Entrepreneurial ambition in Canada has reached an eight-year high. In this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast, Roger Pierce speaks with Karen Svendsen, Senior Director of Small Business and Partnerships at Royal Bank of Canada, about what is driving that surge and what holds people back from getting started.

She helps lead RBC’s national small business strategy and played a central role in the 2025 RBC Small Business Poll. The results are very exciting — with 59% of Canadians saying they want to start a business, and a whopping 81% believing business ownership is a viable way to earn a living. Ontario leads the country, with 68% showing entrepreneurial ambition, followed by Atlantic Canada and the Prairies.

In the pod Karen talks about why independence, flexibility, and purpose now matter more than traditional career paths. "People want more control over their time and their long term prospects, and they want the ability to shape that future for themselves and for their family," says Karen.

She also speaks candidly about blockers such as uncertainty, access to funding, lack of confidence, and not knowing where to begin. RBC wants to make it easier to get going. ”We think that a big part of our role is making the early stages feel less overwhelming. So we help people understand the practical steps to take, from registering their business to working through their business plan to securing or identifying sources of financing."

Resources mentioned:
RBC tools, resources, learning, & partnerships to start or grow a business
RBC 2025 Small Business Poll results

Rieva Lesonsky joins the podcast to talk about small business trends, fears, and the changing face of entrepreneurship.

A trailblazer in the world of entrepreneurship advocacy, Rieva worked for 25 years as Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine. She’s a best-selling author of several books, including Start Your Own Business and Small Business Hacks: 100 Shortcuts to Success. She’s written about small business issues for The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and AllBusiness.com. She now runs her own site SmallBusinessCurrents.com, where she publishes data-driven insights about consumer behaviour, industry trends, business opportunities, and, of course, advice for entrepreneurs. Unsurprisingly, Rieva's impact has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration and she's been inducted into the Business Journalists Hall of Fame.

In our interview, Rieva explains why fear plays a useful role when you start a business. As she puts it, “Fear tells you what to look at… Fear is not there to stop you.” She discusses the rise of mid-career entrepreneurs, noting that “the typical age of startup is mid-40s to mid-50s.” She also identifies fast-growing opportunities in home improvement, beauty, ageing-in-place, niche consumer products, and male grooming — and shares fascinating stories of entrepreneurs who made it big.

Amazing insights await! Enjoy this conversation with one of my professional heroes.

Resources:
SmallBusinessCurrents.com
Rieva Lesonsky on LinkedIn

The conversation explores speak-up culture — what it is, why it matters, and how it drives retention and innovation. Stephen Shedletzky is the author of Speak-Up Culture, a leadership coach, and former member of Simon Sinek’s founding team. Stephen helps leaders create psychologically safe environments where people feel confident using their voices.

Why is this important for entrepreneurs? Employees in speak-up cultures are 92% more likely to stay and perform at their best. Through his company, Shed Inspires, he teaches that “we can’t ask people to perform at their best if we haven’t created an environment in which they feel it’s psychologically safe to do so.”

From psychological safety to feedback and self-awareness, Stephen’s message is clear: leadership starts the day you hire your first team member. And his definition of leadership is simple but powerful. “Leadership is the attempt to leave the people and world around you better than when you found them.”

Visit his website ShedInspires.com
Buy his book Speak-Up Culture on Amazon

Most accountants and bookkeepers are drowning in long hours and underpriced work. Ryan Lazanis says it doesn’t have to be that way.

On this special Accountex 2025 episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast, Roger Pierce talks with Ryan Lazanis, CPA, Founder of Future Firm. Ryan built and sold Zen Accounting, one of Canada’s first 100% cloud-based firms, and now helps thousands of accounting professionals create modern practices that deliver profit and lifestyle.

“It’s hard to scale advice,” Ryan says. “But if you standardize your offer and productize your services, you remove variables and free yourself from being the bottleneck.” On the subject of fees, a sensitive area for most accounting professionals, he shares why three-tier pricing works: “With one option, you’re nervous to raise prices. With three options, you can be aggressive—and most clients pick the middle.”

