How Much Is My Business Worth? As a small business owner, you probably wonder from time-to-time how much the business you’ve built is worth. There is no easy or straight-forward answer to the question “How much is my business worth?” It may be worth more to you than it would be to someone else –…

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Is your corporation a personal services business? If you are the sole individual working in your corporation, you may be carrying on a personal services business (“PSB”). More and more small corporations are being labeled as personal services businesses by Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”). The results of this can be disastrous. Personal service business What…

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Why Do We Offer Free Initial Consultations? Many professional firms offer “free initial consultation” to the public as an enticement to get you in the door. It’s part of their promotional strategy to attract new customers. We offer free initial consultations for a few other reasons. First, we want to get to know you. We…

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Cash flow is the movement of money into and out of a business or project. Cash flow is imperative to the success of any business. However, many small businesses owners don’t fully understand how important it is to estimate, track, and analyze cash flows. If cash flow is not managed correctly, a company may run…

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Most small business owners eventually face the question of whether or not to incorporate their business by creating a limited liability company or “corporation”. Owners of small business corporations enjoy preferential tax treatment in Canada in the form of lower corporate tax rates, tax-free status on sale of small business shares and access to certain…

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Your Value Proposition What sets you apart from your competition? We recently held an offsite retreat and one of the objectives was to try to better understand our “value proposition”.  By understanding our value proposition, we can refine our service delivery and personal accountabilities to make our organization more valuable to its customers. Michael Lanning,…

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After spending a few years working in Human Resources, I’ve come to realize that the key to retaining staff members is fostering a positive work environment. A positive work environment, in turn, fosters a team who is comfortable with each other and understands one another enough to help work flow as seamlessly as possible. In…

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We’re sitting in the airport waiting for our flight home after a week out of the office for leadership training.  Doug and I have been learning to work remotely over the last couple years.  It sounds great in theory, but I am recognizing and despairing how tied I am to my traditional tools and habits.…

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The Pinnacle Team recently did a self-assessment to find out the strengths and weaknesses of our team dynamic.  The exercise was inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s book – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In his book, the author describes the five attributes that characterize a highly functioning team.  He also provides an assessment tool for…

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