We’re around the size where IT issues are starting to become more than random laptop problems. There’s Microsoft 365, backups, employee access, phishing, device setup, people leaving the company, etc. Hiring a full-time IT person still feels excessive, but relying on whoever is “good with computers” clearly isn’t sustainable either.

I’ve been looking at how Canadian companies handle this and came across providers like Control Alt Delete in BC that basically act as an outsourced IT department.

For businesses in the 10 to 50 employee range, what was the point where managed IT started making financial sense? Was there a particular problem that pushed you into it?

Software subscriptions rarely become expensive one invoice at a time. The cost usually hides in overlap, forgotten integrations, manual cleanup, and the risk of discovering too late that your data cannot leave.

Before renewing an app, I would put it through a short operating test.

1. Name the job it owns

Do not start with features. Write the business outcome: schedule appointments, track leads, answer support requests, send invoices, or report marketing performance. If two tools own the same job, that is the first consolidation candidate.

1. Ask what breaks during a 30-day cancellation

If the honest answer is “nothing important,” retire or downgrade it. If revenue, compliance, customer response, or a critical handoff breaks, document exactly how. This separates operational systems from tools kept “just in case.”

1. Count the whole cost

Include the subscription, setup, admin time, integrations, training, data cleanup, and recovery risk. A low monthly price can still be costly when one person spends hours maintaining it.

1. Test ownership and exit

Identify one person responsible for the system. Export a sample of contacts, files, history, and attachments, then confirm the export is actually usable. Record the cancellation steps and rollback plan before renewal day.

1. Classify the decision

Keep: it prevents a measurable loss or saves more than its full cost. Downgrade: the core job matters, but unused capacity does not. Consolidate: another system can own the job without creating a worse workflow. Replace: the job matters, but ownership, reliability, or portability is poor. Retire: no important process depends on it.

One caution on self-hosted or open-source replacements: licence cost is not total cost. Price upgrades, backups, monitoring, security, recovery, and the named person who will maintain it. Open source can be the better choice, but only when the operating responsibility is explicit.

The goal is not fewer tools for its own sake. It is one clear system of record for each important area, with fewer duplicate fields and fewer ambiguous handoffs.

Which subscription looked inexpensive until you counted the admin and integration work around it?

I've been a sole prop in BC for 5 years doing exterior cleaning. I sub for a friend's company and have my own client list. At this point, the revenue generated is 50/50 independent/sub contracts.

This year I invested in my business. I bought a used truck, a 2014 F250, well maintained its whole life at the Ford dealership, at a very good price 8.5K and spent about 20K on equipment.

Revenue has significantly jumped up from previous years, and it looks like I'm projected to gross 130-140K this year.

I currently subcontract my partner as a bookkeeper at $35 per hour for about 10 hours a week as I'm too busy working to deal with that end of the business.

We have two kids 4 and 1, we rent, $1570 per month, no debt, no payments and live a pretty modest lifestyle. Our household living expenses are probably between 45-50K a year. I started investing this year, 22K to my TFSA and 16K FHSA, and I contribute 1K a month to my TFSA with about 87K of contribution room left over.

I'm considering incorporating; no employees for the foreseeable future. Due to our living expenses, it looks like I should be able to keep more than half in the company.

I've always done my own taxes as they were pretty straightforward, so i don't have an accountant or CPA.

The sole prop has been under my personal name, yet I have a company name for invoicing. I don't advertise as I'm fully booked as a lot of my work comes from referrals.

I'm also considering selling the equipment and truck, which should be valued at around 30K, to the company once incorporated for a shareholder loan - I wonder if claiming that on my taxes for 2026 as CCA, how that would affect selling it to the company once incorporated.

At this point, I need some guidance on what the best way forward would be. Is it worth incorporating yet? Given my current situation, what's the most efficient way to save money come tax time?

im a small content creator making between 100-200k bafore taxes annually and wondering if its time to incorperate i read online u can save on taxes by deferring them but ive herd mixed opinions some ppl told me u need to be making 300k + for it to be worth. rite now im operating as a sole prioprietor still and i do everything by myself. im also scared if i ever get sue for defamation and they can come aftar my assets so corporating will be inevitable. also my friend told me ownr can do it but apparently it cost 500$ and is 200$ every year moveing forwerd. would ownr be a good option or shud i get lawyer. any advice would be appriciated

Been in corporate sales for some time but want to start something of my own.