Ryan also opens up about how AI is reshaping the profession, including his own experiment with cloning his voice and avatar to deliver a recent online presentation. While excited about AI’s potential, he’s cautious: “I think it’s actually going to make our lives more difficult, not easier, because expectations are so much higher now.”

> Catch Ryan’s Accountex 2025 Keynote in Toronto on Nov 5, where he’ll reveal insights from the Top 50 Modern Accounting Firm Survey.
> Attend Roger's session on How to Close More Sales for Your Accounting Practice also on Nov 5.

Important links:
FutureFirm.co
Accountex Canada 2025 on Nov 4 & 5

Paul Chato has done it all — comedian, CBC exec, web entrepreneur, and YouTuber with 130,000 subscribers. In this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast, Paul shares how he went from making Canadians laugh with The Frantics and cult hero Mr. Canoehead to building over 2,000 websites and pioneering a subscription model long before it was cool.

He even explains how doing Rick Green’s taxes (yes, that guy from The Red Green Show) helped him learn business basics, why recurring revenue beats “dragging an elephant back to the office,” and how asking for advice is the best sales pitch you’ll ever make.

I've known Paul for years and wanted to hear his unique take on small business ownership. “An entrepreneur is someone who is absolutely certain of success and surprised when it happens,” Paul quips. We talk about Hackintoshes, YouTube tricks, and why it’s smart to keep your employees at arm’s length (hint: they’re not your friends).

And here’s a gem revealed in the podcast — Paul tells us that he met his wife because of John Candy, the revered Canadian comic legend.

This episode is part strategy, part stand-up. You’ve been warned.

Resources mentioned:
Call Me Chato on YouTube
Call Me Chato video about John Candy
aPauling News on YouTube
Your Web Department
The Frantics

Whether you’re pitching investors, leading a team, or serving customers, this episode will show you how to strengthen your most valuable entrepreneurial skill: communication.

Host Roger Pierce talks with Ric Phillips, Founder of 3V Communications, to explore why developing communication skills is make-or-break factor for new and existing entrepreneurs.

Ric has been coaching entrepreneurs and professionals since 2006, helping them master verbal, vocal, and visual communication. With an MBA and a background in sociology and psychology, Ric combines academic insight with practical coaching experience. He also serves as Director of the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (YEDI) and Executive Director of the National Communication Coaching Association of Canada.

Ric explains his “3V” framework — verbal, vocal, and visual — as a tool to align words, tone, and body language for maximum impact. He stresses that confidence and competency fuel each other in a cycle: “The more competent you are at something, you get more confident, and the more confident you are, the more chances you take.”

The conversation highlights the cost of poor communication: 68% of consumers have walked away from a business relationship because of it. Ric argues that entrepreneurs must pair technical details with emotional storytelling to connect with their audience. He also points out that nonverbal cues outweigh verbal ones “every single time,” making body language and delivery as critical as the content itself.

Listeners will learn how to improve trust through comfort, why a pitch needs both emotional and technical balance, and why investing in communication skills pays off throughout your business journey. As Ric notes, “There’s no magic bullet… but there are tools available that give us structure.”

Resources mentioned:
NCCA
3V Communications
YEDI

In this episode, longtime business owner Faith Seekings opens up about one of the most personal — and necessary — challenges in entrepreneurship: reinvention. She shares how she moved from building a full-service graphic design agency to becoming a solo content strategist focused on writing, storytelling, and strategic communication.

Faith founded Rapport Communications Inc. and grew it into a thriving agency with 10 employees and even acquired another firm. But after years of success, something shifted. “I wasn’t happy anymore,” she says. That realization sparked a bold decision to dismantle what she had built and return to working on her own terms.

Later, after a personal loss pulled her away from the business, Faith came to a deeper understanding of what truly energized her: writing. “I couldn’t get motivated to return,” she recalls. “I realized I was happiest when I was writing.” 

Faith speaks candidly about the emotional weight of letting go, the risks of staying stuck in an identity that no longer fits, and the power of following your creative instincts. One of her core lessons: “You don’t have to be miserable doing the things you’re bad at. Hire help, even if it’s not billable.”

