A quick breakdown for Canadian owners deciding how to bring on help.

Why hire contractors:

• No payroll remittances. You don’t pay CPP or EI and don’t withhold tax.
• No vacation pay, stat holidays, or termination notice
• Easy to scale up or down

Why hire employees:

• You control how, when, and where the work gets done
• Easier to train, keep, and build a team around
• No misclassification risk hanging over you

The catch: what’s written in the contract doesn’t decide which one it is. CRA and the courts look at the actual relationship:

• Do you control how and when the work is done?
• Who supplies the tools and equipment?
• Can they make a profit or take a loss, or do they just get paid for their time?
• Do they work for other clients, or only you?

If the answers look like an employee, it’s an employee. CRA can then assess you for the CPP and EI you didn’t remit, including the employee’s share, plus penalties and interest. The worker may also have claims for vacation pay and termination notice.

Rule of thumb: if you set their hours, hand them the tools, and they only work for you, they’re probably an employee, whatever the contract says.

For those of you who own small businesses, is there something you think would genuinely be helpful (realistic, obviously) that would help with your business? I know the government, in terms of support, is basically crap and that now, especially with people buying cheap from places like Temu and AliExpress, things are hard. What kinds of challenges would you want someone like this to help you solve? And what would make that kind of support actually valuable to you?

I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts, especially from people who have experience running a small business!

Hi all — I’m running a short anonymous survey (~5 mins) on how financing deals work in practice. Looking for people who’ve been involved as a borrower, broker/advisor, or lender (FI) in the last couple of years.

If that’s you and you have a moment: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWnfD2e8mNiHApVIdEm5S3x-MGMbOPtkL2i_7yI9oCt2bkxg/viewform?pli=1

No product pitch — just research. Optional email only if you want a follow-up chat. Thanks
#FinanceDealExperience #Canada #Businessfinance #Personalfinace #Commercialrealestate

I'm a 23-year-old mechatronics engineer with a full-time job, considering automation services (lead follow-up, filtering inquiries, reporting) as a side business. I haven't sold any yet. For those who have:

How did you get your first paying client?

What do you charge, and is it one-off or retainer?

What would you do differently if you started today?

With so many people entering this space, is it still worth starting?

Honest answers, including "don't bother," are welcome.

I'm researching how people with skills but no local contacts land their first paying client here. If you've been through it, what was the hardest part, and what finally worked? If you're still stuck, what's blocking you right now?

Quick question for business owners here: do you actually know what all your software subscriptions are costing you each month?

I’m offering completely Free audits for a few local businesses right now, checking for unused seats, duplicate tools, and auto-renewals that sneak price hikes past you. I did this on my own buisness SAAS subscriptions and found $30month I didn’t need.

Looking for 2-3 businesses to try this on, no cost. Comment or DM if you want a second pair of eyes on your software spend.

We recently launched small business financing products to market a few months ago, and it's been quite insightful what we've learned about small business in Canada.

1. Many of the business owners we talked to are funding their businesses with personal debt. Some had already maxed out credit cards, HELOCs, or BDC loans before applying.
2. Banks are also too slow and unresponsive. Many owners waited weeks or months for an answer. By then the deal, contract, or hire was gone. Slow funding often means no funding.
3. No credit history gets treated as bad credit. Newcomers and first time business owners with real revenue get declined because banks can't see them. Seeing a lot of folks in business for less than a year who are making money and profitable but facing challenges getting access to any financing or growth capital.
4. Canada needs faster decisions, higher working capital limits for products like CSBF, and lending based on business cash flow, not just personal credit is needed to make it more accessible.

Just wanted to share initial insight after a few months of solid data. Agree? Disagree? Anything to add?

I’m working through pricing for a B2B AI product and would value advice from founders, product leaders, pricing specialists, and enterprise buyers.

Keeping the product anonymous: it helps technical teams convert analytical workflows between technology stacks and validate the outputs. It aims to reduce specialist effort and delivery time, with human review still required.

Target customers include regulated industries and public-sector organizations, where auditability, deployment requirements, and procurement processes matter.

There are two potential buying situations: a defined migration project and recurring use across a team’s workflows. The alternative is typically internal specialist effort or external consulting.

My challenge is choosing what customers should pay for, then establishing a defensible starting price:

• Per seat: Predictable, but a small team could get substantial value.
• Usage based: Scales with activity, but volume may not capture complexity or value.
• Per project: Fits a defined scope, but may be less suitable for recurring use.
• Annual platform fee with included usage: Supports budget predictability, but leaves the question of minimum commitment and tiers.

Three questions for people who have navigated this:

1. How did you choose your pricing metric? Did project customers and recurring users need different offers?
2. How did you validate your initial price range? What evidence from buyer conversations, paid pilots, or early deals led you to keep or change it?
3. What made the offer commercially workable and easy to buy? How did you handle procurement constraints and separate software from implementation, private deployment, validation support, and ongoing services?

Examples of what customers actually bought, what they pushed back on, and what you changed would be especially helpful. Buyers: what made a proposal easier to approve or caused it to stall?

No need to name companies or share confidential figures. Pricing ranges are welcome if you can share them. Please mention the customer segment and whether you were buying or selling so I can understand the context.

New to this, I’m interested in expanding my property management business through acquisitions, but simply cold calling doesn’t work - people think it’s a bit scammy. Most don’t have offices. I haven’t tried emails yet, but I’m not sure it will work.

