What Is A Business In A Box?
Starting a business takes more than a great idea and willingness to roll up your sleeves. Once you make the decision to start your own business you want to start delivering services as fast as possible, so you can start bringing in revenue. The problem is there’s a lot of things you need to do before you get up and running.
That list can be (and usually is) long and daunting. Like most business owners in this position, you’ll probably find yourself confused and overwhelmed at various stages throughout the process. All the administrative and compliance tasks required of you takes precious time you would rather spend actually running your business. Why spend time doing the research required to figure how to get HST filed, your business name registered, track of things financially, do payroll, be legally compliant, and find out what you even need to ‘take care of’ in the first place when you don’t have to? It’s a lot of work, and a lot of time that you could spend actually running your business.
Our ‘business in a box’ package will help you avoid decision fatigue and keep you from going down the research rabbit hole. There’s a lot of things we cover:
Business Structure
We’ll discuss whether you should start-up as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. In the event of the latter, we’ll identify whether you should be classified as a federal corporation or provincial corporation.
Business Identification
Do you want to start off as a numbered company? Or go through an online search database to get a name? Both of these have ramifications that you should be aware of. Not all businesses have to register their name legally, and we can help determine if this is something you should do.
Licenses & Permits
Unfortunately, many Canadians looking up applicable licenses and permits come across US information that isn’t relevant. Or they come across information that is outdated. It can be a huge waste of your time if you aren’t familiar with what you should be looking for.
HST
Do you need to collect HST? In the event that you do, we can set it up for you and explain how it works.
Payroll
If you have staff, you’re going to need to figure out how to do payroll. You also need to figure out how best to pay yourself.
Bank Accounts
If you’re starting a business, you need to create a new bank account specifically for that business. But with that being said, it doesn’t have to be a state-of-the-art account with a variety of fancy features. Many banks will try to oversell you on the type of business bank account you should get. We can help you navigate through this so you get an account that meets your needs at a reasonable cost.
Bookkeeping & Chart of Accounts
You need a way to keep track of your financial records, both to be legally compliant and so you can make smart financial decisions. We can help you decide on your initial bookkeeping & accounting policies and develop processes for you to manage them. We’ll also provide training so your team can take advantage of platforms like Quickbooks Online (and save time while doing so).
Funding & Grants
If you’re hoping to access government grant programs and funding, we recommend reaching out to a professional. There’s a lot of myths about grants that will take you a long time to parse through if you do it all yourself.
Insurance
Does your business need insurance? What kinds of insurance might you need? Even if you don’t need insurance now, at what point should you get it? We can let you know.
Business Planning
We can provide input when it comes to your business plan, so you can have confidence in the future. We’ll provide you with an overview of financial fundamentals and structure your business to be profitable.
This is a lot of information to process through and deal with on your own. Starting a new business can be fun and exciting, but there are also some parts you’ll need to address that are boring and tedious - not to mention time-consuming. As a new business owner, you need to focus on what’s important.
At Greg Evans Professional Corporation we will guide you through the process so you can save more of your valuable time and position your business for success. Book a free consultation to start building your business today.