Law and Taxes

Should I Register as a Sole Proprietor?

You’re about to enter the big bad world of owning your own business, and you’ve been advised that becoming a ‘sole trader’ is the best option for yourself. But what is a sole trader, and do the positives out way the negatives? “A sole proprietorship, also known as the sole trader or simply a proprietorship,...


Three Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Register for a DBA

Filing for a ‘Doing Business As’ name is usually nowhere near the top of a small business owner’s to-do list. It costs money, requires you to fill out paperwork and, depending on where you do business, might mean running an announcement in a local paper for a few weeks. Many people just put it off,...


Am I Properly Insured as a Business Owner?

Running your small business without the proper insurance is a little like skydiving without a parachute. Many variables determine what sort of business insurance you should carry, including the size of your business, whether or not you have employees, and what sort of work you do. Wading through all of the insurance laws and recommendations...


One surprising way to possibly avoid an audit

As is the case with many small businesses, owners often don’t take a salary but do incur expenses. I attend many meeting and events to do with my business and am able to charge for my mileage. My accountant takes the total mileage into account at year end and any GST/HST owing is added to...


Three Things to Consider Before Starting your Business in Another State

Starting a business in another state is a solution that has taken an almost mythic-like status in online advice pieces – a lot of business analysts sell this solution as some sort of company cure-all, a way to avoid having to sink a business’s hard earned cash into the state treasury. The reality of the...


When (and Why) Should You Sign a Personal Guarantee to Secure Financing?

Over the next year, 61 percent of small business owners expect to expand their businesses. For many that will mean they will be in search of capital. What may surprise them is they may be required to sign a personal guarantee to secure financing. Below are seven things you need to know about personal guarantees....


What Every Small Business Needs to Know About Spam

The subject of spam came up recently in one of my small business marketing workshops, and I realized there is a lot of confusion about spam in the small business community. We all seem to have a general idea that spam = bad, but don’t really understand the ins and outs. What is it exactly?...


Tax day is just around the corner. Are you ready?

If you’re a U.S. resident and you haven’t done your taxes yet, what are you waiting for? Why are you reading a blog about taxes when you should be compiling receipts, filling out forms, and scrambling to get it all done??? Taxes are due on April 17th this year, which means you’ve got just over...


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