The client journey

Stage 01

Sole proprietor

Get the foundation right before anything gets complicated.

You’re earning business income in your own name. There’s no corporation, no board, no complexity — and that’s fine. What matters at this stage is that the money is organized, the filings are on time, and you can read your own numbers. Everything that comes later is built on this.

You’re here if…

Business income lands in the same account as your groceries
You’re not sure whether you should be charging GST yet
Tax time is a shoebox, a spreadsheet, and a long weekend
You know what you billed last year — not what you kept

Understand the numbers

Read your own income statement — revenue, direct costs, gross margin, net income
Know what you actually earn per hour and per job, and whether your pricing covers the true cost of delivery
Separate owner’s draw from profit — they are not the same number
Understand how business income is taxed on top of everything else you earn

Organize your finances

A dedicated business chequing account and business credit card
A bookkeeping system sized to your volume — not enterprise software
Receipt capture and cloud storage, so your records survive a CRA review
A tax savings account funded with a fixed percentage of every deposit — the BC income tax calculator tells you the percentage

File what has to be filed

T1 personal return with the T2125 statement of business activities — and if the form is a mystery, we walk through every line of a T1
GST/HST registration and returns once you cross the small-supplier threshold
BC PST registration and returns where your sales are taxable
Quarterly instalments once your balance owing triggers them
Rental income on a T776, if property is part of the picture

Plan personally, from day one

RRSP, TFSA and FHSA — which one first, and why the order matters. The TFSA vs RRSP tool runs the head-to-head.
RESP and RDSP where family circumstances call for them — and the Canada Child Benefit if you have kids at home
CPP on self-employment income — you pay both halves
Build a personal financial base before the business absorbs everything

Built for this stage

Free, no signup. Conversation starters — not a substitute for advice.

Tool

BC income tax calculator

Your 2026 combined BC and federal tax at any income — and the savings percentage to hold back.

Guide

Self-employment & the T2125

Line by line through the form that turns your business into a tax return.

Tool

Tax instalment schedule

A clean, printable quarterly schedule so a CRA instalment never surprises you.

Guide

How income is taxed

Why the last dollar you earn is taxed differently from the first.

Tool

TFSA vs RRSP

Head to head, with the RRSP refund reinvested so the comparison is honest.

Tool

What a T1 costs with us

An instant estimate for your personal return. No hidden fees, no obligation.

See all free tools →

If you’re self-employed and want the foundation set properly the first time, start here.

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email

Stage 02

Incorporation

The one structural step — decide it on the numbers, then do it properly.

This is the only stage on the rail that is a legal event rather than a phase. Incorporating is not automatically the right move, and doing it badly is expensive to unwind. We start with whether the numbers support it, then handle the sequence: counsel, share structure, the rollover of what you already own, new accounts, and a clean set of books that opens on the right balances.

You’re here if…

The business earns more than you need to take home
A customer, lender or insurer is asking about limited liability
You’re about to hire, sign a lease, or take on real risk
You already incorporated — and none of the setup work ever got finished

Is it the right time?

Run the after-tax comparison of sole proprietor vs corporation at your income
The deferral only helps if you can genuinely leave money in the company
Liability, contracts and credibility reasons that have nothing to do with tax
The honest cost side — legal fees, annual filings, a T2 return, separate books, and possibly a compilation engagement

Get it incorporated

An introduction to a corporate lawyer we work with regularly
A written instruction letter to counsel — share classes, who holds what, family trust or not
Structure planning: opco, holdco and what each one is for — the corporate structure builder sketches the options
A section 85 rollover to move an existing business into the company on a tax-deferred basis

Set it up cleanly

New corporate bank and credit accounts, fully separate from your sole-prop accounts
Wind down the proprietorship — final T2125, GST/PST account transitions, close the old accounts
CRA program accounts: corporate tax, payroll and GST/HST under the new business number
A new bookkeeping file with an opening balance sheet that ties to the rollover

Decide how you get paid

Salary vs dividends — the mix that fits this year, not a permanent rule
The shareholder loan account: what it is, and how not to get caught by it
Whether investments belong inside or outside the corporation
Vehicles — inside or outside the business, and buy, lease or finance
Home office and other owner-level decisions, made once and documented

Built for this stage

Free, no signup. Conversation starters — not a substitute for advice.

Guide

Section 85 rollovers

How an existing business moves into a corporation without triggering tax.

