29Feb
Mentorship for Entrepreneurs

PME funded business Main & Local talks about their experience with mentors.

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s career when they are unable to make a decision or simply don’t know what to do, and require a certain amount of guidance. Asking for guidance is perfectly normal, but you must make sure you ask the right people. That is where mentors come in: a mentor is a successful professional that has experience in your industry, and helps your start-up by providing counseling and guidance.

Why do I need a mentor?

Getting a mentor can help you avoid some failure and will significantly shorten your learning curve: if you are unsure about which direction to take, you can ask your mentor instead of trying to do it yourself, and possibly doing it wrong. A mentor will also guide you. Sure, you are your own boss, but you still have to deal with investors, customers, and suppliers, so having a relationship with a mentor will increase your circle of confidants. Being an entrepreneur can also get quite exhausting emotionally and mentally: when you need support, you will always be able to turn to your mentor. If you are too emotionally invested in your start-up and can’t see things objectively, your mentor will be able to provide you with a fresh perspective.

Where can I find a mentor?

Note that some mentors work for free, under a volunteer model. Here are some examples of organizations that can help you find a free mentor:

ProMontreal Entrepreneurs: we match our mentor’s experiences to the needs of our mentees, and forge long-lasting relationships.
Yes Montreal: To apply to this mentorship program, you must be referred by a business coach. Yes Montreal mentorship provides entrepreneurs with a continuous mentorship relation for at least a year.

Other mentors require money for their services. The argument here is that mentors who have a monetary incentive are able to give better advice, and have better connections that they can introduce you to. Again, here are a couple of mentorship programs that function according to the paid model:

Highline: this organization offers a paid package where entrepreneurs can benefit from office space, mobile education, and access to a variety of mentors.
DreamIT: DreamIT is an accelerator that offers 3 to 4 month programs that include funding, training, and mentorship for experts across the United States.

I want to be a mentor. What’s in it for me?

Above all, there is the altruistic experience of helping a young entrepreneur seeking guidance and sharing your knowledge. Although this is a little cliché, changing an entrepreneur’s life can very well make your own life better. Furthermore, you never know where the relationship will take you: you might be pleasantly surprised. Many times mentors learn as much as the mentees do!

Apart from benefiting your own karma, mentoring will also benefit your career. Mentors are seen as more respected, knowledgeable professionals. You will improve your reputation in the business world, and will likely make new contacts that may be able to help you in the future.

Sounds tempting, right? If you are interested in becoming a mentor, why not consider ProMontreal Entrepreneurs. Our simple online application will get you mentoring young entrepreneurs in no time.

28Jan
Your Logo & Your Startup

What message is your logo sending to people? Is it aligned with the message you are trying to send? Colors, shapes and even font play a role in design elements. When you are at the stage of creating a logo for your start-up, you should considered your logo as an important tool in building your brand. The Infographic below created by Canadian plastic-card maker Colourfast, can give you a good sense of whether your logo is conveying the message you are trying to send.

20Jan
7 Ways To Get Funded

7Jan
Risk-Taking in Business

Any person who has ever achieved anything meaningful would most likely agree that success requires dedication, hard work, sacrifice and risk taking: nothing comes easy and nothing is simply given to you.

The ability to take on inancial risk is very important when it comes to finding investors. When you ask an investor to invest in your start-up, you are essentially asking them to take a risk. If you, in return are not willing to take any financial risk, your investor won’t do so either. The ability to tolerate risk shows confidence, a quality that investors certainly consider. Furthermore, this helps you build a relationship of trust between your start-up and investors.

If you do not invest any of your own money into your business, this shows external investors that you are not confident about your start-up, and that you are not committed to its growth. If you are not confident in your product, don’t expect the investor to be.

It is true that not all risks end up in a great rewards: risks can sometimes lead to failure. Although this can result in financial setbacks, it is also an opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Sometimes, a financial setback can open new paths for your business, or provide you with different opportunities. Keep in mind that failure is not final. Business consultant Steve Siebold claims that “the bigger [entrepreneurs] are, the more they’ve typically failed”.

At some point, every start-up will have to deal with risks. They are an important tool to build relationships with investors, and can lead to significant economic growth. Remember that taking risks does not mean being careless: do your homework, understand the potential gains or losses, and analyze the situation before making a decision.

24Nov
Working in an Incubator

Jonathan Bercu of PME-funded business “Tryb” discusses the pros and cons of working in an incubator.

Bootstrapping can be beneficial for some entrepreneurs: it teaches them how to spend wisely, lets them make more profit, and lets them keep full control of their company. However, this approach does not work for everyone, and some startups prefer to work in incubators.

