A 15-year report recently published by the Guelph-Wellington Business Enterprise Centre highlights a growing trend in the regional economic climate: self-employment and entrepreneurship.
The report paints a positive picture of economic development in and around Wellington County, something Business Enterprise Centre (BEC) general manager Scott Williams says he expects to continue into 2015.
“We expect to see a continued increase in the number of people looking to start businesses,” he said. “Over the next few years, I would suggest that the numbers we are currently seeing will probably remain as such; I don’t expect a decrease.”
The report notes the majority of the centre’s clients are between the ages of 51 and 60, post-secondary educated and looking to start businesses in the service sector.
Previously entrepreneurship was a field dominated by men, Williams says, but the male/female ratio is now nearly 50/50, which brings a wider range of services and innovation to the community.
“Over the last five years there has been a bigger shift toward females and that number is increasing,” he said. “That’s exciting to see because it helps the women in the community too, who sometimes the opportunities aren’t there [in terms of] quality of life.
“We’re starting to see a lot more females who may want the quality of life for their family, but still be able to do something for themselves … and self-employment creates that opportunity.”
Williams explained these growing trends are the result of changing job markets following the recession and a psychological shift away from the desire to find a job and remain there for an entire career.
“Our parents went out, got an education or found themselves a job, worked there for 35 years, got the company clock and the diamond pendant and retired, but those businesses no longer exist,” he said.
“The same kind of employment stability is not there and we’re seeing people … try to find some sort of employment that is going to suit their personal needs as well. Quality of life is becoming more important – they want more flexibility in their own hours.”
Williams said because many large companies experienced massive cutbacks and restructuring as a result of the recession, they now rely on many small business consultants to do jobs previously allocated to full-time staff.
“With the economic downturn we experienced 10 years ago, I think a lot of companies just had to get a little tighter; there was a lot of restructuring,” said Williams. “They had to downsize and now as larger businesses are starting to pick up … before they run off and start filling their own offices with a lot of these positions, maybe it makes more sense for them to outsource it.”
This phenomenon has created unique opportunities for small business owners, and part of what the centre does is help foster these connections between entrepreneurs and larger operations.
“One of the easiest and lowest-cost points of entry is looking at a service, whether it’s providing a service to the community or to another business. We see people come through and they’ve learned a specific skill and they can go into a sector and provide consulting or a specific skill-set for a company instead of that company going out and hiring a full-time position,” he said.
Since opening in 1999, the enterprise centre has helped nearly 5,000 businesses get off the ground, creating over 6,000 jobs – 15 per cent of which are in Wellington County.
“Our outreach into the rural area over the last two years has increased by about 50%, so that number is increasing every day,” Williams said. “There’s a marked increase in rural activity.”
Wellington County economic development chair Jana Reichert painted a similar picture. She told the Advertiser the county has finished up a strong year in terms of growth and job creation and the outlook is positive moving forward.
“In Wellington County we’ve been really lucky. Our strongest sectors have been performing really well. In manufacturing … we created over 300 jobs in that sector alone and that’s pretty significant,” she said.
“In the agricultural sector we saw huge job gains … a lot of expansions, new production facilities, new hires – that sector performed better than any other.”
In May 2014, Wellington County’s unemployment rate was 6.7%, lower than both the provincial and national rates of 7.4% and 7% respectively. The county has also gained nearly 5,000 jobs since 2009 – an increase of 13%. Ontario’s growth in the same period was just 6%.
Williams says he sees this growth as a combination of Wellington’s unique location and diverse cultural range.
“Wellington has a lot of small pockets of very unique communities, so whether it’s manufacturing or agriculture, we’re really set in the middle of being between the various regions of Waterloo, all the way to Toronto,” he explained.
Reichert says although the county’s largest sector continues to be manufacturing, it has become a go-to destination for entrepreneurs and they are seeing a lot of specialized niche enterprises opening up.
“Seventy-eight per cent of our business base is made up of businesses that have less than 10 employees, so we’re a really good place to start up and we’re so close to the GTA,” she said.
“In the creative sector, wellness jobs like chiropractors and massage therapists and nutritionists seem to like the location of Wellington County.”
The role of the county going forward will be to assist these new businesses in getting off the ground, while providing support for those currently operating she added.
“We just want to make sure that those businesses that are starting here feel supported … we will hold your hand so you can start a business in Wellington County,” Reichert said. “We recognize many of our businesses could go anywhere, but choose to do business here. We also recognize that we have a lot of economic advantages and we are beginning to promote those assets to new investors and residents as well.”
Reichert said the county’s economic development committee was busy in 2014 making connections with local businesses to address their concerns and improve networking across the municipalities and the province at large. She noted many owners were not aware of the resources available.
“There’s gaps in Wellington County with respect to how businesses perceive that they’re supported … [we want] businesses to know that there’s a resource to go to if they have trouble,” she explained.
“We are actually a good network point and a hub in the community and are able to connect them with, not only business resource agencies within their own region, but also at the provincial and federal levels.”
She said they consistently heard a few main concerns: requests for training to increase productivity in the work place, networking opportunities close to home, opportunities for self-promotion and access to development resources.
Based on the extensive data collected this year, the committee will now be able to pin point what specific types of services each municipality needs and make recommendations to entrepreneurs.
“I can go through that information and see what’s missing in a community, because we had businesses say, ‘we don’t have a good quality grocery store here or we don’t have an office supplies business’, so I can filter it for the community and talk to the investor and say, ‘in your community x and x businesses would make sense,’” Reichert explained.
“We’ve got a lot of information and we’re using that information to be able to make better decisions.”
Some of the other economic development projects slated for 2015 include an online business directory, a business resource map and a signage program at main entrances to the county. Reichert says, the county has a positive economic outlook for the new year.
“Our focus for next year, is ensuring we create the infrastructure for existing businesses to be able to expand and reach new markets,” she said.
