Starting a business??? Help

[RawB8figure]

Starting a business.
Anyone have any experience?
Anything I should watch out for?
Did you pick limited or incorporated?
Where did you go to get help filling out the paperwork?

Anything you could offer would be great

Thanks

[kaput]

.

[natejj]

Originally posted by kaput
Every time someone starts a thread like this, the response is the same. If you have to ask these questions, you probably shouldn't be considering it. Go and pick up a few books and learn enough to ask the right questions.

:werd:

[Manifesto55]

Everyone's got to start somewhere... though perhaps a message board may not be the best place. If you're going to incorporate, try looking at this.

www.arvic.com

[Z_Fan]

You can do everything you want at any local Registry office.

You can perform a NUANS search, purchase numbered (Alberta LTD.) companies, register trade names, etc.

If you know nothing of this, you can also contact a lawyer who will likely be able to sell you their services as a package price to do all the things required to start your business.


Other things you need to do:

Don't forget to acquire a Business License.

Set up a bank account for your company. Don't mix it up with your personal finances.

Acquire company credit cards, if you need them for ease of purchasing without having credit checks on your Company when it is new and has no history.

Oh, and once you've done this - expense *EVERY SINGLE DAMN THING YOU POSSIBLY CAN* :devil:

[asuth077]

What type of business are we talking about?

[FishPoo]

Originally posted by asuth077
What type of business are we talking about?

Yea, that would definitely help.

Otherwise you could throw away most of the advice out the window.

If you're just doing this on the side.. for example, a lawn mowing company, you could just start up a sole propiertership, low cost, no need to incorporate or become a limited company because you don't have as many liability/tax concerns.

If it's a simple home grown operation.

Just register a business name/number with revenue canada, and you're good to go.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/business/topics/bn/bro/menu-e.html

Start keeping track of revenue, expenses, invoices, receipts, a simple accounting program like quickbooks, quicken, simply accounting would be a good program to start at.

If it's simple like I mentioned above, then it is not necessary to have such things as a seperate bank account (but it sure helps) or a seperate credit card.

If you're looking at a limited or incorporated company, then you have a lot more things to look at plus it costs more to startup.

Google is your friend...

http://www.gowlings.com/dbic/faqs/index.asp?heading=business
Differences between business types.

[RawB8figure]

Thanks guys,

Well I've been to the registry office got that worked out, now I will have to get approved by the city and then apply for my AMVIC license.

Its not that I don't know what I am doing, I was just wondering if anyone here has recently started a business or went through the process and could give me some pointers or maybe ran into a situation that surprised them.

[bamboo403]

is it a car sales business?

[sxtasy]

My word of advice would be to hire a bookeeper/accountant. If your business is somewhat succesfull your time will be so focussed on selling, producing/manufacturing your product, your books can easily and quickly become a mess. Stay on top of the books/accounting! I would say that you should incorporate, better in the long run

[RawB8figure]

Thanks guys, got the ball rolling, I went incorporated and the accountant is setting up my books. Waiting on my business approval and amvic approval, then I will get my GST #. Hopefully I can have this up by the end of the month. . Not getting my hopes up though...

[Steve-R]

Are you trying to sell cars retail or wholesale?

Selling retail is a HUGE pain in the ass. like brokeback pain in the ass!!!!

city of calgary wants so much bullsh_t about your location. I have been in the works for 6 months so far and still having to get more approvals. the latest was a change of use application having to do with parking at the location but in the forms its talking about trees and something else about site contamination.

Anyways I wish you good luck

[ashee]

You need a business plan first and foremost.
Then you need to be able to finance your business etc. etc.

[Street_Soldier]

Can I have a job? I'm not really good at anything but if you are ever pissed about anything you can punch me in the face.

[Lex350]

About 5 yearss ago I took a course @ Chinook College about starting your own business. It was a great course that gave you some good real world tips on starting a business. I used that to set up my Architectural Visualization company.


This is the course....same instructor too. I have to say it was more than worth the money to take this course. I had always had my idea on what kind of business I wanted to start but I didn't really know how to go about it. This really helped.

The result: I do this part-time and pull in over 50k. It has also lead me to develop contacts that have lead to the possible creation of another business on a much larger scale.


http://www.chinooklearningservices.com/ContEd/AdultCourses/StartYourBusinessBasics.html

[topmade]

Originally posted by Street_Soldier
Can I have a job? I'm not really good at anything but if you are ever pissed about anything you can punch me in the face.

:rofl: I'll hire you, but it will be a on-call position.