Hi, I’m working with tabby & we’re new! We’re working with 3 restaurants so far and I’m looking to speak with more owners or managers in the industry. We’re focused on enhancing the customer experience and we found a niche unique way. I’d love input.

Hi all,

I'm looking for recommendations for banks that have lower inward remittance fees and outward wire fees without a commitment on the no of wires.

The inward remittance charge from my bank is $17 and outward wire for global $80 but can go as low as $20 per transaction with a monthly commitment of the number of wires.

The actual cost of a MT103/SWIFT is $0.01 to $0.10 with certain banks. Adding on other charges puts the fee at $1-$5.

Many countries charge $1-$5 for outward remittance and inward remittance is free due to a larger network or whatever their reason is and I'm considering opening accounts overseas for international clients cause I feel like the banks in Canada are killing small businesses with their unjustified fees - sorry about the rant, I'm just frustrated talking to our banks.

Before I do that, are there any references with Canadian financial institutions that are small business friendly?

Thanks in advance.

One thing I've been thinking about as businesses grow is how some tasks are easy to hand over, while others seem to stay with the same person.

Not necessarily because they're difficult.

Sometimes it's because there are several little decisions involved, or because the person doing it already knows all the details.

Eventually, that can make it harder to delegate or take time away from the business.

Are there any tasks in your business that you've found surprisingly difficult to hand off?

What made them difficult the number of steps, the judgement involved, missing information, or something else?

I’m an entrepreneur for custom made leather jackets and accessories. Which areas in Toronto can I visit to build and grow my business?

As a Canadian, i’s say support the small businesses, especially the artisanal type of businesses and independent brands, or email local made stuff like honey and Canadian Maple syrup and other stuff that you can also benefit from, like handmade organic soaps and shampoo etc. you’re helping a small business that boosts economy while you’re making better choices in what you use and consume.

I regularly import materials for my business. Today for the first time we saw an entry on our CARM Portal - a charge towards something called a “Cost Recovery Program” - no explanation included.
My broker says they’ve never heard of it. A Goggle search did bring up some information but I’m wondering if anyone has better insight. Thank you.

I’ve been comparing a few no-fee chequing accounts lately and I’m surprised how similar most of them are for basic banking. I mainly care about e-Transfers, ATM access, the app and not having to keep a minimum balance. I came across Tangerine, Simplii, EQ Bank and a few credit unions. Innovation Federal Credit Union was one I hadn’t looked at before.
For those using a no-fee account, which one did you go with?

Anything you didn’t realize you were giving up until after switching from a traditional bank?

So that small business carbon rebate you may have been expecting? It's not coming back after this year.

As of March 26 2026, the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses is being eliminated going forward. The government is still returning a portion of fuel charge proceeds from 2019 through 2024, so there's some money in the pipeline, but the program itself is done. No more accruing, no future payments beyond what's already owed from prior years.

What's weird is how this landed. A lot of business owners never even knew the rebate existed until the first payment showed up, and now it's being cancelled before most people figured out whether they were getting the right amount. The eligibility was always a bit opaque, tied to having employees in a province where the federal fuel charge applied, with payment amounts varying by province and employee count.

If you received payments and were counting on them continuing, that's not happening. If you never received anything and thought you should have, the window to sort that out is shrinking. The CRA is supposed to be issuing final payments automatically based on tax filings, but "automatically" and "correctly" aren't always the same thing.

This is one of those situations where you might be owed something you didn't know existed, or you might have been underpaid without any obvious way to check. Binder's built for exactly this kind of thing, helping you figure out what documentation you've got, what the gap might be, and what your options are if the numbers don't add up.

Anyway, if you're a small business owner in a province where the federal backstop applied, might be worth confirming you got what you were entitled to before the whole thing winds down for good.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently setting up a managed back-office service specifically for trade and service business owners (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing) running 2 to 6 trucks.

From talking to contractors, the biggest daily headache isn't always finding jobs—it’s the admin drag that ruins your evenings:

Getting home after a full day in the field only to spend 2 hours typing up invoices in QuickBooks/Jobber.

Missing inbound emergency calls because you're on a ladder or under a sink, letting potential jobs roll to voicemail.

