Getting started as an Alberta entrepreneur
Alberta has a strong do-it-yourself streak, two big cities and a lot of wide-open country. Here’s how new entrepreneurs get started here, and get online.
Alberta’s entrepreneurial landscape
Calgary and Edmonton are home to most of Alberta’s new businesses: trades and renovation crews, cleaning and home services, consultants, fitness and beauty studios, food businesses and online shops. Many are started by people who learned a trade in the energy sector or by newcomers who moved to the province.
Energy, agriculture and construction shape the rest. Rural Alberta has ranching and grain farming, and the mechanics, welders, truckers and custom operators who serve them, while the Rockies and their parks bring a tourism economy of guides, rentals, lodgings and photography.
Alberta also has a growing francophone community, in Edmonton, Calgary and historic towns in the north, and many Indigenous and Métis entrepreneurs.
Real help for new entrepreneurs
Free help and networks for Alberta entrepreneurs:
- Alberta: register a business name — How to register a trade name or partnership through an Alberta registry agent.
- Business Link — Alberta’s free advice service for people starting and running a business. A good first call: free, one-on-one advice.
- Community Futures Network of Alberta — Local loans and business development from Community Futures offices across rural Alberta.
- PrairiesCan — Prairies Economic Development Canada, the federal agency for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
- Parallèle Alberta — Francophone economic development in Alberta: coaching and networking for entrepreneurs (formerly the CDÉA).
- Alberta Chambers of Commerce — The provincial network of local chambers of commerce.
- Futurpreneur — Start-up financing paired with a volunteer business mentor, for entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39.
- BDC — The Business Development Bank of Canada: financing, plus free guides and templates for people starting out.
Your first steps in Alberta
- Register your trade name through an Alberta registry agent if you’ll operate under a name other than your own.
- GST only. Alberta has no provincial sales tax. You charge the 5 % federal GST once you’re registered, and registration with the CRA becomes mandatory when taxable sales pass CA$30,000 over four consecutive quarters.
- Get free advice. Business Link answers questions about starting out; Community Futures offices help in rural Alberta; Parallèle Alberta works in French.
- Look established online. A free Google Business Profile and an email at your own domain help a new business compete with the big names.
Canada Revenue Agency: get a business number · CRA: GST/HST rates by province
How WebNewBee helps
WebNewBee builds your site in about a minute: pick one of 30 designs, answer a few questions, and edit whatever you like, in English, French or both.
One simple price
CA$6.99/month · plus applicable taxes
- Website with up to 6 pages, written by our AI from your facts
- Up to 3 email addresses on your own domain
- Your own domain from CA$24.99/year, or a free yourname.webnewbee.page address
- Secure (https), fast, mobile-friendly
- English, French or both
- Cancel anytime — no contract
Questions
What tax do I pay on WebNewBee in Alberta?
CA$6.99 a month plus the 5 % GST. There’s no provincial sales tax in Alberta.
Do I need to incorporate to have a website?
No. Many people start as sole proprietors; registering a trade name is enough to use a business name. A website doesn’t require either.