The IT Nerd

Canadians are embracing the potential AI holds to improve their lives, and this is especially true among entrepreneurs. Intuit’s latest study in partnership with Emergent Research revealed that most Canadian small business owners are early adopters, with 61 per cent of small businesses currently using automation technology to run their businesses.

They’re also optimistic about what it means for the future, with 57 per cent reporting they feel positive about the impact automation will have on their business over the next five years, citing the potential to improve efficiency, productivity and innovation as the top reasons why it will benefit their businesses.

• Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of SMB owners think automation technology will lead to an increase in employees at their firm and few (11 per cent) think it will lead to employment reductions.
• About half report that over the next five years they expect automation technology will improve their job satisfaction, work/life balance and their ability to manage their business.

To help Canadian small business put an end to mundane tasks, like sending reminders for overdue invoices, so they can focus on growing their businesses, QuickBooks unveiled several innovations at the first-ever QuickBooks Connect Toronto this week that let entrepreneurs harness the power of AI and data-driven insights, including:

• The brand-new QuickBooks Assistant: The brand-new QuickBooks Assistant offers a conversational chat experience and solves a common problem for the self-employed and small business owners – quickly and easily staying on top of their finances. The new chatbot combines data-driven insights and natural language processing to ease business operations by merely asking questions or stating requests, saving precious time and giving entrepreneurs the insights necessary to make informed financial decisions with confidence.
• QuickBooks Projects feature now available to all Canadian QBO Plus users: QuickBooks Projects introduces QuickBooks Online Plus users to a new way to work and collaborate, all while seamlessly organizing all project components in one location, so they can run their business more efficiently and intuitively.
• Access to direct bank feeds with new CIBC integration: Intuit and CIBC are joining forces to help businesses make more informed decisions quickly, combining CIBC’s powerful banking capabilities with critical insights from QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant, enabling accountants and entrepreneurs to better manage their day-to-day accounting.

From the rise of automation to the explosion of the on-demand and sharing economies, Intuit Canada’s latest report “Generation Z & the Future of Entrepreneurship” examines how seismic shifts in the modern economic landscape has impacted the newest generation of workers’ – Generation Z – attitudes towards their careers and entrepreneurship.

Influenced by the increasingly common side hustle and the rise of services like Uber and Airbnb, Generation Zs are more likely than any other demographic to look beyond the 9- to-5 supplement their income.

• One in two (52 per cent) Gen Zs would consider on-demand work to make extra cash, a significant 17 per cent more than the national average.
• One in two (48 per cent) Gen Zs would be interested in freelance or on-demand employment for future careers, and two in three Gen Zs (64 per cent) would consider entrepreneurship.

Intuit’s research also uncovered that salary doesn’t equal success for Gen Z, and neither does a traditional career. Entrepreneur topped the list of dream careers (40 per cent), beating out more traditional jobs like doctor (37 per cent), banker (27 per cent) and lawyer (25 per cent).

• Nearly one in two Gen Zs agree that flexibility is more important than salary when it comes to their career.
• Nine in ten (89 per cent) Gen Zs want a career that offers good work/life balance, and eight in ten (78 per cent) want to do something that makes a difference.

Members of Generation Z were brought up in the economic crisis and have witnessed firsthand the shifting nature of work and explosion of the freelance economy. In fact, a recent report from Intuit Canada in partnership with Emergent Research projects that freelancers, independent contractors and on-demand workers will make up 45 percent of the workforce by 2020.

You can read the report here.

Getting funded is a crucial step in scaling up a business. Intuit Canada’s newest study shows that nearly half (44 per cent) of Canadian entrepreneurs have been rejected by an investor.

Why are so many entrepreneurs struggling to secure the funding they need? Canadian entrepreneurs are approaching an investment pitch without a clear picture of where they stand, and hurting their chances as a result – astonishingly, one in 10 entrepreneurs seeking investment don’t plan to prepare anything for their investment pitch.

Additional survey findings include:

• Sixty-one per cent of entrepreneurs spent less than 12 hours preparing for their pitch. That’s less time spent than planning a vacation.
• Sixty-seven per cent of Canadian entrepreneurs are unsure of exactly what investors are looking for.
• Thirty-five per cent do not plan to prepare a business plan 68 per cent of SBOs do not plan to create a cash flow statement for their pitch.
• Many Canadian entrepreneurs entered an investment pitch with no balance sheet (38 per cent) or business plan (23 per cent).
• Entrepreneurs face rejection by pitching without a long-term strategy. The primary reason those rejected for funding didn’t receive the investment they hoped for was because they didn’t have a plan to profitability.

• Canadian entrepreneurs aren’t just quick to jump the gun when it comes to funding – A previous Intuit study showed that 69 per cent launched their business within six months and 62 per cent started up without a business plan.

