Toronto, ON (Tuesday, May 15, 2012) – Sometimes the secret to an entrepreneur’s success is as simple as three little words. Just ask Saul Nir, co-founder of Toronto-based promotional product company Artik, who says Canadian entrepreneurs need to start taking more risks and saying “go for it” a lot more often.

 

“Go for it, fail and adjust, go for it again and keep adjusting until you’re successful,” says Nir. “Once I became aware of my fear of failure, I was able to overcome it. Now, I relate to failure as a positive sign of growing and taking action. The opportunity to contribute and share those kinds of business life lessons with other entrepreneurs was a motivation for me to get involved with Startup Canada.”

 

Artik is one of dozens of sponsors who have gotten behind Startup Canada’s entrepreneur-led movement to support and celebrate entrepreneurship. Startup Canada is currently on a six-month National Tour hosting 30 Town Halls and more than 100 other Fringe Events across the country to engage entrepreneurs and enterprise support organizations to collaborate, share ideas, and build a stronger entrepreneurial culture in Canada.

 

“Building community amongst entrepreneurs is so valuable,” says Nir. “Having them share stories and exchange advice will help entrepreneurs save time and resources when they encounter similar situations – whether it’s applying for funding, hiring staff, or expanding your operations.”

 

Nir knows what it’s like to start a business from the ground up. Artik was formed in 1985 between himself and co-founder Rafael Danan, starting small with a product line focused on garment custom printing and embroidery. Many years and many ‘go for it’ moments later, Artik now staffs a design and sales team, is fully equipped for on-site manufacturing and in-house screen printing, and serves a wide variety of clients, from a local band to international clients like Bell, H&M, Starbucks and The Bay.

 

For Startup Canada, Artik has helped brand the Startup Canada team and National Tour with custom printed T-shirts, pens, balloons, stickers, pin-back buttons and silicone awareness bands.

 

Throughout the Tour, Startup Canada Town Halls and Fringe Events are brainstorming community-driven solutions to the challenges facing entrepreneurs today. For Nir, access to financing and developing professional business systems are two key challenges that come to mind. Not to mention the growing opportunities around online business.

 

“Many new businesses do things by shooting from the hip – trial and error. I see Startup Canada helping empower those entrepreneurs to learn from other business people’s experiences , build their confidence to keep taking risks, and ultimately help entrepreneurs build a successful business,” said Nir.

 

The Startup Canada National Tour is traveling through Ontario and New Brunswick during the rest of May before heading west to the prairies. In addition to being championed by patrons such as Brett Wilson (Host of RiskyBusinessTV, former Dragon & serial entrepreneur), Heather Reisman (Founder, Indigo Books & Music), and Dani Reiss (Founder, Canada Goose), Startup Canada has also received support from a number of ambassadors and industry sponsors such as Microsoft, Gowlings and Ernst & Young.

 
Other sponsors include Microsoft, Gowlings, Ernst & Young, Best Western,  Kick Ass Media, PubliAir, the Ottawa Technology Transfer Network, VideoBooth, the Association of University Research Parks Canada, the Canadian Association of Business Incubation, the Evidence Network, Francis Moran & Associates, FreshBooks, Global Advantage Consulting Group, MSBi Valorisation, Podio, Best Western, Backbone Magazine, HootSuite, ITWorld Canada, NextMTL,,Paper.li, and Techvibes.