That is the easy part, the hard part is the 1/2 million needed to get it up and running....

One needs money to make money and start a business, without the money part no business plan or courage to make a go of it will work.

I am in a small town...We don't have a Pro Bass or Cabella's, but we do have a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart, Save On, Nestors Market as our big box stores, and they have all largely pushed out the independents who used to be in town providing various services.

No more local grocery store, no more local meat store, very few local pharmacies and the ones left are hanging on by a shoe string.

Downtown has a lot of vacancies as people no longer go down there unless they wan't coffee or a thrift store.

Big box companies do change the landscape, but they have been in big city's so long now people don't know any different and they are the norm.

I am sure if we ever got a PetsMart the local pet store would be pushed out.

One thing about the grocery store is the locally owned one that used to be here only closed because the store that is there now (part of a billion dollar empire) came in and offered the owner of the building far more money in rent then the local store could ever pay in rent so when the lease was up the owner asked for the same amount the big company was offering, obviously the local store could not pay those rates, so the lease was not renewed.

The big company wanted in, but didn't want to build from scratch as the location would not be ideal doing so, so they just offer more money then any independent store could pay for rent, and push them out of the market.

Big box stores play some dirty dirty tricks to get into a market.

Our movie theater got pushed out by a dollar store chain....

I can honestly say that's not the case where I live. Lots of thriving independent businesses in my hood

Your defeatist attitude is, I suspect, all that is holding you back.

There are many posters on this board that are self employed. I'll wager that none of them started with $500,000, or anything approaching that.

true. I have a few entrepeneur friends, and they've had mixed success. For some of them it's not about being millionaires, they just like being their own boss and just want to make enough money to live. What they all have in common, though, is an appetite for risk and willingness to live without certainty - and the ability to improvise! and work really hard when needed.

It doesn't surprise me those attributes aren't as celebrated in the Maritimes, because it seems to me (based on the article, and what a lot of you are saying)that a lot of those with get-up-and-go leave. Interestingly, a bunch of friends from halifax have been drivers in the re-branding and remaking of Gastown and the DTES here in Vancouver.

You tend to find in NS that when someone comes up with a business idea they then hold the lions share of that market and it's near impossible for anyone else to break into that market. I know that my OH's business wouldn't have taken off in NS because of this along with the it's not what you know, it's who you know attitude that reigns there. Being from away and trying to start a business is a real hindrance tbh.

Well, and having a shrinking population won't help.

Yup.

So a retail giant has come to Moncton then.

I can confirm I've lost an inch in height since moving here.

Isn't the "it's not what you know it's who you know" prevalent in Canada generally, hence all the advice about networking?

It isn't here at all. You can build a business and reputation without having to kiss ass and attend every networking event possible.

Interesting. So all the networking for jobs advice is just specific to here then?
The job I have required no networking, it was advertised on the company website and I applied

It's definitely different here. OH picks up work because he is good at what he does, not because he knows Jim and John the Real Estate Brokers.

Don't forget though, you have NS experience now too so maybe that helps with getting jobs now?

That completely makes sense and it's how it should be.
No, they were not interested in my NS experience but rather in my experience gained before I left the UK. It's a very large company that operates in a very US way.

I guess that's a great thing then - being US minded rather than NS!