Canada Is The World’s Best Country For Business

In the past, I wrote an article about Canada’s being the best country in the world. In a real world, being the best country does not usually mean the best country for business as well. However, one country on earth has defied that assumption and ranked number one as the world’s top country for business. Canada is that country and that’s why global entrepreneurs are flocking to Canada. After all, who wants to miss the rare opportunity of living and doing business in a country which is number one in all criteria of living and business?

Prestigious Forbes magazine recently compiled their annual list of the best countries for business and Canada ranks as the world’s best country for business. Canada is up to number 1 after coming up from number 4 last year. Ford’s ranking is based on 11 criteria in 134 countries. Here are the top 10 countries for 2011:

- Canada
- New Zealand
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Denmark
- Singapore
- Sweden
- Norway
- Britain
- Unites States

Here are some of factors that placed Canada as the world’s top country for business:

- Canada’s overall tax burden went up to the 9th spot from 2010’s 23rd spot.
- While Europe and the U.S. struggles with debt crisis and double-dip recession fears, Canada’s banks survived the financial crisis and its economy has held up well.
-  Canada’s 1.6 Trillion dollar economy is the ninth biggest in the world.
- Canadian economy grew 3.1 percent last year and is expected to grow 2.4 percent  
   in 2011.
- Canada’s unemployment rate is 7.3 percent, while U.S. has above 9 percent and the
   Eurozone unemployment rate is 10 percent.
- Canada’s reduced corporate rate is attractive and it keeps falling.

According to Forbes, it is easy to start a business in Canada due to good investor protection and the lack of red tape, among many other factors. Entrepreneurs are taking note of Canada across the globe and it is no wonder global entrepreneurs are flocking to the best country to live and the best place for business in the world.  

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Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs, but they work on a larger scale. Instead of concentrating on a business or an entity, social entrepreneurs concentrate on social problems and issues and use entrepreneurial skills to solve or change social issues to make society work or societal systems to work better, efficiently, and in harmony with nature and environment.

Social entrepreneurs can work in a voluntary or not-for-profit environment, or can also work in a non-voluntary or for-profit environment, just like a regular entrepreneur. However, their major goals are to concentrate on wide-scale social problems and to offer solutions for entire societies for a better tomorrow.

Social entrepreneurs are visionaries and practical minded to see what the real issues are and how practical the implementations will be. They avoid impractical and unrealistic solutions that may falter for the society as a whole, or solutions that may not be cost-effective or realistic for the long run.

Business entrepreneurs wait to seize the opportunity to identify and come up with products or services to change the face of businesses, to create whole new industries or create brand new markets. Social entrepreneurs take a similar approach, but on a different aspect. They seize the opportunities to change society and various societal systems that bound societies together with innovative solutions and strategies on a mass level for the society and its people.

Let’s look at a few very well-known social entrepreneurs:

Muhammad Yunus – Yunus, a noble laureate, invented microcredit, a loan system that awards very small loans to the poor for starting entrepreneurship.
John Muir – An American naturalist, worked to preserve nature and wilderness. He is the one who established the national park system and also the founder of the Sierra Club.
Florence Nightingale – The founder of modern professional nursing. She also established the first school for nurses. She dedicated and sacrificed her life to improve the health and welfare of all people.

The social entrepreneurs I just mentioned above are only a few of many. However, I must admit that there are many social entrepreneurs out there who dedicated their lives in the past and are dedicating today which we have never heard of. These not-so-known individuals are dedicating their time and life behind the scenes for us to have a better future tomorrow, and I would like to state my appreciation and homage for them. You are inspirations to all of us.

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What Are Entrepreneur Attributes?

So you want to be an entrepreneur? Well, do you think you have the attributes that are needed to be an entrepreneur? Well, here are just a few of the attributes you need to make sure you are successful as an entrepreneur.

First of all, you need to be a leader. Leaders are the ones who take charge and make things happen. As a leader, you know how to get things done and that is a useful skill to have when you are an entrepreneur. You will lead your company and you will know the type of people you want around you in order to be successful. According to Robert B. Reich, leadership is the most important quality to have as an entrepreneur. As a leader, you will see opportunities around you and you will know to act upon them. You will be able to solve problems and recognize the solutions before you.

