Starting a business always has its share of difficulties. In times of pandemic, these can be all the more important. Questioning, uncertainties, financial difficulties linked to closures and sanitary measures: entrepreneurs must know how to juggle the unexpected, reinvent themselves, but some are starting to be… discouraged.
Claudette Ah-Soon opened a yoga studio in Rosemont–La-Petite Patrie, Montreal, last September. “It was immediately a great success. We have seen the strong demand from neighborhood residents for a new place to meet and talk,” says the co-founder of the Surya studio, located on rue Saint-Zotique Est.
Except that the initial enchantment quickly dissipated when new public health measures were announced last December. Like other training centers, the studio had to put its indoor activities on hold.
“This summer, we were quite confident, with the vaccination and the fact that the government was encouraging economic recovery. That’s why we started: to meet people’s need to take care of their mental health after very difficult months. We didn’t think there would still be closures! » explains Mr.me Ah-Soon.
In order to adapt to this, she now offers online courses and is approaching companies to offer yoga and meditation sessions to their employees. But that’s not enough, she says. “We have made major investments to renovate the place. It is very disappointing and surprising to see that the federal government does not even offer support for newly created businesses as it does for others,” laments the entrepreneur. Because to be eligible for Ottawa’s financial assistance programs, companies must indeed have been created before the start of the pandemic and have income prior to the crisis to justify their losses.
Mostafa Ahmed, co-owner of the Dose café establishment, which opened last August in Laval, is also distraught. On Monday, he decided to close – temporarily, for now – the doors of his restaurant to reduce his expenses.
“We have suffered a 60% drop in sales since the dining rooms closed”, confides the one who is currently considering closing down. “It’s total disappointment, because business was going well before we were forced to close. But we can’t keep going into debt if the government doesn’t reopen the dining halls soon or we don’t get help. »
Domino effect
Other companies that are not necessarily directly affected by the closure measures are also feeling the repercussions of the crisis. “Government announcements have a domino effect,” says Olivier Soria, owner of Panier gourmand, a delicatessen on St-Hubert Street in Montreal, which offers catering services.
The entrepreneur, who opened the doors of his establishment at the end of the summer, says for example that he cannot win contracts for the delivery of meal boxes to workers due to teleworking. “We had a few contracts this fall, when employers started bringing people back to the office. But now it’s very, very difficult,” says Soria.
“We also had to have a contract to provide ready-to-eat food in a university cafeteria. But again, because of distance learning, it was suspended, ”he underlines. Now, with the return to class of the students, the entrepreneur is hopeful that things can work out.
“I know it’s always difficult to start a business, but there we have a big thorn in our side,” laments Mr. Soria, who nevertheless still firmly believes in his project and who is not ready. to give up.
Opportunities to seize
Mai Thai, Associate Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at HEC Montréal, thinks that despite the real difficulties that entrepreneurs have to go through, the crisis still offers opportunities to be seized. “The crisis has revealed new needs in society, and you have to keep them in mind when you start your business. We cannot start with a business model that takes into account the reality before the pandemic,” she explains.
“This period is extremely stressful, especially for entrepreneurs in the service sector,” notes Michel Leblanc, president of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. “It has meant that there are companies that have learned lessons the hard way: the importance of cash, the quality of the relationship with staff when they have to be called back after having been temporarily laid off, etc So that’s the paradox of this crisis: it creates a very rich baggage of experiences, lessons,” underlines Mr. Leblanc.
But could the crisis also have the effect of discouraging a generation of entrepreneurs from going into business? “Before the pandemic, there was a marked increase in the intention to undertake among young people. Which was a cultural change. I do not think that the pandemic will have stopped this trend, “said Mr. Leblanc. An opinion shared by M.me Thai.
According to the Quebec Entrepreneurial Index, the crisis has so far not dampened the enthusiasm of aspiring entrepreneurs. In 2020, the rate of intention to create or take over a business was 34.6% among 18 to 34 year olds, while it was 30.8% in 2019.
“Failures happen sometimes. It doesn’t discourage me from being an entrepreneur. If it doesn’t work this time, I’ll try something else again, ”says Mostafa Ahmed, optimistic.