7 must-have for immigrant entreprenuers to Canada
7 business principles for immigrant entreprenuers to Canada
1. Choosing the rigth business: go independent or franchise?
Entreprenuership unless you have experience and training can be daunting in the context of a new culture and little knowledge of actually doing business in Canada.
If you’d like to be your own boss, but don’t want to go it completely alone, there is another option open to you-franchise.
The franchise will be clear defined in terms of revenues, expected, costs of doing business and your obligations to the franchisor. Because everything is so defined this business form is considered a very safe risks and a very good option for new immigrants.
Top 10 Canadian Franchises*
2. Borrowing for your business: Loans and finance
A variety of resources are available to aid the aspiring entrepreneur in starting a new business, or help an established business owner improve or expand his enterprise. Often, the chief reason for the failure of a new business venture is a lack of proper funding at the outset, causing a long, uphill struggle that can be very difficult to win. Knowing where to find financial resources and how to take advantage of them is crucial to success in today’s highly competitive market. Combined with a realistic and effective business plan, adequate funding can be the foundation upon which a solid business can grow and thrive.
If you have a good business plan, you know what you’re doing, you have enthusiasm for it, you have experience and you have some equity to contribute, the bank loves you — no matter what size you are, And even if you have a business that doesn’t need start-up funding, you still have a business plan to provide a road map for your business efforts and be a gauge to assess progress.
Prepare Before You Apply:
You will need to present detailed financial statements and budgets to the lender, and be prepared to answer tough questions on the performance of an established business or the potential of a startup or details from the franchise.
Choosing the Right Funding Option for Your Business:
There are several different kinds of business loans: short term financing; long term loans; and equity capital. Understand what kind of loan you need.
Whichever funding method you choose, be sure to research the terms and obligations thoroughly to be sure your needs will be met and the costs are manageable. Comparison shopping can be the key to selecting the best rates and terms for your business loan. With a good business plan and the right resources to get the ball rolling, you can build your business into a solid and profitable venture.
Knowing what option you actually have can help you make the best decision regarding what you actually need to borrow to keep going …and on what terms.
3. Humans resources: atract and retain staff
One of the major challenges that all businesses of any significant size have is finding strong, vital, ambitious employees who are focused on growing the company and its profits. As the saying goes, “Good people are hard to find.” So how do we attract and retain the top performers we want for our team? Get recommendations that will give you a strong start. But the true key is to make attracting and retaining good employees a top priority and focus in all that you do.
4. Budgeting and cash flow management: keep track of your company’s cash.
Money is a powerful thing. If you know how to handle money properly, it can help you achieve the goals you want. It can be a long term goal or a short term goal. But what if you’re the type who handles money poorly and can’t seem to get out of your debts? Every time you turn around, there seems to be more and more debts and payments and you always run out of cash.
Business budgeting is an art form. It takes special finesse and creativity to develop a budget plan that will be viewed and contemplated time and time again – at least for one year. However, what is small business budgeting, and how does a small business develop a budget that works?
A good business budget requires careful forecasting of revenues and expenses. But just like weather forecasting, sometimes the prediction is completely accurate, and other times, rain arrives when the revenues should have been sunny. Though small business forecasting is akin to predicting the future, it is performed in an analytical and procedural manner to ensure that the forecast is as accurate as possible
A business without a budget is like a sailboat without sails or a rudder. It simply drifts where the current takes it. It could drift to a tropical beach, remain stagnant in windless doldrums, or it could also end up smashed on jagged cliff rocks. Smart business budget planning is essential not just to guide the business toward continued success, but for profitable growth.
Business budget planning is important particularly in these three areas:
•Sales – How a business brings in cash is essential for planning expenses. Sales forecasting is a similar to predicting the future, but with better accuracy than a crystal ball. Previous sales data can provide a good idea of how much percentage increase or decrease of revenue is expected in the coming fiscal year. Sales forecasts on business budget planning will also detail a strategy of how a business plans to increase revenue.
•Expenses – A business needs to spend money to make money. The expense budget will guide for limiting expenditures and should be followed religiously. Historical expense data can guide business budget planning figures and can reveal excess expenditures. These figures can also guide a business owner on how to cut expenses for the coming fiscal year.
•Capital Expansion – In order for businesses to grow, they usually need capital expansion. That means buying new buildings, new equipment, and spending more on production costs. Business budget planning should include any strategic capital expansion plans and the strategy for financing the expansions.
5. Marketing and advertising” to spend or not that is the question!
Most companies when starting out are familiar with the 4Ps of Marketing; Product, Price, Place and Promotion. I would venture that many focus much of their time and effort on the first three and only ten percent on Promotion.
Let’s start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I’ll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
The basics in business are professional service, reasonable prices, and a clear customer satisfaction program that always strives to make every client as satisfied as possible, even if it takes losing a little money on one client from time to time. This is often referred to as “The customer is always right.”
6. Social media: take advantage of online networking
The internet has made social and business networking easier for people. With social networks, a businessman in Canada can easily network with a businessman in Asia and start a business transaction. Because there are many types of social network, it is important for businesses to choose the right kinds of social networks to utilize.
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How can Social Networking help your business ?
Since the Social Networking websites constantly receiving so many visitors and each of them specifies their own online profile, various strategies are being developed to take advantage of the public profile information and utilize it for better targeting the prospects. From a strategic perspective, there are multiple ways in which the Social Networks are used by business today. Some of them are:
•Increase qualified website traffic
•Manage communication with the prospects, customers and business partners
•Promote special offers and/or events
•Monitor and/or Manage online reputation
•Improve brand and product/service awareness
•Etc.
What should you do to take advantage of the power of Social Networking ?
Each business has a specific approach when it comes to new technology. Some feel venturous and try to take advantage of it as quickly as possible, even though they are aware that sometimes they may waste time, energy and money through this exercise. Some others are more cautious and wait for the technology to be proven before even taking it into consideration. At present, Social Networking for businesses is somewhat in that phase and there is no good or bad way of going about it. What is clear though is that, whomever started utilizing the Social Media Marketing strategies is already seeing a Return on Investment.
So, do not hesitate to Contact Us today and we will help you identify the strategy that is most appropriate to your business
7. Self-development:
Be determined, get support and develop your soft skills.
As long as you are still alive, you are capable of changing and growing. You can do anything you want to do, be
anything you want to be. Listen to some positive thoughts on how to continue your self development and then apply them in your own life.
Empowering Lifelong Self-Development
Marisol Diaz is an experienced workshop presenter, specialized information publisher, and a SOHO specialist. She also has been writing on Canada settlement and immigration law since 2006. contact her @ hinenisyndicator@gmail.com. You can improve your Canada job search through the Canadian database for Int’l Employers here , an informational services run by Hineni Media
Note and disclaimer: No attorney/client relationship is formed through the submission or viewing of this article. This article is not intended as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed attorney. The facts of every case are different and individualized advice should be sought from an attorney before proceeding with any case.
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