously the government released its budget and there's a number of initiatives that were in there to try and help small businesses. So can you talk a little bit about those?
Minister Valdez: I'll talk about a few of the supports that we provide, the one in particular that I think is important and really relevant right now, because it's filing tax season for a lot of corporations, we're delivering the Canada carbon rebate out to small businesses, that's 2. 5 billion, that's going out to close to 600, 000 corporations. And the reason why I bring this up is because Very timely, we're filing our taxes. So long as corporations file their taxes by July 15th, they will be able to take advantage of the Canada carbon rebate, which will be rolled out to small businesses very soon. That's one that's really, really important. The second one I think is really great is our continued investment and venture in the venture capital ecosystem. So this is supporting equity [00:06:00] deserving entrepreneurs help start up their businesses and grow. And I think the investment that we've been able to put forward and continue to put forward in that space is tremendously important.
James: You raised some great points. We talked about how complicated and challenging it is to be a small business person. You've lived through it. I've lived through it. Wearing many hats, doing a lot of different things. And then we certainly over the last number of years, there's. We've seen both Canada and the world digitize and the pandemic supercharged that, but that we've been on this trend of digitization. I'm just curious as to how both your portfolio, your ministry, but also just the government generally is thinking about innovation and supporting digitization for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Minister Valdez: I remember when I started my brand, how difficult it was for me, like, oh, on top of baking and hustling, I had to build my own website from scratch, like, I don't like to put yourself out there, and like you just mentioned it throughout the pandemic, small businesses have had to pivot so much. Make sure that their business is more digital. And one of the things I'm particularly proud of is our Canada Digital Adoption Program. We've been able to help small businesses through grants or [00:07:00] loans really help digitize their business and help them have an advisor to support them to create the proper plan to help them digitize and support them along the way. This has been vitally important and got so much great feedback from businesses who've been able to take advantage of it. Out West, I met an entrepreneur who's a barber and who took advantage of CDAP thinking that he was just going to like beef up his website, et cetera. But as it turns out, signing up for CDAP helped him do something really special. He was able to help educate and teach through his knowledge of being a barber. And so now he's actually empowering others through his website and teach them and empower them to also pursue. Um, being a barber in the future. So it's been really great to see how entrepreneurs have been able to take advantage of a grant or a loan and then see what they do with it. That's been really special.
James: It's super rewarding. I mean, even for businesses, helping out businesses as well. You know, we're at the center of Canadian commerce and we have multiple programs similar to that, including we have a accelerator program called eCommerce North with Elevate. And what we get out of it, like you're saying [00:08:00] with this, the barber, is we learn so much too, and we're helping them digitize because we really have to help Canadian businesses not only survive, but thrive in this new environment. It's exciting times.
Minister Valdez: And the only thing I'll add too is, when was the last time you carried cash in your wallet? You're pretty much tapping to make most purchases, using your credit cards, etc. And so because of this increase in use, we saw the opportunity to help make it more affordable for small businesses with our agreements with both MasterCard and Visa. Those fees this fall will come down by 27%. And over the course of five years, you're looking at a savings of a billion dollars for small businesses across the country. That's money that they can put back into their business or reinvest in wherever else they'd like to.
James: Yeah, and we're supporting that, of course. We all, collectively, as industry and government, can help in making it easier and simpler for them to accept digital payments.
Just on a different topic, we've recently celebrated Indigenous History Month. And we have a variety of programs, just generally, but one of them we work with Bears Lair TV to help support the growth of that ecosystem and players [00:09:00] in the indigenous community grow and thrive in their businesses. And I'm curious how the government is helping underrepresented communities. I know there's a lot of programs and things that you're doing in that front.
Minister Valdez: One of the things I'm super proud of is to your point, our government prioritizes leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs and with regards to indigenous entrepreneurs, we believe in economic reconciliation and through empowering our indigenous entrepreneurs, it's incredible what they've been able to do.
For instance, we've supported Cando, which is an economic development organization, and I just met with them yesterday and they told me that for every dollar because they did this whole report. To really understand the impact of investing in Indigenous communities, for every dollar that we put into the community, it converts into four dollars. So the return on investment there is really positive. And what it does, not just for entrepreneurs, it helps the community. It helps empower them, give them jobs, and ultimately motivates them.
I met this incredible Indigenous young entrepreneur who produces [00:10:00] Apparel for indigenous communities. So imagine their culture and everything that they believe in is put in these beautiful designs for t shirts.
Well, it's not just a t shirt company. What they're doing is creating jobs. And because of this one company, they've been able to empower those who may have had challenging times in their past. And imagine they're taking them on the path of maybe troubled hardship, but then instead giving them jobs and helping them contribute to the business. And that's just one story of many.