Tool

Salary vs dividends

The mix that fits this year, with CPP and RRSP room accounted for.

Guide

The shareholder loan account

The account that quietly catches more owners than any other.

Tool

Passive income: corp vs personal

Where investment income should sit once there's a corporation in the picture.

Tool

Vehicle: inside or outside

Whether the vehicle belongs to the company or to you — and what each costs.

Guide

Compilations, reviews & audits

What a compilation engagement is, and when a corporation actually needs one.

See all free tools →

Thinking about incorporating — or already did, and want to be sure it was finished properly?

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email

Stage 03

Stabilization

Make the books trustworthy and the deadlines automatic.

The books are behind, nobody’s certain the numbers are right, and deadlines are met from memory. Stabilization is the unglamorous stage that makes every later decision possible: review what you have, fix it, systemize it, and then read what it’s telling you.

You’re here if…

You have a QuickBooks Online or Xero file and no confidence in it
The year-end is a reconstruction project, not a review
Remittance and filing deadlines are tracked in your head
You can’t answer “what was gross margin last month?” without a week’s work

Review what you already have

A diagnostic on your existing QuickBooks Online or Xero file
Chart of accounts, opening balances, unreconciled items, misposted owner transactions
Clean-up of prior periods so this year’s comparatives actually mean something
The shareholder loan account reconciled, explained, and brought back onside

Build the system

A chart of accounts mapped to how you make decisions, not how the software ships
Receipt capture, bill payment and approval, payroll and job costing — only what you need
Bank feeds, rules and a documented monthly close that runs the same way every time
A compliance calendar for GST/PST, payroll remittances, T4s and T5s, T2 and instalments — with reminders that fire before the deadline
Where a lender or landlord needs assurance, the right compilation, review or audit

Read the numbers

A monthly reporting package short enough that you’ll actually open it
Gross margin by service line, product, or crew
Working capital, AR aging, and how long a dollar takes to come back
The two or three numbers that tell you whether the month was good

Confirm you’re ready to grow

Where the margin is — and where it’s leaking
Whether your pricing covers the true cost of delivery
Whether the business can fund its next hire without borrowing to do it
What breaks first if revenue doubles — and where automation takes real work off the pile

Built for this stage

Free, no signup. Conversation starters — not a substitute for advice.

Guide

The bookkeeping process

What a monthly close actually involves, and who does which part.

Tool

Tax instalment schedule

Every remittance and instalment date, on one printable page.

Tool

Pricing & unit economics

Whether your price covers delivery, overhead and the margin you meant to make.

Tool

True cost of hiring

Salary is the smallest part. See the whole number before you post the job.

Guide

RRSP vs TFSA vs non-registered

Once there's surplus, where the next dollar of savings should actually sit.

Page

The frameworks we work from

StoryBrand, Ikigai, the E-Myth, EOS and Die With Zero — how we think about the work.

See all free tools →

If the books are behind or you don’t trust the numbers, this is the fastest thing to fix.

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email

Stage 04

Growth

Know the numbers cold, write down how the work gets done, and build the three P’s.

Growth is not more revenue. It’s the point where reliable numbers, documented processes and the right people let the business get bigger without getting worse. You stop being the bottleneck, and the company starts producing results that don’t depend on you being in the room.

You’re here if…

The numbers are reliable and you’re deciding what to do with them
Demand isn’t the constraint — your capacity is
Too much of how the work gets done lives only in your head
You’re hiring, or you know you need to and can’t tell if you can afford it

Know your numbers cold

Unit economics — what one job, one product, one client actually earns. The pricing and unit economics tool is where we start.
Contribution margin and break-even by line of business
A rolling twelve-month cash flow forecast, with scenarios
Budget vs actual, with a variance conversation every single month
A KPI dashboard built on leading indicators, not just lagging financials

Document how the work gets done

Get the SOPs out of your head and onto paper
Map each core workflow end to end: quote, deliver, invoice, collect
Separate the steps only you can do from the steps you do out of habit
Delegate against a written process, so the result is repeatable — and let AI write the first draft of most of that documentation

Build out the three P’s

The framework in full lives in People, Process, Product — here’s how it lands:
People — the right seats, the true cost of a hire, and training funded by the BC Employer Training Grant where you qualify
Process — documented, repeatable and measured; the frameworks we work from (EOS, the E-Myth) are the scaffolding
Product — priced for margin, delivered consistently, worth more than it costs to make

Deploy the profit

Where the next dollar goes — reinvest, pay down debt, pay out, or hold. The capital allocation tool compares them side by side.
Passive investments inside the corporation and the small business deduction grind
Owner compensation as the business scales past you
Personal wealth built deliberately alongside the company, not after it

Built for this stage

Free, no signup. Conversation starters — not a substitute for advice.

