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Reflections on 20 Years of Innovation by Judy Sander

Behind every strong Entrepreneur is a good mentor, who coaches the entrepreneur on their journey. At The Innovation Centre, we strongly believe that mentors can help businesses who are at any stage. Recently we held an event where the goal was to match entrepreneurs with mentors to help grow businesses in Northwestern Ontario. Here are 5 things we learned from the event as to why all entrepreneurs should have a mentor:

Every so often we have innovators come into the Innovation Centre and say “I have an idea but I don’t know how to actually make it.” Often they need an engineer to draft up their idea which is an expensive road to take. All too often these innovators take a sharp U-turn and I never see them again. In the last 5 years, a new road in the form of a Makerspace has emerged giving innovators hope. For those new, to the idea of a Makerspace they are a co-working space outfitted with a variety of equipment and tools that are used by community members to make something new and creative.

Starting a business is a long road. Through the numerous iterations of validating your idea, tweaking your prototype and all the other building blocks a successful start-up needs surmount it can often feel like you’re alone in this endeavor. But having a solid start-up ecosystem can help alleviate some of those daily concerns. At a micro scale a ‘hub’ means having others around to bounce ideas off of; to challenge your assumptions; and to celebrate your successes big and small. At a more macro scale, a ‘hub’ means a city of region that is inviting to entrepreneurs, one that is open to trying new innovations, and one that has the expertise within to support these start-ups.

We recently launched our 4 th Costarter Accelerator cohort.  This program offers an initial investment of $15,000 and 3 months of support, space and connections to five early stage companies.  The launch of the 2019 cohort caused me to pause and reflect on some lessons learned from previous years.

Whether your business is small or large, the right talent can make or break whether your organization can succeed at the next level. But how do you ensure you’re hiring the right people? In today’s world, prospective employees often have many options; so how do you win the talent war?