November has arrived, marking the end of Canadian Small Business Month for 2015. Every year, the month of October calls for the celebration of successes and achievements of small businesses in Canada; events, conferences, and tradeshows take place across the nation that month, giving the opportunity for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and enterprise professionals to network, collaborate and learn.
The Lendifed team participated in several events as part of Small Business Month Canada, including The SOHO SME Business Expo 2015 in Toronto and Calgary; Small Business Forum 2015, hosted by Enterprise Toronto – City of Toronto; and Staples’ National Small Business Week and Women in Business Networking hosted by Staples Canada. As well, Lendified President Kevin Clark was among the expert panelists as part of a fireside chat on Consumer and Business Lending Platforms at VanFunding 2015, the leading Western Canada crowdfunding conference in Vancouver. Our team had a memorable month connecting with entrepreneurs and professionals over a range of topics including building brand awareness, customer experience, small business growth and the latest innovations in crowdfunding, fintech and peer-to-peer lending.
Small Business Month and Small Business Week also proved to be popular topics online, and Lendified was thrilled to be part of the online discussions. Our executive team participated in a Small Business Week Twitter Chat, joined by key Canadian industry associations and users interested in sharing ideas about market trends and emerging approaches to leadership and business growth.
Most notably, Lendified chose Small Business Week as the time to release our inaugural national study, The Lendified Canadian Small Business Index (The Lendified Index), the result of polling 350 Canadians who own and operate a small business in Canada with less than 20 employees. The Index was well-received by the media and news outlets, gaining coverage in the Financial Post, Trendhunter, Bankless Times, pymnts.com and many others.
As Small Business Month events and celebrations drew to an end, Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District welcomed Lendified to its group of financial technology (fintech) companies, part of a cluster of startups and entrepreneurs who are developing next generation technology in emerging payments, financial services, peer-to-peer transactions, crypto-currencies, and alternative lending. Lendified is excited to join the MaRS FinTech group and will continue to build on its momentum as an emerging FinTech leader.
While Small Business Month Canada 2015 has come to an end, you can still contribute to the small business community in many ways, including supporting local small businesses and getting educated about the small business economy! We love connecting with small business owners and entrepreneurs. Got an idea to share? Leave a comment or shoot us a tweet @Lendified and let’s chat about small business and fintech!
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