
		Start a business

		Acquisition

		Growth

		International markets

		eBusiness initiatives

		Quality standards

Return to my starting a business project

Step 5 - First year

Growing your business
Day-to-day operations will take up a great deal of your time, but as the owner of a small business, you must also have to manage your company's growth. Here are some tools that can help:

Strategis' comprehensive Steps to Competitiveness is a great place to start, as it covers all the basics of managing a service business, together with information, links and self-diagnostic tools.
To find out how you're doing in comparison to others in your industry, you'll want to use financial ratios (for more info, read this article). Check out Strategis' Performance Plus site and try BDC's financial ratio calculator. For information on other businesses, you may want to try Dun & Bradstreet reports.
Looking for a consultant? BDC Consulting has over 500 across Canada covering virtually all business domains; as well, check out the Canadian Management Network.
Looking for a mentor? You may consider investing in BDC's Management Coaching program or using online resources such as e-mentoring.com or mentors.ca.
Looking for government programs? Try searching CBSC's Business Information System (BIS).

Employees
As your company grows, you may need to hire employees. For an introduction to your obligations as an employer, try CBSC's Becoming an Employer. For an overview of the human management processes, try this online toolkit.

You can calculate payroll deductions with this tool.
Check out this BDC article on recruiting.
If you want to post a job, try the Canada-wide job bank offered by HRDC, or private firms such as monster.ca, workopolis.com, jobboom.com, jobshark.ca or CareerBeacon.com.
Human Resources Management Canada is a government site with an excellent information bank and info about assistance programs.
Why not hire a student? Career Edge is a national program of student internships, offering significant subsidies.
If you need a complete and customized HR plan (for example, to handle rapid growth), check out BDC Consulting's HR Management solution.

Perfect your e-business strategy
If you have a business, you should consider creating a website. But a website can be one simple page with your contact information, or a secure commerce-enabled database-driven site. Here are some tools that can help you explore e-business.

BDC's online e-business diagnostic tools can help answer 2 important preliminary questions: Are you ready for e-business? Is e-business relevant to your line of business?
BDC's e-business solution can help you plan a complete e-business strategy.
For a quick introduction, read this article which offers a more in-depth look at e-commerce.
Try this article about e-commerce and exporting, or this article for more on building a website that means business.

Join a business association

Networking is an essential part of successful entrepreneurship. There are many different types from the general Canadian Chamber of Commerce or Canadian Federation of Independent Business to more specific ones such as the Canadian Technology Network.
You will probably want to check out your local business associations, too - your municipality may have a list online.


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