Dealing with Formal Matters

We've started looking at some rules and laws that will apply to us when we register our business with the province of Ontario. There are many regulations that a sole proprietorship is subject to, and we need to be aware of them. Below is a summary of some basic things to keep an eye out for.

The first issue is registration. We need to register a name for our business, unless the name of our business is just our legal name. This rule applies to all those creating a business in Ontario. In our case, we must think of an original business name and we are not allowed to use just our legal name.


Often a licence will be required for your business, it will be issued either from the municipal, provincial or federal government. It is most often required to serve as an operating permit and give you the right to run your business. Government permission will be compulsory for many small businesses and to find out whether this is the case for your business, you are to contact the SBEC or the Canada-Ontario Business Center.

After all this has been taken care of, it is time to consider property and where the business will be located. Thsi is where zoning comes in. There are all sorts of regulations about buildings and locations, it is the responsibility of the business owner to make sure that the chosen location abides by these rules and takes the actiosn necessary to legally operate their business at the chosen location. It is also important to have insurance for this property to protect yourself and professional advice should be sought out to resolve this matter.

The last matter to be concerned with is business communications and advertising. A good business needs to have avid communications so that it can connect with the right people in the right way and keep everything linked. Computers and computer software and people who have knowledge of these are crucial to your business. Fax machines, photocopiers and etc should also be present and accessible to your business. Advertising also needs to be done appropriately and to suit your business. If your service of product is unheard of, no matter how wonderful it may be, nobody will buy it!

That's a basic summary of what we need to know. Today we also looked over the registration process for our business.