• High Impact Tax Strategies for Business Owners & Their Corporations - Part 2

    As an entrepreneur, you face a multitude of challenges in running a successful business. You must keep your eye on the ball in order to navigate the often turbulent waters of the marketplace. To that end, it is important that you have a trusted accountant/business advisor who is proactive in identifying opportunities for you and your corporation. In our last column, we discussed some high-impact [...]

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    High Impact Tax Strategies for Business Owners & Their Corporations

    Let's face it - running a business isn't easy. As an entrepreneur, you face many challenges in building your business, fending off the bank, delighting customers, dealing with suppliers, handling employee issues, winding your way through government bureaucracy and red tape, and the myriad of other issues that keep you awake at night. But for those who persevere and conquer the challenges by [...]

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    Understanding Foreign Exchange Risk

    Thanks to the internet, what once was the domain of large bank trading rooms, foreign exchange markets over the past few years have been opened up, so the average business can get a better understanding of how the movement of different currencies affects their revenue stream. This "FX Risk" applies to a wide range of industries that deal outside of Canada. Hopefully this article will help to [...]

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    Sources of financing

    In these more challenging times, it is important to assess whether your business has the financial resources to weather the storm and especially if the storm continues for longer than expected. Assess whether each of the sources of financing that is currently being used is likely to agree to an increase in your limit and if there is an increase possible make arrangements for it now. Remember that [...]

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    Cash flow management

    "Cash is king!" There is no doubt about it and there are many examples to prove it. I was reminded of this when chatting with a former client whom I had not seen for a few years and who has since closed his business. When we worked together the business was profitable and growing, so I asked what had happened. He told me that he had not been able to source the financing necessary to operate the [...]

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    Investing in quality control - an easy pay back

    Returns and credits for goods are a fact of life in most product and service businesses. It is very rare that they can be totally eliminated. However, the extent of returns and credits is certainly manageable and this article will illustrate how most businesses do not adequately measure and understand the full cost of returns and therefore do not recognize the huge return to be gained by investing[...]

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    Sustainability Can Be a Generator of ROI

    Measuring sustainability Sustainability seeks to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments, both now and into the indefinite future, according to one definition.  For this purpose in a business, it is the ability of the business to minimize the environmental impact of operations.  The major opportunity for many businesses is to minimize the consumption of resources. Many [...]

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    Coaching your Controller – Part 2

    As the owner of your business, do you have a person heading up the accounting function who has limited or no experience managing an accounting and finance function?  Very few SMEs will have an accountant with a designation and strategic skills in that role, which for convenience I will refer to as the Controller (other common titles are Accountant, Office Manager, Accounting Manager, etc.)  As [...]

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    Survive and Thrive in Turbulent Times

    ...a Finance perspective from James Phillipson When a business encounters turbulent times, there are many ways that the CFO/Controller and CEO can face the challenges to enhance the financial position of a business and that significantly improve opportunities and reduce risks. These strategies will enhance the likelihood of the business surviving turbulent times and put it in a position to thrive[...]

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    Optimize the performance of your staff through motivation

    Do your staff, have more work than they can manage?  It is often said that work expands to meet the time available, but this does not occur when staff are motivated to do their best.  Solid supervision by a department head can often go a long way to encourage staff to go the distance.  In this article I review some of the basic skills that a good supervisor brings to her staff, to motivate them[...]

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