A Message To Big Business: We Don't Need Your Money, We Need Your Support

By MissBiz aka Jackie Howatt
Published and Copyright November 14, 2006
Saint Mary's University Journal


Support systems for “young” entrepreneurs are overwhelming these days. With the over-abundance of business plan competitions, small business centers, and funding programs from various private and public sector organizations, it seems as though becoming a successful entrepreneur is a simple career choice. This may be so, but there are very real glass ceilings that virtually prohibit the development of some businesses. The unfortunate aspect of this reality is that the businesses that “claim” they support entrepreneurship are apart of these exasperating barriers. This article is based on personal experience, and hopefully serves as a wake-up call to those resource-enriched businesses out there that could make all the difference in an entrepreneurial venture in a real way.

First, I need to expose the motivation behind this article in order to shed some light on where I am coming from. For a year and a half during my university career, I was apart of a very ambitious tech start-up. Myself, along with four other male colleagues (one being a former SMUSA President), set out to implement an intricate loyalty based program that required the support of large and small retail chains in Canada. During that year and a half, we developed a 180 page business plan, with detailed graphs and explanations of how the system would be set-up through the Interac and banking system, and then brought to the marketplace. This essential banking program necessitated three important primary partners: a bank, a merchant, and possibly a university.

We hit the pavement running looking to bring these essential players together. We set up about a dozen meetings with various business leaders in Atlantic Canada, including Paul Sobey, the CEO of Empire (the holding company of Sobeys, Empire Theaters, etc), Jay Forbes, the now former CEO of Aliant, Brent Currie, the VP Marketing of Scotiabank, Jamie Baillie, the CEO of Credit Union Atlantic, just to name a few. Although they were extremely impressed and saw the need and value-added aspects of the business, their common response was that they needed another business to be apart of our project before they signed on. One of the executives (mentioned above) said, “I realize how frustrating it can be, it’s like everyone has a pen in their hand and they are just waiting for the other person to sign on first”. They understood our situation, but still did very little to really help us. Becoming involved in an outside entrepreneurial venture seemed too “risky” to these companies, even though most of the above would claim they “sponsor” or “fund” small business programs. We didn’t need the money. We needed a name on paper. We could have done a lot with just a signature. We didn’t even need that per se. Just their reference or contacts would have helped.

And therein lies the problem. Much of their support is a total façade. I’m not saying that my particular case defines their stance in every situation, but it is an indicator at the very least. They’ll support the overall “cause” of entrepreneurship, but when faced with a real-life encounter, they close their doors.

Something else that furrowed my brow was an incident that took place last year regarding the same tech-start up. The two teams I was involved with at the time won the top two positions in the SMUBDC’s What’s The Big Idea? Annual Competition. I am very grateful to Saint Mary’s University for stimulating entrepreneurial desire within the student body. However, I came out of that awarding experience with a bitter taste in my mouth; not from the competition itself, but from one of the affiliated business involved in the competition. Upon my arrival at the awards ceremony for What’s The Big Idea?, my business partner and I were immediately ushered over to a well-known incubator investment company, who operate in the business community here in Halifax. We spoke with four or five of the representatives from this company, with the impression that they really enjoyed our idea - they were actually an influential component to our winning “Most Creative Business Idea”. They had already read our business plan at that point and were well versed in the overall idea. After we had won, my business partner and I were very pleased, and planned to go to their downtown office to set up a meeting in order to discuss further project development. We arrived at the downtown office shortly after the awards ceremony and spoke to one of the representatives we had conversed with only a few hours before. He said that the idea was too complex to fund and incubate and, “you’re ahead of the market right now”. Ahead of the market? I thought that’s what made a successful business – thinking ahead of competition? It was disappointing to say the least, because on the surface they seemed very supportive, but after confronting them about one-on-one support – real support - they declined.

The disheartening aspect of this is that most entrepreneurs with grand venture concepts do not need the funding at first. They need support from those who have experience, who work in related industries, and who can align them with potential investors. If one large company would have simply stated on paper that they supported our concept and would help us (not financially) to set up a beta program, we would have been set. Donating $1,000 toward a business plan competition which promotes the formation of “Big” business ideas is appreciated, but serves more as a goodwill tactic for the donator than anything else. It gets their name on posters and on bulletin boards within the University for years on end. But when the business that they gave the funding to comes knocking for actual involvement, they shy away.

I’d like to challenge these businesses to come out from underneath the safeguard that is known as “the business competition”, and to really consider being more receptive to individual entrepreneurial start-ups that need more than just $1,000 and a handshake. What is there to lose if no money is exchanged? For a company like Scotiabank (who, coincidentally, was the donator of our $1,000 prize in the What’s The Big Idea? Competition), they only stand to gain by keeping their doors a little more open (despite the bureaucracy that permeates such organizations). And take Sobeys, for example, we were four entrepreneurial students from their business school! Even if they hadn’t put a dime into our idea, it would look good for them on a marketing standpoint to actually develop and foster an idea (and become that merchant we so desperately needed) that was created by students from their own school. Sobeys in particular should take a more active role in partnering (or facilitating connections) with student businesses for this reason. Saint Mary’s University houses many enterprising young people who already have their own businesses set up. The marketing aspect works on both sides of the coin for Sobeys as well – for those big ideas (like ours) that need more support than actual funding, the Sobeys name can be utilized as a major networking tool. And as for Sobeys - by placing a driven entrepreneurial team from their school on a platform, they are fundamentally promoting the value and effectiveness of their Sobey School of Business.

It is my wish that big businesses recognize their importance in not only encouraging entrepreneurship, but helping where it counts. “Where it counts” may be a meeting, a contact, or even a consideration. I shudder at the hypocrisy that I’ve been shown over the past few years, and I will do whatever I can to make big businesses understand the importance of listening to our ideas – especially since it is us young people who will dictate the success of their business in the future. Strategically speaking, it would be smart for them to keep an ear to the ground, and to listen to our business ideas, since we are the upcoming influencers in the marketplace. “Think BIG” is Donald Trump’s most recognizable quote, but it is hard not to lose faith in it when these rigid businesses are scared to take a chance, and are seemingly prone to “thinking small”.