Guide

People, Process, Product

The three levers that decide whether growth makes the business better or worse.

Tool

True cost of hiring

Salary, burden, ramp and lost capacity — the real number behind a new seat.

Tool

Pricing & unit economics

Contribution margin and break-even, by product or by service line.

Tool

Capital allocation

Reinvest, repay, pay out or hold — compared on the same basis.

Guide

BC Employer Training Grant

Check whether the province will fund the training your team needs.

Page

The frameworks we work from

StoryBrand, Ikigai, the E-Myth, EOS and Die With Zero — and why they matter here.

See all free tools →

If you’re the constraint on your own business, let’s talk about what to document first.

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email

Stage 05

Exit

Build a business worth buying — long before you need to sell it.

Exit planning starts years before an exit. A business that could be sold tomorrow is simply a well-run business: earnings that don’t depend on the owner, clean records, and no surprises in the corporate file. Value is the thing we help you create. Whether you ever sell is your decision to make later.

You’re here if…

An exit is three to ten years out — or you have no plans to leave and want the option anyway
Most of the company’s value walks out the door when you do
One or two customers account for most of the revenue
Someone has approached you and you have no idea what the business is worth

Build the value first

Value is a multiple of sustainable earnings — normalized, not last year’s tax return. What’s a business worth? covers the arithmetic.
Reduce owner dependence: a company that can’t run without you sells at a discount, if at all
Diversify customer concentration before a buyer prices the risk for you
Recurring and repeatable revenue commands a premium over project work
A defensible financial history — which is where compilations, reviews and audits start to matter

Get the house in order

Minute book, share register and shareholder agreements current and complete
Contracts assignable; IP, leases and licences held in the company’s name
Related-party balances and the shareholder loan account cleaned up
Three consecutive years of consistent, reliable financial statements

Structure the exit

The Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption — purification and the holding-period tests, planned years ahead
Holdco and family trust structures where multiplying the exemption is available. The structure builder sketches them; a section 85 rollover is often how you get there.
Asset sale vs share sale — what the buyer wants against what you want
Succession: family transition, management buyout, or a third-party sale

Run the transaction — and what comes after

A valuation and a realistic range before anyone makes an offer
Letter of intent, due diligence, and a timeline that doesn’t stall the business
What the proceeds have to do for the rest of your life — the financial independence and FIRE calculators put a number on “enough”
Die With Zero: optimizing net fulfillment, not just net worth

Built for this stage

Free, no signup. Conversation starters — not a substitute for advice.

Guide

Exit is a construction project, not an event. The earlier we start, the more it’s worth.

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email

Every business is on a journey.We meet you where you are.

Sole proprietor

Understand the numbers

Organize your finances

File what has to be filed

Plan personally, from day one

BC income tax calculator

Self-employment & the T2125

Tax instalment schedule

How income is taxed

TFSA vs RRSP

What a T1 costs with us

Incorporation

Is it the right time?

Get it incorporated

Set it up cleanly

Decide how you get paid

Section 85 rollovers

Salary vs dividends

The shareholder loan account

Passive income: corp vs personal

Vehicle: inside or outside

Compilations, reviews & audits

Stabilization

Review what you already have

Build the system

Read the numbers

Confirm you’re ready to grow

The bookkeeping process

Tax instalment schedule

Pricing & unit economics

True cost of hiring

RRSP vs TFSA vs non-registered

The frameworks we work from

Growth

Know your numbers cold

Document how the work gets done

Build out the three P’s

Deploy the profit

People, Process, Product

True cost of hiring

Pricing & unit economics

Capital allocation

BC Employer Training Grant

The frameworks we work from

Exit

Build the value first

Get the house in order

Structure the exit

Run the transaction — and what comes after

What’s a business worth?

Section 85 rollovers

FIRE calculator

Corporate structure builder

Compilations, reviews & audits

BC financial independence

Come in wherever you are.

Let’s figure out which stage you’re actually in.

Every business is on a journey.
We meet you where you are.