Business Consulting Solutions

Are you looking for ways to run your business better?

Are you unsure about what type of organizational entity is best for your business?

Are you ready to find a consulting partner that can help you with strategic planning and initiatives in your business?

If you said yes to any of the above questions, then our business consulting services may be right for you.  Here are just a few ways we can help you improve your business performance and increase your profits.

Startup Consulting

If you have recently started a business or are thinking of starting one in the future, we can provide our expertise. Working with a financial professional from the beginning of your business venture nearly doubles the chances of your success.

There are literally hundreds of things to take care of with a new business, and we can help take some of that burden off of your hands. Here are just a few things that need to be covered during your startup phase that are related to compliance or financial requirements:

• Determine the best type of entity for legal and tax purposes
• File papers with local, provincial, and federal agencies to set up your business
• Acquire a business number from CRA (Canada Revenue Agency)
• Open a new bank account, merchant account, and credit cards
• Select an accounting system, such as QuickBooks
• If you will be using eCommerce, select a shopping cart
• Acquire the necessary business licenses and permits
• Determine what insurance you should carry to protect yourself
• If you hire employees:
  • Select a payroll system
  • Acquire Worker’s Compensation
  • Set up benefits and a time off policy
• Secure accounting, legal, IT, and HR counsel
• Identify sales tax requirements and register with your provincial agencies
• Fulfill any investor requirements

Not only can we help you with many of the items above, we can also provide valuable guidance to help you increase the chances of succeeding in your new venture.  This professional advice includes:

• Carefully managing your cash flow so you don’t get overcommitted
• Preparing a first-year budget so you can stay on track
• Setting realistic funding goals and helping you acquire the financing you need
• Reviewing operations from a financial management standpoint to make sure you will be on track for your profit margin goals
• Helping you plan for large capital acquisitions so that you can minimize borrowing and be smart about your cash management and growth rate

We love working with startups, so please reach out to find out more about our startup consulting services.

Annual Budgeting

Budgeting can sound restrictive, which is why we prefer the term “Profit Planning.”  It’s really the same thing: the ultimate goal is to help you realize your profit goals by tracking spending and sales, avoiding overspending, and making sure you have the revenue volume to cover your overhead expenses.

Our budgeting services include:

• Preparing a 12-month budget that includes revenue and expense goals based on your chart of accounts
• Monthly reporting of budget versus actual variances to increase your accountability
• A quarterly review of actual versus budgeted amounts and an analysis of over and under accounts, including actions to take to stem any issues or shortfalls
• An optional capital budget based on balance sheet accounts and new capital acquisitions

Please contact us if you would like to discuss our budgeting, or rather Profit Planning, services.

Entity Selection

Many factors should go into the decision of choosing the best entity type for your business. Each entity type has different legal and tax advantages and disadvantages.  The most common choices for type of entity are:

• Sole proprietor
• Limited liability company (LLC), of which there are a few kinds as well as different tax treatments
• Partnership
• Corporation
• Nonprofit

We can advise you of the options available to your situation and/or circumstances, plus help you get started with business filing requirements.

As your business grows, it may outgrow your original choice of entity. We can help you evaluate the right choice of entity for the phase your business is in today and help you re-organize if a change is determined to be the best course of action.

Contact us to get started on entity selection services.

Management Consulting

With our management consulting services, we typically work with a senior executive on a specific project or on a retainer basis.  In many cases, it can be extremely valuable to simply have an educated, unbiased outside view at your disposal.

The goal of our management consulting services is to improve your business performance, often through profitability or other measurable results.

Feel free to contact us to find out more about our management consulting services.

Complimentary Consultation

To find out more about or to get started with any of our business consulting solutions, please contact us by phone or email.