Mmm… Doughnuts: Newsletter January 22, 2021

Hello All,

So….yesterday I was craving doughnuts ( as one does :)) I went to my favourite delivery app and typed in doughnuts to see available options. One of the first search results was for a place with “desserts” in the title. Despite seeing that they generally had good reviews, I didn’t even bother to click on them. I wanted a place that made the best doughnuts and I wasn’t sure “desserts” was the place to go. It just seemed too broad.

The reason I bring this up I’ve been thinking a lot about finding your niche over the past couple of months both as it applies to my own business and in conversations with clients. When starting our businesses many of us naturally want as large a market as possible as logically this would increase the number of potential customers. The problem with this approach is that there are very few products or services out there without competitors. Consequently, we have to find a way to differentiate ourselves in a crowded marketplace. One of the best ways to do this is by finding your area of strength and specialization, which can be extremely difficult but potentially something to strive towards. If anyone has any niching stories, I would love to hear them.

Latest Blog Post: What Should You Think About When Deciding your Compensation Mix

In this post I look at some of the factors to take into consideration when deciding whether to take salary or dividends. I already have a post on salary vs dividends, but this one looks at it a bit differently and presents different ways in which you can pay yourself. It also going to be one of the chapters in a guide that I am currently writing about dividends (more on that below)

Small Business Articles/Tips

Question - Extra Cash in Corp: I have some extra money building up in my company's bank account - are there guidelines on whether it is best to keep the money in the company vs taking it out?

Answer: Unless you need the funds for personal purposes, its better to keep the money in the corporation as this allows you to defer tax that you would pay on salary or dividends. You can then set up and invest through a corporate investment account. Further details on this on my investing strategies for small business blog posit

Tax Tip - PD27: Those of you with employees and who claimed or are eligible to claim the Temporary Wage Subsidy, should complete the PD27 form which is new for 2020. Details on the form can be found here. While there is no official deadline, its best to complete the form before or at the same time as when you file your T4s to avoid discrepancy notices that can take forever to sort out. There’s lots of information online about this and can be done directly through CRA My business account

QBO Tip - Receipts: The receipts function which can be found by going to the banking tab and then selecting receipts from the top of the page is useful for reducing data entry and also adds the receipt as an attachment to the transaction. It doesn’t work perfectly as not all receipts are scannable but it does save time. More on this here

Product Updates

Dividend Guide: I’m currently writing “A Complete Guide to Dividends for Small Business Owners” which I hope to have finished by the end of this week. My goal is to address questions as they relate to dividends and provide step by step instructions on preparing the forms both online and on paper. You can click here for more information and to get a discount code once the book is released. You can also let me know if you have any input as to what you would like to see in the guide.

Start Your Business: If you are planning to start a business or just need some guidance on your sole proprietorship, you can check out my ebook here. If you aren’t sure if this is right for you, don’t hesitate to email me with any questions.

That’s all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ronika

P.S. I apologize to anyone who receives this twice. I’m still working out the kinks in the subscriber list.