Before you read our business start-up mistakes to avoid, make sure to download Small Business BC’s Starting Your Business Checklist.

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When entrepreneurs come up with an idea for a business it’s an exciting time. They’re fired up and they want to share their vision with the world. At this time, it’s vital to take some deep breaths and do some planning. You don’t want to make any easily avoidable mistakes.

With this in mind, we’ve listed 5 business start-up mistakes to avoid.

Insufficient Capital

A lack of money is the number one reason new businesses fail. This is a massive shame, as entrepreneurs based in British Columbia have several options available to assist with start-up financing.

These include:

• Vancity Microfinance Program
• BDC
• Futurpreneur (if under 39 years of age)
• Women’s Enterprise Centre
• Community Futures

A lot of entrepreneurs also receive start-up assistance from family and friends or angel investors.

No Business Plan

Whether you write a business plan or a business map, the importance of a strategic plan for your business cannot be overstated. Great businesses don’t happen by accident. They’re the result of painstaking planning and a keen understanding of every aspect of the operation. A business plan is the key to unlocking success and will need to be demonstrated to secure financing from most providers. Need help putting a business plan together? Small Business BC is happy to offer Business Plan Consulting and Reviewing as a service.

Not Planning for Lean Periods

Even our best laid plans have the potential to go awry. What’s your contingency for coping with lean periods in the life of your business? To create lasting success, a business needs to be nimble in its approach and have a robust contingency plan to turn to. Consider opening a line of credit from a financial institution. Chances are, you won’t ever need to use it but it’s always nice to know you have a fallback position for slow periods.

Build a Support Network

Your business is your baby. Understandably, you’ll want to do everything yourself. Even if you aren’t ready to hire staff, having an accountant, lawyer or mentor to turn to for advice is worth its weight in gold. A mentor is an invaluable addition to your support network for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most important ones.

No. Everyone isn’t Your Target Market

To quote Small Business BC’s International Trade Advisor, Laura Aveledo:

“Many of my clients say that ‘everybody’ is their target market. That statement is one of the most common mistakes new entrepreneurs make. Sticking to that thought will only lead failed advertising, frustration and a botched product launch. The reality is that no product, no matter how popular or useful, will be liked by everybody.”

Your product is destined to fail unless you hone in on the specific target market you want to speak to. We’ve put together some tips on how to identify these potential clients.

There are many elements that make a good business plan, avoid these business plan mistakes and give your business idea the pitch it deserves.  It often takes time, patience and many revisions before you get it right. Unfortunately when rushing to get your funding in place and launch your business, your plan can get neglected.  Below we have highlighted a few of the very common business plan mistakes:

Get Started on your business plan by downloading Small Business BC’s Business Plan Template and Cashflow Forecasting Tool.

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1. Unrealistic Financial Projections

Most Canadians are familiar with the businesses on CBC’s Dragons’ Den who grossly overestimate the value of their company and are chastised and shot down by the dragons. It’s one of the most common business plan mistakes.  Lenders and investors expect to be shown a realistic picture of where your business is now and where it hopes to be, therefore if the plan is overly optimistic with no explanation of the projections, it will ring warning bells and cause the plan to be rejected.

2. Not Defining the Target Audience

No business will appeal to everyone.  You must define your specific target market, present how you have made these assumptions and outline how you will specifically target this market.

Need help defining your target market and learning about primary and secondary market research? Small Business BC offers seminars on market research and one-on-one consultations with an  in-house market research expert. Looking in Vancouver? Use Bizmap, an amazing market research tool, to help find the best location for your audience.

3. Over-Hype

You may believe your business idea is the next big thing but you need to be able to back-up your claim.  Over-hyping your business idea and littering your plan with superlatives like hottest and greatest does not substantiate your product or service.  Wow them with you business idea, research and financial plan, not with the words you think they want to hear.

4. Bad Research

All research must be double checked and substantiated.  By using incorrect or out of date information you will discredit your business idea and the remainder of the plan.

5. No Focus on your Competition

Even if you think you have a ‘unique’ business idea and are sure that no other business like yours exists, check and double check.  There is no such thing as no competition. Even if your business is one of kind, it comes down to the dollar; if your business didn’t exist, but the customers’ need still existed, where would they spend their money?

Equally if you highlight your competition too much the investor will worry that the business will not survive.  Focus on your niche, what differentiates you from the competition, how you plan to compete in the marketplace and paint accurate picture of what the industry is like now and where you see it going in the future.

6. Hiding Your Weaknesses

Do not hide your weaknesses but do not highlight them too much.  Every business has its weaknesses but by hiding them or highlighting them too much you will put off the investor.  The only way to address these weaknesses is to include a detailed strategy of how you plan address these problems.

7. Not Knowing your Distribution Channels

Have a secure plan how to provide your service or distribute your product.  Including all possible channels in your plan without substantiating why these are the correct channels and how they will reach your target market will make the investor assume that you have just thought of the list off the top of your head.  The ability to articulate your strategy about how your product or service will reach your client is vital.