To bridge this gap, Intuit is collaborating with Startup Canada, SociaLIGHT, Launch Academy, Notman House and the DMZ at Ryerson University to educate, train and enable up to 10,000 startups across Canada as part of its new “Startup Foundations” initiative. Through live events, training sessions and online workshops, participants will learn to improve their basic financial management skills, make better decisions and ultimately fuel business success. 

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The data was collected through an online survey conducted through the Angus Reid Forum panel. The research was facilitated by MARU/Vision Critical Research & Consulting. The survey was conducted between September 9th and September 19th, 2016. To enable cross-tabulation and analysis amongst demographic subgroups, the sample size is n=507 Canadian small businesses. The margin of error for the study is estimated to be +/- 4.4%.

Canadian entrepreneurs are using cloud and mobile technology in record numbers, according to Intuit Canada’s newest survey, the “2016 Small Business App Study”.

64 per cent of small business owners (SBOs) in Canada now use a smartphone to manage their business, up nearly 10 per cent from this time last year (55 per cent) and 61 per cent have migrated to the cloud, which is a whopping 30 per cent increase year-over-year from 31 per cent in 2015.

Canadian SBOs are increasingly turning to apps to solve their business problems:  

• 68 per cent of small businesses use mobile or web-based apps for business; of those businesses, 87 per cent use between 1-6 apps to run their business
• 61 per cent utilize the cloud to operate their business
• Almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of small business owners would like to spend more of their time growing and expanding their business (45 per cent) and interacting with customers (26 per cent)

But the fact is that it remains early days in the evolution of the small business ecosystem, and small businesses are running into persistent pain points with existing apps.

• 41 per cent of Canadian business owners who use apps feel that there are too many apps to choose from and they are unsure on which apps are best suited for their business
• Other top pain-points for small business who use apps include:
  • 37 per cent say cost to purchase and train on apps
  • 23 per cent say using apps is too complex and they are unsure how to use them

Intuit believes that the key to building a better small business apps ecosystem is for developers to focus on:

• Deeper integrations with existing platforms –56 per cent of Canadian small business say seamless integration matters when selecting an app to integrate with their business
• Showing small business how apps can impact the bottom line – More than half (52 per cent) of small businesses say increase of revenue is the most important characteristic to measure the success of a technology integration

Survey Methodology:

• A representative sample of 500 small businesses in each region (U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.) were surveyed by Ebiquity from July 13-20, 2016
• The vast majority of small business owners and managers surveyed had 1-50 employees
• The types of business surveyed were: service-based (50 per cent), product-based (23 per cent), and hybrid (27 per cent)

While you’re at it, please take a look at Quicken’s list of top apps to manage your business.

It used to be that people had a home computer and if they had a secondary device, it was a phone or a tablet. But what’s becoming increasingly clear is that the phone, tablet, or even the “phablet” is becoming the device that people have and use primarily. Understanding that need is Intuit who has recently launched TurboTax Free for iOS. It allows you to do your taxes on your iPhone or iPad easily and painlessly.

There’s a bunch of things that TurboTax Free has going for it:

• It has no income caps.
• You can import tax info from the Canada Revenue Agency which allows you to fill in the blanks on such items as your T4 statements and RRSP info. That saves you time and effort.
• It’s designed from the ground up to make filling out your taxes on a phone or tablet to be easy from the perspective of navigating on a phone or tablet.
• It has all the power of the TurboTax software that you find online and in boxes in your local retailer.
• It covers a number of scenarios that one could encounter. For example, it had no problems dealing with the fact that I am self employed.
• It is built with security from the ground up.

Downsides? It’s English only. That’s a bit of an issue as Canada has two official languages and I would have expected French to be supported. The second downside is that all tax situations are covered except Federal and Provincial returns for the Province of Quebec. That’s a bit unfortunate as well. Hopefully those get addressed before tax deadline day which is April 30, 2016.

It’s available for download now from the App Store. If you’re a person who uses a phone or tablet as their primary device, and you want to do your taxes yourself. Check out TurboTax for iOS. As long as you’re not in Quebec or filing a federal return,.you’ll find it very easy to use and a great way to get your taxes done as painlessly as possible.

Intuit Canada’s newest study reveals the upside of entrepreneurship. While small business ownership can be challenging, life is good overall for Canada’s entrepreneurs; four in five (79 per cent) are happier, and 65 per cent are less stressed now than when they worked for someone else.

Intuit’s research also reveals that Canadian entrepreneurs aren’t in it for the money. Only 13 per cent of Canadian small business owners (SBOs) started their own businesses because they wanted to increase their earnings – so why do they take the leap?

• One third (33 per cent) of Canadian SBOs were motivated to start their own businesses because they wanted to be their own bosses
• One in five (21 per cent) sought a better work-life balance
• Slightly more than half (57 per cent) feel their work-life balance has improved since starting out on their own
• Only 17 per cent of SMB owners would ever consider working for someone else again
• 45 per cent feel better about their financial futures since becoming an SMB owner.