As an entrepreneur, you may be working with someone else at first in a company that you are en employee of. However, as you are a leader you will soon want to get out of that situation and away from your peers so you can stand out. This is where two more attributes come in; risk-taking and extroversion. Extroversion is very important because you need to be out-going so you can win clients and get people over to your company. However, more importantly, you need to be willing to take risks. This is because you will need to take risks to be successful. According to experts, an entrepreneur is a risk-taker because they know how to be innovative, how to increase their efficiency and productivity and how to generate new services that people may not even realize they need.

As an entrepreneur, you will see opportunities before you and you will know how to make them work to your advantage. When others are simply watching the world go by, you will be a person who stops the world so that you can achieve what you want.

There is the belief that men make better entrepreneurs than women but this is false. There have been many studies and they show that men and women both have the same type of attributes that will make them successful as an entrepreneurs. If you believe that as a woman, or as a man, you are not suited to be an entrepreneur then you need to begin to challenge yourself so that you can be a successful entrepreneur.

Of course, just because you do not have these attributes that does not mean you won’t be successful. The important thing is that you know how to challenge yourself to make things happen in your life. If you can do this, then you will be successful. If you can just get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, you will be amazed at what you can achieve in your life. All you can do is try and see where you go with it.

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Being An Entrepreneur With A Strange Idea

When we think of successful entrepreneurs, we think of Richard Branson and Bill Gates, two people who made huge companies out of nothing, making things people need. However, being an entrepreneur also means taking an idea no one has, and turning it into something people will want, even though they do not need what you are selling. Case in point, the pet rock, possibly one of the greatest entrepreneur stories of all time.

Gary Dahl was just an advertising executive from Los Gatos, California, when he hit upon a strange idea. He was sitting in a bar in 1975, listening to friends complain about their pets. From this, he hit upon the idea of creating the perfect pet, which led to the idea of selling rocks to people, complete with instructions. The manual stated that a rock did not need to be fed, walked, bathed, groomed, would not die, become sick or disobey you. He drafted the manual that night at home for the pet rock, filling it with gags and puns and making it seem as though the pet rock was an actual pet.

Dahl then went to a building supply store and bought a bunch of rocks, which he put in cardboard boxes with straw in them and breathing holes. In 1975, Dahl created Rock Bottom Productions, which sold rocks for $3.95. The manual was 32 pages long and was called The Care And Training Of Your Pet Rock, and had everything for caring for your pet rock including feeding and bathing it. It also showed how to teach the rock to sit and stay and even how to roll over, come and stand with help from the owner.  The expenses for this venture were minimal, with the biggest expense being the die cutting and manufacture of the boxes. The boxes themselves cost one penny, while the straw was free. Dahl also had a printing job for a client and had the manuals printed as part of it, meaning he had nearly no expenses for the pet rock.

The pet rock fad lasted for six months in total, but during that short run, which hit the Christmas season, millions of pet rocks were sold. From getting the idea for a pet rock in April 1975, to December 1975 when the fad ended, Dahl became a millionaire based on an idea most would have thought of as completely insane and doomed to failure.

The point of this story is to show that strange ideas can make a lot of money if you know how to market it properly. Selling rocks to people may seem stupid, but it made one man millions of dollars and it has served as an example of how being an entrepreneur can mean following your dreams and ideas and seeing them pay off for yourself. Sure, it only lasted six months but Dahl has more money than he needs now because he took a risk, which is what being an entrepreneur is all about.

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Every field has those who excel, and entrepreneurship is just a further example of that. There are those who do well as entrepreneurs, and then there are those who do amazingly well. They are the ones who excel at what they do, and move forward in life to greatness. So, who are these entrepreneurs and what did they do to make themselves so successful?

