Being an Entrepreneur | Oct 2025
- Chris Herbert
- Oct 7
- 6 min read
Covered in this Round Up: DEMOGRAPHICS
From Homelessness to Entrepreneurship in Fredericton
Formerly unhoused residents of a Fredericton tiny-home community are launching businesses and gaining independence. With housing stability and mentorship, they’ve shifted from survival to entrepreneurship, building confidence while contributing to the local economy.
Actionable Insight: Pair affordable housing projects with entrepreneurial training to create pathways from vulnerability to sustainable business growth. | Read More
Physician Entrepreneurs Driving Innovation
Doctors are entering entrepreneurship, applying clinical experience to develop solutions that close care gaps and improve outcomes. Combining medical insight with business strategy positions them to drive innovation and reshape healthcare delivery.
Actionable Insight: Provide physicians with mentorship and funding channels to transform practical medical insights into scalable healthcare ventures. | Read More
SEO Veteran’s Playbook for 2025
An entrepreneur who mastered SEO a decade ago argues that durable growth still comes from matching search intent, publishing authoritative content, and earning genuine brand signals. They caution that zero-click results and AI summaries reduce passive traffic, making conversion quality and owned audiences essential. Practical focus shifts to speed, structured data, and content that solves specific problems.
Actionable Insight: Run a monthly intent audit: update one revenue page per week with expert FAQs, clearer CTAs, faster load times, and schema markup, then track conversions—not rankings. | Read More
Local Startup Support Expands in Penticton
A Penticton program is helping entrepreneurs grow through mentorship, training, and networking opportunities. By fostering skills and connections, the initiative aims to strengthen the region’s business ecosystem and support long-term economic resilience.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs in smaller markets should leverage local incubators and mentorship programs to accelerate growth and expand their networks. | Read More
Creating Space Through Entrepreneurship in B.C.
Margaux Wosk, an autistic and disabled entrepreneur, built their own business after traditional workplaces failed to provide accessibility or respect. As president of BC People First and founder of Retrophiliac, they highlight systemic barriers and argue that self-employment often offers the only viable path for disabled individuals. Their story underscores how inclusive entrepreneurship can challenge ableist systems while fostering independence.
Actionable Insight: Design businesses with accessibility at the core, ensuring disabled entrepreneurs and customers are fully included in economic growth. | Read More
Infrastructure as a Strategic Play in 2025
Paul Chapman’s October memo frames today’s markets as emotionally charged but full of opportunity. Amid volatility, infrastructure emerges as a stabilizing force—particularly assets like data centres, utilities, and toll roads. With AI fueling historic capital expenditures, data centres stand out as mission-critical infrastructure tied to digitization and long-term demand. Unlike speculative tech bets, these assets provide steady income, inflation hedging, and diversification while still offering growth upside.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs should explore partnerships or co-investment in digital infrastructure, especially data centres, as a durable way to capture AI-driven growth. | Read More
DEMOGRAPHICS
Gen Z Sees Entrepreneurship as Canada’s Future Engine
A TD survey finds nearly three in four Gen Z Canadians want to start businesses, motivated by independence, flexibility, and turning passions into income. Yet most lack financial knowledge, funding, and mentorship, with 67% not seeking bank support despite valuing long-term advice. Many envision e-commerce ventures or influencer-driven models, but fear of failure remains high.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs and advisors should design accessible mentorship and financial literacy programs that equip Gen Z with the tools to turn ambition into lasting ventures. | Read More
Gen Z Entrepreneurs Are Buying ‘Boring Businesses’
A growing number of young Canadians are skipping startups to acquire steady, cash-generating “boring businesses” like laundromats, HVAC companies, and dental offices. With boomer owners retiring and youth job prospects dimming, these ventures offer Gen Z financial freedom and community impact. Professors and advisors now teach business acquisition as a viable path amid economic uncertainty and AI disruption.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs should look beyond flashy tech—acquiring simple, proven local businesses can deliver stable cash flow and long-term independence. | Read More
Canadian Youth Happiness: A Climbing Mountain, Not a U‑Curve
Young Canadians under 35 have seen a sharp decline in self-reported life satisfaction over the past two decades, reversing the classical “U‑shaped” happiness curve and turning youth into a prolonged uphill struggle. According to a new working paper analyzing Gallup World Poll data, the lowest happiness scores have more than doubled, while the top-tier responses have fallen by roughly 30 %.