Her story is a reminder that in business, you may not end up where you began — and that may be a good thing.

Resources:
Website Rapport Communications 

Faith Seekings on LinkedIn

Is podcasting worth your investment of time, money, and energy? One of the best people I know to answer that question is Jamie Irvine, National Sales Director at Parts for Trucks and seasoned podcast host. Jamie has produced over 150 episodes of the Build a Better Business podcast and 350 episodes of The Heavy Duty Parts Report, giving him rare insight into how podcasting can power business growth.

Jamie shares how he turned podcasting into a career amplifier. What started as a solo side project with a poor webcam and free editing tools became a strategic marketing channel that helped him land consulting gigs, attract high-value clients, and close six-figure sponsorship deals. He stresses the importance of niching down. “The subject was too broad,” Jamie says about his first podcast. “It never really broke into a position where I could monetize it.”

You'll learn why choosing a narrow topic creates stronger audience engagement and business alignment. Jamie explains that a niche podcast allows you to go “an inch wide and a mile deep,” unlocking repeatable content ideas and positioning the host — not the guest — as the trusted expert.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
Jamie Irvine on LinkedIn
Heavy Duty Parts Report website & podcast
Entrepreneurs On Fire Podcast with John Lee Dumas
The E-Myth by Micheal E. Gerber

What if the best way to start a business is to buy one that already exists?

In this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast, host Roger Pierce speaks with Scott Stirrett, Founder and CEO of Venture for Canada, a national charity helping young Canadians gain entrepreneurial experience and skills. Since 2013, Scott and his team have raised more than $80 million and supported over 10,000 early-career professionals through fellowships, internships, and real-world work placements in small businesses across the country.

Scott is also the author of the upcoming book The Uncertainty Advantage, a guide for early-career professionals on how to thrive in a world of constant change.

In the discussion, Scott shares why Canada is facing an entrepreneurship gap. “There are 100,000 fewer entrepreneurs in Canada than there were 20 years ago,” he says. With 42% of Canadian small businesses owned by baby boomers — and over 54,000 businesses currently for sale — the opportunity for young Canadians to step in is massive.

That’s where Venture for Canada’s innovative Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Academy comes in. The course teaches participants how to:

• Find and evaluate small businesses for sale.
• Finance a purchase using debt, equity, and seller notes.
• Negotiate deals and transition into ownership.

There are many good reasons why buying an existing business is a better path into entrepreneurship: there’s already cash flow, there’s a customer base, and the systems are in place. "It’s often a lot less risky to buy something that is already existing than to start something up completely from scratch,” Scott says in the episode. 

This episode is essential listening for aspiring entrepreneurs looking for a different way in. Enjoy!

Resources:

Venture for Canada

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Academy

Scott Stirrett book The Uncertainy Advantage

Most small business owners rely on a part-time bookkeeper and an accountant who shows up once a year. My guest explains why that setup leads to inaccurate financials and lost opportunities: “We lost deals because the financials were a mess—expenses were recorded in the wrong months, balance sheets were out of whack, and investors walked away.”

In this episode, Daryl Ching, CFA and Managing Partner at Vistance Accounting, shares what every founder needs to hear about accounting, cash flow, and the real cost of ignoring your books. 

With ten years on Bay Street and another decade advising startups, Daryl has seen it all—from failed capital raises to growth-stage wins. He’s been a trusted voice in the media recently, appearing on BNN Bloomberg and The Globe & Mail to talk about interest rates, recession signals, and small business risk.

Daryl outlines how outsourcing accounting not only saves time but also boosts decision-making. A recent survey shows it frees up 9.1 hours per week and boosts owner confidence in 98% of cases. He explains why monthly financials by the 15th matter, how to find margin leaks in your product lines, and what to cut when expenses creep up. He also breaks down why fractional CFO services offer big value to small businesses. “If your accountant is six months behind, you're running your business on gut. That’s a huge risk.”

Listen for tax-saving strategies, how to clean up your books, tips to attract investors & more.

Resources:
Daryl Ching on LinkedIn
Vistance Accounting website