You’re a great employer! You’ve set up a benefits plan for your employees, but you may be exposed to unrealized liability. Many companies set up a benefits plan to protect their employees but is your employee benefits plan creating a liability for your company? Here are some potential situations that we come across that can potentially come back and blow … Read More
11 Essential Mental Health Coping Strategies for Entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur can be one of the most rewarding and liberating things you can do as a career. Equally valid, being an entrepreneur can be one of the most frustrating and emotional roles you can choose to make a living. Schools are great at teaching you how to succeed when starting a new business, but do these schools properly … Read More
How 6 Factors Will Help Your Business Survive and Thrive Through Succession Planning
For many entrepreneurs and business owners, their business represents their single largest asset. Depending upon the size of the business, it likely dwarfs the value of their home or other assets. Like selling your home, to attain the most significant selling price, you will have to invest some upfront time, money and energy into fetching the best asking price possible. … Read More
How Do You Ensure the Most Used Part of your Employee Benefit Plan Will Never Increase Again?
Employee Benefit Plans for small businesses are notorious for double-digit inflation. The threat of the unsustainable benefit plan is a fact that many small business owners face every year at renewal. Here’s a way to stop having that awkward renewal conversation with your benefits provider; make the most used portion of your benefit plan a fixed and predictable cost. This … Read More
Wake Up Parents; You Could Lose Your Child to Suicide
Last month I was invited to speak to a group of grade 7 and 8 parents about teen mental illness, what I’ve learned of our dealing with Madeline and what we were hoping to accomplish with The Maddie Project. We scheduled a date. I provided a summary of the content, and an agenda was sent out to all parents to … Read More
Do We Have a Responsibility to the Entrepreneurs of Today and Tomorrow?
Being an entrepreneur can be one of the most rewarding and liberating things you can do as a career. Equally valid, being an entrepreneur can be one of the most frustrating and emotional roles you can choose to make a living. Schools are great at teaching you how to succeed when starting a new business, but do these schools properly … Read More
Does the Entrepreneur’s Journey to Greatness Need to be so Damn Lonely?
Do you ever wish you could have an honest conversation with a fellow business owner without judgement? I’m talking a completely candid; no holes barred, these are my deepest and darkest fears kind of conversations. I’ve been doing this entrepreneur thing for 30 years, and over the duration, I’ve experienced many emotions: joy, frustration, pride, anxiety, depression, optimism, sadness, fear. … Read More
My Accidental 10-Year Journey to Discovering Emotional Intelligence
There’s something ironic about me writing about Emotional Intelligence. Those who knew me 15-20 years ago would probably accuse me of not even knowing the definition of Emotional Intelligence. They wouldn’t be far off the mark. Since then, a lot has happened, including several devastating life events that have impacted the person I am and how I look at the … Read More
How Do You Know if You are CRA’s Favourite Target?
No one wants to be in CRA’s cross-hairs. You may be an unsuspecting victim even if you’ve done nothing wrong. We’re not talking about people who are guilty of tax evasion or tax avoidance. Your only criteria may be your marital status. If you are single, divorced or widowed, then you may be CRA’s favourite and unsuspecting victim. If you … Read More