MOOSE JAW — Budding entrepreneurs across the province now have a new outlet to develop and apply their business skills.
It is the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre based at Sask Polytechnic in Moose Jaw. The centre aims to develop and apply the skills of young entrepreneurs in a manner that goes well beyond reading about business in a textbook.
Dr. Larry Rosia, president and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, was at the launch announcement in Moose Jaw last Thursday and explained why this is important.
He said entrepreneurship “is a big part of Saskatchewan. We have the highest concentration of small businesses, and most of those businesses are started by entrepreneurs.”
Rosia said they had been working on this for about a year because they had identified a gap that their business students and business program can solve.
“We're witnessing a lot of people with a lot of great ideas, but they don't know the steps to get that great idea to market. And it's one of the things that Polytechnic is noted for. It's applied learning, applied research, and if I were to simplify it, universities do basic research. So, they discover, they invent things. We take those discoveries and inventions and help industry apply them to their industry problems to create solutions. And often that leads to an opportunity to commercialize that idea.
"What this business entrepreneurship centre will do is help that commercialization aspect of it,” he said.
“It really completes that whole innovation ecosystem, and it's a key component that we feel is missing. And many of our students have some brilliant ideas, but they just need to get a network of people to help them. They need some mentorship, as well as the steps that it takes to take an idea through to prototyping, through to commercialization.”
Kristen Craig, dean of the Faculty of Business and Management, explained what the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre has planned. One major focus, which is coming up soon, is the Sask Polytechnic Startup Challenge.
She said the Sask Polytechnic Startup Challenge is a 10-week program that has provided mentors to more than 20 entrepreneurs to develop a business idea. At the end of it, they will be holding a pitch competition on April 16 at Town and Country Mall.
There, Craig said “all of these entrepreneurs will pitch the ideas that they've been working on over the last 10 weeks with their mentors. And that is something that there will be obviously a winner of. And so, really looking forward to hearing about all of the different ideas that the entrepreneurs have and the experience that they've had in the program over the past 10 weeks.”
She said the challenge is really about mentorship, which is one of the goals of the centre.
The second area the centre will focus on is applied research, where they will look for businesses to “come to us with challenges that they might be having whether it's something related to marketing, human resources, project management, supply chain, really anything business related. We have faculty and student expertise that can help them solve those real-world challenges.”
The final area of focus is around developing educational programs that support entrepreneurship.
Craig said that could be “anything from as simple as someone who has an idea and doesn't know how to market. And so, we'll help them with that. We'll help them develop a marketing plan, look at who their target market is, and build a toolkit for them that they can then take and use with their idea or with their business.”
While the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre is Moose Jaw-based, anyone from throughout the province is able to participate. Craig says the sorts of students who would be interested in the centre and its offerings would really be anyone who has an idea.
“It can be anything from you have an idea for a new product or a new service, or maybe you're an existing business and you want to scale up. It really can be anyone. There isn't a limit on who can work with the centre. It is really open to anyone within the community and any student from any program.”
One of those students taking part is Crystal Fatteicher, a local business owner who runs Ponderosa Connection, which facilitates leadership development programs with executive leaders. She said the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre “has exceeded all of my expectations.”
“I really didn't know what I was getting involved in. But we have our weekly meetings where we learn a lot about the framework, about entrepreneurship. I'm learning a lot more about how to connect with my market better. And the mentorship has been awesome. My mentor is pretty fabulous. I like that. And I really have enjoyed the community that we're building within our entrepreneurship little group and learning and connecting with some of the students that are up and coming.”
Jenna Aulie says she has really enjoyed her involvement at the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre.
“It's nice to have the consistent meetings. And it's helped me gain confidence to go out and network with more businesses,” said Aulie. Her focus is photography, print, graphic design, framing and some videography.
“My mentors are giving me lots of tips and connections with other businesses to help me get my name out there more.”
Challenging recent times for Sask Polytechnic acknowledged
The news of the launch of the Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre could not come at a more timely moment for Sask Polytechnic. Over the last several months, the educational institution has encountered a series of layoffs, largely attributed by officials as due to a shortfall in international student enrolment.
Dr. Rosia as well as Ken Cheveldayoff, minister of advanced education, both acknowledged it in their remarks during the launch event.
“It has been very tough times,” Rosia said. “There's many headwinds that the province is facing, that Canada is facing, that North America is facing. And international student enrolment was one of them. It was a bit of a surprise to us. And as a result of that decline in students, we've had to make some very difficult decisions over the last little while.”
With the launch event for the entrepreneurship centre, Dr. Rosia said it was “days like today that we need to hear more of, in Moose Jaw especially.” He said Moose Jaw will “always be one of our key institutions” across the province, including locations in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert. He adds the centre is “an opportunity to start replenishing some of that of what was lost in the campus.”
“We're starting to see sunshine at the end of the tunnel.”
