Once again, we’re thrilled to have a guest post from Sue Clement of Success Coaching. In this article, Sue talks about how to set yourself up for success – rather than failure – by choosing the right goals and creating a plan for achieving them. Goal Setting — How to Set the Right Goals for [...]

As mentioned in the June 2010 issue of our newsletter, the BC Government is sponsoring a program to help small businesses provide training for their employees that they would not otherwise have access to. If you’d like to apply to receive a grant of up to $5,000 for courses for your employees, here’s the basic [...]

Are you a nervous networker? Well, do we have a great resource for you. Shepa Learning Company principals Darcy Rezac, Judy Thomson and Gayle Hallgren-Rezac literally wrote the book on networking.If you get sweaty palms at the mere thought of attending a local Chamber breakfast or BNI meeting, subscribe to Shepa Learning Company’s free weekly [...]

We recently read an informative article on the Ask the Business Lawyer web site that discusses the need for clarity in the choice of words used in various forms of business communications and contract language. Sometimes, what you say and what you mean can have vastly different interpretations, particularly in a legal setting. Here’s an [...]

BIV has written an interesting article that underscores the uncertainty that most business owners have around the impending HST that will be going into effect soon.  Here’s a snippet of the article: Almost half of all business owners don’t fully understand how HST will impact their businesses, according to an Angus Reid opinion poll. An [...]

Earlier this month, the Government of Canada released its 2010 Budget. It contained a number of measures and initiatives to create and maintain jobs, to grow the Canadian economy, to strengthen Canadian Innovation and to make Canada a destination of choice for new business investment. Read the full article on the SOHO web site to [...]

Canadian corporations reported a 7.9% increase in profits in the fourth quarter of 2009, the second straight quarter of gains, according to Statistics Canada. Corporate profits rose to $60.1 billion, up from $55.7 billion in the third quarter last year, and 19.7% higher than the recent low of $50.2 billion in the second quarter. Gains [...]

Despite claims to the contrary, real estate prices for Olympic host cities don’t experience a boom and bust cycle, according to a study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. The UBC study is the first to use real estate variables to test an Olympic Games’ economic impact on host cities. Researchers [...]

The B.C. Liberal government’s plan to combine the provincial and federal sales taxes into a broader 12-per-cent harmonized sales tax got a rough ride from the public during recent budget consultations by the legislature committee on finance. The report on those consultations, released Friday, highlighted support for the tax from exporters, business leaders, the resource [...]

Great salespeople are passionate about their products and their customers.  Effective selling is not about trying to talk people into buying things that they don’t need or cannot afford.  Effective selling is about selling a solution – giving your customers something that they want. Where I see people lose passion for selling is when they [...]

It’s not glamorous, but a budget will help manage costs, identify red flags, and achieve profitability. Between 2004 and 2007, Apex facility resources, a Seattle furniture dealership and relocation company, experienced a 900% jump in sales. Yet the owners, Marlaine McCauley and Matt Watson, didn’t know if they’d actually made any money. “We didn’t have [...]

Bookkeeping is an important task for small to large businesses and needs extra care and attention to detail. If you own a small business, the growth of your company depends on accurate financial records management. Any small mistake can affect the success of your business as it grows. If you manage a small business, budget [...]

There were three interesting stories in the press this week about pensions and bankruptcy in Canada. On Wednesday the CBC ran a story on how the Liberals vow to change bankruptcy laws. Here’s a quote from the story: The Liberal Party says it is committed to changing Canadian bankruptcy laws so former employees of failed [...]

While Canada’s employment level has remained relatively stable in the past six months, the quality of employment has dropped significantly, according to a report by CIBC World Markets. CIBC’s employment quality index has fallen 3.8% in the past six months even though the employment rate has fallen only 0.2%. The index measures the distribution of [...]

British Columbia’s transition to a Harmonized Sales Tax will be a good thing for most Penticton businesses, according to the B.C. Chamber of Commerce. Chairing a panel on the controversial new tax, Jon Garson, vice-president of policy development for the B.C. Chamber, said that the provincial chamber had been calling on the B.C. government to [...]