BC Business
#OwnersWanted is a free program coming to Port Alberni on September 25 and 26, and to Cranbook on October 16
Having been a serial entrepreneur himself, Chad Fryling feels like he’s the right person to be serving aspiring entrepreneurs at Futurpreneur. Since 1996, the Toronto-based national nonprofit has been offering loan financing and mentorship (among other things) to help young founders aged 18-39 bring their business ideas to life. Fryling, who lives in North Vancouver, is an entrepreneur-in-residence with the organization, and his experience running an edtech startup and a construction business in the past has prepared him to be able to deliver different programs and services through Futurpreneur today.
Around eight years ago, Futurpreneur received provincial funding from the B.C. government to mobilize its Rock My Business series, which helps budding entrepreneurs put business plans together and launch ventures. Fryling spearheaded the program and introduced it to smaller, more rural communities in B.C. before taking it province- and Canada-wide. “That was a real passion project for me,” he says, “and it’s [still] really well attended. Every two months, we have hundreds of people join [Rock My Business workshops] online.”
Futurpreneur is replicating the same model, but with a new idea: business acquisitions.
Once again, the nonprofit received funding from the Province of B.C. to develop #OwnersWanted, a free program on how to buy a business. “We’ve always supported acquisitions and entrepreneurs who are looking to purchase a business—we’ve always provided funding for that—but we’ve never promoted it very much because it wasn’t really top of people’s mind until this report came out,” says Fryling.
In 2023, RBC released a report on the The Great Tsunami, highlighting a new phenomenon: there are not enough young people to take over businesses owned by retiring baby boomers. It states that “baby boomers and the silent generation in the U.S. will bequest a total of $84.4 trillion in assets through to 2045, with $72.6 trillion going directly to heirs.
“Here in Canada, over $2 trillion in business assets could change hands within the next decade as over 76 percent of business owners are planning to exit their business.”
Futurpreneur is trying to bridge that gap by walking young people through the initial steps of acquiring a business. Specific to the provincial funding, the organization is targeting smaller towns (with populations under 20,000) to be able to reach more people.
Last year, Fryling saw #OwnersWanted land in four towns in B.C., and this year, it’s coming to Port Alberni on September 25 and 26. The same workshop will also take place in Cranbrook on October 16. “This is so that more young people can consider it a career option to buy a business instead of starting one,” he notes.
As of March 2024, Futurpreneur has helped more than 18,000 entrepreneurs launch over 14,000 businesses. It’s also provided $219 million in loan financing. “We can take a little bit of a higher risk lending, and we offset that by matching [founders] with their own mentor,” Fryling says. “We have a pretty successful track record of repayment over the last 28 years… and I have noticed more interest from young people who are looking for guidance on how to buy a business than previous years. So the word is getting out there, and this will hopefully help.”