Building Your Business Series – Part 3

Key Lessons

In our Building your Business series, we’ve helped you find answers to the difficult questions business owners face when starting a business for the first time. Here’s a quick reminder of the key messages from this series –

Things to do when starting a business

1. Use a “For” and “Against” list when deciding if and whom you should have as a partner.
2. If considering a partner, look for someone with complementary skills to your own.
3. If you take on a partner, have a buy-sell agreement in place before you start.
4. Consult with a lawyer when deciding on what form of business best suits your needs.
5. Use an intellectual property lawyer to protect your intellectual property rights: your trade name, company name, logo, etc.
6. Outsource your payroll responsibilities to a payroll service provider.
7. Establish a tax deferred pension plan for yourself and your employees.
8. Collect referrals about lawyers, accountants and insurance agents before retaining them.
9. Use your attorney to assist you in maintaining compliance with changing labour laws.
10. Join a local service organization such as the local chamber of commerce.

Just as good as what to do is a list of things new business owners should avoid if they are keen on getting their business off to a good start. Our recommendations below can be found in both part 1 and part 2 of our building your business series.

Things New Business Owners Should Avoid

1. Use a general partnership if you intend to limit your liability.
2. Start a corporation without the help of a qualified attorney.
3. Sell stock in a corporation without an attorney and governmental approvals.
4. Fail to pay your payroll tax liabilities on time. You are personally liable.
5. Sign a lease or important agreements without your lawyer’s advice.
6. Start your business without retaining an accountant and having an accounting system in place.
7. Start a business with a handshake agreement.
8. Become a general partner without understanding the unlimited liability incurred.
9. Rely on your corporation as protection from personally guaranteed liabilities.
10. Fail to take the advice of your lawyer and accountant seriously.

Start your business!

Based on the great advice you would have gotten from our Building Your Business series; you should be on a solid path to starting your business! What can be equally helpful to a starting entrepreneur are templates to assist in getting the business of starting your business done.

We’ve provided some easy templates to guide you through some important phases in your business development stages. Visit our Setting up your business – tools you need blog and download for free.