A local resident and PhD candidate from the University of Guelph is looking to hear from entrepreneurs in MRC Pontiac as part of her research.
Melanie McCann Lang, a student at the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, said she is just wrapping up a survey of local entrepreneurs that opened in December, with the goal of finishing in the next few weeks, and subsequently conducting focus groups with some of the respondents.
A link to McCann Lang’s survey can be found here or by emailing langme@uoguelph.ca.
She said that one of the goals is to understand better how business owners operate in rural environments compared to their urban counterparts.
“We see a lot of research coming out of the UK, northern Quebec, northern Ontario, trying to better understand how rural entrepreneurship differs, so how might the needs be different,” she said. “I think for us here within the Pontiac I think it would be really helpful to get a clear snapshot of what our needs might be, and then might that have an implication on policy? Might that have an implication on funding opportunities?”
She said that the aspects of rural business that she’s analyzing are quite broad.
“It’s just been looking at business characterization of the area and trying to answer questions around say, gender – is there gender parity in entrepreneurship?” she said. “What are some of the barriers or opportunities for starting a business, for expanding a business? Even asking questions around succession planning, so if someone has a business here, what’s their plan? Everyone needs an exit strategy, right? Is there a legacy where this passes from generation to generation, is it somebody’s retirement plan that they’re going to sell the business and retire? Just wanting to get a snapshot from the business owners in the area.”
She said that she hopes to start submitting chapters to her advisory committee by March with the goal of finishing by early summer.
McCann Lang thanked the local community for their support with her studies, and said that she was excited to share what she learns with the community once her studies are complete.
“I feel like entrepreneurship is a vehicle by which people can become self-determining. So isn’t it awesome to tell the story of self-determining people within a community I grew up in?” she said.
“I think that’s what I’m most excited about. My hope is that after my research is completed, and I’ve written it up and I’ve done my dissertation, what I would love to do is give a presentation to the community to say, here, this is what I’ve learned. This is the responses I’ve received and here’s a snapshot of who’s in our community, what do they think our needs are, and where we think we want to go as a community.”
