Sep 4, 2012

Shop Small and Locally to Make a Big DifferenceBy Dan KellyBusiness.Financialpost.com

Canada would find itself in a lot of trouble without hard-working entrepreneurs, but it isn’t easy to go into business for yourself. Squeezed between big government and big business, on one hand you must contend with taxes and red tape from all levels of government, on the other you must deal with outrageously high credit card fees from the payments industry and compete for customers with giant corporations that have nearly unlimited budgets for marketing, advertising and public relations.

We can all help make a difference if we shop small this Oct. 20. After all, small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. If you think that’s just rhetoric, think again. According to July 2012 Industry Canada statistics, small businesses are responsible for 42% of the country’s private sector gross domestic product, and employ more than five million people, which represents 48% of the private sector labour force.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business played a big role in the late 1990s in stopping proposed bank mergers that would have been bad for small businesses. More recently, it convinced the federal government to bring in the Code of Conduct for the credit and debit card industry, giving small business owners a greater degree of clout with the payments industry and it is leading the charge against unfair and financially unsustainable public sector pension plans.

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