Starting a Small Business and Still No Banking…
I’ve always heard two things regarding entrepreneurship: The adventure is incredible, and the learning curve is incredibly steep. I can now confidently say that both of these are true.
It’s been 8 years since starting my first business. In June of this year, I found myself starting one for the third time. This time I am a bit smarter because of all the costly lessons I made in the past.
Spoiler alert, The reason I am sharing this blog is two-fold:
I want to shine a light on some of the products and services I used and pay it forward to others who might benefit from them.
I believe most of the advice, services, and products you are going to read about could have been provided by my bank or credit union. The US and UK (or most other markets) are already doing this, and Canada needs to wake up and get moving for the sake of our 1 Million small businesses.
Part 1: Good Business-Starting Experiences, My Third Time Around
Business name and registration:
I used Ownr to incorporate. Its straightforward but not cheap. I am not a layman, but I believe Ownr is the perfect platform to ensure everything you need done gets done right. Plus, it was all easy to understand.
There were a couple issues to report. One was an annoyance, specifically obtaining my GST number. I watched my application sit in queue for 3 weeks as ‘pending’, but when I followed up it was resolved within a day. The GST number cost me $50 (apparently you can call the CRA yourself and get it for free). Not worth the expense through Ownr.
The second issue was much worse. More on that soon.
Getting new photos done:
My business necessitates having my photo appear more than I would admittedly like, due to social media presence or because of speaking at events. The photo I had been working with was from my first company, and other than the fact that I had aged and hated my hair, I wanted a fresh start. So I started searching online for a photographer.
I found FOCAL - a platform that curates photographers along with a super easy matching process. After reviewing a number of options in my area, I found Greg Samborski. His portfolio looked great and only a few days later I was in his kitchen drinking coffee, stealing a banana, and sharing some laughs while getting new photos taken.
It was an awesome experience! I highly recommend Greg, and investing in photos as part of your brand.
Creating the brand:
I decided for the first time to invest in experts to help me. One of those aforementioned costly lessons was learning that developing a proper brand is more than just creating a logo, selecting a font, and choosing colours. You can be the judge as to your impression of what bringing in professionals did for Firefly Growth.
To build out my brand, the first step I took was finding a senior design freelancer. My online searching led me to Toptal.
Finding someone who was legitimately experienced was not easy. Toptal was the perfect solution because doing that for you is one of their key value propositions.
I interviewed 4 designers and hired someone right away: Silvana Camacho Quintero. Sil has her own highly skilled approach to defining a brand. After providing some input into a creative brief, Sil designed and proposed several branding options that were each unique and beautiful. The option I chose came with a full branding package and all the creative assets I needed.
Silvana Camacho
Branding Specialist
Building the website (copy and design):
With the branding finished, my next step was translating it into a website. Here comes the next lesson: Creating a stand out website means defining not just the design, but also the words on the screen.
Through a stroke of luck and an offer to make an introduction, I met Patrick Kedzierski; a copywriter who specializes in storytelling (there are very few in his field that I know of). What Patrick does is an art, and he is a fabulous artist!
The Firefly Growth website was built in Squarespace using Patrick’s writing and Sil’s design. The two of them took the thoughts and ideas I had for my brand and brought it to life.
Patrick Kedzierski
Copywriter / Storytelling Expert
More than just finding an accounting solution:
I am comfortable with Quickbooks but have also used Xero. Since accounting is the very last thing I’d like to spend time on, I went with what I knew – Quickbooks.The really good decision made in the accounting regard was finding Howard Lerner and his company SBLR. This is where my husband, former Chief Culture Officer at FGS (the other half that everyone in the company loved most), Gary Britton comes in. One of his best friends introduced us to Howard and it would not be an exaggeration to say he saved our lives.
Having someone who understands the complexities of all things needed to operate a business, while also earning income and saving for retirement, really is priceless.
I admit our situation might warrant this expertise, and other start-ups may not necessarily need it at the early stage. But trust me, if you think that as a business owner you know everything about taxes (paying, minimizing, etc), dividends, holding companies, operating companies, or that a platform takes the place of experience and advice at critical times… then you are smoking something good.
Some of the other solutions I have used so far in 2 months since starting are:
Part 2: Bad Business-Starting Experiences to Date
If you’ve related to this point, there will be no surprise when I say that I still haven't been able to open a new business bank account.
The second issue that I didn't mention about using Ownr: I haven't been able to open an RBC account - bank or credit card. It's now been 2 months and the $300 discount on my Ownr billing has expired.
After trying several times on their platform and calling RBC to find a solution, zero explanation has yet to be provided. I have given up on RBC because they can't deliver on their promise beyond business registration.
There is not one digital small business banking solution available in Canada today that allows you to open a bank account completely digitally. Without a business bank account, you are forced to mix business and personal payments off the get-go. Not exactly ideal.
I will have quite a bit of work to do in going back to fix the books and so on. My long-time personal primary bank has now almost delivered on getting my account set up. But the experience (not the people involved) has been many weeks long and brutal.
There are several FinTech alternatives to a business account that I know all too well. And yet, even the challenger accounts aren’t yet positioned to replace a business checking account.
(Coming Soon) Part 3: The Infinite Opportunity for Canadian Banks & Credit Unions to Come to the Rescue
Stay tuned for Part 3. I will share inspiration for innovators who have the ability to change things for the better.
Hint: my good experiences could be easier to access in a marketplace! Like the Starling Bank Marketplace for Business pictured below:
I know there are some good new business banking solutions around the corner (thanks EQ Bank for accepting my waitlist request for your new small business account) and already in the market. Just nothing that solves what I am trying to get done… YET!
Thanks for reading.
Yours truly,
Sue, Chief Change Catalyst
Firefly Growth