The study also showed that that time really does equal money, according to the day-to-day realities of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs*:

• More than half (56 per cent) of SBOs whose companies have generated over $250K in revenue wake up at 6 a.m. or earlier.
• Two thirds (67 per cent) of these entrepreneurs work more than 50 hours per week
• Two in five (41 per cent) check email or start thinking about work within 10 minutes of waking up.

Additional survey findings:

• Cash flow remains the number-one stressor for SBOs, with 32 per cent citing it as the main worry keeping them up at night
• More than half (65 per cent) of Canada’s SMB owners get six to seven hours of sleep per night
• Eighty-nine percent of Canadian entrepreneurs check their email and/or start thinking about their within one hour of waking up, and one in five do so within a mere ten minutes
• One quarter (26 per cent) of SBOs work16 or more weekends per year

*Most successful SBOs/entrepreneurs are defined as those with companies generating more than $250K and drew incomes of $100K or more last year

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

2015 Intuit Small Business Landscape Study

• From August 10 to August 13, 2015, an online survey was conducted among 828 randomly selected Canadian small business owners who are members of the Angus Reid Forum panel or partnering networks.
• All qualified respondents are employed full-time/part-time/self-employed and own a business with zero to 99 employees.
• Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

There’s an eBook with the survey results available here.

Intuit Canada’s newest study reveals many Canadian small business owners (SBOs) aren’t looking before they take the entrepreneurial leap. That basically means that they’re set up for failure from the start. The study cites these stats to back that up:

• Three in five (62 per cent) small business owners (SBOs) started their companies without a business plan
• Millennial-age entrepreneurs were the least likely to have a plan (69 per cent launched without one)
• SBOs hold an average of three full-time jobs (3.24) before launching their businesses
• One quarter (24 per cent) of millennial-age entrepreneurs never held a full-time job prior to starting out on their own (nearly three times more than entrepreneurs aged 35-54)
• The majority of Canadian entrepreneurs start up quickly, with 69 per cent launching their business within six months
• One third (33 per cent) of millennial entrepreneurs launched within one month vs. 27 per cent of those aged 35+

To further illustrate this, the study shows the positive impact of having a plan prior to kicking off a new venture:

• The SBOs who developed a business plan before launching demonstrate how essential this is to long-term growth: 52 per cent of SBOs with five or more employees developed a business plan before starting out
  • Compared to the 71 per cent of sole proprietorships that were started without a business plan
• About two thirds (64 per cent) of SBOs with companies that generated $250K or more in revenue last year check their financials at least weekly
• 29 per cent of SBOs with companies that generated more than $250K in revenue last year consulted an accountant before starting out
• 30 per cent of entrepreneurs with five or more employees consulted an accountant before starting out, compared to only 17 per cent of sole proprietors

Finally, the study highlights the impact of using technology like mobile apps to run a business:

• More than half (56 per cent) of Canada’s most successful SBOs use up to five mobile apps to run their businesses
• On average, one in five Canadian SBOs (19 per cent) is now 100 per cent reliant on a mobile device to run their business
  • 29 per cent of millennial-age entrepreneurs are 100 per cent reliant on a mobile device
• In particular, millennial SBOs rely on mobile technology to run their businesses:
  • 71 per cent run their business from a smartphone (vs. overall average of 55 per cent)
  • Four in five (79 per cent) use mobile apps to run their business (vs. overall average of 55 per cent)
  • Plan to spend an average of $2,233 on software solutions in the next five years

This last part reminds me of another Intuit study that said that over half of business were run from a smartphone.

The clear messages here are that you need to have a plan before you jump into your own business, and technology can help you to run your business. That’s good advice from Intuit.

Intuit Canada has announced the InstaPitch Your Startup Contest. Until August 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET, Canadian entrepreneurs can enter via Instagram and Twitter for the chance to get their startup into GROW Conference in Whistler, B.C. (August 19-21). GROW Conference is about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship. It is a curated environment that brings together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving.

Here’s what’s on the table:

• One Grand Prize winner will receive two passes to GROW Conference as well as space in Intuit’s lounge to demo their startup/product to other entrepreneurs, developers, and investors.
• Two Secondary Prize winners will each receive one pass to GROW Conference.

How to Enter

1. Create an original 15-second pitch video explaining why your startup should be provided with demo space at GROW Conference.
2. Instagram it!

• Follow @IntuitCanada on Instagram
• Post your pitch video to Instagram using the hashtag #GrowIntuit and tag@IntuitCanada

3. Tweet it!

• Follow @QuickBooksCA on Twitter
• Post your pitch video to Twitter using the hashtag #GrowIntuit and mention@QuickBooksCA

People can submit one entry on both Instagram and Twitter each day (a total of two entries per day). Winners will be notified via direct personal Twitter message or direct Instagram message by August 17, 2015.