If you have a retail store or franchise, the most important aspect of location is the traffic that comes to your location.  Are you a destination where people come specifically to your location or do many of your customers come on impulse when they are driving by?  Is all traffic the same?  How important is good neighbours for your business? (more…)

All business owners want to retire with the most money in their bank account so that they do not have to work again.  Many business owners believe that their business is worth more than it actually is or more often that is the amount of that they believe they need to retire on and want their business to sell for that amount.  Unfortunately the value of your business is not what you want it to be or need it to be, it is what the market will bare. (more…)

The current thought is that you will always save money by transferring your manufacturing to China, but is this always the case and for how long?  If you have a product which is labour intensive, there may be a considerable benefit for moving the manufacturing facility to China or some of the other countries in the Far East.  How long will this last? (more…)

HST is a new tax in Ontario and in British Columbia being implemented on July 1.  Some items already have PST and GST but the number of items subject to tax will increase.  Will this affect your business? (more…)

You have been operating your business for many years and now it is at a critical stage.  Do you invest more money in the business to take it to the next level, keep it the same size and coast or buy a business to jump start the growth.  In fact, the acquisition may be cheaper than trying to develop that new business yourself.  Which way is the best choice for you? (more…)

You operate your own business and you know that the tax changes that happen on July 1 do not impact you for several months, have you started to think about how you will be able to deal with the transition, when does it affect you.  Many people may not realize that things you do now could have an impact on whether you charge GST or HST in Ontario and British Columbia. (more…)

You are planning for the sale of your business sometime next year.  In order to attract a higher price, you want to increase your profits as high as possible in the year before the sale.  If you have a business in Ontario or British Columbia, you may have one time opprtunity to save money without having to take any risks, just change the timing of when you do your purchasing.  Usually if it sounds too good to be true it is, but not in this case.  This tax planning strategy is a very rare opportunity to make more money by changing the timing of when you purchase some goods.   If you do the same thing as your normally would do but can make more money, is it worth it? (more…)

You just bought a business but the quarters are cramped, there is not a lot of space and it is poorly laid out.  Papers are everywhere, there is no rational for organizing the office the way that it is, what do you do?  Did you buy the shares of the business or did you buy the assets of the business?  If you bought the shares of the business, you should look at the accounting records very quickly and determine if they are accurate, was anything left out, get an idea who were the suppliers, see if the goods are purchased at a reasonable price or (more…)

When you start your business, you may only have one customer.  As time goes on, hopefully you get more customers.  What happens if that customer grows and grows and keeps (more…)

Many people do not plan for the future and they believe that if they are healthy, they do not have to plan for succession.  They do not plan to sell the business or if there is someone (more…)