RLB Blog

On the morning of Tuesday, October 20th, RLB hosted its 3rd Annual Not-for-Profit Risk Management Seminar, titled “New Age Risks: Is Your Organization Ready?”, in collaboration with Stevenson and Hunt, and Gowlings. Each year, the purpose of this seminar is to inform attendees about emerging risks that not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) within our community may be exposed to. Given the number of different organizations that attend, this seminar offers a great opportunity for networking and sharing among not-for-profit representatives.

When you started your business, you had a vision, goals and dreams. As your business grew and changed, a strategy and plan evolved. Whether these plans were formal or highly informal, you had some sense of the direction you wanted your business to take. All too often, exiting your business doesn’t get that same attention. It can be easy to put off succession planning for a myriad of reasons; however it is important to create an adaptable plan and get everyone (family, partners, and key employees) on board. This will help to maintain the value of the business, maximize your retirement fund and protect your legacy.

Communities Count.

Should you have a succession plan? The simple answer is YES! Succession is a word that is often used, but what does it really mean? A complex and confusing topic, it lingers as the unspoken part of business planning, too large to tackle, genuinely the elephant in the room.

Are you registered for GST / HST? Do you depend on the form showing up in the mail as a reminder that your return is due? CRA is changing how you receive your forms and online access code. The notice below is now going out with the return forms. Starting October 19, 2015 you will receive a permanent Web Access Code (instead of receiving a unique code every filing period), and all your remittance vouchers for the upcoming year. Your filing periods and due dates stay the same.

When aiming to recruit the best and brightest talent for your workforce, understanding recruitment cycles can give your organization an edge over your competition. Studying trends within the labour market expose reoccurring patterns that are consistent year after year, such as hiring surpluses that seem to follow every summer. As we move towards the end of the third fiscal quarter, many organizations will find their HR departments preparing to sift through hundreds of resumes and host back-to-back interviews – but why during this time? Well, there are many reasons why the fall is great time for an organization to onboard fresh talent.

You have been working hard and your small business is now making money….now what? You will probably want to be re-investing money into your business to help it grow - but remember - you also need to pay yourself!

In the romantic comedy classic “You’ve Got Mail”, Tom Hanks’ character owns a book selling superstore that puts Meg Ryan’s small bookshop out of business. In response he says “It wasn’t …personal” and implies it was just business. Meg Ryan’s character responds “All that means is it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me…….Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

Small business drives the Canadian economy. December 2012 Industry Canada statistics indicate there were 1.1 Million businesses in Canada. Seventy five percent of these businesses (830,000) had less than 10 employees. Eighty seven percent had less than 20 employees. Based on our experiences building our own businesses and observing and helping clients build theirs, we have outlined 5 keys to small business success.