By Paul Struthers

If you’re a small-business owner, you might already know all about BDC Small Business Week 2016, which begins Sunday, October 16. Since 1981, Small Business Week has celebrated entrepreneurship at the local, provincial, and national levels. This year, BDC is sponsoring more than 300 events across the country that are expected to draw more than 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners.

I’m proud to say Sage is also committed to bringing entrepreneurs and business owners together to learn from each other and identify business opportunities. Last month, for example, we held our annual Sage Sessions in Vancouver and Toronto, attracting almost 900 entrepreneurs and business owners to our one-of-a-kind learning, training, and networking experience for Sage customers. We also had a big presence last month at the 2016 annual conference of the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada (IPBC) in Richmond.

Disruptive technology: opportunity or threat?

So, what is that Sage customers want to learn about? I’m still pretty new to Sage, having joined the company as EVP and managing director in August; however, it’s become clear to me that one major topic of concern to business owners is the potentially disruptive effect of technology on their businesses.

It’s important to note that concern about disruptive technology takes two very different directions: On the one hand, some entrepreneurs are concerned that they’re not doing enough to utilize the disruptive technologies available to them; on the other hand, many (perhaps most) of the small-business owners I’ve met are anxious about disruptive technology and want guidance in how to understand it and, where appropriate, use it.

Perhaps it’s because of my professional background, which is mostly in the technology industry, but when I think of new, even disruptive technologies, my first impulse is to figure out why and how to embrace them. For example, let’s consider cloud technology. To me, the cloud represents an opportunity for growth: It lets the small business owner (and their employees) work using any device at any time and in any place; it lets business owners (accountants in particular) communicate with clients more productively and efficiently.

The importance of education and support

As a company, Sage needs to continue to educate entrepreneurs and small-business owners about when it makes sense to embrace disruptive technologies, and how to do it. To continue with the cloud example: many business owners are concerned about the loss of control and potential data security. That’s why we at Sage offer, in addition to full-on, cloud-only solutions (Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Sage Business Cloud Financials), a hybrid cloud solutions Sage 50c Accounting. Sage 50c is a great way to test out the cloud.

At the Sage Session in Toronto, I spoke with an amazing mother and daughter accountant team from another province. They had come to the Sage Session in order to learn in-depth about Sage’s latest products. They planned to go back home and accelerate their bookkeeping business by offering their customers the latest and greatest tools to help them manage their businesses. Effectively, this mother/daughter team talked with infectious energy (they made me want to sign up as a customer!) about how they were planning to bring their customers on the journey, not just with accounting software, but with cloud-accounting software. And they plan to do it by educating their prospective customers on how much time they can save (and how much more time they can spend growing their businesses) by embracing technology.

Sage: Still championing SMBs

In my short time with Sage, I’ve learned that we have an important role to play in supporting the goals and ambitions of our more than quarter-of-a-million customers. We take our role as champions of Canada’s small and medium businesses very seriously. After all, it’s clear that small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of the Canadian economy. According to the BDC, they account for 99.7 percent of all Canadian companies and employ more than 90 percent of Canada’s private-sector workers.

Attending the two Sage Sessions and the IPBC conference was a great way to be introduced to the SMB community that we serve. I talked with many business owners and accountants (many of whom, like the mother/daughter team I mentioned earlier, are themselves business owners). These conversations helped me quickly understand Sage’s role in the SMB community: Over the years, Sage has established itself as a true champion of SMBs by helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams and ambitions through educational resources, training opportunities, advocacy, and outstanding software solutions. In other words, for Sage it’s not just about selling you software, shaking hands, and moving on. We want to be part of your journey.

I encourage entrepreneurs and business owners to take advantage of BDC Small Business Week events. And please keep in mind that Sage will continue to offer its own brand of training and support in the coming 12 months. We’ll be holding Sage Sessions again, including a potential Sage Summit in Toronto this spring. I’m also proud to note that we’ll be the main sponsor of the Canada Games in August in Winnipeg, which is a particularly special event as Canada celebrates 150 Years of Confederation and the Canada Games celebrate their 50th year: “The Hottest Summer in Half a Century.” We are also very excited to be one of the main sponsors of the

Invictus Games in Toronto in September. Please be on the lookout for more information and I hope to see you and one or all of these upcoming events!

Paul Struthers is managing director and executive vice president of Sage Canada. You can reach Paul at Paul.Struthers@sage.com

What are the most effective techniques to achieve significant growth? Download Sage’s “Five Ways to Grow Your Business” to find out.

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