Business in Calgary

More than a buzzword • Entrepreneurship
There’s so much more to it than
launching a new service, developing
new technology, a bright idea or
what the pros call ‘the plan and
pitch approach’: market research
and writing a business plan to pitch
to potential investors.
Get your tickets and help us
celebrate 30 years of
Fresh Water Clean Future
formula survived and continues, even though not all serious
entrepreneurship dreams and plans necessarily involve
independent startup businesses. And despite the myth, not
all contemporary startups involve cutting-edge technology.
The business world has had an entrepreneurial reality
check.
Academics do their practical best to design targeted curriculums
and teach that entrepreneurship is “not” management.
There’s so much more to it than launching a new service,
developing new technology, a bright idea or what the pros
call ‘the plan and pitch approach’: market research and writing
a business plan to pitch to potential investors.
“Every business still needs the trinity,” stresses Neutens.
“Technical, marketing and finance.”
Unlike during the hotter-than-hot dot-com craze,
today entrepreneurial startups range from tech solutions
to products, services and gadgets and the timing for true
entrepreneurs couldn’t be better. The world is a now one
seamless, single market. Entrepreneurs can (and do) think
globally about the opportunity, even if they start ‘local.’
Regardless the trendiness of entrepreneurship, today’s startups
are still in the first stages of operations and often (not
always) bankrolled by their entrepreneurial founders, as they
work hard to capitalize on developing a product or service they
passionately believe in and trigger market demand.
Besides, North American startup stats show that about one
per cent of all new startups use venture capital. About 90
per cent of today’s successful startups are bootstrap.
Business consultants and analysts warn that, due to limited
revenue or high costs, most small-scale startups are not
sustainable in the long term without additional funding,
invariably from venture capitalists.
Entrepreneurship is conspicuously finding its way into
conventional corporations. Large or well-established companies
are doing whatever it takes to attract ‘intrapreneurs.’
Budding innovators and entrepreneurs are getting hired
to focus on creativity, change management, new product
For sponsorship information and tickets please
call 403-221-8360 or visit www.tucanada.org
Trout Unlimited Canada’s
30th Annual National
Conservation Banquet
and Auction
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Hyatt Regency Hotel
700 Centre Street South, Calgary
5 p.m. Reception
7 p.m. Dinner
2014 Presenting Sponsor
Please
Join Us
businessincalgary.com | BUSINESS IN CALGARY March 2014 • 39