Small Business for Canadians Bundle For Dummies Business: Business Plans For Dummies & Bookkeeping For Dummies

Paul Tiffany, Steven D. Peterson, Nada Wagner, Lita Epstein, Cecile Laurin

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781118605028
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781118605158
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Get these two great books in one convenient ebook bundle!

The only book dedicated to helping Canadians write winning business plans, newly revised and updated

Packed with everything you need to get your business moving in the right direction—whether you're part of a large corporation or a one-person show— Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, Second Edition is the ultimate guide to building a better, more productive, and more profitable business. Accessible and comprehensive, the book walks you through every milestone in business planning, including creating a right-on mission statement; pinpointing the needs of your customers; scoping out the competition; simplifying all the financial stuff; staying on top of trends, and fostering a winning atmosphere for your staff.

Fully revised and updated, this new edition offers information anyone starting a business in Canada needs to know. Author and small-business expert Nada Wagner presents invaluable resources to help you write a plan, examines how government policies affect business, and looks at business trends unique to Canada. With inspiring—and cautionary—anecdotes about Canadian businesses, Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, Second Edition is a fun and informative read for any entrepreneur.

• Newly revised edition of the only book that helps Canadians write better business plans, loaded with all-new content
• Covers the key milestones in business planning at every stage
• Filled with anecdotes about real businesses to bring the concepts described vividly to life
• Includes a brand new sample business plan, complete with financial documents

An invaluable resource for entrepreneurs and business owners across the country, Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies, Second Edition is the definitive book on building a business plan, and creating a better business.

The fastest, easiest way for small business owners to master the art and science of bookkeeping

This updated and expanded second edition of Bookkeeping For Canadians For Dummies gets small business owners and managers up and running with the knowledge and skills you need to keep your books balanced, your finances in order, and the CRA off your back. From tracking transactions and keeping ledgers to producing balance sheets and year-end reports, you'll master all the important terms, procedures, forms, and processes more quickly and easily than you ever thought possible.

• Features approximately 25 percent new and updated content tailored for Canadians—the only Canada-specific guide to bookkeeping
• Includes clear and concise instructions on keeping the books, tracking transactions, recognizing assets and liabilities, and keeping ledgers and journals
• Packed with up-to-date tax information, including complete coverage of recent changes to the tax codes most important to small businesses
• Serves as an indispensable resource for small business owners who keep their own books, as well as those interested in a career as a bookkeeper
• Provides small business owners with highly-accessible, step-by-step guidance on creating professional financial statements and operating business accounts

Part I

Knowing Where You Want to Go

In this part . . .

No matter what task you plan to complete, from assembling book shelves to hooking up a home theatre, you may be tempted to pass over all the groundwork and sink your teeth right into the meat of the project. Fess up, the preliminaries seem bland and ho-hum. But for the really important things in life — and in business — preparation is everything. So, preparing to create your business plan ranks right up there in importance with each of the other major steps of actually creating a plan.

In this part, we take a big-picture view of a business plan. First, we lay out the blueprint for the plan. Then, we convince you of the importance of the plan, just in case you’re still undecided. We outline a planning process for you and review the major sections of a business plan. We look at how a vision for your company gives you something to aim for and a direction to take. We also point out why values and ethics are so important to your company and show you how you can make practical use of them in your planning. Finally, we look at how to establish a mission for your company as well as goals and objectives to fulfill that mission.

Chapter 1

Preparing to Do a Business Plan

In This Chapter

Getting your planning resources together

Figuring out who needs to work on the plan

Checking out what the written plan looks like

Planning is serious business. For many companies, a solid business plan is the difference between success and failure. Many people going into business for the first time want to rush right in, print business cards, hang up the sign, and start making money — a natural response for anyone excited about a new business idea. But taking a little extra time up front to prepare can pay off in many ways down the line, especially when it comes to writing a business plan. Face it, after your company is up and running, you won’t have all the time you need to devote to writing the major pieces of your plan.

