Budget 2009: Canada's Federal Budget

Canada's federal budget for 2009 was tabled on January 27, 2009 at 4:00 pm EST by Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty in the House of Commons. Prior to the tabling of Budget 2009, the Department of Finance released a document in December 2008 called "Fiscal Stimulus: Budget 2009 Consultations" which provided "background for a discussion on potential initiatives to stimulate Canada's economy".

The main Department of Finance website has a link called Budgets where you can link to federal budgets back to 1995. Visit Budget 2009 for the new budget in HTML and PDF format as well as video clips, themes, the budget in brief and a link to the Throne Speech.

Small Business Opportunities for 2009

With 2008 coming to a close, the new year offers a fresh start for those interested in starting up their own business. Here are a couple of links to get you thinking about new opportunities for 2009:

About.com:Small Business: Canada includes its annual "Best Business Opportunities 2009". For last year's list, see "Best Business Opportunities 2008". Some other useful links from this site include "Best Small Business Ideas for Businesses That Will Prosper in Hard Times" and "Top Ten Home Business Opportunities"

Check out the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)'s website for small business support and information. This website currently features the December 2008 Business Barometer: Results of December 2008 Survey on SME Business Expectations by Ted Mallett, VP Research & Chief Economist. The full report features the most optimistic businesses (health and personal care retailers, accountants, computer consulting, fast food restaurants) and most pessimistic businesses as well as how businesses are faring province by province and sector by sector, business influences and employment, wage and pricing plans.

From MSN Money's Investing and StartupNation, the article from Dec.8, 2008 called "Beating a Bad Economy -- From Home" discusses the increasing number of startups and includes StartupNation's Home-Based 100, a ranking of top entrepreneurs.

The Credit Crunch and Canadian Small Business

Uncertain economic times such as what we’re experiencing right now pose challenges to small business owners when it comes time to find financing. An October 14, 2008 article on the Financial Post’s Small Business page called “Pessimism in the Wake of Credit Crunch” written by Eric Beauchesne discusses the findings of a Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) survey which noted that “credit concerns have accelerated since early September, and the number of businesses reporting problems accessing bank financing has risen 25% in early October from 18% a month earlier”.

Notes Kristine Owram from the Canadian Press in an article published on September 17/08 in the Money section of Canoe.ca called "Credit Crunch Affecting Small Cdn Companies", “They (sic small businesses) have less options, and the less options you have the more expensive your funding is going to be…It just shows how this credit crisis is pretty profound.”

Another of Eric Beauchesne’s articles appeared in the Edmonton Journal on October 21/08 called “Hit by Credit Crunch, Small Firms Remain Resilient”. He indicates that the bad news is that small companies will be hit hard by the credit crunch and will not be able to escape the Canadian economic slump; the good news though is that small companies “have held up better than the economy” and he predicts that they “will be the first to rebound once the recovery gets underway next year”. He notes that the hardest hit businesses are those that operate in or serve manufacturing but that ones in the personal service sector are still doing well.

The CFIB’s Business Barometer, which is normally published monthly, is currently tracking the small business outlook on a weekly basis. Update #4 dated October 30, 2008 indicates that the bad news in international markets has dimmed operating plans for many small businesses. Check the site weekly until November 10, 2008.

As the credit squeeze continues, how and where can you get financing aside from banks and credit unions?

About.com’s Small Business Canada page offers insight and alternatives. It includes links to a variety of organizations including the Canada Small Business Financing Program and Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) along with a slew of non-profits and organizations providing grants and loans. An informative section of the site on community investment funds is called “Where to Get a Small Business Loan When the Banks Turn You Down”.

(Angel investors might help too (see my posts dated May 6 and April 23 called “More on Angel Investors” and “Angel Investors: An Alternative Source of Financing for Small Business”.)

Check out D&B Canada for a variety of commercial credit risk management tools to help you survive the credit crunch including DNBi which allows credit checking and monitoring changes to companies’ key customers.

Crisis Management for Small Business

As Canada’s Maple Leaf Foods makes its way through managing a food safety crisis, all business owners should give thought to their business’ crisis management plan. Crisis management can be defined as “a business plan of action that is implemented quickly when a negative situation occurs” (From “Crisis Management" in Encyclopedia of Small Business in enote.com). This “negative situation” could take many forms: natural disasters, embezzlement, product defects/recalls, workplace accidents/sabotage, computer viruses, etc. According to Gartner Group and quoted in the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ document called “Basic Emergency Management Guidelines”, “43% of businesses that experience a major crisis never reopen”, and “a further 20% close within 2 years”. Good planning could help you minimize the negative impacts of a crisis.

Small Business Crisis Management

The Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (CCEP) devotes a page to small business preparedness, including links to small business disaster management resources. The website includes free templates for downloading, like a business continuity plan and a crisis communications plan. Additionally, the CCEP produces a quarterly publication called Disaster Management Canada; back issues are available on the site in pdf format.

The British website, Business Link, which offers “practical advice for business” also offers a downloadable guide to business continuity management and a guide to developing a business continuity plan.

You can find even find background information on crisis management including models and theories, success stories, lessons learned and a variety of references, further reading and external links worth exploring on Wikipedia's crisis management page.

For further reading, don’t forget to visit your local public library to check out business planning and crisis management materials for free. A search of the term “crisis management” on the Oakville Public Library’s catalogue reveals several titles worth exploring, like one written by Ian Mitroff, a leader in business crises writing, called “Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster”.

