Financing SMEs in Canada, barriers faced by women, youth, Aboriginal and minority entrepreneurs in accessing capital : Financing small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada

For these stages, the business is mature enough that the risks are lower, and the investment truly is being made on the basis of the strength of the existing business rather that the characteristics of the founder. [...] The primary focus of this project is to evaluate information regarding barriers to SME financing encountered by particular profiles of business owners (women, youth, Aboriginals and ethnic and language minorities) and to provide a gap analysis of existing information in order to facilitate future research and data collection in this area. [...] The overall objective of this project is to compile available research, reports and data on the barriers faced by particular groups of SME owners, and to identify the broad themes emerging from the research in this area, as well as highlighting areas of dissent. [...] In general, the supply of capital is influenced directly by the relative risk and return on the investment with respect to the existing economic climate, the relative supply and demand of good investment opportunities and the transaction costs associated with making the investment. [...] In this way, an investor can mitigate their risk of default on the investment by the SME by a variety of measures, including examination of personal credit histories, obtaining personal guarantees signed by the entrepreneur, and assignment of personal assets to the creditor in the event of default.