Having thousands of dollars sitting in 30+ day unpaid invoices simply because you don't have time to politely follow up.

What we are building:

We operate a supervised physical operations facility where we train dedicated assistants on trade software (Jobber, Housecall Pro, QuickBooks).

Instead of an unmanaged virtual assistant or a generic answering service, we provide an extension desk that:

Pushes same-day invoices within 24 hours of a job being marked complete.

Runs a polite 3-step payment follow-up cadence (SMS, email, courteous phone call) to collect overdue receivables.

Catches 3-ring overflow calls with a 90-second structured intake script so emergency leads get booked directly into your CRM instead of hitting voicemail.

Has on-site shadow backup, so if your primary assistant is ever out sick, your operations don’t pause.

Why I'm posting here:

We have our initial facility and systems set up and are looking for 2 trade business owners who are currently drowning in admin and want to test-drive this for 7 days.

We will connect directly to your CRM via secure guest access, audit your unbilled jobs, run the payment follow-up cadence to collect overdue cash, and catch your overflow calls for a week.

If you’re running 2+ trucks and want to clear your administrative backlog and get your evenings back, leave a comment or send me a DM. I'd love to show you the setup, get your honest feedback, and see if we can take the busywork off your plate.

We've been doing business for 10+ years. A few years ago our trucking business stalled & We started looking for another business to acquire. Over 2 years, we came across several businesses we liked. We even put offers on few. But the deals didn't happen. One of the biggest problems kept happening? The numbers, Businesses were operating, making sales, and serving customers — but when it came time for financing and due diligence, the bookkeeping and financial records weren't complete enough to clearly prove the value of the business to the financing institutions. That experience taught me something, bookkeeping isn't just paperwork. It's the backbone of the business.
Your numbers tell your story. So I started building RetailFlow, A simple POS system designed to help small businesses keep track of sales, inventory, expenses, profits, customers, bank reconciliation, financial numbers & financial paperwork(ready for your accountant) in one place. Because one day you might want to grow your business, get financing, bring in a partner, or even sell it.
& when that day comes your numbers should speak for you. #SmallBusiness #POS #Bookkeeping #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #ERP

I have an industry-specific software/database idea, but zero IT experience. I'm good with the industry and sales, but need someone to partner with who is good with data manipulation, developing reports, and creating a compliance framework between multiple data formats.

Ideally with some GIS integration.

The product will have a limited market with deep pockets, and I envision a billing model of startup plus licensing across multiple users.

We would be bootlegging from nothing, hoping to set an industry standard in an empty space.

If this sounds interesting, let me know.

I'm a full-stack developer with around 3 years of professional experience, and I'm currently short about $500–$600 for rent this month.

I'm trying to figure out the quickest realistic way to turn the skills I already have into some income rather than spending weeks learning something new.

I can work on things like website fixes, small features, API integrations, landing pages, internal tools, and other software tasks. The technical side isn't really my concern. Finding small businesses that actually need this kind of work is the part I'm struggling with.

For Canadian small business owners here, I'm curious:

If you needed a developer for a small, annoying technical problem, where would you actually look?

Would you use a local Facebook group, Reddit, a freelancer platform, a local agency, a referral, or something else?

I'm specifically interested in small jobs that can be completed quickly, rather than large website projects.

I'd appreciate hearing what has actually worked for you when finding people to handle small one-off jobs.

Hi, I’m Justin. Me and my friend started a business months ago. The concept of the business is to help small businesses to get more clients which is ironic since we only had one for now. We basically do graphic design for example a logo, a website / video editing / social medias management. The problem isn’t the quality of our work. People just seem to not trust a new business. We are offering a free service which can be anything… a logo… a poster for your business… a business card… really anything we offer. All we need in return is for you to promote our business to people you know that might need our services. Please dm me if you’re interested.
Thank you 🙏

Hey everyone,

I've been in marketing for about 5/6 years now, and I've managed to save up some money... I'm at a point where I really want to step away from traditional agency/client work and start something of my own here in Canada.

