You have to incorporate to keep yourself from liability it's a no brainer, also to own everything under a separate company from the one you operate under. Turbotax business is like $250 a year do it yourself it takes awhile to figure out the first return but after that it's not bad.
Business advice
- Thread starter SUMMIT TREE
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You have to incorporate to keep yourself from liability it's a no brainer, also to own everything under a separate company from the one you operate under. Turbotax business is like $250 a year do it yourself it takes awhile to figure out the first return but after that it's not bad.
ABMax24
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Don't bite off too much at once. You know gas compression, so start there. I'm not sure lately, but at one point northeastern BC was having a hard time finding guys to do their maintenance runs, some of them were 2weeks in 2 weeks out, gives a guy a steady income to pay bills and get your company established when breaking out on your own. Then use the 2 weeks at home to try and drum up business for heavy equipment or whatever other venture you choose to pursue. Non vax'd wasn't an issue for the guys I knew doing it.
Make sure you do the math a see what you're getting into money wise. I'm a pipefitter by trade and started looking at getting a truck a few years back, I gave up pretty quickly after that. $85/hr for a $160k truck plus $25k in tools didn't seem all that great, especially when work is really hit and miss and you're still stuck making that truck payment. The money still worked out a little better than being a straight employee, but it also came with a lot more risk and liability.
Make sure you do the math a see what you're getting into money wise. I'm a pipefitter by trade and started looking at getting a truck a few years back, I gave up pretty quickly after that. $85/hr for a $160k truck plus $25k in tools didn't seem all that great, especially when work is really hit and miss and you're still stuck making that truck payment. The money still worked out a little better than being a straight employee, but it also came with a lot more risk and liability.
sirkdev
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It's crazy in GP right now, my mechanics are flat out. Everyone is reactivating facilities that were shut in with low prices. If you need contacts let me know. If you are good you are hired...
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SUMMIT TREE
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Yep I heard the gas world was gonna be absolutely nuts in the coming months. There is a PILE of broken down and shut in units around the country. I guess that would be the easy route. I just kinda wanted to try something different.
Dragonalain
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I use a accountant and a book keeper. Last year I was under $2000 for both services. The account is nice as they know the grey areas.
Make sure you're still keeping a sharp eye on your accounts .... knowing how to and doing account reconciliation is a great way to make sure you don't wake up some day and find that your bookkeeper embezzled $100k ...has happened all too often.
Re grey areas remember that you're the one on the hook when not so grey - ignorance isn't accepted by CRA as a defense ...
Simply / QuickBooks are easy to use and let you keep a close eye on your finances ....
Dragonalain
Active VIP Member
I landed a running maintenance contract right at the start of covid. Working in a copper/zinc/ gold mill. I work on the equipment that Crushes and separates the metals. I Recently got moved to a different mill and it’s trash, most of the work is outside so it’s cold af. Before I agreed to move I told them I wanted $10 an hour more and .05c more for travel. They did not even himmm or haww about the rate increase Just said ok.
This pos legitimately paid for my new f250 platinum. Although if it was not breaking down so much I could have paid for the truck while sitting in the lunch room waiting for something to break.
pano-dude
Active VIP Member
Best thing you can do is hire a good accountant and book keeper.
I tried to do it all myself when I started my business cause I'm cheap and it cost me more in the long run.
It's a ch!t ton of work to run a business but it all comes back to you, Not someone else. Work 10 hr day then come home and do a couple hrs invoicing, payroll....
Took me 3 years to get a good client base.
Also make a good relationship with your bank manager.
Do it!
I tried to do it all myself when I started my business cause I'm cheap and it cost me more in the long run.
It's a ch!t ton of work to run a business but it all comes back to you, Not someone else. Work 10 hr day then come home and do a couple hrs invoicing, payroll....
Took me 3 years to get a good client base.
Also make a good relationship with your bank manager.
Do it!
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- #30
SUMMIT TREE
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I know the feeling. Some equipment is just straight up junk. Lol.
These are the new lessons you learn as you transition form being a technician to being a business man. Lots of these new business lessons you end up learning the hard way!