Incubators are organizations designed to help the development of startups by providing them different services, from management training to co-working space. However, there is a competitive admission process, and every incubator has its own criteria and requirements, as well as types of help they will provide to your startup; things like mentorship, expertise, access to investors, and in some cases, working capital in the form of a loan. This shows, once more, that you must do your research to find the incubator that is right for you. Before you apply however, here are some pros and downsides to consider about entering an incubator.

Pros

Using the shared working space and supplies provided by an incubator, allows you to reduce your overhead while you grow.
Networking: if you have a problem that is just to difficult for you to solve, you will have a multitude of peers in your incubator to help you out. In an incubator, you can work with other entrepreneurs and learn for their mistakes before you make them yourself.
Incubators also provide training and other resources for you to grow your business. You will have access to seasoned mentors that can give you advice and insight and they will challenge you with questions, you never though of asking yourself.
Incubators can help you identify resources in your area, be it human resources, government programs, or financing. You will be able to discover lots of new opportunities that can grow your start-up.

Downsides

Office space will be free, but it also has its downsides: you will have adapt to your environment, and there will be lots of distractions.
The application process can be rigorous and competitive. For most incubators, an applicant is required to submit a detailed business plan.
Some incubators will tempt you with high promises and great opportunities, but will not deliver. Others will impose different conditions such as equity, for example. Speak to entrepreneurs who are already in the incubator to gain a first-hand review.
Many incubators require a time commitment and a adherence to the schedule set by the incubator, which can include many training’s and workshops. Yes, you will learn a lot, but you’ll also spend a fair amount of time doing it.

If the downsides of applying to an incubator are too much for you to handle, you can stop reading this post and make more productive use of your time. If, however, joining an incubator is something that interests you, here are a few good places in Montreal:

District 3

District 3 is located at Concordia University and offers office space, startup programs, as well as one-on-one coaching. District 3 offers a place for entrepreneurs, creatives and engineers to come together and develop their startups.

Centech-ETS

Centech is an incubator that offers financial aid, office space, and specialized training to tech startups. Being a start-up at Centech will also provide you will access to different tech events across the city, as well as an annual golf tournament!

InnoCitéMTL

This brand-new accelerator and incubator is aimed at making Montreal a model digital city, and ties closely to Denis Coderre’s Montreal Smart City plan. It offers pitch and demo sessions, and provides workshops, funding, and office space for its startups.

McGill X-1

McGill University’s new X-1 accelerator program, is an intensive 10-week summer program to learn the skills to become better entrepreneurs. The program is composed of a speaker-series, mentorship, workshops, advisory board meetings and time-to-build hours. The three core pillars of the program focus on customer relations, the product and the business model.

These are just a few of the incubators available in the city of Montreal. If none of these tickle your fancy, consult a full list of Montreal incubators by downloading our entrepreneurship guide. Remember to research the incubator that is right for you, in order to maximize the benefits of growth and experience for your startup.

13Oct
Mastering Your Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is an ice breaker that will hopefully lead into a deeper dialogue about yourself and your start-up. It should be delivered in 60 seconds, the average time of an elevator ride. Your main goal in this pitch is to convey important information about yourself and your business, and encourage questions and interest from your prospect. Since you have a tight time frame, you should rehearse your pitch a lot! Ideally, your elevator pitch should be separated in 5 parts:

Who you are: “My name is Katherine and I’m the Program Manager at ProMontreal Entrepreneurs.”
What you do: “I provide coaching and information on the entrepreneurial ecosystem for start-ups in Montreal. I also manage a start-up fund.”
Elaborate: “I have guided [business name] since their very beginning, and I have helped them with identifying investors and setting them up with amazing mentors. Years later, they are one of the most competitive companies in their field.”
Leave them wanting more. Elevator pitches are meant to be short, so don’t try to pack in too much. Just enough to peak curiosity and hopefully have a follow-up meeting.
Closure: Stay in touch. Give out a business card and send them an email about something that helps them. “I really enjoyed meeting you. Here is my card, I’ll be sure to send you the address to that restaurant I was talking to you about.”

These are the basic guidelines for a successful elevator pitch. Here are some dos and don’ts to help you build a good pitch:

State some names: universities, awards, business name: you need to give the listener something to remember you by. You should try to say your business name a few times in your pitch.
Show your excitement and enthusiasm about your start-up. Be positive. State your goals, accomplishments, and positive experiences. Don’t say negative things about past projects, employers or other start-ups.
Be confident
End with a question. Your elevator pitch is not a one sided monologue, it is an interaction. After your presentation is over, ask a question to the person, including them in the conversation.