• Richard Branson: One of the most famous men on Earth, he is known for his adventures just as much as he is for his business. Branson dropped out of school at the age of 16 and began a magazine called Student Magazine. From there, he went on to form Virgin Records, which signed some of the best bands of the 70s. Moving forward, he then created an entire Virgin brand that has 360 companies within it, including an airline and the world’s first space tourist service.
• Coco Chanel: Growing up as an orphan, Chanel worked as a seamstress to make ends meet. She had a strong drive that pushed her to try new things and learn new things, and that allowed her to create fashion ideas that would revolutionize what people wore. These days, she is known as much for her perfume, Chanel No. 5, as she is for her extremely profitable business.
• Michael Dell: Starting with $1,000 from home, Michael Dell dropped out of college and created PC’s Limited, which would become Dell Inc. From there, he created through drive and determination, one of the most successful computer manufacturing companies on the entire planet.
• Bill Gates: The richest man on Earth from 1995 to 2006, Gates dropped out of college and began Microsoft with a friend. With revolutionary new ways for users to use computers, Gates not only helped start the computer revolution, but helped to change the world in the process.
• Henry Ford: Speaking of changing the world, Henry Ford started off small as an apprentice when he was 16 and would go on to found the Ford Motor Company. Through his amazing concept of assembly line production, Ford not only changed how people made cars, but he made them more affordable for the masses and his concept of assembly lines changed the world in everything from clothing to food.
• Walt Disney: His name is known to all of us, and this high school dropout started off as just an animator who created a company that has become iconic. Thanks to starting off making cartoons with a mouse named Mickey, Disney and his company have gone on to create theme parks around the world, while making an estimated $30 billion a year.

These are just a few of the most successful entrepreneurs in history. If you want to be successful, it would be a good idea to learn their story and see how they were able to find such immense success in the working world. If they can do it, so can you.

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How To Become An Entrepreneur

A lot of people want to start their own business because that allows them to take their career into their own hands. In tough economic times, working for someone else is not always guaranteed and there is often very few jobs to choose from. As a result, many people will start to be an entrepreneur because they want to own their own business and be in charge of their own lives. So, how do you go about being an entrepreneur? Just do the following:

1. Think of a great idea that you believe will be something you are interested in. If you are providing a service, make sure it is something that you are going to love doing. If you are making a product, look at how much it costs to make, whether it will be popular and how long each product takes you to make. You should do a test market for your product or service to determine who will want the product so you can know who to sell to.
2. You need to do up a business plan and this is very important. The business plan is what ensures that you start your business off on the right track. Through the business plan you are stating how you will make money, what you will be selling, who you will be selling to and what you hope to gain from the business. Other things that make up a business plan is an assessment of your competition, your marketing plan, sales forecasts and the analysis of the market you are getting into.
3. If you need money, you should look at getting a small business loan or going to venture capitalists. Not all businesses can be started for nothing, so you may need a loan or investment. However, if you can start a home business without borrowing money, then all the better as you can start making a profit much quicker.
4. It is very important that you do what you can to network with other entrepreneurs. By doing that, you can ensure that you are meeting with people in your industry who can serve as mentors. Networking gives you the ability to tap into a wealth of knowledge that will ensure your business stays successful for many years to come.
5. The last thing you need to remember when you want to know how to be an entrepreneur, is to do everything you can to make your business successful. This means working long hours, talking with people, doing cold calls and more. As an entrepreneur you need to be a public relations expert, a marketer, an innovator, a sales person and more, all rolled into one. It is not always the easiest job in the world, but it does have its rewards and it can be something you truly enjoy.

There is much to remember if you want to be an entrepreneur but it all comes down to doing what you love, knowing how to be successful and having the drive to make yourself successful.

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Why Are Entrepreneurs Different?

Due to the global financial meltdown and corporate downsizing, the concept of entrepreneurship has steadily captured the attention of the general public. Statistics Canada reports that self-employment increased by 4.3 per cent between October 2008 and October 2009. However, the interesting part is the rise in entrepreneurship was not the main cause of people losing jobs due to economic downturn, as the characteristics of those who lost jobs did not resemble the characteristics of those that became entrepreneurs.

There are various factors leading people to become entrepreneurs. However, there are some characteristics entrepreneurs have in common. I contemplate these “special” characteristics all the time; today, I decided to mention some of them I can think of off the top of my head.

