Research Study Results
The Businesses are Growing!
Business revenue increased by 113% over the pre-covid yearly sales for Alpha and was even for Beta. Revenue was up 241% for Alpha and 121% for Beta from the previous year. Employees increased by 138% for Alpha and 129% for Beta. And inter-Canada or world customer expansion was up by 122% for Alpha and 127% for Beta.
The Digital Marketing Effectiveness is going SkyHigh!
Overall channel customer engagement is up 148% for Alpha and 290% for Beta. But the business owner’s work is only up 109% for Alpha and 197% for Beta resulting in a better ROI for their efforts. And they are even saving advertising spend; the use of paid media is down to 72% for Alpha and paid does not factor in use for Beta.
Owner Digital Marketing Mastery is Higher!
The business owner’s confidence in their digital marketing skills is up by 112% after 12-months for Alpha and 128% for Beta.
Move Your Business Over the Invisible Line
Have you felt that invisible line? The line you have been trying to reach but can never quite get there? The line where your business is finally making some profits and savings, and you no longer need to lie awake at night worrying. But every time you get close, something bad happens. There you are, being under again.
Unfortunately, being under-represented and excluded is often associated with being under-resourced, under-performing, under-achieving, and under-valued. We believe in your potential. We are here to offer support and to provide resources to help you and your business get over that invisible line.
Building Small Business Resilience (BSBR) Training Program is part of the Skills Innovation Challenge, an initiative by Future Skills Centre to aid those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The free 12-week training program is designed specifically to help you quickly upskill your digital marketing capabilities and build your business’s resilience, so that you can recover from the current economic crisis and be prepared for any future shock and disruption.
Building Small Business Resilience (BSBR) Digital Marketing Research Prototype Summary
Background and Need
Small businesses represent 98% of businesses in Canada but struggle with long-term survival, with only 68% lasting five years and 49% reaching ten years. Underrepresented groups, including women (15.6%), Indigenous people (1.4%), minorities (12.2%), and persons with disabilities (0.5%), face even greater challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic further impacted these businesses, with 38% reporting revenue losses of 50% or more and 14% considering closure.
Proposed Solution
The BSBR Digital Marketing Prototype supports small businesses in adapting to the digital economy through affordable, practical digital marketing education. In partnership with Sheridan’s EDGE Entrepreneurship Hub, the program will teach small business owners to run effective digital marketing campaigns on a $500 budget.
Program Structure & Delivery
– Two Cohorts of underrepresented small business groups
– Foundational learning via updated Sheridan courses
– Simulated campaign testing before real-world application
– Data-driven marketing optimization for resilience
– Virtual Learning Hub with nationwide accessibility
– Six mentorship sessions per participant
– Collaboration with business support organizations
Curriculum Integration & Micro-Credential Certificate
The program enhances Sheridan’s digital marketing curriculum by integrating industry best practices and evolving trends. It includes five online courses across two terms, covering website setup, owned and earned media, paid media, and specialized strategies for eCommerce and non-eCommerce businesses.
Impact & Sustainability
– Empowers small businesses with digital resilience
– Hands-on learning with real-world application
– Supports underrepresented groups with accessible education
– Enhances Sheridan’s digital marketing offerings
– Potential funding from Future Skills Canada
– Self-sustaining model with market-based pricing if needed
– Strategic partnerships to expand program reach
This initiative provides small business owners with essential digital marketing skills, ensuring adaptability and long-term success in an evolving business landscape.
BSBR Research Background
If your think it’s hard work running your business, you are not alone. Even though small businesses are ruling the Canadian economic landscape (accounting for 98% of all businesses in Canada [1]), your survival rates are not promising; 68% after 5 years, 49% after 10 years [1]. Let’s that sink in. More than half of small businesses will not last more than 10 years!
The odds are stacked even more against those who are in the under-represented groups. The under-represented are businesses that are majority owned by women (accounting for 15.6% of all small and medium businesses), by Indigenous people (1.4%), by minorities (12.2%) and by persons with a disability (0.5%).[2]
As the COVID-19 pandemic plunged global economy into worst recession since World War II [3], under-represented businesses were amongst the hardest hit due to their existing financial fragility and poor economic health [4]. Also, their businesses were likely to be in the most affected industries including accommodation and food services, and retail sectors [5]. Top challenges were loss of customers and income, negative mental health impacts and increase in domestic work [4].
Canada’s post COVID economy does not offer any good news to the under-represented as the recovery is categorized as K-shaped, a starkly uneven division where some parts of economy are recovering well, and the others are sluggish or sinking [6]. The inequality happens along class, racial, geographic, or industry lines [7].
The research project, Building Small Business Resilience (BSBR) aims to address this issue by equipping under-represented small business owners with necessary skills to be adaptive and resilient in the face of any future disruption.
