Too many resources?

While we were participating last week in the Expo Entrepreneurs event, which aims to bring together Quebec's entrepreneurial ecosystem, we asked ourselves the question: Are there too many? On this subject, the president and founder of the event, Nima Jalalvandi, believes no. "Twenty years ago, the word entrepreneur or entrepreneurship was not even seen as something desirable. We created new programs and awareness organizations. Today, there are so many ways to be an entrepreneur! You can start your own business, you can be an intrapreneur, you can take over an existing business. This variety explains why there are so many resources since the possibilities are endless."

Towards more fluidity?

Nima Jalalvandi recognizes, however, that the environment is ready to move on to the next stage. “An ecosystem grows and evolves,” he says. “We have reached the natural stage of creating a network, of bringing together these forces scattered across Quebec. It is now important that these resources work together, that they collaborate to have continuity in the programs. That an entrepreneur can have continuity in their journey, moving from a first program to a second and so on, as easily as possible.”

How to find your way around?

Info Entrepreneurs (IE), the resource center powered by the experts of the ACCLR of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, acts as a kind of one-stop shop to bring together resources that offer support, financing, training, mentoring, consulting services and coworking services. The directory is monitored to allow for continuous updating. Quebec entrepreneurs can also obtain free referrals to resources, organizations or programs that may be useful for their business project. The web portal also offers a business intelligence research service that provides access to a multitude of tools and data (statistics, market, lists of suppliers, potential customers, competitors) to improve a business plan or market study.

On the event side, Nima Jalalvandi's team has set up a second event this year that is specifically aimed at entrepreneurship coaches: Expo Entrepreneurs PRO . "We will notably present the results of the studies we conducted in January during the Montreal edition," says Mr. Jalalvandi. Together, we will create networks and find solutions to current issues. These two days will allow us to reflect on trends, major issues and topics of interest that we can present at Expo Entrepreneurs 2020." Expo Entrepreneurs PRO will take place on June 12 and 13 in Quebec City.