Takeaways

In an article for Canadian SME Magazine, Eric Bosco, Mitacs’s Chief Business Development and Partnerships Officer, explained why it’s important for Canadian entrepreneurs to connect with international markets — and to protect their Intellectual Property (IP) — in order to succeed. 

While Canada is a good market for new businesses, it’s limited, and SMEs that export their goods and services to foreign markets can outperform their peers — data has shown that their revenues are higher, they grow faster and they reinvest more than SMEs who focus solely on the domestic market. Currently, however, many Canadian SMEs are missing that key opportunity, partly due to a lack of guidance and support from the Canadian small-business ecosystem.

Mitacs is helping to bridge the information gap with its Entrepreneur International program, which helps new companies connect with incubators in partner countries. That, in turn, helps expose these businesses to potential new customers, and provides them with opportunities to boost their sales in worldwide markets. 

Canadian entrepreneurs should develop proper IP strategies early in their ventures, and protect their ideas and innovation.

The other critical component to success for Canadian entrepreneurs is protecting their rights. Proper strategies should be developed early in any startup ventures, and ideas and innovation should be protected through patents, trademarks and copyright. Without that protection, Canadian startups risk having their ideas bought, scaled up and, ultimately, profited from by foreign entities.