Stephen Daze of the Entrepreneurship Centre

A report by OCRI's Entrepreneurship Centre is providing details about how laid-off technology sector workers are taking charge of their careers.

According to the latest report, Ottawa spawned 5,280 startups creating 3,300 new jobs from August 2001 to August 2002. That represents a 367-per-cent increase in new companies and a 116-per-cent jump in new employment opportunities compared to the previous 12-month period.

"We always see an increase in people starting a business in times where there are layoffs," says Stephen Daze, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Centre. "Quite frankly, in many cases, people see it as a good opportunity to start the business they've been thinking of for awhile."

Forty per cent of startups the centre sees are in the technology field. The demoralized tech industry adds the ideal catalyst for individuals to chart their own career path, says Daze.

The findings are part of an annual report by the Entrepreneurship Centre titled "Small Business Trends in the Ottawa Region." The report indicates the net result was $58 million in new investment and $310 million in reported sales to the local economy in 2002.

The report also states that more than 200 emerging technology companies are assisted each year through the centre's Ottawa Capital Network initiative. (The Ottawa Capital Network is the host of the annual Ottawa Venture Capital Fair.)

In 2001, home-based service businesses dominated the small business sector, according to the trends report. Seventy-three per cent of new businesses operate primarily from home and 63 per cent of these businesses are sole proprietorships. The number of partnerships has increased three-fold, but incorporations are down.

Entrepreneurship Centre clients are typically in the professional, scientific or technical services sectors, coinciding with Statistics Canada's national findings.

The Entrepreneurship Centre serves more than 5,000 individual clients each year. With so many clients and potential would-be clients, it became necessary to deliver as much information as possible by expanding its Web site www.entrepreneurship.com. With funding from the City of Ottawa, the centre was able to build out more tools and resources.

"What we've been doing for the last 18 to 24 months is pushing a lot of tools and resources online in the hopes that entrepreneurs are able to get the information they need the second they need it," says Daze. The centre's survey data indicates that 90 per cent of their clients have Internet at home, work or both.

One of many benefits the Entrepreneurship Centre has found from the increased hits online is that answering the GST question 50 times a day is no longer the staple dialogue it once was. Daze finds the material on the site has been particularly helpful because now "people are more prepared to ask solid and meaningful questions (when they come in) and we're more prepared to give them more meaningful answers."

Entrepreneurship Centre seminars have also proved popular with 700 attendees participating in 87 presentations over the past year. In addition to the seminars, the centre has begun offering programs in the last year to clients who have been in business for three to five years and want to grow their business. These programs include the How to Build Profitability program and an upcoming program is the Business Leaders Project. Daze explains that leaders such as Denzil Doyle, chairman of Capital Alliance Ventures Inc., and Leonard Lee, CEO of Lee Valley Tools, have signed on to give advice and discuss their successes.

The Entrepreneurship Centre has been renovating its existing space since mid-December. Among the changes are a new training room and pared back physical space due to the increase in online use. "We've been operating in our old space for more than 10 years and it just wasn't conducive to how our clients interact with us now."

The new look will be officially unveiled on February 25.

by Ellen Tsaprailis