Small start-up businesses are pretty common in Canada. According to the official Canadian government, the statistics from the labour force survey show that around 68.8% of the labour force is employed in small business start-ups.
Furthermore, author Szabolcs Szecsei published an article on the review moose website which stated that every year around 95,000 small businesses are opened in Canada. To assist these small businesses in utilizing advanced technology and digitalization, the Canadian government has launched a program called the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP).
What is the Canadian digital adoption plan?
The Canada Digital Adoption Program has been made public by the Canadian government (CDAP). The goal of this initiative is to assist small and medium-sized businesses in using digital technologies and methodologies that will increase possibilities for young Canadians.
The Canada Digital Adoption Program will get $4 billion in financing, according to the Canadian government. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can receive grants and consulting services worth $1.4 billion, as well as up to $2.6 billion in interest-free loans, from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), to help defray the cost of putting digital transformation plans into action.
This program was created to assist companies in modernizing or adopting digital technology, digitizing their processes, and utilizing e-commerce prospects to remain competitive and satisfy the demands of their clients in the online market.
Funding opportunities:
This program offers funding and opportunities for the two following programs
- Grow your business online
- Boost your business online
Grow Your Business Online
This program offers qualified small companies up to $2,400 to pay costs associated with converting to digital technology. Distributing funds would be done through regional and local service providers.
To assist small firms, the service providers will also create a network of e-commerce experts. The businesses that want to apply for this program can easily access the network to avail of this opportunity.
Eligibility for growing your business program
To avail of these funding opportunities, your business needs to meet the standard eligibility criteria.
- Your business must be profitable
- Your business must be registered
- Your business must directly communicate with customers and sell products and services.
- Businesses can directly deal with customers
- At least have one employee
- Ready to adopt the digital strategy for six months at least.
Boost Your Business Technology
The Boost Your Business Technology award can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Canadian ownership implement new digital technology. Businesses that meet the requirements can utilize the award to cover the cost of a digital adviser.
These consultants will work with organizations to provide digital paths and tactics that will help them accomplish their objectives and increase their competitiveness in the digital economy.
Eligibility to boost your business technology
Your business needs to qualify for this program to take advantage of this funding opportunity.
- Canadian resident's business structure is either a sole trader, partnership, or incorporation
- Profitable, private business
- An employee working in the company around 1 -499
- In three tax years, the revenue must be $500,000 or more
How can I find out if my company qualifies for this grant?
Your business is eligible for this program grant if:
- be a nationally or provincially recognized corporation, or be a resident single proprietor of Canada
- to operate as a privately owned, for-profit company.
- consist of 1 to 499 full-time equivalent workers
- a minimum yearly income of $500,000 in one of the three most recent tax years.
Which companies are not qualified for this grant?
Some companies are not eligible for the Canadian digital adoption program.
- franchises, large corporations, or recognized non-profit organizations
- company representatives for multi-level marketing
- property management companies
How to apply for Canada's digital adoption program?
- Register
- Build a plan
- Get Approved
- Apply with BDC
Registration process
To register for Canada's digital adoption program (CDAP), you first need to look at the program details related to your business structure. Does your business fully meet the eligibility criteria and what needs to be required? If your business meets the required demand, you can visit the Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) website and register easily.
Build a plan
After registering your business for Canada's digital adoption plan, the next step is to build a proper plan for the innovation science and economic development Canada approval partnership. Furthermore, getting approval from ISED will unlock the next registration process. If you fail to meet the requirements and your plan is not approved, you can’t apply for this program.
Get Approved
The third step of the registration process is getting innovation, science and economic development (ISED) approval. The ISED will ask you to provide the following important details and an invoice for further payment. Then you will receive advisory fees of up to 15 thousand dollars.
Apply with BDC
Almost all of your registration process is done. The last step is to apply for the loan according to your approval from the innovation, science, and economic development (ISED) program. You can apply for up to $100,000.
Congratulations! The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) registration procedure is now complete. You can now bring your business up to speed with the necessary technological advancements and digital initiatives.
Benefits of applying to the Canada digital adoption program (CDAP).
Direct connection with experts and professionals
This program covers 90% of the cost of hiring digital professionals.
Increase your ability to compete in the market.
The positivity of this program is that it will help you make more sales, increase your network, and enjoy the large market share in the business.
Can get access to grants for up to 12 months.
Getting a loan is the main benefit of this program. The business can easily flourish and make a profit in the market by using the loans positively.
Conclusion
The Canada Adoption Program (CAP) is a facilitation program for small or medium start-up companies to help them with digitalization and enter a modern technological world. This program only has two funding opportunities. First, one is to grow your business online, and secondly, to boost your business online. These two funding opportunities have so much credibility that they will boost Canada's IT industry.
In this blog, we have learned about the Canada Adoption Program (CDA), the funding opportunities, eligibility criteria for applying to this program, which companies can and can’t apply, and the benefits of this program to small start-up companies.