8. Including Too Much Information

If you were an investor, would you want to read a 200 page business plan?  Most investors have a mental checklist of 10 to 12 points that they are looking for in the plan, everything else just gets in the way.  The purpose of your plan is not to demonstrate the depth of your knowledge but to focus on the key elements of your business.  Clear and concise writing is always appreciated and if you have additional information which you would like to include in the document, create an appendix.

9. Being Inconsistent

Highlighting different target markets, quoting conflicting statistics or having competing strategies within a plan will make an investor challenge whether you know your business and its market well enough.  Sections of plans are often written on different days or by different people and then pasted together into one document resulting in inconsistency.  Take time to review each section of your business plan.

10. One Writer, One Reader

Make sure you ask several people to review your plan before submitting it.  You can easily glaze over spelling and grammatical errors because you know the information inside and out.  Another set of eyes will help your plan to look more professional and ensure that it reads correctly.

Interested in doing a business plan review? Get Started on your business plan by downloading Small Business BC’s Business Plan Template and Cashflow Forecasting Tool.

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Every entrepreneur understands the value of a well-crafted business plan. It’s an invaluable roadmap for launching your business, and something you’ll use to impress banks and investors. The ideal business plan should be short and concise, but you can become so invested in the process that it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. This is why a business plan review can make a key difference to your start-up.

Business Plan Review

Plenty of services exist that will offer to write your business plan for you. However, nobody knows your business idea as well as you do. It’s important you write the business plan yourself so you can think critically about every aspect of the business. Once completed, a reviewer will ensure you’ve produced a quality document that stands up to scrutiny and meets the requirements of those who will be reading your plan. Having your plan reviewed is an incredibly important step in the business plan creation process, and here’s five reasons why.

Validation

A business plan review presents the perfect opportunity to discuss your strategies, plans, and goals with a professional who has ample experience in producing successful documents. You’ll hear objective feedback on your idea, have flagged any potential challenges you may face, and see if your plan is missing any essential information about your business idea that you may or may not have yet considered.

A Test for Your Pitch

The ability to pitch your business is a core skill for any aspiring entrepreneur. At its heart, a business plan represents an in-depth pitch. Knowing your business plan inside out will foster confidence among any investors you meet. Having it undergo a review amounts to a ‘stress test’ for your business plan.

Is Your Business Model Viable?

No matter how passionate you are, it will take real money to sustain your business. Can you show how your business will generate cash over the next six to 12 months? A business plan reviewer has been there and done that. They’ll be able to identify gaps in your numbers, ways you can adjust, or any small details you may have missed.

What to Tackle First

No matter how strong your plan is, it’s likely to present several issues when you take a second look. An experienced reviewer can clearly identify which of these issues you should tackle first, enabling you to organize your plan into a presentable state as quickly as possible.

Business Plan Review Provides Clarified Decisions

Entrepreneurship is said to be a lonely endeavour. You’re responsible for the success and failure of your enterprise, and it represents a lot of pressure on your shoulders. Getting your business plan reviewed lets you share and discuss your options and plans with an expert. They can provide the pluses and minuses of each of your choices, helping you to evaluate your decisions objectively. Once you’ve taken their recommendations on board, you can come to an informed decision.

The reality is, most start-ups are bootstrapping their way toward growth. With limited funds entrepreneurs are forced to get creative in their problem solving. Marketing lends itself perfectly to this way of thinking, with savvy practitioners capable of making a big splash without breaking the bank.

Unfortunately, you will encounter some challenges along the way. How do you decide where to focus your marketing efforts? Where do you allocate your limited budget? Who do you market to? No matter how good a marketer you are, there’s always going to be a certain amount of guess work involved in answering these questions. Put yourself on solid ground by following these 10 marketing tips for start-ups.

What’s Your Budget?

In a recent study, BDC highlighted that 30% of Canadian small and medium enterprises have a marketing budget of less than $5,000 per year. Avoid the temptation to get caught up on the total dollar amount you’re spending. Instead, budget on a figure you can comfortably afford. How effectively you spend these dollars is more important than trying to break the bank on your marketing budget.

Make Use of Different Platforms

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. With the plethora of channels out there, marketers have never had it better. Start off by experimenting with different strategies. Craft an elevator pitch; Invest in online display ads and make use of email marketing software like MailChimp. Keep trying different ways to spread the word until you find one that works for your business.

Find Your Niche

A common pitfall for new entrepreneurs is the belief that everyone is their target market. If you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’ll fail to create any connections with potential customers. Establish who your target market is and tailor your advertising effort toward them. Speak to these potential customers, understand their lifestyles, concerns and needs. The better you know them, the more effectively you can sell to them.

Make Use of Social

Social media is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Find out what platform your target market uses and engage with them. For example, you won’t find many male tech enthusiasts on Pinterest, so it’s not essential for you to be on every platform. Join in the discussion on social, talk to potential customers without giving them the hard sell. Ensure your personal profiles are also up to date. Customers will be curious who you are and some may want to follow you.

