How Good is Business Advice?
CASE STUDY #1 – RECENT MBA A few years ago I watched as a young colleague with an MBA took it upon himself to advise the proprietor of a crepe stand about operations and business strategy – in exchange for a free crepe. As a trained journeyman chef in an earlier life, I was amused […]
The Evolution of the Business Plan
Management science used to tell us that we needed to plan carefully and intelligently for any new business venture, document our assumptions clearly – and then execute. As a professional accountant I’ve always been leery of projections – or as we like to refer to them “FOFI” (i.e. future-oriented financial information). The thing is, accountants […]
The Cost of Going (and Being) Public
Recently I spoke to one of the founders of a medical device company who was looking to go public in order to fund the development and regulatory approvals for their new products. Assuming that the company accurately projects their capital needs at $4 million I thought it would be a useful exercise to look at […]
VCC Tax Credit Is Not “Government Assistance”
British Columbia’s Small Business Venture Capital Act provides a 30% tax credit to eligible investors in corporations involved in a “prescribed business activity” within BC. For individuals the tax credit is fully refundable and isn’t considered taxable under paragraph 12(1)(x) of the Income Tax Act: SUBSECTION 12)(1) – INCOME INCLUSIONS (x) Inducement, reimbursement, etc. — any particular amount […]
BCIC Innovator Skills Initiative
UP TO $10,000 PER YEAR TO EMPLOY STUDENTS The BCIC Innovator Skills Initiative offers BC-based technology companies from $2,500 to $7,500 to hire post-secondary students. https://innovatebc.ca/what-we-offer/get-funding/student-hiring-grant/
Self-Employed Contractor or Employee?
Whether you are an individual looking for a broader range of tax deductions than employees are ordinarily entitled to, or an employer looking for a more flexible working arrangement with your “employees”, you need to understand the rules around employment. The employer-employee relationships is dealt with by a number of different legislative regimes. These include: The Income […]
Importance of Startups in Job Creation
As a part of their “The Startup Revolution” series, the Compass Blog published “The Rise of the Startup“. It makes for fascinating reading. In particular they point to a study by the Kauffman Foundating in 2010. That study revealed that: over the past 28 years – startups were responsible for all net new jobs in the United States. […]
Local Startup Sues Incubator in Dispute Over IP
Pixsel Sues Invoke Labs for Allegedly Stealing Code to Create a Competitor February 2015 It is probably a good thing that the mainstream press is beginning to cover the startup / high tech scene. Certainly this sector is becoming a major source of new economic activity. Before we rush to take sides, it is important […]
6 Alternatives for Online Invoicing
Do a GOOGLE search for “Online Invoicing Systems” and you’ll come up with an enormous list: About 1,810,000 results (0.33 seconds) 2 Types of Online Invoicing Packages The truth is there are a large number of alternatives to choose from. So many in fact, that you’d be hard-pressed to evaluate very many of them. However there […]
Young Entrepreneurs More Likely to Fail
In spite of Silicon Valley’s apparent fixation on youth – see How Tech Investors are Failing on Due Diligence – a recent academic study has shown that older entrepreneurs are less likely to fail. The study spanned 5 years and looked at founders in 5 different age groups by decade (20s – 30s – 40s – […]