Starting a Business - Ready to Take the First Steps

If you are ready to start a business, a useful starting point is the Business Start-Up Info-Guide. This document will go over the federal and provincial programs, services and regulations that exist for starting a business in Ontario.

Business Planning

Once you have decided to start a specific business, one of the first things to consider is your business plan. The Business Plan Guide will provide you with an overview of what a business plan can do for you. The Interactive Business Planner is a free online tool to assist you in developing a well-formatted businesses plan.

Industry Specific How-To Guides

The COBSC has produced a number of industry-specific "How-To Guides" that describe the steps involved in starting a specific type of business in Ontario.  These documents will also provide links to associations and related services for your industry.  For a list of these guides, please visit our Business Guides document.

The Business Start-up Assistant (BSA)

The Business Start-Up Assistant is a one-stop site to useful and authoritative information for launching a business in Canada. It combines start-up information from the federal, provincial and territorial governments, the community and many other sources.

Regulations

Depending on the industry you have decided to enter, it is important to understand the regulations that may apply.

As each municipal government has the authority to issue its own business licences within its jurisdiction, it is important to contact the municipal government that your business will be located in to determine what local regulations will apply to your business. An overview of these types of regulations can be found by looking at our Municipal Requirements to Start a Business document.  Visit the List of All Ontario Municipalities page to find contact information for your appropriate municipal government.

Visiting our Business Licences document will provide licensing requirement information for a variety of businesses.

Business Structure

Choosing the right business structure for your enterprise is an important decision to make.  The Forms of Business Organization document provides a brief description of the four types of business structures and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Taxation

A number of taxation considerations will need to be addressed before staring your business. The Taxation Info-Guide will provide you with federal and provincial information such as sales tax, tax considerations for employers and income tax.