I'm torn between two completely different directions and could use some perspective from entrepreneurs or business owners who have been down this road:

• Option A (Partner with someone): Find a skilled local service provider (like a home service business owner: plumbers, roofers, trades, etc.) who is great at their craft and team up to build something together...
• Option B: Launching something completely on my own from scratch. I was specifically looking into solar panel sales/installation or event decor or a similar high-ticket service model, using my savings as runway for ads and setup.

Note that I already have a full-time job and I will start this as a side hustle...

thermal paper receipts fade. a receipt from a side hustle purchase today could matter to the CRA in 2031, and nobody's paper stays legible that long.

CRA guidance says keep business records for six years from the end of the relevant tax year. most people hear "keep your receipts" and shove them in a shoebox. here's what actually bites you:

- for purchases over $500, CRA wants vendor name, business address, and GST/HST number, not just a total. a faded strip with an amount and nothing else doesn't count as documentation
- if you claim input tax credits, the GST/HST number on the receipt needs to be valid at time of purchase. you need that number documented, not assumed from memory
- cross-provincial purchases can trigger PST self-assessment. a receipt you lost means you can't prove what province the purchase was in, which means you can't prove you handled the tax correctly
- six years starts from the end of the tax year, not the receipt date. a december receipt on your 2025 return could be in scope until 2031 or later
- your accountant can't reconstruct a receipt you don't have. they can reclassify and summarize, but they can't fabricate documentation that CRA will accept

the freelancers i've talked to who sleep fine during tax season aren't running perfect bookkeeping systems. they built one habit: capture the receipt once, correctly, the day it lands. then they never think about it again. the ones who panic in april are still relying on paper and memory.

Currently with Wagepoint. I was mostly happy with them until they rolled out their 2.0 version.
Ran into a problem today and there is only email support, and 7 hours later I am still waiting to hear back. I tried calling support but it’s just an AI chatbot on the phone that wouldn’t let me talk to a person.
I talked to Payworks today and they seem good, but it’s a $300 setup fee. Any other services people recommend for less than 5 employees?
I’m tempted to do it manually with the CRA payroll calculator, but it would take much more time than using a service.

I watched a video recently about a guy who puts a few non-competing local businesses on one big postcard, then everyone splits the printing and mailing cost.

Basically it would be like 5 or 6 businesses, one per category. So maybe an accountant, lawyer, insurance broker, photographer, web developer etc. Everyone gets their own section of the mailer and it gets sent out to a few thousand local businesses.

Im thinking about trying a B2B version of this in my area. Maybe send around 5,000 through Canada Post and split the actual cost between everyone. Not really trying to make money selling the ad spots, more just make the mailing more affordable for all of us.

Has anyone here actually tried something like this in Canada?

Did it get any calls or leads? Did the other businesses want to do another mailing after? Also curious how you tracked which ad actually got results.

Would also like to hear from anyone who tried it and got basically nothing lol. Just trying to figure out if this is worth testing or if these shared mailers mostly end up going straight into the recycling.

I'm a technical founder in Toronto. The product — AI accounting software for Canadian businesses that have outgrown their current bookkeeping setup; the AI does the work, your team approves it, everything's logged (staying quiet on the name and deeper specifics while in stealth) — is coming along fine. What's humbled me is everything else: finding the right first customers, onboarding them properly, partnerships, follow-up — a completely different craft from shipping code, and I know my limits.

So, two honest asks for this community:

1. Those of you who run businesses with a partner — how did you actually find the person who runs the side you don't? Did you formalize things before there was money, and what do you wish you'd put in writing earlier?

2. If you happen to be that person — somewhere in Canada, love selling to and onboarding small and mid-size businesses or the accounting firms that serve them, want in early on something with real upside — I'd genuinely like to hear from you. Full transparency: no salary until there are paying customers; what's offered instead is a written agreement — founding-team seat when the company incorporates, equity vesting from day one plus performance equity earned through sales. Happy to share everything under NDA.

I'll take answers to #1 gratefully even if #2 finds nobody.

Hi everyone! I’m doing a little market research for a project I have in mind for my business and would love to get some input from people 30+.

Between TikTok and YouTube, which one do you personally use more?

And from what you see around you: coworkers, employees, friends, etc. Which platform seems to get more use?

Not promoting anything, just genuinely trying to understand where people 30+ are spending more of their time before I move forward with the idea.

Thanks!