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Different if you get into employees, but just running your own truck and if you don't supply parts there isn't much accounting or bookwork to do, if it's hourly there isn't even any quoting to do. There is no way you'd be a couple hours a day, not even a couple hours a week. Invoicing is something you'd have to do yourself no matter what.
With the accounting i expended them to be more forward on telling me what/how to do things. Vs asking me what I wanted to do. I obviously don’t know. I’m Not an accountant!
At first, i thought a had a good adviser. (buddies dad was an auditor for the CRA). I first tried to set up to learn to the accounting and book keeping side of things.
That did go well. Too busy working! Fell years behind.
Then tried a smaller accountant, tried to do our books ourselves. Again I didn’t receive much direction on the things I didn’t know. Probably did it half wrong and then the accountant needed spend time fixing it all. But started the processes of getting caught up.
Later found a service focus on small entrepreneurs called FBC. (Farm business consultants). They actually found me and cold called me from some minor advertising I had done. The guy with the sales pitch had the right answers to my questions and I gave it a shot.
For me it was a good lesson. I don’t need to add accountant to mine or my wife’s resume. Keeping a business running is enough work. The actual work is easy. When you get busy finding the time to get your invoices out vs getting the next jobs done is a challenge! When you start building your customer base you don’t want to tell anybody no, or later!
The service from FBC deffinately cost me more money than I was spending but looking back, the time I was wasting trying to do things wrong myself, I’m better off working at what I’m good at and pay their price.
They come to my office (at my residence) twice a year. They take 2 of my files, visa, and bank statement. They enter 6 months of books each visit and then tell me how much to pay to each tax department. I can work on my other paperwork while they are there but they will as me a couple questions just to clarify a few purchases that are not obvious to them and determine how it was business related. In and out in a couple hours vs what was weeks of my time. Also included is audit protection so they will represent you and pay any penalties if you are audited.
They base their fees on your gross sales for the year. Probably about 4g per 1/2 million in sales.
Agree with this post and 3 about the same 3 years for the good client base.
I also prefer to make 5-10 repeat customers that trust me vs 100 one time customers that I charge as much as possible.
I'm generally curious what types of businesses you guys are running where you have an accountant doing invoicing, and it's saving time considering you need to provide them with the information anyway? If it's monthly invoicing quickbooks can do it automatically so no need for someone to do it. If OP is running a service truck, they would still need to send details of customer, how many hours, etc to have someone else prepare an invoice, probably what 2 minutes difference between texting it and just filling out an invoice yourself? Maybe 1-2 a day tops? Doesn't really make sense to me. Also the risk of them screwing an amount up and costing you money.
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- #36
SUMMIT TREE
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When I used to work for Pamco or any other contracting company, I filled out my tickets at the end of every job. Had a ticket book, wrote in all customers info, location, a story about what I did, hours charged, Kilometres etc. essentially the same thing no?
Not sure who your referring to for the accountant doing invoicing comment. But I didn’t say they did mine.
If your not quoting, your sales pitch on the invoice is selling the service you already preformed and is the key to most of your customers paying you!
Some industries you need to write more that “dig hole”. When your industry isn’t a one time visit and sometimes is months between prep work to finishing it’s a lot more complicated to sell after then couple day job.
Dragonalain
Active VIP Member
I also do my own invoices. I pay a book keeper $35 an hour to organize my receipts, invoice and to track where my moneys going. Then I pay a account $250 a hour to look over the book keeper work and file.
mountianguy
Active VIP Member
Have the truck as versatile as possible. Crane, torch, welder, compressor, generator are all a must in my opinion. You can't have too much stuff when you are out in the bush by your self.
pano-dude
Active VIP Member
I do my own invoicing, the majority of my work is annual contracts billed monthly. I use quick books and the reoccurring invoice feature is great.
Book keeper does my payroll for 5 staff, reconciles receivables, tracks expenses, and keeps the books organized for year end when it all goes to the accountant.
Costs me about $300/month and $2000 for account.
Book keeper does my payroll for 5 staff, reconciles receivables, tracks expenses, and keeps the books organized for year end when it all goes to the accountant.
Costs me about $300/month and $2000 for account.
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