There is lots of good advice on marketing available. Much of it is based on solid research and can help you grow your business. This post is much more basic. Once a prospect contacts you, how you deal with him says a lot about you.

Here’s a case in point. I’m trying to track down some mall lease rates and property availability for a client looking to establish a jewellery business in Saskatoon. Now you tell me how anxious this mall is to do business.

I first checked out the mall’s website and they listed contacts for leasing. When I communicated what I was looking for, I received an email asking for clarification. When I replied that I was looking for a permanent lease instead of a short-term one, the contact told me that she couldn’t help me and to contact somebody in Calgary. Okay, why didn’t she forward my request to the right person?

When I contacted the person in Calgary, I received an autoreply saying she was on vacation for two weeks. If I couldn’t wait for two weeks, I could contact another person in the Calgary office. Imagine, me of so little patience, having the gall to expect an answer to a question in less than two weeks! I sent an email to the next person in line, followed by a phone call. In the phone call, I found out that the contact person was an admin assistant and she has sent my request back to the Saskatoon office. She gave me the first name and the phone number of the Saskatoon contact. After some prodding, I got the person’s last name and job title. It happens to be the mall general manager. Two calls and voicemails later, still no response. Here’s what they are implying by their response:

• If you want to talk to the right person, keep trying.
• Our management structure and corporate decision making system is fascinating to prospective customers.
• We are either too inept or too busy to waste time on giving answers to a few simple questions.

This whole thing could have been cleared up by having somebody empowered to answer a few simple questions. What if there is no space available? To avoid looking like you are hostile to new business, make sure to:

• Respond to inquiries quickly and courteously. Telling a customer “no” quickly and courteously does no harm to your brand. Saying no or yes in an impersonal and slow way implies a lot of negative things to your prospects.
• If your employees don’t have the answers, make sure they pass the information to the right person. Your customers don’t need to know who does what. They just want answers.
• If you think your system is user-friendly, test it. Have somebody you trust contact your sales staff and see how they do.

People can get caught up in their daily routines and forget about their customers. When this happens, it can undermine your entire marketing effort.

Update: The manager called and told me they didn’t want to add another jewellery store, and they didn’t have any leasing opportunities. She was pleasant and once I told her about the hoops I had to jump through, she was apologetic. She mentioned staff vacations and an office move for the reason for the backlog.

If you are a Canadian small business owner with a Visa Business Card you can enter Visa’s Go Biz Elevator Pitch contest. By filling out an entry form on Visa’s site, you can compete for a $10,000 credit to your Visa Business Card. Visa will choose 5 semi finalists who will receive free airfare and accommodation to Toronto, where they will pitch the judges during the one minute elevator ride up 49 stories at the One King West Hotel & Residence. The winner will receive the $10,000 credit and the semi-finalists will receive $250 prepaid Visa cards. Contest judges include:

• Matthew Corrin, founder & CEO of Freshii
• Daniel Klass, Managing Partner of Klass Capital
• Sarah Prevette, founder & CEO of Sprouter
• Stéphane Lavallée, Vice President, Business Solutions Division, and publisher Groupe Les Affaires chez Médias Transcontinental

The application process looks fairly straightforward and entering the contest should only take a few minutes. It might be a good chance to win $10,000 and get some publicity for your company. Entries close June 20, 2011.

Last week, we looked at the individual financial statements. Being an expert on the individual pieces isn’t the same as knowing the total financial performance of your business. To show this, I’ll give an example of when something looks good but is actually bad, and one where something that looks bad is actually good.

Example #1: Good is actually bad. The first set of numbers that draw attention is the net profit on the income statement. What could be simpler, the higher the net profit, the better, right? The exception to this rule comes in the amount of inventory you build. The raw materials, labour, supervision and other variable costs that go into making your product will go to one of two places on your financial statements. If the product is sold, it goes in the income statement as cost of goods sold, and the costs are accrued. If the product is not sold, the associated costs go onto the balance sheet as inventory, an asset! This increased inventory will represent future costs that haven’t yet gone through the income statement. So, in a way, inventory represents future costs. The best way to not be trapped by this is to look at the cash flow statement and balance sheet to ensure some costs aren’t being hidden in inventory. Beware the inventory build!

Example #2: Bad is actually good. On the balance sheet, the retained earnings level can go down and it can be a good thing. The retained earnings level is calculated by adding net profit and subtracting dividend payments from earlier balances. If negative net profit is the cause of retained earnings going down, that is a bad thing. If it is due to dividend payments, it is an excellent thing. In fact, this is delivering on the promise the management team made to investors. Shrinking retained earnings can be a good thing!

