Calgary-based Olympia Trust has launched a new website to help small business owners get the capital investment they need in these challenging economic times.
For years, the financial services company has been a leader in helping small and medium sized companies find capital through other people’s RSPs, which could be a lifeline today for many of them as they struggle through the tough times caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
The new website is https://www.rspsmallbiz.ca/.
“When they talk about whatever the percentage is – 90 per cent of small businesses fail in the first year or two – it’s typically due to a lack of working capital. It’s just that pot of money that’s sitting there with no particular purpose identified but it’s that money that gives a business flexibility to get through leaner times,” said Craig Skauge, President and CEO of Olympia.
“And oftentimes those leaner times are when a company starts up and they build a customer base. But now we’re in leaner times for different reasons and the challenge is we don’t know when things are going to return to the old way because I think as we’ve seen here it’s not just contingent on what government says. It’s also based on consumer confidence. Just because the government says that restaurants are open doesn’t mean that people are going to go out to them,” added Skauge, a 2019 recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, founder and the President of Exempt Edge Inc., a company providing cloud based regulatory compliance solutions for participants in the Private Capital Markets, a founder, director, and Vice Chair of the Private Capital Market Association of Canada and a member of the Alberta Securities Commission’s Exempt Market Dealer Advisory Committee.
Skauge said Olympia Trust has become the leader in the country for administering registered plans where the primary investment is a private security. Olympia has been helping small business owners find that working capital in this way for close to 25 years. The range of capital investment could be into the millions of dollars.
“The reason more people haven’t used it is just because it’s not well known,” said Skauge.
