For the past 26 years, Futurpreneur has been fueling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprises.
They are the only national nonprofit organization that gives budding entrepreneurs between 18 and 39 access to funding, mentoring, and support resources. Through their renowned mentoring program, they carefully connect aspiring business owners with a network of more than 2,400 volunteer mentors to help them create profitable ventures that support the long-term economic growth of their communities and Canada.
Futurepreneur prioritizes diversity and inclusion and is dedicated to implementing it in all its projects and programs. They are a mission-driven company, motivated by its goal of fostering the success of young entrepreneurs to promote inclusive Canadian prosperity.
Their core values believe in being collegial and collaborative. They believe in the power of teamwork and the importance of community. They cooperate with colleagues and partners across the country and foster a caring and supportive culture. They are a company that keeps accountability and transparency at the forefront.
Futurpreneur’s Programs Helping Entrepreneurs
Futurpreneur’s programs offer finance, mentoring, and business support at every stage of business.
Pre-launching Coaching
In their pre-launching coaching, Futurepreneur offers to launch a business webinar series. Their Entrepreneur-In-Residence is an engaging webinar that takes aspiring entrepreneurs through key questions to determine their progress with their business idea.
The webinar outlines how to be part of the Entrepreneur-In-Residence program and free coaching sessions for entrepreneurs who want to launch their businesses.
Online Resources
Futurepreneur provides business resources like tools, articles, and a business plan writer to help entrepreneurs create a viable business plan. Their interactive Business Plan Writer has been designed to simplify the business planning process. It is a dynamic tool that allows you to customize your plan and provides tips, tricks, and examples to guide you as you write.
They provide an entrepreneurship pathway, which is their recommended route to success. From developing your idea to launching your business, Futurepreneur provides resources for every step of the journey, which is organized into four key stages in a start-up’s life cycle.
These four stages can be dealt with in any fashion, with no predefined order and can be considered based on the start-up’s needs.
Develop- The first stage of any business is developing a business idea that requires resources to help cultivate and identify good ideas and clearly define and communicate them.
Explore- It is crucial to explore and find resources to help you research and test different aspects of your business model.
Build- Only after validating the business ideas through research and testing can one start to build a plan. This stage requires the key components of marketing, operations and financial planning.
Launch- when the aspiring entrepreneur feels confident with their plans and has secured enough capital to execute the business, Futurepreneur provides tools and resources for effective post-launch navigation.
Financing
Futurpreneur Canada can finance up to $20,000 per business, and their partner, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), can provide additional financing of up to $40,000.
With diversity and inclusion as core values, Futurpreneur supports young Canadian entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, helping them launch and grow successful businesses.
Their programs support entrepreneurs, Black entrepreneurs, and Indigenous entrepreneurs between the ages of 18-39 with up to $60,000* in financing, two years of mentorship, access to resources and networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs across Canada to bring their business plan to life.
They offer collateral-free loans at better interest rates and can finance up to $20,000 per business. Additionally, BDC may provide up to $40,000.
Mentoring
Futurepreneur provides mentors who give business advice, support, and encouragement to help young entrepreneurs remain focused on what is important for the success of their businesses.
Under their mentorship program, one can receive mentorship or become a mentor.
Having a mentor is key to success in business, as they help motivate and reassure, enhance community connections, and help focus on the short- and long-term goals. In addition, sharing your years of knowledge and experience gained by volunteering as a mentor can profoundly impact a young person’s life.
Futurpreneur Canada values their volunteer mentors and recognizes their tremendous contributions to the future of young entrepreneurs and their businesses. Hence, they provide their mentors with learning opportunities and resources such as templates and case studies with thought-provoking questions and best practice solutions. They also offer professional development to their mentors throughout the year.
Growth Accelerator Program
Futurepreneur’s Growth Accelerator is a program offered exclusively in English. It is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to take their businesses to new heights. The virtual program brings together a select group of young entrepreneurs from all over the nation, allowing them to network and exchange ideas as they grow their companies.
The program’s benefits include a peer-to-peer support group of like-minded entrepreneurs, access to coaching from subject matter experts, industry-specific knowledge and skills provided by their partners, and networking opportunities with experts, coaches, and other cohort members.
Growth Accelerator topics 2022 include supply chain and operations, pitching to buyers, organic social media following and influencers, E-commerce, digital marketing and paid advertisements, expanding markets, environmental impact and sustainability and many more.
Futurepreneur helps create momentum and sets your business idea in the right direction. To know more about their programs and services, visit their website at https://www.futurpreneur.ca/en/.
Programs and initiatives to help a business launch and grow are important. To read more about these accelerator programs and companies, subscribe to CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. For the latest updates, visit our Twitter page at @canadian_sme.