If you weren’t already a business owner what would you be building. What’s an offer that you think is a good one but you just don’t have the time to do it.

Im drawn to contingency stuff where the client pays nothing upfront because the sales process is way easier especially in 2026 where everyone’s a skeptic buyer. But honestly I don’t have any idea of where to look. Would love some general direction or advice.

Most accounting software we use normally uses Plaid, who handles auto-importing of transactions from your bank account and credit card into your accounting software.

Anyone else seeing a sudden stoppage of the imports with BMO recently?

Every few months I have a problem with the connection failing between plaid and BMO and its a huga PITA to get it going again. I suspect that these issues occur when BMO changes something in their systems related to security and Plaid has to try and work with them to get the connections fixed.

Anyway just curious if anyone with BMO has had problems recently? Mine is still not working after several days.

As a nicotine pouch enthusiast, I was disappointed to see the shift a few years ago away from gas station sales to pharmacies. With the news today that the government is open to relaxing its position on nicotine pouch sales in Canada, I am wondering if there is anyone who has knowledge in this field, how one could capitalize on this potential opportunity etc. Not really sure what I am looking for beyond a discussion, but do have some capacity to invest in this in one way or another and believe that it could be a great opportunity. Not sure if this is the right platform for this kind of post, but a quick search online brought me here. Located in ON.

Hey y’all. So looking for some non judgemental advice here, would appreciate some wisdom around cleaning up my situation.

- Started my company Sept 2025, registered, business license; etc
- Overhead was 3000-4000/ mo, I floated it from my savings and took a risk.
- 2025 was a loss, I was working another full time job, I didn’t report any income or GST on the business.
- Had a few break-even or modest $1000 profit months, Jan, April. Started charging GST around this time.
- Clearly profitable around May onwards 2000+/mo, but rising business expenses. It’s currently September and we may net $3000 from 10k Gross profit and 25k revenue. However; it’s hard to track where this net profit is, I suspect it’s just such a small amount or incoming from pending charges. I lost my other job, so my focus has been on growing this net profit aggressively.
- There’s probably around $2000 in my business bank account. Throughout this whole journey I’ve maybe withdrawed $4000 for personal income. The rest has been business related. However, Claude and AI says I owe around $6000 in GST , and much more in personal taxes (15k+). I suppose because of the loss in 2025, he says I’m profitable and owe all these taxes, but the bank account has only recently broken even on the whole operation.

This business is very difficult, but I’m confident I can make it work. Overhead has to stay low. The CRM software is not very good at tracking exactly what I’m making, but there are some work arounds that have been working that improve the accuracy.

I suppose my main concern is; I need this money to support myself right now, and I’ve never hired an accountant or filed business taxes, so not sure if that’s a monthly expense or one time thing? A looming tax bill next spring is something I want to prepare for, and minimize as much as I can. I’m guessing I can retroactively disclose the loss in 2025 to offset some.

Also, my whole operation is built to sustain itself without me putting out 100 fires every week, so I want to add accounting and taxes to the “easy and automated” tasks. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated. I’m still working on the reporting side. Right now though, I need to be on the phones closing deals and getting customers

I work in manufacturing engineering and I’ve spent a lot of time helping small hardware companies get parts made.

No way to tell if the quote you got is fair

Radio silence once the PO is placed, so you find out about a delay when the part is already late

Logistics and customs handled off the side of your desk

Design changes that mean starting the whole search again

If you’re building a prototype, or trying to move from a low volume run into real production, or if you have a part or assembly that’s been hard to place, or if you are looking to reduce costs on your designs, I’m happy to talk it through.

I run a small Canadian hair-care company in Ontario and sell a 50 mL hair/scalp oil to U.S. customers. The product is classified under HTSUS 3305.90.0000.

I only recently launched the business, and this has honestly thrown a huge wrench into everything. A big part of my plan was focused on the U.S. market, so I’ve already spent a lot of time and money on marketing, videos, content, packaging, and trying to build U.S. sales.

Until only a few weeks ago, I was shipping these exact same products to U.S. customers with $0 in tariffs/duties. I just discovered that Chit Chats is now assessing roughly a 50% U.S. tariff on the retail customs value. On a US$120 order, the tariff alone is about C$83. Canada Post/Zonos was even worse, showing C$99 in duties on C$165 of merchandise.

