When you need a diagnosis and help with what to do if your company is having trouble, you can seek the help of a CA firm to set your small business in the right direction. Accountants work hard at HMA to help with financial planning, investment purchases, budgeting, succession planning and so much more. Anything that might affect your finances can be discussed and planned with your HMA chartered account.

It is important to begin working with a CA before a major overhaul is necessary. It is also important to find out which employees are not able to survive without that cash. You need to talk with your customers so that you can try to mend any foul thoughts they may have about your company so that you can keep your relationship strong with them. It might be tempting to use your tax remittances to help you with your short-term money situation, but you must resist as best as possible.

When restructuring your small business to help weather the storm before tragedy happens, it is important to work with your HMA accountant now rather than later.

It is important to do research before to make sure that the choices you make for your business and foreign markets will be a good one. Understand the currency, payment risks and the country in which you plan to expand your business to. Some foreign suppliers and buyers have been forced to change their guarantees of credit that is required to the completion of transactions.

When choosing your bank, you also need to do your research and proceed with caution. Some banks do not do business in other countries and this may make financial transactions difficult.

Prepare for the worst case scenario. There are many financial risks that a small business takes when they export business to another country. You need to make sure that you understand the economy, the political side as well as how they are always changing so that you can make sure that country is the right choice for you and your business.

Make sure you read through import contracts. Importing into Canada has many risks to small businesses and with the help of a good bank; you can get help with shipping guarantees, documentary collections, import letters of credit, and much more.

Now that you’re expanding, it is important to make sure that you still keep up with your existing business relationships as well.

More than half of all business owners in Canada believe that 2012 will end in a positive light. 13% of those people believe that 2012 will be their best year to date!  65% of small business owners in Canada gave their company a performance rating of a B or higher, this means that they are very optimistic of their business this year.

Many business owners have had to face barriers like working long hours, recruiting and hiring employees that will help your business succeed rather than make it more difficult to do so, cash flow management, and the need for funding, have all gotten in the way of small business owners’ success. In spite of these barriers, business owners believe that they will have a much better year this year.

With the outlook of small business owners and local business owners, you can be sure that this year will be much more profitable than years past. Canada can feel optimistic in this increase in profitability and so much more this year because consumers are realizing that small business owners are more like them and are much more willing to purchase from them to help their business rather than paying a large corporation and a millionaire’s salary.

The recession can actually help small businesses because when consumers purchase goods or services, they are much more likely to purchase from small business owners rather than large rich corporations. When consumers are purchasing more from small business than large businesses, you, the small business owner, will enjoy much more profit and you will also enjoy a larger customer base as well.

When hiring, it is important to hire only those employees who will help your business grow. Some employees, who show up late to work, require more supervision than others, and those who ask for too much money in salary can be thought of as a bad fit for your company. These employees will bring your company down, cost you more and counteract the optimistic outlook of small businesses excelling in today’s economy.

When the economy is bad, this is the best time for employers to locate excellent talent. You will find that people are willing to work for less with fewer benefits just so that they can actually have a job. This doesn’t mean that you should give them less, but you will find that your employees will be grateful and, in return, you will reap the benefits of having a strong team to help you grow your small business in this economy!

For the employer; there are a few changes that are most important to you:

• Contributors can receive their CPP without work interruption
• If you have an employee under the age of 65 who is receiving their CPP, you and your employee still have to make contributions to that CPP
• If you have an employee that is over the age of 65 but less than 70 and is receiving a CPP, that employee gets to choose whether or not to contribute and you will have to contribute if they so decide.
• The CPP contribution rate is currently 9.9%. This rate will stay the same for many years.

If you are not fully educated on what you need to do with the new Canada Pension Plan changes, you need to make sure that, as a small business owner, you educate yourself or work with an HMA chartered accountant to make sure that you fully understand what you need to do, what your employees need to do and the recent changes to the pension plan. There are many things that have changed and some that need to be implemented as of the beginning of 2012.  If you haven’t begun to implement these changes, talk to your HMA accountant immediately!

