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Growing Your Business

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Once you've successfully registered or incorporated your business, acquired all the necessary licences and permits, and fulfilled any other preliminary regulatory requirements, you can afford to start shifting your focus towards establishing a loyal customer base, hiring staff to help out with the workload, and planning for the future. In other words, growing your business into one that will eventually net you a profit. 

Developing Marketing Strategies

Tips for creating a successful marketing strategy to grow your business.

This resource provides a wide array of articles about different aspects of effectively marketing a business.

Free course for the use of Google's Adwords in digital marketing.

Features free online training both on Hootsuite itself and Social Media Marketing in general.

Search by postal code to start creating data-driven marketing strategies by analyzing your target customers' demographics and lifestyle.

Consult the full-text PRIZM Marketer’s Guide for additional consumer insights and information about market segmentation. 

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CARDonline provides advertising rates, data and media planning information for advertising, marketing, public relations and communications professionals.

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LinkedIn Learning offers video courses in business, computer technology, software, and creative skills, all conducted by experts in their fields.

New to LinkedIn Learning? View a video tutorial or visit the LinkedIn Learning FAQ page for more information.

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Strategy

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Hiring Employees

If you will need employees in order to effectively operate your business, the resources below will help to ensure you are in compliance with the relevant employment, workplace, and occupational health and safety regulations in BC.

BC's Employment Standards Act is the legislation that governs payment, compensation, and working conditions in most workplaces in the province. 

Note that some industries and workplaces are regulated federally and are subject to the Canada Labour Code instead.

Unless exempt, all BC employers must register for workers compensation coverage through WorkSafeBC.

Helpful information regarding payroll, wages, and other resources for recruiting, training, and managing employees.

Tips and resources to help you hire, train, support, and keep employees. Includes information on accessing funding to hire or train employees.

Provides free advice, assistance, representation, and educational seminars to employers, potential employers, and employer associations concerning workers’ compensation issues.

Protecting Your Business

Protect your business by making sure that you have appropriate liability and property insurance coverage, a business continuity plan to guide you through emergency situations, and a risk management strategy. 

Emergency planning, risk management, insurance, legal issues, security and privacy and fraud.

Information on how business insurance rates are set, the types of policies that are typically available, and other helpful information on protecting your business from risk. 

Suggestions and strategies to help you develop a business continuity plan that best suits your need. Includes a downloadable recovery planning guide and a crisis communications planning guide.

A free tool to build your own personalized plan to identify risks specific to your business and come up with plans to combat each one. Can be printed and shared once complete.

Expanding Business Operations

Information on government funding, collaboration, commercialization, and licensing resources to help fuel innovation.

Details about the procurement process in BC and how to sell products/services to the provincial government, as well as resources for businesses that are looking to grow themselves internationally. 

A single business licence that allows certain types of businesses to operate in 6 cities - Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster, Richmond, Surrey, and Vancouver - without having to purchase separate licences from each municipality.

Helps established Canadian businesses navigate and access the government supports they need to grow and scale.

Funds high-growth businesses in BC that are scaling and developing innovative goods, services or technologies.

A Canada-wide program created to meet the changing needs of small and medium-sized businesses, TAP facilitates strategic growth, and fosters international trade opportunities. TAP offers a range of skills, experience, and individual mentoring and coaching across a broad spectrum of fields from legal, finance, global sales & marketing, taxation, logistics.

A directory of business expansion grants, loans, and other incentives are available to support businesses across Canada. These programs can help your business start exporting, open a new location, or assist with other strategic growth projects.

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