A recently released report is shedding new light on the state of entrepreneurship in Ontario and what drives residents in the province to start their own company.
Each year, the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, Ryerson University and The Centre for Innovation Studies produce the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to analyze the performance of business owners in Ontario.
Here are some of the key findings from this year’s edition:
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53.2% – The rate of respondents who say conditions are currently good to start a business in Ontario. That’s one of the highest rates in the world;
46.6% – Portion of respondents who say a fear of failure would prevent them from starting a business;
14.4% – Rate of Ontarians involved in setting up a firm. That’s comparable to the rest of Canada (14.7%) and higher than Australia (12.8%) and the United States (11.9%);
92: Number of female entrepreneurs for every 100 male entrepreneurs in Ontario.
The report’s authors make several recommendations to improve the entrepreneurial climate in the province, such as giving a boost to mentorship programs and using public procurement to support the commercialization of research and technology.
The federal government already has such an initiative, which was launched as theCanadian Innovation Commercialization Program more than five years ago and is now known as the Build in Canada Innovation Program.
The report also calls for more government funding for entrepreneurial endeavors, as well as greater access to other financing sources such as crowdfunding.
