Tip of the Month – GoForth Institute Blog | Canadian Entrepreneur Training

2017 tax tips for Canadian small businesses

Tax season is upon us, and many small businesses owners around Canada are busy getting their financial ducks in a row. At GoForth, we know tax time can be stressful or confusing, so we’ve compiled some tax-related blog posts that will hopefully shed some light on this topic for you.

And check out Quickbooks’ post: 2017 Small Business Tax Calendar: Dates You Need to Know

Happy filing!

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Tip of the Month: Hiring Your First Employee

Your small business is growing and you’re finding yourself with more work than time – great conditions to warrant hiring your very first employee! So, now, how do you do that?

Firstly, this might seem like a no-brainer, but make sure you really do need an employee. As with every business decision, we encourage you to sit down and write out a plan. What will this person do? How often? For how long? Can you afford to pay someone? Can this person actually be kept busy and fulfilled?

Once you’ve decided that hiring an employee for your small business is definitely the way to go, here are some next steps:

Open a payroll account with Canada Revenue Agency.
Ensure you follow all governmental Human Resources Regulations.
Identify job requirements and prepare the job description for your first employee.
Use application forms for applicants and be sure you know what you can and cannot ask.
Begin to interview your chosen candidates (we recommend you set yourself a limit of interviews).
Check all references provided.
If this position requires any kind of testing, this can be undertaken at this point.
Once you’ve selected your ideal candidate, prepare an offer of employment letter.

Check out GoForth Institute’s How-To Guide for Hiring a First Employee for a step-by-step, more detailed document you can download for free to reference whenever you like.

Hiring your small business’ first employee is a very serious consideration, but it’s also infinitely rewarding and even fun. Enjoy!

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Tip of the Month: Following Local Signage Laws

Creating signage for your small business is always a lot of fun. You get to play with new designs and layouts that best communicate what your business is all about. However, before the fun really starts, you need to make sure you’re not stepping on any toes in the bylaw office!

Following local signage laws for small business is critical. Some types of signs may not be approved for use in your community and can result in hefty fines. There are also provincial signage laws to consider – for example, when it comes to business signage that appears by a highway.

Visit our website to download GoForth Institute’s free, step-by-step Guide to Signage Permits and Licenses. Getting all the forms you need is easy and only takes a minute – leaving you more time to daydream about your beautiful new signage!

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Tip of the Month: Creating a Perfect Pitch

In keeping with the theme of our last post, we’ve added a new How-To Guide to our new, expanded website. Titled “How To Create a Perfect Pitch,” it’s designed for entrepreneurs who need help creating a pitch for their small business. Even if you’ve made a pitch before, the guide can still help you tweak and fine-tune your approach. We know that small business pitches are never a walk in the park, so use our guide to make the process easier and more clear.

Creating a pitch for your small business begins with a business concept. After all, you can’t confidently talk about your business unless you know it inside and out, right? The foundation of a great pitch is an understanding of the following concepts:

Who will buy?
Value proposition and the compelling story;
Definition of your product or service; and
The distribution channel.

Once you have these four concepts clear in your mind (and on paper), you can then put them all together to form your business concept – the foundation for your perfect pitch!

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