Programs
Business
Programs
This page is meant to serve as a useful repository of programs found online all of which are meant to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) owners of all kinds in growing their business
Dress for Success is a non–profit organization that provides resources to women to thrive in the workplace and at home. This includes Dress for Success boutiques, where women can meet with a professional stylist to receive business attire, access job–search support, and learn about leadership opportunities.
Originally founded in New York and established in Canada in 1999, Dress for Success has 13 locations from coast to coast, including in southern Ontario, such as in Toronto, Kingston and Barrie.
Futurpreneur is a non–profit organization that provides financing, mentorship, and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18–39. Their mentorship programs match young entrepreneurs with business experts from a network of more than 2,600 volunteer mentors.
They partner with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to provide entrepreneurs with up to $60,000 in financing. The organization has helped launch the businesses of over 15,000 Canadian entrepreneurs in their 25 years of operations.
CanExport SMEs is a program that provides up to $50,000 in funding to help Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) break into new international markets. The program also covers up to 50% of costs for export marketing of products and services in international markets where an eligible SME may have little or no sales.
The program may also provide funding for gathering market intelligence, applying for intellectual property (IP) protection in international markets, and translating marketing materials.
The Forum Mentor Program is part of the Forum Mentor Initiative program that pairs women identifying entrepreneurs with successful mentors that provide guidance and support.
The program aims to help female-owned businesses at various stages with handling potential challenges or opportunities. The Forum Mentor program has been funded in part through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
The Growth Peer Mentorship for Women Business Owners Program is funded by the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and offers peer mentoring groups to women identifying business owners across Canada in English and French.
These peer groups help women business owners gain input and fresh perspectives to be better equipped for potential challenges. Each session is guided by an experienced entrepreneur and business owners learn alternative solutions and approaches, how to manage feeling overwhelmed and how to increase a business’s social network.
The RBC Alliance of Young Women Entrepreneurs program (AYWE) gives women the opportunity to become successful entrepreneurs by learning useful information for free from other successful business individuals.
Once enrolled in the program, young women-identifying entrepreneurs receive leadership coaching and business training through workshops, attend business conferences, have one-on-one business advisory sessions and receive guidance and they create a business plan.
The Toronto Public Library (TPL)’s Arts Mentor in Residence (ArtIR) program is for artists that want to learn about how they can use their art for entrepreneurial opportunities.
It involves an eight-week residency where applicants are enrolled to review arts based business ideas, artist statements,
portfolios, and one-on-one meetings. In the program, artists go through workshops,
lectures and meetups to receive feedback, recommendations, and useful sources that
would benefit an art-based business.
The Innovation Partnership
Program (IPP) is meant to support Canadian companies with innovative technologies to
“connect with international partners in key markets.” This is done through missions
which are visits to specific cities where participants learn how to do business in host
markets and network with the local innovations in the host city.
The Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) helps
Canadian entrepreneurs accelerate the development of their businesses and expand in international markets. The program uses expert instruction, peer learning, and one-on-one mentoring to help instill participants with the confidence they need to succeed in
international markets. Participants will leave the program with a clear “operational action
plan” that is reviewed directly by TAP’s expert mentors and former graduates have even
seen up to an average of 62% revenue growth within two years post-program.
Eureka is an international network for industrial research and development (R&D) collaboration that includes over 45 economies. Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) can use the Eureka platform to access global value chains and collaborations with international partners.
Eureka also encourages SMEs, large companies, research centres, universities, and other innovators to collaborate on market-driven industrial research and development (R&D). Some benefits of joining an Eureka project include access to funding, expert advice and global value chains.
The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) helps provide both financial and advisory support to any approved Canadian SMEs throughout the entire process of their international collaboration project.
The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service provides the Business Women in International Trade program to help Canadian women-owned and women-led businesses expand into global markets.
The program connects participants to various services, including international business delegations and events, funding opportunities and contacts with suppliers.
The Velocity Incubator supports early-stage businesses with connections, expertise, community, space and access to capital.
Founded by the University of Waterloo, Velocity helps founders build scalable companies during the earliest and riskiest time of building a business.
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