Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

The Cost of Hiring an Amateur

Understandably as a business owner there are A LOT of expenses to start and run your business. A common area entrepreneurs try to save a little is by doing their own bookkeeping. However bookkeeping is a vital process for a business and doing this wrong can be financially devastating! If you are going to be a DIYselfer avoid the following mistakes!

  • Keep track of your personal contributions into the business! The money you invest becomes part of your cost base and one day you will need to know what this cost when you sell the business or die. Keeping track of your personal contributions into the business will also have an immediate tax impact when you want to withdraw money from the business.
  • Missing eligible deductions! You don’t know what you don’t know and that could result in you missing eligible deductions or not maximizing the expenses you are claiming. So what? That means more taxes paid (or not enough loss recorded!). This is a hard one to learn on your own and some accountants or business development centers do offer courses on exactly this.
  • Not preparing financial statements! If you are just using an excel spreadsheet and putting your expenses under the right column heading; unfortunately this is not going to be helpful. Yes you have a grand total at the end of the month, and you can use this to make an income statement, but what you are lacking is the ability to make a balance sheet. This will be of greater consequence if you ever need to ask for a bank loan, investors or want to sell the business – they will want to see a complete set of financial statements.
  • Mixing personal and business finances. If you don’t separate the activities of the business from your personal activities it will be virtually impossible for you to truly understand how your business is doing. Did you spend that money investing back into the business… or did you spend it on personal activities? Plus if everything is combined the CRA then will access everything if they are auditing you. Treat the business – mentally and physically – as a separate entity and keep a proper paper trail of activities between business You and personal You.

These mistakes are by no means the full list of common mistakes. But each of these has a significant tax impact and business impact for you often immediately and in the future.

 

 

 

“Behind Every Great Business is a Great Accountant”

For more information on how to keep your business tax efficient, or to get a consultation on whether you are making all the right tax choices for your business, contact Dharna CPA. www.dharnacpa.ca. Info@dharnacpa.ca

Dwainia Grey: Canadian Small Business Women of The Month of May 2014

Dwainia Grey

Dwainia Grey is the woman behind Awesome Biz Online and Supporting Small Biz.ca. Dwainia has over fourteen years experience in marketing / merchandising.

Since 2000, she has been helping small businesses develop business and marketing plans, as well as providing online marketing through web design, search engine optimization and social media.

Dwainia is dedicated to not only promoting what’s awesome and unique about your company but also helping you increase your sales with online marketing. Awesome Biz Online’s mission is to get every business online with custom websites and for every business to be found on the Internet via online marketing using such tools as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Management and Online Reputation Management.

Dwainia is an advocate for growth, personal growth and business growth and that is why she continuously looks for opportunities to learn and expand her business through customized solutions. By empowering herself she is able to help her clients succeed.

 

Our Q & A with Dwainia Grey

*What inspires you?

Helping and motivating others inspire me. What I do and my knowledge can make a difference for many small businesses. Being able to offer to help businesses inspires me to keep growing my business and helping others to succeed.

My son is also a big inspiration for me. As being a parent has driven my decision to become an entrepreneur.

 

*As a small business owner, what achievements make you most proud?

As a small business owner seeing other businesses succeed because I assisted makes me most proud. Knowing that a business has become more successful due to my efforts is just AWESOME!

On a personal level I am very proud of being an entrepreneur for ten years. My business is continuously evolving an I am currently expanding into new directions with coaching, training and consulting.

I am very excited to teach the WordPress Bootcamp on June 8, 2014 at the Microsoft Store  at Square One, Mississagua.  I am also now officially open for online marketing consulting.
*What advice would you give to other aspiring small business owners?

I would tell other aspiring small business owners that owning a business is not easy. Be prepared to put in work and get your hustle on!  Stay true to your vision and don’t give up. Also be flexible – the vision you started with may not be the one you end up with but as long as it’s still yours and your passionate about it you can succeed.

*What new things can we look forward to from your business in the upcoming year?

In the coming year, I will be providing more WordPress and Social Media Workshops, 1-on-1 online marketing coaching, and online marketing business consulting. I  also plan to release more Do-It-Yourself (DIY) online marketing tutorials to help businesses.  The first one is available now forFacebook.

Dwainia Grey has been helping small business succeed for over 10 years and is proud to be a contributor at Canadian Small Business Women. You can contact Dwainia at:

 AwesomeBizOnline.com,Facebook/AwesomeBizOnline, Twitter/@DeathOfAWebsite, Google+/AwesomeBizOnline, Pinterest/AwesomeBizOnline, Youtube/AwesomeBizOnline  and LinkedIn

Four tips for Entrepreneurs

Praveeni

Being an entrepreneur is a dream job for many people, you get to be your own boss, work your own hours and pursue your passion. But those of you who have taken the plunge and started your own business know that with being your own boss comes great responsibility, countless hours of overtime and a lot of worrying and obsessing over every detail. It’s a stressful yet rewarding life but we could all use some guidance and perspective along the way.

Here are a few tips for current or future entrepreneurs 

1. Work ON your business not IN your business

As entrepreneurs it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture and get caught up in the little things. Attention to detail is important but many entrepreneurs make the mistake of sweating the small stuff instead of looking at how to grow and increase their business. A great example of this is what I like to call Social Media Madness- so many “branding experts” out there recommend that entrepreneurs use social media to grow their business, but just how much trust can you establish on the internet?  Face to face interaction is key in establishing mutual trust and building a successful business relationship. Instead of worrying about how many social media updates to schedule in Hootsuite or BufferApp entrepreneurs should be focusing on how to increase their reach, retain existing and loyal customers and expand their business.

2. Know your brand

Before you can grow your business and attract customers you need to know what you’re selling. Entrepreneurs need to take time to examine and reexamine the product they are trying to sell. What is it? And what is your brand? What are you all about?  These are all questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves. You need to know your brand inside out because as an entrepreneur you are a living breathing 24/7 advertisement and endorsement of your brand. If you don’t know what you’re trying to represent you won’t be successful in attracting and retaining customers and clients.

3. Create original material and put your name ON it

Being original is one of the perks of being an entrepreneur. Although it’s tempting to “copy” thoughts, ideas and even pictures, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable by law. It’s always best to have your own ideas. When you create something be it an image, blog post or any type of promotional material put your name on it and own it! Make sure everyone knows you made it and that it is your property. A great way to do this is by inserting your logo in to your self made images and graphics and setting your logo as a watermark for any handouts or material you give out. Your logo will generally deter any would be plagiarizers from using your work and setting your logo as a watermark for any written material makes it difficult to photocopy.

4. Don’t be afraid of DIY

Most entrepreneurs have to grow their business on a budget  andthat usually doesn’t leave much in the way of funding for expert advice and outsourcing, But doing things yourself is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a very rewarding experience to be able to claim full ownership of projects. For example instead of outsourcing your flyer or promotional material design try playing around with PowerPoint, Photoshop or whichever design program you’re comfortable with, you’ll be surprised at what you end up with. No one knows your business better than you do so it’s always better to try doing things yourself before you break the bank on “marketing and branding experts” or “graphic designers”.  You know your vision for your brand, logo and promotional material better than anyone so why not take a stab at it before you outsource.

Praveeni Perera is the CEO and co-founder of Professional Edge Consulting a corporate training company based in Ottawa offering training and coaching services to clients around the world.  She can be reached via Website, Twitter, Facebook or her Blog.

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