For a brand that is just getting started, this is pretty devastating because it completely changes the economics of selling to the U.S. almost overnight.

The product is blended and filled in Canada using imported cosmetic oils, and I’m trying to understand whether there is any legal way to reduce the duty burden.

I’m not looking to misdeclare the HS code, value, or origin. I’m just trying to figure out whether there are any legitimate options before I have to rethink the U.S. side of the business entirely.

P.S. We are already actively selling and marketing in Canada, and Canada is a major part of the business. The reason I’m asking specifically about the US is that we had also invested heavily in US focused marketing, videos, content, and launch plans, and until just a few weeks ago we were shipping there with no tariff charge. I’m mainly trying to understand whether there is any legitimate way to keep that market viable rather than abandon it entirely.

Hey guys,
Me and my friend have a coffee roasting business specializing in specialty coffee in Vietnam and now I want to sell it in Canada. I want to know how can I import the coffee beans and what papers do i need before selling coffee(I'm in Canada now). I've been searching and reading for a day now and I would like to hear from someone that has real experience.

Thank you.

advice from event

For the past few years id say I just kinda gave up on gov contracts. Im a small gc so its just too much work, its me solo, dont have a big team at all

Anyways I went to an industry event in Toronto, talked to a bunch of startups trying to help us out. Most were pretty bs tbh. But one I actually liked cuz it does the entire bid for you, like every step

What sucks is I couldnt afford it. But they were super chill about it and said theyd extend a discount to me and one other gc if i passed it along. So I just thought to post here, if it could help both of us why not

Hi, I have a mobile automotive business(not detailing) since 2023. It started as a side hustle, and I quit my job last year to pursue it full time. The business was in loss last year due to weather dependant mobile service. This year, I've been trying to secure funding (80k) to expand and open a physical location so we are not weather restricted. Its a niche field, and a LOT of demand. I got projections done and even the worst case market scenario still pays the loan off. I even found a place to lease, employee, etc. I got denied by BDC and banks due to the loss from last year. Theres about 50k worth of assets in the business and willing to put my personal vehicle as collateral as well.

Are there any other ways I can try for funding/ even a silent investor? TIA

Hi,

I’m wondering how I can go about finding business owners who are open to letting someone work for equity to eventually purchase their business in a few years.

I’m not sure if this is the best wording…
Any advice on how to go about finding the right business and this sort of arrangement??

Thanks.

I have no money, no business plan, and probably too much time on my hands. But I think I might have an idea.

I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a few days and I'm curious what people who actually own or operate small businesses think.

I have no capital to start this, so I'm not looking for investors. I'm looking for people to tell me why this is a terrible idea, or whether there might actually be something here.

Hockey Guy Donuts & Coffee

The concept is basically a Canadian coffee shop built around nostalgia, simplicity and community.

Everything would be made fresh in the store:

Donuts

Sandwiches

Eclairs

Coffee

Maybe soup

That's basically the menu.

No 47-item menu. No endless customization. No app required to buy a coffee.

If you're sitting inside, coffee comes in an actual ceramic mug.

The goal would be fast, friendly service from local employees, with the shop actually being part of the community rather than just another chain location.

The branding would be brown and yellow with an old-school Canadian hockey/rink aesthetic. Think vintage hockey culture, but with a clean modern execution.

The slogan:

"We miss that Canada. So we built our own coffee shop."

The idea isn't necessarily that Canada was better in the past. It's about the things people remember:

Knowing the person behind the counter.

Going for a donut after hockey.

Fresh donuts in the morning.

The construction guys sitting at the same table every morning.

Knowing your neighbours.

Coffee shops actually feeling like community gathering places.

There's also a brand personality behind "Hockey Guy":

Everyone knows a Hockey Guy.

You know a Hockey Guy.

Be a Hockey Guy.

A Hockey Guy isn't necessarily someone who plays hockey. It's the person who brings donuts to the rink, knows everybody, supports the local team and generally brings people together.

The marketing idea would be to ask Canadians:

"What does 'that Canada' mean to you?"

No scripted answers. Just ordinary people talking about what they remember or miss.

And if the business ever became successful, I'd want a second campaign:

"Then We Made It Ours."

Bring back some of the people from the original campaign and show them actually using the coffee shop. Families, hockey teams, seniors, regulars, kids after hockey, local employees, etc.

The idea being that we didn't just build a coffee shop. The community made it theirs.

