Tough economic times call for innovation and creativity.

That’s why a recession might be the perfect time to think about starting your own business, say some of the country’s business leaders.

While hundreds of thousands of workers across North America lost their jobs last week, Canadian entrepreneurs from across the country convened in Toronto for Entrepreneurship Week Canada.

They shared ideas about how to further grow their businesses and more generally, how to grow the entrepreneurial spirit in Canada.

At a leadership summit hosted by Impact Entrepreneurship Group, a student-led organization for young entrepreneurs, new and experienced entrepreneurs alike said an economic downturn is just the right time to push ahead with cutting-edge ideas.

“Adversity brings out innovation, so entrepreneurship is very much a real opportunity for employment,” said Mark Rivers, founder and CEO of Presidents of Enterprising Organizations.

When times are tough, people look for new ways to support themselves and it’s a good time to be creative, he said.

Mark Romoff, president and CEO of Ontario Centres of Excellence, says entrepreneurship is independent of the economic climate.

“You need entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs when things are going well as much as you need it when things are going bad,” he said.

Romoff would like to see entrepreneurship become more a part of “Canada’s DNA.”

If you look at many of the country’s greatest success stories, he said, they’re completely the product of entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial thinking.

In other words: “Guts and almost a disregard for the things that people say are the roadblocks to success,” he said.

The road to success is generally a product of failure along the way, Romoff said, and more people need to be willing to risk that failure.

Kunal Gupta, a 23-year-old University of Waterloo graduate, founder of Impact Group and president and CEO of his own mobile solutions company Polar Mobile, says the tough times ahead are just another opportunity for young entrepreneurs.

“In tough times the true winners, the true, solid companies or ideas and concepts come to the surface,” he said.

While bigger companies like Yahoo! and Citibank lay off thousands of employees, young people with great ideas and tons of enthusiasm are still going ahead and starting businesses, he said.

“As young people, we thrive on challenge,” Gupta said.

Entrepreneurship, however, is risky business and in the event someone’s not quite ready to strike out on their own and start their own company on a shoestring, Rivers said it pays to be entrepreneurial in the pursuit of a job.

Figure out what you’re passionate about, find companies that are doing it and then figure out what you can do for them.
Pitch yourself, keep pitching and don’t give up, he said.