Rationale
Small business bankruptcies are due to owners’ lack of experience, knowledge or vision with almost half of the failures from inadequate marketing skills [8]. This becomes more critical during major shocks that cause a sudden loss of customers [8] as happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic forced businesses and consumers to leap years forward in digital adoption in a matter of weeks [9], and it highlighted the need for businesses to upskill their digital marketing. Ontario Government found only 60% of small businesses had a website [10]. More than half of businesses showed low levels of digital maturity due to low investment and lack of staff with digital skills [11]. 73% of small business owners list digital skills among their top three priorities with the top five skill gaps including digital marketing, social media, data analytics, programming, and web development and design [12].
The BSBR research will develop a Digital Marketing Training Prototype from existing Sheridan’s courses. It will be designed specifically to address challenges faced by under–represented small business owners. The training will focus on how to run an end-to-end digital marketing campaign with a $500 budget. Two cohorts of training participants will test the prototype in their own businesses, run the campaign in the simulated platforms before launching it in the real world. Participants will learn to use data analytics to adjust their efforts and optimize the campaign results.
Participants will be followed up 6 and 12 months afterwards to evaluate the longer-term impact of the training.
Objectives
- Increase equitable, diverse and inclusive participation in small business sectors
- Develop optimal training courses and tools to bridge digital marketing skill gaps for under-represented small business owners
- Research data will be used to develop other training programs in digital marketing for small businesses
Expected Outcomes
Training participants successfully apply the knowledge and skills from the BSBR program, pivot their businesses online and increase their resilience against any future economic disruption. More successful underrepresented owners will increase equitable, diverse and inclusive participation in small business sectors.
The training prototype can be developed into programs offered by Sheridan College. Learning gained from the project will be applied to the development of other digital marketing programs in Pilon School of Business, Faculty of Continuing & Professional Studies and EDGE Entrepreneur hub at Sheridan College.
Project learning will also be published online.
Meet the BSBR Researchers
Co-Principal Researcher
Professor, Digital Marketing
Pilon School of Business
Sheridan College
Co-Principal Researcher
Professor, Digital Marketing
Pilon School of Business
Sheridan College.
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Researcher
Educational Development Consultant
Centre of Teaching & Learning
Sheridan College.
Research Administration and Support
Michelle Keast
Research Grant Coordinator
Sheridan College
Lisa Kember
Business Development Lead
EDGE Sheridan College
Noreen Javed
Manager of Operations
EDGE Sheridan College
References
[1] Government of Canada. (2019). Key Small Business Statistics – January 2019. Retrieved from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_03090.html
[2] Government of Canada. (January 2020). SME Profile: Ownership demographics statistics. Retrieved from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_03115.html
[3] The World Bank (June, 2020). COVID-19 to Plunge Global Economy into Worst Recession since World War II. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/08/covid-19-to-plunge-global-economy-into-worst-recession-since-world-war-ii
[4] Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CWCC). (May 2020). Falling Through the Cracks: Immediate Needs of Canada’s Underrepresented Founders. Retrieved from https://canwcc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Falling-through-the-Cracks_CanWCC_May2020v19.pdf
[5] Dua, A., Mahajan, D., Millan, I., and Stewart, S. (May 2020). COVID-19’s effect on minority-owned small businesses in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19s-effect-on-minority-owned-small-businesses-in-the-united-states
[6] RBC Economics. (December, 2020). Navigating 2021: 21 Charts for the Year Ahead. Retrieved from https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/navigating-2021-21-charts-for-the-year-ahead/
[7] Aldrich, E. (December, 2020). What a K-shaped recovery means, and how it highlights a nation’s economic inequalities. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/k-shaped-recovery-definition
[8] Statistics Canada. (1997). Failing Concerns: Business Bankruptcy in Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/61-525-x/61-525-x1997001-eng.pdf
[9] Baig, A., Hall, B., Jenkins, P., Lamarre, E., and McCarthy B. (May, 2020). The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-covid-19-recovery-will-be-digital-a-plan-for-the-first-90-days
[10] Ontario Government. (2020). Ontario and Canada Helping Small Businesses Go Digital. Retrieved from https://news.ontario.ca/medg/en/2020/06/ontario-and-canada-helping-small-businesses-go-digital.html
[11] Bédard-Maltais, P. (April, 2020). The Digital SME. Retrieved from https://www.bdc.ca/en/blog/pages/digital-sme.as
[12] Startup Canada (October, 2017). Next-Generation Skills and Technologies Proven Key in the Advancement of Canadian-Owned Small Businesses. Retrieved from https://www.startupcan.ca/2017/10/next-generation-skills-technologies-proven-key-advancement-canadian-owned-small-businesses/