Beyond Belonging
A resource guide for the eight stages of building a queer business in Alberta.
Produced by the Alberta 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce with support from the City of Edmonton 2SLGBTQIA+ Beyond Belonging Grant, in partnership with Action Lab and Dr. Leanne Hedberg, Canada Research Chair in Inclusive Entrepreneurship.
Why this guide exists, and what it cost to build.
Business guides aren’t built for queer audiences. This guide exists to cover alternative experiences involving entrepreneurship, and it starts by recognising that standard guides aren’t written with queer entrepreneurs in mind. The doubt before you begin, the ceiling on the way up, and the cost of deciding how out to be in a room full of lenders don’t appear in the usual advice.
Nothing like this exists right now. Dozens of resources target queer entrepreneurs, but they sit scattered across a dozen organisations and websites. This guide is where they’re all available at the push of a button, sorted by the stage you’re actually at rather than by who happens to run them.
It came out of a year of listening. This guide was built through the Beyond Barriers research project, which documented a year of conversations with queer entrepreneurs across Alberta about what got in their way and what supports they wish they’d had when they were building their businesses. Everything on the following pages is shaped by what they said.
A year of research, in four phases.
Listening
Interviews and listening circles with queer and trans entrepreneurs across Alberta.
Journey mapping
Full-day workshops with founders and service providers, facilitated by Action Lab.
Building this guide
Turning what we heard into a resource, then testing it with founders.
Sharing it
Release, training sessions, and policy recommendations for the City and partners.
The questions behind this guide.
Every stage answers something founders told us they were stuck on.
What stopped you from starting sooner?
Where did the process stop making sense?
When did being out help — and when did it cost you?
What did you need that nobody offered?
Who did you turn to when things went wrong?
What would you tell someone starting today?
Queer-owned business in Alberta is not a niche.
2SLGBTQI+-owned businesses in Canada.
Average annual revenue among Alberta queer-owned businesses surveyed.
Buy from other queer-owned businesses, and from local vendors despite higher costs.
Average given to community each year — most without a tax receipt.
Sources: Economic Impact of Queer and Trans-Owned Business in Alberta (8 Bit Cortex for the Alberta 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce, 2026); Beyond Barriers research summary, 2026.
I didn’t apply for the first two years. Not because I was turned down — because I assumed I would be.
— Participant quote to be confirmed through the member-check process before publication.This guide didn’t start as a guide. It started as a question.
In 2026 the Alberta 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce set out to answer something nobody had asked properly in this city: what is it actually like to be a Queer or trans entrepreneur in Edmonton? The national evidence base was growing, but almost none of it spoke to Edmonton specifically — which meant policymakers, funders and support organisations were making decisions without the evidence to make them well.
That project is called Beyond Barriers. It ran in three phases: a review of the current research, eight hour-long listening sessions with Queer entrepreneurs, and a full-day journey mapping workshop in May 2026 where founders walked through the stages of their own working lives and marked where things got hard.
The stages in this guide came out of that room. They aren’t a template borrowed from a business textbook. Founders mapped their own experience and it did not come out as a straight line — people move between stages, revisit them, and live several at once. That’s why this guide doesn’t ask you to start at the beginning.
Six patterns held across every group. Identity work never stops. Time and energy are inventory, not free inputs. Care is the product, and it’s priced thin. Community beats competition. Boundaries are what make the work sustainable. And joy is a reason to keep going, not a bonus at the end.
Alberta 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce
The province’s only chamber of commerce dedicated to gender- and sexually-diverse communities. Its roots in Edmonton’s Queer business community are what made it possible to reach the entrepreneurs whose stories inform this work.
Action Lab
A social innovation consultancy and social enterprise of Skills Society, working in service design and participatory research. Action Lab designed and facilitated the listening sessions and journey mapping workshops, and hosted many of them at their space on 124th Street.
Dr. Leanne Hedberg
Canada Research Chair in Inclusive Entrepreneurship and a lead researcher on the national Rainbow Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, a $3.2 million initiative studying the constraints facing 2SLGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs across Canada. Her national findings situate Edmonton’s story in a wider picture.
Wherever you are on the path.
Thinking about it
You have an idea, or the shape of one, and you’re not sure it counts as a business yet.
Already building
You’re trading — side hustle, market table, storefront or full-time — and hitting things nobody warned you about.
Established
You’ve been at it for years and you’re thinking about growth, leadership, or what happens after you.
You don’t need to be a Chamber member to use this guide, and you don’t need to be out to anyone to read it.
The eight stages
Most people don’t start at number one. Pick the one that sounds like now.
Join the Chamber
Membership connects you to queer and allied businesses across Alberta — the directory, events, mentorship and supplier diversity certification.
Become a memberStay informed
Events, new resources and opportunities. Roughly monthly.
Get in touch
Questions about the guide, or a resource we’ve missed?
