Home-based business permits and expenses

Depending on your setup, working out of a home office can feel miles away from any other office job you’ve had. You get the freedom to set your own hours, run out for a couple of hours to pick up some groceries, and your commute time is absurdly low. However, if you run a home-based business, you may also feel like you’re on your own when it comes to proper small business government compliance. What expenses can you claim with your home-based business? What permits do you need to run a business out of your home? Ack!

Fear not! At GoForth Institute, we’re entrepreneurs like you, and we’re all experts in our field. We’ve got an ever-growing database of small business articles and expert Q&A from home business owners who are confused about governmental rules and regulations too. Check out the following quick and informative reads about home-based business government compliance.

Do you have a question about governmental rules and regulations about your home-based business? Leave us a comment, or ask a GoForth expert and help entrepreneurs just like you!

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Small business lessons from Generation Y

Yesterday’s Globe and Mail had an interesting feature entitled, “Why Gen Y prefers to patronize small businesses.” It’s the first of a three-part series at the Globe’s website outlining the effect Generation Y is having on business.

The boundaries of Generation Y are loosely defined, but it’s commonly considered to have begun in the mid ’70s and ended in the late ’90s. The Globe featured an book excerpt by author – and Generation Y member – Aiden Livingston. In the excerpt, Livingston outlines some reasons Generation Y is turning to small business rather than corporations. According to Livingston, Generation Y prefers small business because:

  • They feel corporations adapt to new trends in business too slowly;
  • They feel corporations are out of touch with their customers; and
  • They feel corporations are stuck in the past.

At GoForth Institute, we can certainly say that the need for adaptability and newness in business is strong. Entrepreneurs told us themselves that they wanted small business education via streaming HD online learning – and that’s what we gave them!

Our advice for entrepreneurs? Take heart – you’re reading this blog, which means you have adapted to a new trend in business and are not stuck in the past! Just keep listening to what your customers want, embrace innovation and keep adapting – these are just a few of the great small business lessons Generation Y can teach us.

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GoForth Institute celebrates female entrepreneurs

This month at GoForth Institute, we’re celebrating women in business.

Did you know?

Canada has the highest proportion of self-employed women in the world! In Canada, 821,000 female entrepreneurs have provided 1.7 million jobs since 1996, proving that women make key contributions to their local and national economies, communities and families through small businesses they’ve started.

The success rate of female-owned micro-business higher than that of men.

“Micro-business” refers to businesses that have fewer than five employees. Home-based businesses and self-employed professionals often fit into this category. So why do micro-businesses operated by women have higher rates of success? In our research, we uncovered a few key differences in the way women entrepreneurs operate:

  1. Women entrepreneurs as a whole undertake more research and planning in the pre-start-up stage of their businesses. We know that planning, research and preparation is associated with higher levels of success but why would women do more planning in business than men? Women are generally willing to spend more time to lower the risk of an action than are men.
  2. Women are in general well organized and good time managers – additional demands placed on women due to their multiple and overlapping roles as wives, mothers, sisters, friends and business owners requires development of exceptional organizational and planning skills. These skills are transferred into their businesses.
  3. Women tend to be more conservative and are better managers of cash flow and budgets, particularly in the early stages of business development. Why lease a new vehicle to look more successful when the old clunker will do just fine for now?

(Read more reasons for female-owned small business success in this month’s Message from the President – a female entrepreneur herself!)

Check out our May newsletter for more articles about outstanding female small business owners. Let’s hear from you – who are some female small business owners that inspire you? Are you a woman who has started a small business? Do you have any advice for women on how to start a small business? Leave a comment and let’s chat!

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