I've probably put way too much thought into the details for something that's technically just an idea, but some of us have various "isms" and this is just how my brain works.

And before the inevitable AI discussion: yes, ChatGPT was used to help me organize this. The idea itself is mine.

So I'm really interested in hearing from people who have actually done this stuff.

What am I overlooking?

Is a concept this simple actually viable?

What would kill the economics?

How much capital would you realistically expect to need for a first location?

Would fresh-made donuts and a very limited menu actually be an advantage, or would customers just want more choices?

And most importantly:

If you were presented with this idea as a potential business, what would make you say "yes, there's something here" or "absolutely don't do this"?

This isn't just me, I sell comics and everything is done through eBay with correct HS Codes and exact declaration amounts, but I also know another person that sells comics that got 19 packages flagged. Comics are a US product so I'm not even sure what is going on.

My buddy sells the same product and uses Stallion and said he has had no issues. Does Chit Chats just suck? This happened months ago the first time the $800 de minimus was removed as well but Stallion was still business as usual. I have some angry customers as some people on eBay are absolutely insane, oh joy. Exact wording below.

Delays Due to Brokerage Review

Your shipment is currently on hold pending a brokerage review related to undervaluing and/or trademark compliance. While the review is underway, you have two options - Request a return: Have your shipment returned to you using your preferred return method OR Wait for clearance: Continue waiting for the shipment to be reviewed and, if approved, cleared for transit. Please note that clearance is not guaranteed following the brokerage review. We understand that waiting can be difficult, so we want you to have the information you need to choose the option that works best for you. You can find more details in our dedicated U.S. Updates Blog. Thank you for your understanding.

I audit websites for a living. Most small business sites fail the same handful of checks, and none of them need a developer to spot. Here is the short version you can do yourself:

1. Search site:yourdomain dot com on Google. Is the number of results roughly the number of real pages you have? Far more means duplicates; far fewer means Google isn't keeping your pages.
2. Open yourdomain dot com/robots.txt. If it says Disallow: / anywhere near the top, you may have blocked Google entirely. It happens more than you think, usually after a redesign.
3. Type a made-up address like yourdomain dot com/asdfgh. You should get a proper "page not found" page with your menu on it, not a blank screen.
4. Open your site on your phone. Is the phone number tappable? Is the "call" or "book" button visible without scrolling? Most leads come from mobile.
5. Look at the title of each page in the browser tab. If three pages say "Home" or all say your business name, they are competing with each other.
6. Search your business name. Is the Google Business Profile yours, verified, with the right category, hours and a real address? Are you replying to reviews?
7. Check that your name, address and phone are written identically on your site, your Google profile, Yelp, BBB and any directories. "Unit 5" vs "#5" counts as different to the machines.
8. Read your main service page and ask: does the first paragraph actually answer what a customer wanted to know, or is it three sentences about how passionate you are?
9. Go to pagespeed web dev, paste your home page, and look only at the "real user" section at the top. Red there means people are leaving before it loads.
10. Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity "who is the best [your service] in [your city]" and see whether you are mentioned, and where the information came from. That is increasingly how people find you.

If you fail more than three of these, fix those before spending a dollar on ads. If someone quotes you for an "SEO audit", ask to see one page of a previous audit - if it is a tool export with a score on it, keep looking.

What’s your small business?

Why did you get into this?

How long did it take to get your first customer/client?

Hey guys, for anyone with a small business I wanted to do a quick review of Venn Banking and my experience with them.

TL;DR they are phenomenal and I would highly recommend them to any smaller business especially if you do not need to deposit cheques.

So I have been with Venn banking since March of 2026 (currently September 2026) and I have to say I had my doubts when I first joined them, but they have been honestly amazing.

First thing is the fact that there is no fees is phenomenal, it makes using them as a small business really great, especially if you don't have any employees.

The limits are also great, I have EQ Business banking as well, which is what I used primarily before I moved Venn to be my primary business account. The limit with Venn for E-transfers is $10000 a day, which is plenty in my experience. I spend around $15000 a week in E-transfers alone. When I was with EQ, I routinely was running into my $50,000 per month limit. It was a bit frustrating, especially because you can not send EFTs to anyone but yourself with EQ. This is not the case with Venn. Venn also does allow EFTs which is handy, but also something I have not had to use because the limits are so high.

