The Rise of the Canadian Side Hustle Business in 2022

Is having a secondary income the way to go in 2022 given the current economic times? In this latest episode, I am in conversation with the Mr. Don Ludlow, Vice President of Small Business, Strategy & Partnerships at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).  We had a great chat about his career journey pivoting from a Leader in the Canadian Army to the Banking Industry followed by a deep dive into the latest RBC Small Business Poll conducted by Ipsos Canada August 12-15, 2022. You can listen to the entire episode on the Spotify player below or on your favourite audio player.

This was a very insightful conversation with Mr. Ludlow which is propelling me even more to continue to bring you more awesome stories of Leadership Executives and Entrepreneurs weekly. The key takeaway which reverberated throughout this interview with Mr. Ludlow is the fact that the entrepreneurial journey should not be taken alone since there are a multitude of support and business resources available to you. As you know, support for businesses are not exclusive to RBC since in each Province across the Canada there are dedicated public and private organizations focused on helping new and established businesses to grow and scale. However, I would like to highlight below some of the golden nuggets for entrepreneurs which came out of my discussion with Mr. Ludlow including the new programming provided by RBC and their specific Partners to enable entrepreneurs to start and scale their businesses.

Golden nuggets for aspiring entrepreneurs:–

1. Talk to experts about your idea (s) and get feedback;
2. Conduct market research and seek out the the right business resources to help you; and
3. Put your idea (s) into action while leaning on the diversity of support available from trusted Business Advisors to ensure that you are on the right track and are moving in a positive direction. 

Golden nuggets for established entrepreneurs: –

1. Access your core operations and stay relevant;
2. Focus on meeting the needs of your customers; and 
3. Embrace e-commerce and digital solutions  to streamline your operational and financial processes to optimize for success.

Quick resource  links referenced in this episode and provided by RBC:

1. To register your business:  Ownr (Note: This service is only available in certain parts of Canada)
2. For customer market research across Canada: RBC Insights Edge
3. For e-commerce and digitizing your business: Moneris Online
4. To increase and manage your business cybersecurity: Sherweb and Kobalt.io

For more information on the RBC Small Business Survey head over to the latest press release and for further business resources link here. Listeners, I hope you found this episode enlightening since as always I learn new things every time from my guests. Remember to pay it forward by sharing it with a friend who you think will benefit from gaining this new knowledge. Let us continue to spread the word across Canada. I have one more action for you since my favourite podcast player has been inserted below for your easy reference. Be sure to remember to rate and review this podcast episode on Apple Podcasts. As you know, this is the preferred podcast for every day people and I want to take this time to wish you a very happy thanksgiving.