Actionable Insight: For policymakers and social entrepreneurs, creating affordable housing options and stabilizing early-career income paths for young adults may be more effective in restoring wellbeing than mental‑health programs alone. | Read More (subscription required)
Skilled Trades Need Business Skills to Thrive
Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute highlights how tradespeople often struggle with entrepreneurship due to gaps in finance, marketing, and digital literacy. Despite strong technical expertise, many lack access to training and mentorship that could help them build and scale businesses. Closing these gaps is vital for economic growth, especially as skilled trades face labour shortages and rising demand.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs in skilled trades should invest in financial and digital training to turn technical ability into sustainable business success. | Read More
Indigenous Entrepreneur Builds Business in Bilijk
Amber Solomon, a Wolastoqey entrepreneur from Bilijk, is creating a business rooted in cultural pride and community resilience. By combining traditional knowledge with modern entrepreneurship, she is carving out new opportunities while inspiring Indigenous youth to pursue their own ventures.
Actionable Insight: Support Indigenous entrepreneurs with culturally aligned mentorship and access to capital to help scale community-rooted businesses. | Read More
OSCIA Restructures Toward Collaborative Leadership
The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association has removed its third executive director in two years as part of a shift toward shared governance. The board aims to replace hierarchy with cross-departmental collaboration and transparency, aligning with its 2025–2027 Strategic Work Plan. Despite staffing turnover, leaders say the restructuring will empower teams and modernize governance to better serve Ontario’s agricultural community.
Actionable Insight: Farmers involved in producer organizations should push for flatter leadership models that improve communication, speed up decisions, and strengthen grassroots input. | Read More
Shopify’s Finkelstein Urges Canada to Become a ‘Founder Nation’
Shopify president Harley Finkelstein says Canada must replace its “tall poppy syndrome” with a culture that celebrates success and risk-taking. He calls for modernized regulations, faster company formation, harmonized taxes, and entrepreneurship education starting in elementary school. Canada, he argues, has the talent and infrastructure to rival global innovation hubs but needs mindset and policy reform to unlock its full founder potential.
Actionable Insight: Entrepreneurs should champion and mentor others publicly to normalize ambition and create a culture that rewards building boldly. | Read More
The Three Paths to Early Retirement
Authors Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung outline three routes to wealth and early retirement: entrepreneurship, investing, and optimizing. Entrepreneurs build businesses through risk and resilience but often overspend after success. Investors multiply capital with skill and leverage but risk overconfidence and concentration. Optimizers achieve financial freedom through frugality, efficiency, and consistency, though they can be overly cautious. Each path rewards self-awareness and disciplined execution.
Actionable Insight: Identify which wealth path matches your temperament, then design your financial habits to amplify its strengths while guarding against its weaknesses. | Read More
Empowering Rural Entrepreneurship Through Safety
Janice Campbell, founder of Spencer Safety Solutions, shares how losing her job sparked a mission to improve workplace safety in rural Ontario. Through networking, mentorship, and local partnerships, she built a business focused on health, safety, and mental well-being for small enterprises. Her story underscores the resilience and creativity required to turn local challenges into sustainable opportunities.
Actionable Insight: Rural entrepreneurs can grow faster by embedding community networking and mental health awareness into their business models. | Read More
Disclosure: Spencer Safety Solutions is a member of AREA 81
Area 81 Connects Rural Entrepreneurs to Policy and AI Growth
The Mi6 Agency’s “Area 81” initiative links the Rural Ontario Municipal Association’s policy goals with real entrepreneurial capacity. Positioned as “human infrastructure,” it helps founders turn rural challenges into ventures while aligning with energy and AI development. Its new project, DCcorp, mirrors nuclear innovation’s role in powering AI—ensuring rural entrepreneurs build services and supply chains around data and energy economies.
Actionable Insight: Rural entrepreneurs should align with infrastructure and AI initiatives early to secure partnerships and capitalize on regional digital expansion. | Read More
Mentorship as a Path to Self-Improvement
Entrepreneur Paul Hogendoorn reflects on how coaching a young founder unexpectedly made him better at his own craft. By holding regular accountability sessions and applying the same discipline he taught, he found that mentoring sharpened both mentor and mentee. The experience highlights how teaching reinforces mastery and accountability in entrepreneurship.
Actionable Insight: Mentor another entrepreneur—teaching your methods forces clarity, consistency, and personal growth that benefit both sides. | Read More
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