Don’t

Sound rehearsed. Your elevator pitch should sound like a conversation, not a prepared speech. Be natural
Don’t hesitate to develop different versions of your Elevator Speech for different situations and audiences.
Speak for too long. Your pitch should be one minute long at the most. The more you talk, the more chances you have of boring the other person.
Don’t forget to include your competitive advantage also known as your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Try to sell your product. This is where people will lose interest in you. An elevator pitch should, once again, be conversational: you don’t want to put any pressure on your prospect, or make them feel like you are trying to close a sale.

7Oct
All About Pricing

Your vision is amazing, and your product is great. However, making a great product and selling it are two different things. And without sales, your dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur won’t go very far. The first step, and one of the most delicate in an effective sales campaign, is to price your product. When it comes to pricing your product, here are a few things to consider:

What is the customer willing to pay for my product?

Pricing the product is not only about you, but also about the customer. Find out what your product is actually worth. You can use surveys and customer research to accurately price your product.

Furthermore, you have to consider your competitors’ pricing. If customers are willing to pay $5 for your product but can get it from your competitor at $4, why should they buy from you? Price your product accordingly, for it to be competitive on the market. If your product is vastly better in quality than your competitors’, you can justify raising the price.

What kind of pricing strategy should I choose?

As the price of your products goes down, you will access a larger market, but will have to increase sales. Consequently, when the price of your product goes up, your market will be much more reserved, but you will have to sell fewer products to make profit. Balance this relationship until you have found your ideal customer base. You can always adjust your prices in order to meet your customers’ needs.

Decide on a pricing strategy. There are two options to choose from: market skimming, or market penetration. Market skimming involves introducing your product onto the market at a high price to account for potentially low initial sales. If your business is new and relatively unknown to the public, this may be a good strategy. As you establish your customer-base and production costs start to decrease, you can begin to lower the price of your product incrementally (i.e. skim the price). However, be sure that you can justify the high price with quality and add-ons (customer service, support, shipping, etc).

How do I want to sell my product?

Consider different options when it comes to selling your product. You can bill your customers with one-time payments, but also with monthly or yearly subscriptions. This will allow you to not only make the sale, but to keep the customer coming back and renewing. Depending on what kind of product or service you are selling, you should consider different payment plans.

Create different options for your customers to buy: three is ideal. You can have a basic, upgraded, and premium option. By doing so, you will attract a larger market by selling your basic version but will still be able to make sales to people who want a little more with your premium option. Consider a computer: you can buy the same brand for $400, $1000, $2000, etc.

Discounts, benefits, bundles.
This is an important step in pricing your product. You need to create some kind of initiative for customers to buy your product. You can do this in different ways:

• Discounts: Discounts are good to attract a boost in sales or new customers, but they should not be overused. If your product can only sell during discounts, there might be something wrong with the product or the pricing.
• Bundles: Again, don’t overuse this. By promoting sales in bundles, your sales will inevitably go up, but your profit per item sold will decrease. Balance your prices and bundle quantities accordingly.
• Benefits: This can work in two ways. You can create some kind of monetary benefit (buy five and get the next one free kind of deal) for your regular buyers in order to secure a solid customer base. The second way, which is a lot harder to achieve, is to create a social benefit. In this case, customers will partly be buying your product for the social status it gives them, and not only for the product itself. Think of expensive watches, cars, etc.
In order to sell your product at a high price, you have to ask yourself: have I given the customer a reason to pay more for my product? In order to sell your product at a competitive rate, you need to bring something that your competition does not offer. This can be clear differences or perceived differences. Let’s say you are selling coffee for example: if your coffee is simply better than anything else on the market, this is a clear difference that will allow you to raise your price. If, however, your coffee is average but has a fair-trade policy as well as an environmental one, this is a perceived difference.
Remember that once your pricing is done, it is not set forever. You will often have to change your prices due to competitors, supply and demand factors, and discounts. Do your research, evaluate your product, and set a price!

30Sep
Angel Investors

Sometimes, big venture capital firms are not the answer to funding your start-up. A good alternative is angel investors.

Angel investors are usually wealthy individuals who want to invest in a start-up with their own money in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equality. Contrary to popular belief, angel investors are not that hard to find. Here are a few places where you can start your search:

Your personal network. An angel investor can be anyone with enough money to be able to believe and invest in your start-up. Ask your friends, family members, or other connections: maybe they happen to know such a person.
Attend events such as the International Start-Up Festival, where angel investors can often be found. The goal of these kinds of events is to facilitate the connection between entrepreneurs and angel investors. Make sure to print out some business cards and rehearse your elevator pitch!
Browse online directories to find angel investors near you. The biggest and most important directory of angel investors is AngelList. With the growth of the Internet, angel investors are now easy to find: check out some local sites like Anges Quebec, and connect with an investor you are interested in.