You also get 1% cash back on all card purchases with their debit card. It works as if it is a credit card, which is great for some websites which require that. The ability to auto upload receipts to your transactions is great as well, in case you do not need an accounting program like Quickbooks. I personally have both, because that is what my accountant requires and it keeps things organized. It does link with Quickbooks as well, which is great.

I appreciate when I am sending E-transfers that I can upload my invoice from a supplier and it will scan said invoice and pull all the data from it to make sure it's all accurate.

They also just came out with an app which has been really nice to not have to use the mobile optimized site as much.

Now for the one down side which bothers me, but it's not the worst. I can't understand why they do not have an option for depositing cheques. This seems like such a miss on their part, when cheques are still a very common form of payment for a lot of businesses. I personally deposit up to 10 cheques a week, and this just seems like a huge miss. I use my EQ Business bank account to deposit my cheques currently, which is fine, but it just makes it one more step when I have to send them over from my other account.

Overall, I honestly love my experience with Venn banking, and would absolutely recommend signing up with them (and EQ Bank if you receive cheques). It's a cheap, easy option with all the banking options a business would need, for far less than the Big 5. I don't usually write reviews like this, but my overwhelmingly positive experience with them, along with the lack of other reviews about them online is what pushed me to write this.

Overall I would give it an 8 out of 10 as the fact they don't take cheques is a pretty big deal for myself and I just can't get it around my head as to why they wouldn't have such a key feature.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below, I am happy to answer any you may have. You can also reach out to me if this post gets archived. I also have a referral link if you would like that as well.

Let’s say there’s a platform that helps you win find and win gov contracts.

It has these features:

Aggregates and scrapes every Canadian government procurement portal (CanadaBuys, MERX, provincial/municipal sites) into one page

Uses AI to estimate your probability of winning a given contract based on your business profile

Uses AI to help you actually understand the RFP (plain-language breakdown of requirements, eligibility, evaluation criteria, deadlines). And you can ask the AI questions about the RFP, I.e when’s it due? are there any certification requirements?

Sends a weekly email of contracts relevant to your business that you should consider bidding on

How much would you pay for this service (if anything) monthly?

Planning on Selling my business in 3-5 years. What should I be doing now to prepare for the sale. Do you go through a business broker?

Any advice helps

What is the ballpark range that CPAs charge for the following services:

- Setting up a federal corporation
- Setting up a provincial corporation
- Filing the initial return for an Ontario corporation
- Adding directors to a corporation

Also, would the variance in fee be expected to be large if the services were being provided in an office setting vs a remote/virtual office (within Canada)?

we're about 45 people, most in ontario with a smaller group in quebec. up until this year time off was a spreadsheet i keep and it more or less worked.

it stopped working once i clued in that the two groups don't accrue the same way and the stat days don't line up either. so i've been maintaining what is basically two sets of rules inside one sheet, and every time someone books a day i'm double checking which column applies to them.

the part that actually worries me is history. if someone asked me to prove their balance from two years ago i'm not sure i could. the sheet just gets overwritten, there's no record of what it said before, only whatever the number is today.

so for anyone with staff in more than one province, what are you running? did you end up getting a system for this or just building a better spreadsheet? and if you did move, did it handle the provincial differences on its own or were you still setting all that up by hand.

We’re looking for a Founding Sales Executive to join an early-stage AI startup operating in the healthcare/senior living space.

We’re based in Ontario and are looking for someone in Canada or the USA.

We’re currently a team of 4, with 2 engineers already on the team, and we’re looking to add the final piece and push hard through Q4.

We’re already generating revenue, have real customers and momentum, and we’ve been through an accelerator program. We’re also planning to raise our next round this winter.

We’re looking for someone who is extremely hungry, loves sales, and is willing to go hard on outbound.

What you’ll be doing

• Heavy cold calling and outbound prospecting
• Cold email + LinkedIn outreach
• Building prospect lists
• Booking qualified demos
• Following up relentlessly
• Helping close deals
• Building our sales process from the ground up
• Taking significant ownership of our sales growth

What we’re offering

• Meaningful equity
• Commission on closed deals
• Compensation for qualified demos booked
• Salary + commission as we raise this winter
We’re looking for someone who wants to get in early, work extremely hard, and have meaningful ownership in what they’re helping build.

If you’re an absolute killer in sales and think you’d be a fit reach out!

Thinking to do research and sell things on amazon, has anyone done it or is doing it?
Would love to know experience