The Entrepreneurship Centre is an initiative of OCRI, dedicated to helping Ottawa entrepreneurs make educated decisions about starting and growing their businesses. The Centre aims to promote Ottawa's economy, through the development of products and services that encourage entrepreneurship and support business growth.

The Centre has a staff of dedicated business professionals, who provide advice and counsel to entrepreneurs on a variety of levels. As well, the Centre provides links to other business organizations, seminars and entrepreneurial events, online training and many other tools and resources to assist the budding entrepreneur.

A program of the Entrepreneurship Centre is the Ottawa Capital Network which assists in creating efficiencies in the capital market through programs aimed at educating the entrepreneurial community, creating linkages among the investment community and providing knowledge and support to the business community.

The Centre is supported by 6 major partners: the City of Ottawa; the Ministry of Small Business and Entrepreneurship; RBC Royal Bank; Welch LLP; MediaPlus Advertising and Odutola Law Chambers. Twelve additional sponsors provided financial support for the annual Ottawa Venture and Technology Summit.

Did you know?

• The Entrepreneurship Centre responds to 8,620 enquiries from approximately 2,462 entrepreneurs each year.

• A 2007 Entrepreneurship Centre survey identified 1,453 clients that successfully started new business activities in 2006. These entrepreneurs provided more than 2,943 new jobs, over $54 million in new business investment and over $160 million in reported sales.

• Business Partners provide more than 1,200 hours of service annually, which is donated to the Centre. Representatives from more than 45 local professional legal and accounting firms, and from other firms with specialized knowledge to share, provide pro bono advice to clients of the Centre.

To find out more about the Centre's clients and the impact they have had on the business community, see our annual "Small Business Trends in the Ottawa Region" document (Adobe PDF Format).

Contact us at:
110 Laurier Ave. W. (City Hall)
Ground Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
TEL.: (613) 560-6081
FAX: (613) 560-2102

E-MAIL:

For business questions please Click here to access our office's virtual assistant. You may find the answer immediately by asking our assistant, or by sending an email request to the virtual assistant. You will receive an email response within 2 business days.

For administrative questions please Click here to send us your adminsitrative enquiry. You will receive an email response within 2 business days.

Hours of Operation:

MONDAY to FRIDAY 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

To read the PDF files you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer system. If you do not have it installed, click here to download.