You may be wondering why you would want to trust an angel investor? Although they are individuals rather than firms or banks, angel investors do have their benefits:

If your Startup is not in the Tech industry, a VC investor will be hard to find. Angel investors however, tend to invest in many different verticals, so you can broaden your start-ups financial access.
The selection process and due diligence is done relatively fast, so you can expect your money to arrive quickly. Also, it will most likely arrive in one large payment, as opposed to meeting certain benchmarks for installments to be made.
Angels can be more accessible when larger firms: since you are dealing with an individual, it is easier to build a connection and see what they are interested in. Remember they can be living a block away from you!
Angel investors are more likely to take big risks: as they either have experience with entrepreneurship or have a personal relationship with you. They understand the implied risks and will not constrain you as much as financial institutions would.

Sounds like a good deal, right? However, despite their benefits, angel investors also have disadvantages:

As they take a lot of risk and invest personal money, angel investors expect a very high rate of return, sometimes over 25%.
Since they are investing their own money into your start-up, angel investors will want to be kept informed of all of your company’s actions and decisions. You investor may also feel entitled and will want to take an active role in your start-up’s decision making process.
Your investor’s money is not a loan, so you don’t have to repay it. Although this could also be an advantage, it will lead you to lose money if your start-up is extremely successful. You will have to give your angel an equity for the deal, which could add up to a lot of money in the long run.

Angel investors are good alternative if you can’t, or simply don’t want to deal with big venture capital firms. However, make sure you pick your angel investor wisely, and consider all aspects and consequences of the deal before you make a decision. Remember that although angel investors seem like a sweet deal, it may lead you to losing money or losing control of your start-up in the long run. As always, do your research.

22Sep
Incorporating a Business in Quebec

Incorporating

Incorporating a business is usually highly advantageous for entrepreneurs, but can be a long and complicated process. When a business is incorporated, it becomes legally separate from its owners, and can act independently from them. According to the Entrepreneur website, incorporating a company provides the company with most of the legal rights granted to individuals, with the exception of voting rights.

The biggest advantage of incorporating a business is the limited liability that it brings to the owners. Once a business is incorporated, it becomes a separate legal entity. Any debt that it has or any outstanding loans are the responsibility of the company itself, not its owners. If the company goes bankrupt, the individual finances of the owners are not affected, and any claims against the assets of a corporation are not the responsibility of its shareholders.

However, incorporation comes with enormous amounts of paperwork that, although it is a separate legal entity, the company can’t fill out itself. Owners must constantly document all major activities and transactions made by the corporation. Filing these documents becomes a lot more complicated once the company is incorporated.

In every Canadian province, the laws concerning business incorporation are different. However, you may choose to incorporate under the federal jurisdiction or under a provincial jurisdiction. As a general rule, if your company is active in only one province, incorporate provincially. If it is active in more than one province, incorporate federally. Incorporating provincially is less expensive, but usually takes a lot more time, and has a weaker name protection policy. Furthermore, you will only have to file one set of annual corporate fillings, while you will have to file two on the federal level, making things a little more complicated. Some provinces have unique rules: for example, Quebec is the only Canadian province that has no residency requirements for Directors. In Quebec, here are the steps to incorporating your business:

Establish the name of your business

If you decide to name your business, the process of incorporation will be longer and more demanding. Provincial laws dictate that the company name be French, but is allowed to have an English version. However, the English version must be a direct translation. You can also number your company: the government will automatically select a number for you, which will greatly speed up the process.

Designate your head office and company leaders

The company must have a residential or commercial address in Quebec. If it does not, you may have to consider getting a Virtual Office. After your address is set, you must provide the Director of the company, along with his or her personal details: this personal does not necessarily have to be a Canadian citizen. The company must also have officers: the government of Quebec requires each company to appoint a President and a Secretary. Finally you must provide the government with the names and addresses of the shareholders of your company: each company must have between 1 and 50 shareholders.

Structure your business

You need to provide the government with the number of employees that you have as well as with all of your company’s business activities. Furthermore, all companies must determine, at the time of incorporation, their capital stock structure, restrictions on stock transfer, and limitations on business activities.

Incorporating your business has many advantages, but it must be done right. Before incorporating, consider speaking to a legal expert to make sure you meet of the criteria and that your business is ready for that next step.

17Sep
Processus de demande du fonds promontreal entrepreneurs