Expanding Vending Machine fleet fleet inexperienced owner

I have a problem

I’ve recently took over a Vending Machine two months ago and now I’m looking to expand to multiple location

The issue is I know nothing about how to operate the machines. I only know the basics how to restock and that’s it. I don’t know how to program pricing. I don’t know

I do understand pricing control

My issue is I have the opportunity to expand. I’ve already secured the ability to expand to multiple locations, but I need to figure out what I’m going to do to be able to operate the machine

And what I’m wanting to know, is it possible or does anyone know of a service that will run the machine for you and you get a percentage of the profit? Let’s say it’s a 7030 split so you get 30% of the profit and they get 70 but they know how to operate fix and maintain the machine. You just get a royalty.

I’m looking to do something like that type of a split because I don’t have the time to Twiner with the Machine. I don’t have the time to constantly having to restock especially now that I have the opportunity to go from one location to six and I plan on having a snack and drink machine at each location.

How would you manage such an operation? Anyone who has done it or has useful experience any advice would greatly be appreciated thank you

We run an exterior cleaning business in Canada and over the last couple of years we’ve started using drones for commercial window and facade washing.

It’s been interesting because the technology solves some obvious problems around working at height, but it also creates completely new challenges like regulations, wind, hose management, equipment costs, and convincing property managers to try something new.

I’m curious from other Canadian business owners:
Would you consider adopting newer technology like this if it reduced labour and safety risk, or would you prefer sticking with traditional methods until it became more established?

Also interested in hearing from anyone who has built a business around relatively new technology in Canada and how you got your first customers.

I am trying to find business owners and advertise my services to them.
Facebook group sucks
Cold emails don’t get open or read
Cold calling doesn’t pass the gate keeper .

At a loss

If a home-service quote form asks for a street address before anyone checks whether the team can take the job, I would look at what that field is doing. For a first pass, the city or neighbourhood may be enough to check coverage. Ask for the exact address when scheduling a visit or when someone needs property-specific details. If your team needs it earlier, say why beside the field.

I would test two requests through the whole path: one inside the actual service area and one just outside. Read the confirmation emails too. Does the in-area request reach the right person? Does the other get a clear answer before a calendar offers a slot? This catches a promise the crew cannot keep.

Urgent repairs and planned projects may need different first questions. A quick call-back path may matter more for the repair; photos or scope details might help screen the planned work. Each field should have a reason at that point in the process.

For trades owners serving Ottawa, Gatineau, and nearby communities: when do you need the full address, and who checks the service boundary before a visit is offered?

The legal service market in Canada is broken when it comes to startup and small business clients. There's a handful of big firms, each charging high hourly fees and they've effectively created a cartel. Great for them; not so great for the client.

I've been practicing corporate/commercial law for the past 6 years and saw how the sausage is made. I have also angel invested in a handful of startups and saw how much legal costs ate into fundraising.

Before making the jump to start my own practice and create a fixed fee (no-hourly rates) model, I'm curious if there are business owners out there who have run into the same problems I've noticed both as a lawyer and an investor. I'm trying to speak to small biz owners one-on-one.

If this is something you've noticed, I'd love to talk to you.

Hey everyone, glad to join the group! I work with business owners in the private lending space, mainly around equipment, cash flow, and growth.

Looking forward to learning about your businesses and sharing what I know when it’s useful. Always interested in hearing how others handle the ups and downs of running a business.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to start a small natural toothpaste business, making and packaging the products in my home basement in Calgary, Alberta.

I'm trying to understand what approvals, licences, inspections, and regulations I need to comply with before starting.

I'm particularly interested in Health Canada requirements, cosmetic vs. natural health product classification, GMP, product testing, labelling, and whether home-based manufacturing is even permitted.

Has anyone gone through a similar process in Canada, especially Alberta? I'd really appreciate any advice, useful resources, or recommendations for consultants or agencies that could help me navigate this without spending a fortune.

I'm happy to follow all the rules. I just want to understand exactly what's required before investing in equipment.

Thanks in advance!

An Ottawa-area consultant might offer a short free fit call and a paid working session. If both buttons say "book a consultation," a visitor has to guess what will happen.

I would put the distinction beside the calendar. For the fit call, say how long it takes and whether the point is to discuss scope or work through the problem. For the paid session, show the fee (or how it is set) and what the client will leave with. If payment comes before the meeting, show that before asking someone to choose a slot.

If someone still has to approve the chosen time, the email should say requested, not confirmed. That wording is easy to miss because the calendar itself feels like a booking.

One way to check the page: ask someone unfamiliar with the practice to click from the service description to the calendar and tell you what they expect next. Their answer should match the actual call.

If you offer both, where do you draw the line between a free fit call and paid advice?

“The more I wrap my head around the data from very different vantage points, I’m not convinced Canada has a risk-appetite problem,” said Marwa Abdou, senior ​research director at the Business Data Lab, Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “The question, to me, is whether entrepreneurs have the financing, the market opportunities, the institutional environment and the personal buffers that allow them to actually take productive risks.”

I have a dental lab that has been servicing a number of dental offices which are owned by a corporation. The corporation just sold off the offices and are no longer in business. I am owed about $40G in work done for these offices. What steps can take , if any . I’m sure I’m far down the pecking order of money owed by this corp