Entrepreneurs Go Against The Norms of Society – We are programmed by our society from a young age to go to school, get a job, make someone else (most likely a corporation) rich, and one day retire or die while making that person or entity rich. Entrepreneurs break these traditional societal norms and the vicious cycle of making someone else rich by exiting the traditional comfort zone and trying something beyond the ordinary.

Integrity – Integrity leads the way to becoming courageous and taking necessary risks to becoming successful in a business. Entrepreneurs earn credibility by sticking to their principles and values, thus attracting more business (because people always want to do with business with someone they can trust and feel comfortable dealing with) in their respective fields.

Determination, Dedication, and Hard Work – Determination, dedication, and hard work lead to the bridge to success. The majority of non-entrepreneurs are lacking the combination of these three virtues. Drop any one from these three, and the other two will be meaningless.

A Receptive Mind – Entrepreneurs are always learning new things and they are always on the lookout for new knowledge.

Time Is Precious – Our time is very limited on Earth. We all have two options regarding the use of our limited time: we can make someone else rich by working for someone else, or we can use this limited time to work for ourselves, making ourselves rich and spending this limited time our own way. Entrepreneurs pick the latter one.

Life Starts Now – Entrepreneurs do not want to start life at 69 when they need hip replacement surgery. Regular people wait to start life at 69, once they retire. Entrepreneurs have already started their lives and living their life. The time is NOW, there is no need to wait for life to start at 69 (after having hips replaced).

Higher Degree of Frustration, Rejection, and Criticism Tolerance – Entrepreneurs can tolerate frustrations, rejections, and criticisms a lot better than non-entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs gather feedback from these obstacles and put them into productive use.

Discipline and Self-Control – Entrepreneurs have the ability to manage emotions and live a disciplined life.

Tenacity – Entrepreneurs practise enormous persistency and never give up on their dreams.

Optimism – Entrepreneurs always have a positive outlook about everything and about life in general. They always believe in a positive future and lay out a solid roadmap to reach the future.

Do you have these in you? If you want to be an entrepreneur and think you are missing some or all of them, there is no need to worry. We were not born with these characteristics, and they can be learned. If you are determined to be an entrepreneur and have the willingness to change, you will be an entrepreneur one day. When that happens, it will be my pleasure to greet you saying, “Welcome to the club!” I am looking forward to that day.

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Taking Your Employment into Your Own Hands

In tough economic times, you may want to find ways to secure your employment and secure your paycheck. There are many ways to do this, and pretty much none of them involve working for someone else. In the 21^st century, more and more people are beginning to learn that working for someone else is not the way to go. When you work for someone else, you are putting your life in their hands and as has been seen with corporations over and over, shareholders are more important than employees. Why show loyalty for a company that may fire you to save money? In addition, if you work very hard you might get promoted but the chances are you will not. The harder you work, the same you will get paid. Why should those above you benefit from the work you do?

This is why being an entrepreneur is such a great idea. When you are in charge of your own life and you are in charge of your own career, you get several benefits. First, as an entrepreneur, you can work in an industry that you love. If you like doing yard work, start a yard work company. If you love graphic design, then begin doing graphic design from home. All of this can easily be done through being the owner of your own business. The other big benefit of being your own boss is that when the company does well, you do well. If you work hard and make an extra $50,000 for the company, then that entire $50,000 goes to you. If you have employees, you can treat them the way you wanted to be treated when you were an employee. Being your own boss puts the power in your hands and it can be one of the most satisfying things in your life.

These days, being your own boss is easier than ever. In the past, when you owned a business in your area, your customer base was only the people who could get to your store. This would greatly limit the potential for your company. However, with the creation of the internet, your customer base goes from a few hundred to a few million thanks to the ability to make money online with an internet business. Whether it is selling services online, or just selling products, the sky is the limit when you are working for yourself from your home with a business that you have online.

Another great thing that the internet does for you is it allows is it provides you with the resources of individuals who have been their own boss for years. These resources can teach you how to be a boss and how to make your business successful. Websites like EntrepreneurJourney.com help you by giving you the ability to be successful with your online business. Whether you are delving into e-commerce by selling products online, marketing yourself through social media marketing, or just doing some freelance writing, being your own boss is something you will come to love, especially when you are making a good living at it.

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