Identifying Your Planning Resources

Having the right resources at the right time can make business planning easier and more successful. Fortunately, you can now find more useful and usable business-planning resources than ever before, from books and software to Internet websites and real, live experts. Of course, you may also find plenty of stuff that isn’t worth looking at — much less paying for. And you can’t always judge a book (or software program) by its cover.

As you begin to put together your business plan, you may discover that you need some additional tools — a book devoted to social media marketing, for example, or business-planning software that can help you create and maintain your written document.

Hitting the corner bookstore

Obviously, you already selected one of the best hands-on, business-planning books around. But okay, you can also find other useful business-planning books out there — particularly books that concentrate on specific areas, such as protecting intellectual property, marketing, or financial planning, and books that focus on particular kinds of businesses, such as nonprofits or sole proprietorships.

You can find out a lot about a book by reading through its table of contents. Also try dipping into the first chapter. If you’re browsing on the Web, booksellers such as Chapters.Indigo.ca often include an About the Book section, customer ratings and reviews, and experts’ recommendations directly on their websites. Readers’ reviews and ratings that you find online can also help steer you toward other particularly useful books. And remember to ask your colleagues, business advisers, or investors to list their favourite business books and resources.

The basic principles of business planning may be timeless, but certain subjects — Internet marketing, for example — change rapidly. A book that was published three years ago may already be ancient history. If you want to find timely information, such as details about tax considerations for a small business, be sure to check the book’s publication date.

For the timeliest info, turn to magazines, newspapers, and journals, or surf the Web to find online versions. They offer a terrific way to keep up on what’s happening in the world of business, in general — and your industry, in particular. The business media also provides an efficient way to routinely scan the business environment for trends or new developments that may affect your business plan. If you’re not sure what periodicals focus on your particular industry or your region, do a quick search on the Internet (see the following section for more details).

Surfing the Internet

Today, hundreds of websites offer information on business planning. You can access the information on some of these sites for free; other sites tease you with a sample of what they have to offer and then charge you for more details. In our experience, some of the freebies can be just as helpful as the subscription sites, so we suggest that you check first to see what’s free for the asking before you plunk down your hard-earned cash. In particular, the federal government offers masses of solid information, templates, and tools on planning, starting, and operating your own business through its Canada Business site (www.canadabusiness.ca) and its network of provincial and regional sites. Even the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has helpful planning tips, which you can find on the Web at www.cra-arc.gc.ca.

Internet hotspots for business-planning info

You can find a treasure trove of business-planning information and resources online. To help you sort through all the riches, we put together a list of popular sites that provide useful and reliable tips, tools, and examples — including dozens of real-life business plans:

www.canadabusiness.ca: The Canada Business site is far and away the best source of information about planning, funding, starting, and running a small business. You can find useful FAQs, as well as templates, examples, tools, and counselling help.

www.ic.gc.ca: Industry Canada’s website has a wealth of information. Check out the Programs and Services menu by subject and look for the Business Tools and Resources menu. The site offers a number of diagnostic and benchmarking tools, including useful financial figures comparing the performance of other SMEs. You’ll also find great sections like Intellectual Property and Innovation, Research, Science and Technology, and you can list your company or find competitors, suppliers, or potential partners in the comprehensive company directories.

www.statcan.ca: Statistics Canada is our nation’s statistical agency. It has the most current information, including statistics and data on population, economy, resources, industry, import/export activity, and special subject are...

Table of contents

• Small Business For Canadians Bundle For Dummies
• Contents
• Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Knowing Where You Want to Go
• Part II: Describing Your Marketplace
• Part III: Weighing Your Company's Prospects
• Part IV: Looking to the Future
• Part V: Putting Your Business Plan into Action
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Cheat Sheet
• Bookkeeping For Canadians For Dummies
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Basic Bookkeeping: Why You Need It
• Part II: Keeping a Paper or Electronic Trail
• Part III: Tracking Day-to-Day Business Operations with Your Books
• Part IV: Preparing the Books for Year's (Or Month's) End
• Part V: Reporting Results and Starting Over
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Glossary
• Cheat Sheet