B次元官网网址淒entist, baker, restaurant owner or doctor: which of those businesses would you consider to be small businesses?B次元官网网址� asked Naomi Yamamoto, Minister of State for Small Business to a class of business students at Lambrick Park secondary school.

B次元官网网址淎ll of them,B次元官网网址� replied one student ensconced behind a row of computers in the classroom-turned-press conference Tuesday morning.

B次元官网网址淲herever you go, you see small businesses more than large businesses and part of small business culture is somebody waking up one morning and saying: B次元官网网址榊ou know what, IB次元官网网址檇 like to start my own business,B次元官网网址� but sometimes we donB次元官网网址檛 actually have the skills we need,B次元官网网址� Yamamoto said.

Cue the smartphone app.

Jordan Bennett, senior policy analyst at Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation gave students a tour of web version of the app, Boss Yourself, via a smartboard. Boss Yourself includes quizzes designed to sharpen a young personB次元官网网址檚 business sense and provides facts on the basics of starting a business, as well as links to outside resources.

An accompanying lesson plan has also been developed for the app, which is available for free on iPhone, Android or web browsers. Federal research and innovation funding for the project was provided as a part of the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market development Agreement, in addition to support from the province.

Ninety-eight per cent of businesses in B.C. are small businesses, defined by employing 50 people less. Though the vast majority of those small businesses, explained the minister, an entrepreneur herself, have fewer than five employees.

B次元官网网址淲e need to embrace entrepreneurs, embrace small business and do it at an earlier age,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 not something we should do when we canB次元官网网址檛 get a job at a big company.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淭o do so and to do so profitably, you need business skills,B次元官网网址� Bennet added.

Find out more at , or the Boss Yourself .

nnorth@saanichnews.com