And then through our other investments, one that I'm proud of is our women entrepreneurship strategy. We've already invested 7 billion through our many different government supports to help small businesses and women like myself get capital, but investing in this enormous ecosystem across the country. So whether you're in the East coast or the West coast or anywhere in between. You can reach out to our ecosystem partners that help you, as I said, provide them with networking opportunities, mentorship, because being an entrepreneur, they [00:11:00] need all the help that they can get. And if you can help an entrepreneur along in their journey, they will become more successful because they know that someone is going to be there for them along the way.
James: Absolutely. And I mean, to that point, small business entrepreneurs, they are the backbone of the economy, as we both know. But also the, really the backbone of their communities, whatever the community they operate in from coast to coast to coast. And we certainly see that. And it strikes me that there is this vector between industry and government that have to come together to really make sure that everyone can maximize the reach, awareness, and availability of programs. How do you think about that? That how the industry and the government comes together to help deliver these types of things?
Minister Valdez: What I've seen, I've been in a role now for almost a year. It's really important that we're working together to support entrepreneurs. And one example of this partnership or any collaboration that we're able to do when we launched the Black Entrepreneurship Program, we could have just launched something and like hope that it would work out. Instead, what we did was we engaged the Black community and we [00:12:00] co developed it with them. And they helped to design the Black Entrepreneurship Program so that it fits just right for them. So we work together with them, collaborated and through the 40 different black entrepreneurship ecosystem partners we have across the country, we're able to successfully roll out the capital again, the supports, and then, of course, creating the knowledge hub that will help them better integrate with each other across the country.
Government has always an opportunity to work together with different levels of government, of course, but then working directly with folks on the ground to help guide us on the decisions that we're making.
James: Right. And I, by the way, I know that at Monero's we're always engaged with various ministries, both the bank of Canada, the finance, your ministry, et cetera, and others to advocate and help wherever we can provide some feedback from our customers. Cause we are at the center of commerce here in digitization across the country and the feedback we get and the feedback we can provide is also very helpful to us as well as how we can provide it to our customers.
So, which leads me to a question about, as we said before, you've been an entrepreneur, you've seen how complicated and busy it [00:13:00] is. And often the day is swamped with all these activities. And then the question is how do a small business entrepreneur find out about These sets of programs, you know, there's ways that they can be better informed or more easily informed.
Minister Valdez: So today a entrepreneur, if they're looking for something, they'll probably like do a search online. And then like, you'll see what out of that search, what magically shows up, which is never really the most exact place to be. So we developed a business benefits finder tool. So right now, again, this didn't exist when I was an entrepreneur and I wish it did, but if you go onto this tool, it's a single point website where you can Where you put information about your business, very simple, high level questions and then you can submit it. But once you submit it, you have access, it will actually recommend you something that's relevant to your company out of all 1500 provincial and federal loans or supports or programs that are available today. Um, and so the reason why this tool is important is as you said, business entrepreneurs are super busy so getting them the information they need at their [00:14:00] fingertips quickly and efficiently, and with direct links to wherever they need to go, it helps save them a lot of time and effort for them trying to find the right information.
James: That's super helpful. Anything else that they should know from a policy or how you're thinking about your portfolio over the coming months?
Minister Valdez: Yeah, I'm just, you know, extremely proud of all the entrepreneurs being able to visit places, like I mentioned, I was just at the Calgary stampede just a few days ago and meeting tech hubs, for example, like Platform right in Calgary, who are there to support and bolster the tech industry. It's just incredible.
And entrepreneurs continue to support me. And any which way that I can support entrepreneurs and be there. So meeting with them exactly where they are is one thing I really enjoyed doing. So. Um, I'm happy. I'm very proud of all the entrepreneurs across Canada.
James: Thank you for your time today. You know, we have a shared mission. I think both our government and Moneris in trying to empower, enable, and help small businesses. And our side, of course, it's how do we make simple solutions easy to get into digitization and give them the information they know and from a [00:15:00] government perspective, how you can support it. So we're grateful for the time today.
Minister Valdez: For sure.
James: Grateful for the information and look forward to chatting again.
Minister Valdez: Thanks so much, James. I appreciate being here.
Allan: That
was Moneris President and CEO, James Hicks, in conversation with the Federal Minister of Small Business, Rechie Valdez.
Did you learn anything new? I certainly did.
My big takeaway was learning that there was as many as 1, 500 provincial and federal loans and support programs available for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and you can easily find if there's one that's right for your business via the Business Benefits Finder tool. I'm going to post a link to that tool in the show notes for this episode.
As always, if you're listening right now and you have any questions about anything in this episode or something business related in general, you can email us at podcast@moneris.com and we'll try to answer them in future episodes.
On behalf of myself and the rest of Moneris, it's just good business saying, thank you for [00:16:00] listening.
See you in August.