Above-inflation salary increases are expected to remain the same in Canada, in Europe, they are still steadily declining. The US is expected to continue to increase which helps Canada as well because they are close by and you can expect to see much more spending from Americans in Canada. The overall global increase of salaries is steadily increasing as well.

In real estate and construction, Canada, and the entire world, we have seen a decrease in optimism and will likely see this continue to decrease. For large real estate projects you will find that there is not much interest in this right now although many buyers will find that it is not difficult to get financing.

In manufacturing and distribution you’ll find that in Canada we are expected to over exceed the US in profitability, revenue, selling prices, investment and machinery in plants, employment, R&D, and new building investments. The US should continue to excel in exports, but not by much.

In the mining field, Canada is should continue to do the same as last year. Many expect the mining sector to increase and have an optimistic result in the next year.

In transportation and trucking, Canada, again, is doing much better than the world as a whole. With a steady rise in profits, revenues, employment and work available, this seems to be booming in Canada and does not seem to have a decline in sight.

Small businesses, local businesses, and large businesses alike can all expect to do well this year, while not booming in cash and profits, they can expect to stay afloat while Europe continues to decline.

This is a very common question by business managers. And it is an important question to answer.

The simple answer is: You have a cashflow problem. Finding what is causing that cashflow problem may be a little more complicated. Usually, a cashflow problem is a result of a combination of two different issues: Slow collection of receivables and short payment terms on your payables.

Besides being a very stressful situation, for a business manager or owner, a cashflow problem can have a crippling effect on a business. If you can’t pay your bills on time, you end up being assessed finance charges and late fees. In addition, this can hinder your ability to open accounts with new vendors or to increase your credit limits with your existing vendors. It becomes a vicious cycle, that can end up in disaster. Taking charge of the situation needs to be done sooner, rather than later.

The best place to start is the cash in-flow. Get your bills out to your customers as soon as the job is completed. If there are disputed items, or small items left to complete, don’t allow that to keep you from billing for what has been successfully completed. Encourage payment by credit card. The credit card fees can easily be offset by the value of getting the cash into your bank account quicker.

Don’t neglect the out-flow of the cash, though. Try to negotiate longer payment terms with your vendors before the money gets tight. Make sure you establish a good line of credit with your bank BEFORE you need it. It will be much harder to get when you’re feeling the pinch.

Don’t let poor cash management drag you down the road to financial disaster. Take hold of the reins and you’ll keep your organization headed in the direction it was intended to go.

Unfortunately, finding the right person to fill that position can be a time consuming process. Providing the space and additional overhead to cover the costs of the position, may seem hard to justify as well. You may feel like you could benefit from having such a person on staff, but you aren’t quite at the place where you are ready to make the commitment to another staff position. HMACA  has seen many companies in this position. That is exactly why we created our ‘Virtual CFO Service’.

First, what is a ‘Virtual CFO’? A virtual CFO is a system in which our CA firm would provide you with all the services you would expect to get from hiring an individual to fill a CFO position in your company. But instead of having one individual sitting in an office at your location, the staff at HMA provides those same services.

We put together the financial reports that will keep you up to date on what is going on in your business. We oversee your accounting processes to make sure that they are operating smoothly and efficiently.

If this sounds like a solution you might be interested in, we would be happy to discuss how our Virtual CFO services could make a positive impact on your company.

How you handle your billing process determines how long it takes you to turn your sales into cash in the bank. The slower you on collecting funds from your customers, the slower you will be in paying your own bills. It can become a vicious cycle that can easily spiral out of control.

An easy way to understand how your uncollected receivables cost you money, is to think of in the terms of borrowing money to your customers. The longer it takes you to collect on your receivables, the more credit it requires you to use. Having $100,000.00 receivable on the books for 30 days is the same as taking out a loan for $100,000 and handing the money to your customer interest free. Meanwhile you have to pay the interest on the $100,000 you borrowed, plus you can’t use that $100,000 to pay for any of your costs, so you may end up with additional finance charges for those 30 days.

Getting your bills out faster and collected faster can save you money and help you establish good credit with your own creditors. You’re in business to make a profit. Allowing your receivable collections to get out of hand can cost you profit and the ability to get the credit you need to keep your business going.