FEATURE

TAKE YOUR BIG IDEA TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Immigrant entrepreneurs, facing barriers compounded by the pandemic, do better with a little help

By Margaret Jetelina

Every immigrant has an emotional story about their journey, and Bita Jamalpour has started up a new business venture to capture them in a creative multimedia way. Her new business, Logue, is in the creative business of writing, illustrating and publishing immigrants’ stories through books, videos and even merchandise at thelogue.ca.

For Jamalpour, an urban planner from Iran who immigrated to Canada nine years ago, Logue is an entrepreneurial venture close to her heart. “My idea is to help immigrants like myself have a voice,” she says. “Many services are available in Canada to help immigrants get the support they deserve and have a full life. But there is another side of immigration often untold or ignored; there are many emotions involved in the process of immigration. Immigrants need space to share their stories.”

Jamalpour’s business is just in its infancy, but she is following a long line of immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada. Studies show that immigrants to Canada are more likely to be entrepreneurs than people born in Canada, often due to being shut out of the labour market as internationally trained professionals. That means immigrant-owned businesses make up about 25 per cent of small and medium enterprises in Canada. And it’s no secret that small business is critical to Canada’s economy; of the 1.2 million employer businesses in Canada, 1.18 million (or 97.9 per cent) were small businesses, according to Statistics Canada (2018). The month of October has even been designated Small Business Month in Canada to celebrate the contributions that entrepreneurs make to the country and the economy. sector hard, and immigrant-owned ones even worse.

In a recent article, Supporting Immigrant and Newcomer Entrepreneurs in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic, published in Canadian Diversity, authors Wendy Cukier, Miki ItanoBoase and Akalya Atputharajah found: “While small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and self-employed entrepreneurs face catastrophic challenges (e.g., layoffs and closures), immigrant and racialized entrepreneurs face an even greater burden due to structural inequality, discrimination, and access to supports.”

Further, immigrant-owned businesses tend to be smaller and less connected to supportive organizations or financing. Being new to the country, immigrant entrepreneurs also face language barriers, lack of networks, and lack of

knowledge around Canadian business rules and systems.

So, what can immigrant entrepreneurs do? The authors conclude that immigrant entrepreneurs need access to support and programs to help them navigate the barriers that they face.

Jamalpour faced many of those barriers in Canada herself, even though she actually had experience owning an urban planning business with her husband in Iran.

But when she decided to start a creative side business in Canada on her own, she was unsure of what to do. Living in Calgary, her first business idea was a school for creative arts for children. “After the pandemic, I closed it. It wasn’t profitable, but more like a passion project for me,” she says.

Having moved to Metro Vancouver, Jamalpour found work related in her field, but, like many entrepreneurial-minded folks, she wanted to keep pursuing her business ideas on the side. She thought of restarting the arts school, but this time, she knew she needed some help to make it a more successful venture.

“I realized I wasn’t ready to start a business alone in Canada. I had an idea, I was creative, but didn’t know how to sell my idea and to make it into a business,” she says. “That’s why I started with [the self-employment programs at] DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society. They helped me understand the business side of my creative business idea.”

Taking part in DIVERSEcity’s CWB Business Incubator for Women Makers and Creators opened her eyes up to what it takes to plan and launch a business in Canada. In fact, going through the program and evaluating her business idea with the support of the facilitators and other participants, Jamalpour changed her business idea to a concept that eventually became Logue.

“The 20+ week program, launched virtually during the pandemic, supports intercultural women to turn their talents into entrepreneurship,” says Garrison Duke, director of employment programs at DIVERSEcity. “Through this unique program, which we launched with the support of Canadian Western Bank, the participants receive one-on-one support from our self-employment specialists, learn business basics and test out their product or service in the marketplace.”

Programs like these can be the important missing link for immigrant entrepreneurs who feel isolated and uncertain as they start a business in their new country.

Perhaps just as important as learning the ins and outs of starting in business in Canada is the peer network that participants end up building together. Taiwan-born Florence Kao, the selfemployment coordinator at DIVERSEcity, understands that the journey for the immigrant entrepreneur doesn’t stop when they complete her program. She makes it her mission to provide ongoing support to her clients — and to have them support each other — as they continue on their journey.

Kao has created peer networks and collective business platforms to maintain that ongoing support and connection. For the women makers and creators program, she launched Infinity Womenpreneurs, an e-commerce marketplace (infinitymarketplace.square.site) where graduates of the program can promote and sell their products and services together. Kao has created similar platforms for her other selfemployment programs, including Immipreneur Network (immipreneur-network.square.site), Sewmates and Mama’s Hands International Cuisine.

“We want these amazing immigrant entrepreneurs to be seen and heard, and we’ll try our best to grow their business,” says Kao, who even launched awards programs to celebrate, motivate and inspire the participants of her programs. At the inaugural CWB Women Maker and Creator Awards this September 15, 2021, Jamalpour was one of the winners for Best Business Idea.

For Jamalpour, she’s excited about what the future holds, thanks to taking this program and now being part of the Infinity Womenpreneurs network.

“Being part of this group gave me more courage,” she says, adding how meaningful the award was to her. “If it was still just me alone, I would still be brainstorming what I should do!”

To other immigrant entrepreneurs, she has this advice to offer. “I would say as an immigrant, coming from another world to this world, as much experience or education as you have, you need to rewire your brain and point of view, especially as an entrepreneur,” she says. “For the longest time, I was just struggling. What I learned in Iran was not working here. I needed to open my mind and open my eyes to the way to do things in this country. And being part of Infinity Womenpreneurs has helped.”

The month of October has even been designated Small Business Month in Canada to celebrate the contributions that entrepreneurs make to the country and the economy.