Save Money on Business Travel

Do high gas prices and airfares have you wondering how or if you’ll get that next sale or be able to meet with a supplier? The websites below might be able to help you find the cheapest airfare, accommodations or gas wherever you are.

Use Expedia.ca or Travelocity.ca to book your flight, hotel, car, activities, cruises and prepackaged vacations. In Expedia, use the Business tab for business travel deals and the use of the Travel Arranger. When searching for a hotel, don’t forget to click on the “Narrow Your Search” link beside “Hotel Amenities” to find accommodations that include things like business services (e.g. faxing, photocopying), courtesy breakfast, courtesy newspaper, high-speed internet, and room service.

Yapta.com bills itself as “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant”. It considers itself to be “the first travel shopping Web site that integrates customized flight search results with the ability to track airfare prices and create flight-specific savings alerts in a single click”. Airfare prices from more than 30 U.S. and international (yes, it has Canadian) carriers may be checked. To try it, simply type in where and when you want to go; it checks for the closest match to your preferred departure times and airlines, lowest price, fewest stops, and shortest duration but you also get to see all matches.

Check out GasBuddy.com if you are looking to find the cheapest place to buy gas in North America. Motorists provide the prices for the site. (If you live or are traveling in Ontario, you can go directly to its OntarioGasPrices.com website.)

SmartMoney.com’s Travel Guide includes a section on business travel (e.g. “Biz Travel Secrets”), city guides and related money-saving travel articles and videoclips.

While not devoted to business travel, web 2.0 travel tools is a blog “devoted to creating a list of web 2.0 websites and webtools that are, in some way, related to Travel and Tourism”.

Travel Agents and Corporate Discounts

Don’t forget about going to a travel agent because not all the best deals are available online. Travel agents negotiate volume discounts and are able to pass on these savings to their clients. Also, set up corporate accounts and join frequent guest programs with hotel chains to receive discounts. When booking travel, you and your employees should always ask for a corporate travel discount.

Save Travel Money with Online Desktop Sharing Tools

Do you really need to travel to meet with prospective clients, suppliers or colleagues? Consider using online communication tools that might help you save precious money and time; many are free or low-cost. Here’s a link back to a recent blog post that I wrote in April 2008 called “Online Desktop Sharing for Small Business”.

Technology for Small Business

Technology should allow you to operate your small business more efficiently and, therefore, more economically, right? Just how do you find your way around the myriad technologies? Of course, you can read Wired or PC Magazine, but there are some websites dedicated to helping small business understand technology better. Below you'll find some sites that can aid you in your search to find out what’s new, what’s good and what’s inexpensive:

The Globe and Mail: Special Report – Technology for Small Business - This special report from The Globe and Mail includes articles on the benefits of cloud computing services (web-based storage), small business servers for mobile access, inventory control systems, online customer relationship management (CRM) applications, internet telephony, biometrics, social networking sites, computer file backup devices, and online order tracking.

Backbone Magazine: This Canadian magazine’s aim is to “provide business people with a tangible tool to enhance the way they do business in Canada’s New Economy”. Notable contributors to the magazine include Don Tapscott and David Ticoll. The website includes: feature articles, Backblog (tech and business blog), press releases, Sync (tech and gadgets blog), Gadget of the Week (Canadian), Gadget of the Week (Japanese), lists of top tech companies, events calendar, and tech book reviews.

BusinessWeek’s Technology section has featured columns, computer reviews, digital entertainment, computer management, featured product reviews from cnet.com.

SmallBusinessComputing.com: Billed as the "Online Guide to Small-Business Technology", this site offers tips, product announcements, q&a on hardware and equipment, Excellence in Technology awards, online marketing tips, product watch, etc.

Technology for Business $ake: Helping you Make Sense (and $$$) out of Technology http://www.businesstechnologyradio.com/- Brent Leary hosts a radio program with podcasts of all shows on the site to help small business people make sense out of technology and use it to build their businesses.

smallbiztechnology.com promotes itself as a site for “tech insight & news for small business”. You’ll find news, articles, discussion boards, resources and events.

Business Investment and Economic Activity in Halton for Q1 2008

The Halton Region Business Development Centre has just released its first quarter 2008 report on business investment and economic activity in Halton. Included in the report are highlights for the region from the Statistics Canada 2006 census, investment highlights, key economic indicators, development activities, real estate market and residential overviews, and small business facts. View the full report called Q1 2008 Business Development Report.

Small Business Indicators for Halton Region

The following is notable for small business from the report’s economic indicators section (% change Q1 2007 to Q1 2008):

1. Total population for the region grew by 3%
2. Employment rate grew 3.4%; unemployment fell compared to the Toronto CMA by 1.6%
3. Number of businesses fell by 1%
4. Number of business bankruptcies increased by 13.8% (from 29 in 2007 to 33 in 2008)
5. Average household income rose by 2.3% to $113,100
6. Average housing prices rose by 25.9%
7. Speculative office construction was strong in Burlington and Oakville; industrial warehousing and distribution facilities grew in Milton
8. Total housing starts were up 46.3% with Milton showing an unprecedented 91.1%
9. 22% of all private sector enterprises employed 1 to 4 employees and 88% of all private sector enterprises had fewer than 10 employees; the total number of private sector enterprises in Halton was 37,065, mostly in Burlington and Oakville
10. The largest number of businesses in Halton were involved in the following industries: Professional Services - 20%, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate – 14.7%, Wholesale/Retail – 14.5%, Business Support Services – 10.2%, Construction/Utilities – 10%