These are only a couple of examples of how you need to see all parts of the statements to see the real picture. Anybody that won’t show them all to you could be trying to hide something from you. Seeing them all will give you the whole picture.

Information Services Corporation (ISC), a Saskatchewan crown corporation, just announced that they have launched an online business registration system. It is now possible to register with the Corporate Registry, Worker’s Compensation Board, and the Ministry of Finance in just one process.

This new Saskatchewan Business Registrations website, allows a new business owner to register either a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation. It also provides registration with the Worker’s Compensation Board and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance for provincial sales tax (PST). This is now all easily accomplished in a 5 step process on the website. This is a big improvement because in the past, it was necessary to provide the same information to 3 different parts of government.

I’ve had a look at the site and it is well laid out and easy to use. It seems to have a bit of an issue with Safari but if you use Firefox or Chrome you should be ok. There is a lot of information on the site that explains things as you move along the registration process.

I’m always happy to see governments reduce barriers for people who want to start a business. ISC says that they will be adding more functionality to this site over the next few years in an effort to move more interactions between government and business online. This will speed up processes and reduce paperwork for government and business. And I’m all for it.

There are basically three legal forms of business ownership; sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. A corporation is a legal entity that is distinct from its shareholders. In Canada, corporations can be incorporated federally or provincially. A shareholder is not liable for the debts or obligations of the corporation. Advantages

• Liability. The shareholders of a corporation are shielded from the liabilities of the corporation. This provides a measure of projection for the personal assets of the shareholders. Note that most banks will make shareholders personally guarantee the debts of a corporation, particularly if it is new or lacks capitalization. This effectively eliminates the liability protection.
• Taxes. A corporation can lower your tax burden. For example, the top marginal tax rate for people in Saskatchewan earning over $128,800 in 2011 is 44%. In comparison, the federal tax rate on small business income on the first $500,000 of income is 11% in 2011. The Saskatchewan tax rate on the same income is currently 4.5% and will lower to 2% after July 1, 2011. The combined rate of 13% after July 1st will allow more capital to remain in entrepreneur’s control than declaring large amounts of income personally through a sole proprietorship.
• Clarity. Because the corporation is a distinct legal entity, it is easier to keep personal and business activities separate. All accounting and banking will be separate.
• Transfer of ownership. In some instances it can be easier to sell shares of a corporation rather than the assets of a business.

Disadvantages

• Complexity. An entrepreneur has to go through the incorporation process either federally or provincially. If the federal process is chosen, the entrepreneur will have to register the company in the provinces in which It does business. Corporate returns will have to be filed annually.
• Cost. It costs a bit more to start a business as a corporation than a sole proprietorship or a partnership. Incorporation costs can run from $1,000 to $3,000 or more depending on the complexity involved. Provincial registration costs for a federal corporation would be extra. There are costs involved with filling the annual returns and maintaining provincial registrations.

There is no one right form of business ownership. It is dependant on your personal situation. You should talk to your accountant and lawyer before making a decision. Their fees will be a small price to pay to ensure that you have the legal form of ownership that’s right for you.

There are basically three legal forms of business ownership; sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. In a partnership, you and your partners own the business and its assets directly. All business income would be reported and declared on each partner’s personal tax return. Each partner would take a percentage of the net income or net loss based on his or her share of the partnership. For example, if a partnership was shared 50/50, each partner would have to pay tax on half of the net income of the partnership. Because you and your partners are inseparable from your business, you each have full liability for the obligations of your business. A lender could make a claim against your personal assets for business debts. An exception to this is a limited partnership where the individual is not involved in management of the business. His or her liability would be limited. There are a number advantages and disadvantages to a partnership:

Advantages

• You have a partner. There is someone to assist with funding the start up of the business. You have someone to help you make the decisions. This can be especially useful if your strengths lie in different areas.
• Taxes. You have the ability to split income and this may reduce your overall taxes payable. This can be an advantage, especially to members of the same family who are in business together.
• Simplicity. Starting a partnership is about as simple as starting a sole proprietorship. Registering a partnership is fairly straightforward.

Disadvantages

• You have a partner. If you have not chosen your partner wisely, you might find that he or she is more of a hinderance and less of a help. For this reason, among others, you should have your lawyer draft a partnership agreement at the beginning of the partnership. It should describe what will happen in the event the partnership breaks up.
• Liability. Like a sole proprietorship, you are fully liable for the business debts, even those your partners incur. If one of your partners signs for a debt on behalf of the partnership (even though you didn’t even know about it) you are still liable.

There is no one right form of business ownership. It is dependant on your personal situation. You should talk to your accountant and lawyer before making a decision. Their fees will be a small price to pay to ensure that you have the legal form of ownership that’s right for you.