Business

Canada’s Entrepreneur Boom

Across the world, every country has been affected by Covid-19 in one way or another. Now that we are nearing 2 years since the start of this game-changer, we are seeing the aftermath effects of how Covid-19 affected business, and it may not be what you expected…

Countries all over the world are seeing an increase in new startups! Now, this also follows a trend of many businesses closing, but this just goes to show that if your business isn’t keeping up with new technologies, you’re likely to fall behind and become one of these statistics. According to the University of London, over 400,000 start-ups opened in 2020 alone and this trend was also seen in other countries like Germany, France, Japan, and the US. One country they didn’t mention though was Canada who has had an extreme jump in venture capital investments over the 2 years.

Canada’s Start-up Boom

There is a dramatic increase of new start-ups entering the market worldwide but especially in Canada. The country famous for the creation of big businesses such as Blackberry, Shopify, and Wealthsimple Financial, has in the past had increasing start-up numbers but there has been a significant jump in 2021. 

In Canada’s Q1 alone the jump was already visible as shown in the graph below but as we’ve reached the end of Q3, in Toronto alone capital venture investments reached $4.1 Billion. To give a comparison, this new amount raised is 281% higher than the total from 2020 and the year isn’t over yet.

A Brief Look Into Waterloo, Ontario

With most major cities like Toronto and Vancouver grabbing the headlines, it is easy for a small city like Waterloo to go undetected but in fact, its size doesn't do it justice for the leaps and bounds it is taking with new start-ups.

Apart from Silicon Valley, California, Waterloo is the next highest density of startups worldwide and this continues to hold true because of the region's ability to foster growth, funding options, and incubator resources such as Communitech.

What Does This Mean For Canadians?

Typically more business means more jobs, therefore with this influx of businesses getting funding, we could hope to see a large surge in available jobs in the tech industry for Canadians. Although, with the increase of desirable jobs comes new people moving to areas such as Waterloo, Ontario. For people living in areas like this they may not like this surge, but with growth comes growing pains and as the region is used to new expansion the people are sure to enjoy the benefits of new infrastructure.

Conclusion

As new businesses are starting up it is crucial that businesses across the world must also be adapting to keep from falling behind and becoming one of the businesses left forced to close their doors. 

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iHeartCam: A Security Camera App

iHeartCam is a surveillance camera app that lets you watch over your home, workspace, family, and even pets. iHeartCam can be used on your mobile device that notifies you anytime sounds/movement is detected. With iHeartCam you can watch live footage over your designated areas from wherever you may be while being connected to WiFi or Cellular Data.

Here are some key features of iHeartCam that makes it a highly trusted surveillance service:

Easy to use 

Install iHeartCam on both devices, your primary and secondary, and select camera mode and begin recording on your second device, once completed you can watch over your cameras anywhere and anytime.

Live camera streaming

As a highly trusted surveillance app, you can watch the live footage being broadcasted by your devices at any time you want.

Multi-monitor and camera

You can set up as many cameras as you want that you can view on your main device.

Endless reach

From wherever you may be you can access your security cameras as long as you have a WiFi connection or Cellular Data.

Able to communicate through Microphone

In the app you can communicate through the cameras, just unmute the microphone and talk.

Sound and movement notification 

iHeartCam detects movement and sounds, once detected you will receive a notification letting you know. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, iHeartCam is a great surveillance camera app that allows you to watch over and communicate with all the places you have set your cameras, from anywhere with a connection to WiFi or Cellular Data.

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3 Entrepreneurs Who Started Small and Ended Up Building an Empire

Starting from scratch was the beginning for many successful entrepreneurs we know today. These entrepreneurs started small, but they grew their companies to internationally recognized brands.

In this blog, we will talk about 3 examples of these entrepreneurs who started with little and created lucrative and recognized businesses.

1.Sam Walton. Walmart

Sam Walton was an American entrepreneur and businessman who founded the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club. 

In 1945 Walton began operating with his brother a regional chain of Ben Franklin variety stores in Newport, Arkansas, the store was a franchise of the Butler Brothers chain.

Walton was interested in expanding the franchise to rural areas, but the management company refused. So Walton decided to adopt a new concept for a chain of discount stores and base it in small towns.

In 1962 he opened the first Walmart store, at that time under the name Wal-Mart Discount City. The store offered a wide variety of American-made products at discount prices. Walmart became the world's largest corporation by revenue, as well as the world's largest private employer. 

In 1983 he founded Sam's Wholesales Club under the category of deeply discounted wholesale stores and five years later began opening Supercenters.

2. Jan Koum. Whatsapp

Jan Koum Is a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to the United States with his mother and faced circumstances of extreme poverty but still managed to build a billion-dollar company in just five years. Jan Koum invented the most widely used messaging app in the world, but before he got there, he lived a really difficult life.

For the first few years, he and his mother relied on federal assistance, such as welfare, and government housing. Despite these circumstances, Jan learned to code on his own and acquired the practical skills that enabled him to apply for a job in Yahoo, and worked there from 1997 to 2007. During those years he met the person who would become his future business partner, Brian Acton. 

In January 2009, Jan Koum and Brian Acton created WhatsApp as an easy-to-use messaging application that improved communication between friends and family around the world.

Five years later, they sold the app to Facebook for $19 billion.

3. Do Won Chang & Jin Sook. Forever 21

Some people may not recognize the names Won Chang and Jin Sook, but their fashion brand, Forever 21, is certainly well-known around the world. Forever 21 is a global retailer known for selling a variety of women's and men's fashion and accessories.

Won Chang and his wife Jin Sook moved to the United States from South Korea in 1981 and faced a rocky start. He worked 3 jobs, as a janitor, gas station attendant, and also worked in a cafeteria, while his wife worked as a hairdresser.

But years later they discovered that fashion could lead to success and in 1984 he and his wife opened the first Forever 21 store (called Fashion 21 at first) with just $11,000 in savings, and during the first-year sales reached $700,000. The retailer had its heyday in the early 2000s and in 2015, according to Forbes, Chang and Sook were worth a record $5.9 billion combined.

However, a few years ago Forever 21 faced its worst moment, in 2019 they announced its bankruptcy and began to close stores in different locations around the world. Eventually, the founders decided to sell the remaining assets of their bankrupt empire for $81 million, when years before Forever 21 it reached $4.4 billion in revenue.

To conclude, these examples of entrepreneurs show that no matter where you come from, or how much money you have at the moment, as long as you are willing to take the first step and pursue your dreams, the possibilities for success are endless.

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