Ensure Quality Content

Content Marketing isn’t just a buzz word. It’s one of the most effective ways to get people talking about your products. Create a blog and link to it on your social channels. People love reading lists (after all, you’re reading one right now), try to think of lists that provide a jumping off point for conversations. Note what topics are trending in your industry, or local area, and use them for content. If you’re creating the content the only investment you’re making is your own time.

Identify Allies

No matter what industry you’re in there will be key figures and influencers in positions of power. Work toward building a relationship with these people by sharing their content, interacting with them and even introducing yourself to them at events. If they can be convinced to share your content it will give your marketing and legitimacy a massive boost.

Attend Events

Though we live in an increasingly digital age, networking events still serve an important purpose in the business world. Identify events in your industry and attend. Take the time to introduce yourself to people and ask questions. Grow your network of potential customers by speaking to them face-to-face.

Use SEO to Grow

An entire cottage industry has popped up around search engine optimization but it’s an area you can tackle yourself. Make use of Google Analytics and Search Console to see which pages on your site are performing well. If your site runs off a platform like WordPress, the Yoast plug-in can point out tweaks and improvements you can make to aid your SEO ranking. If your content is well written, lacking in errors, and hits the keywords you want, you’re already doing well.

Follow Up

Customers have never been more empowered to provide feedback. Go above and beyond to ensure the feedback you receive is positive. These testimonials are worth their weight in gold as a marketing tool. Reach out to your customers and ask them how you can improve your product and service. A satisfied and engaged customer has the potential to do your advertising work for you.

Market Yourself

As the owner, you are the public face of your company. Take the necessary steps to always appear professional in the eyes of your peers. Present yourself well, say the right things (avoid divisive topics on social media) and show up at all your industry’s major events. If you turn yourself into a trusted figure in your field, it will have a tremendous effect on your business.

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation under the jurisdiction of WorkSafeBC requires that all small businesses have an occupational health and safety program. A workplace health and safety program is a process for managing the prevention of work-related injuries and diseases in the workplace.  As a small business owner and employer you have a responsibility to your employees toward improving health and safety.

The scope of your health and safety program depends on the size of your business and the hazards at your particular workplace. Generally, a small business can state its health and safety policy and describe its program in a few pages. For sample Health and Safety plans, visit the WorksafeBC website.

The following seven steps focus on the basics of a less formal program for smaller businesses; these key steps to a safe work environment will be the basic components of your health and safety program.

Create a Plan for Improving Health and Safety

As an employer, you must identify hazards in your workplace and take steps to eliminate or minimize them. Develop a safety plan. Tell your employees what you will do to ensure their safety and what you expect from them. Make sure your employees have access to a first aid kit.

Hazards can include: a cleaner working with heavy duty cleaning products, a mechanic working with large machinery or a warehouse manager stacking heavy boxes.

Inspect Your Workplace

Regularly check all equipment and tools to ensure that they are well maintained and safe to use. Also check storage areas and review safe work procedures. Are boxes in your storage area stacked in a safe manner? Are your employees instructed how to lift heavy goods without injuring themselves?  Do your employees know where the fire exit is and where they should gather if there is a fire?

Train Your Employees

Proper training is necessary for all employees, especially if there is a risk for potential injury associated with a job. Provide written instructions and safe work procedures so they can check for themselves if they are unsure of a task or have forgotten part of their training. Supervise your employees to ensure that they are using their training to perform their job properly and safely.  By not providing the correct training for your employees you are not only endangering the safety of your employees but you will be held liable for the incident which could have serious consequences.

Keep an Open Dialogue

Meet regularly with your staff and discuss health and safety issues. Encourage them to share their ideas and thoughts on how to improve safety in the workplace. You might even consider providing first aid training for staff so they are prepared to deal with emergency situations.

Investigate Accidents

Even if an incident does not result in a serious injury, conduct an incident investigation to help determine why an incident happened so you can take steps to ensure that it will not recur.

Maintain Records

Keep records of all first aid treatment, inspections, incident investigations, and training activities. This information can help you identify trends in unsafe conditions or work procedures.  You can find a Health and Safety Log Book on the WorkSafeBC website which includes easy-to-use checklists and blank forms.

Make Improving Health and Safety a Key Part of Business

Safety shouldn’t be an after-thought; it’s just as important to a successful business as customer service, inventory control, and financial planning. A commitment to health and safety makes good business sense because it’s the one way to protect your greatest resource — your people.

Find Out More

WorkSafe BC provides many publications and resources on workplace safety on their website, especially tailored to you the small business owner, including:

• Small Business Primer: A Guide to WorkSafeBC
• Small Business Health and Safety Log Book
• Small Business Safety Calculator
• Working Alone: A handbook for small business
• Small, Smart, and Safe: Basic Health and Safety in Small Business

You probably assume major events are the domains of big brands like Coca-Cola and McDonalds. But did you realize there are a great deal of opportunities for small businesses to also ‘get in the game’ and capitalize on the business side of events such as Olympic Games and World Cups?

As Vancouver prepares to play a major role in the FIFA World Cup 2026 as a host city, BC-based businesses have a unique opportunity to speak to a global audience, with tens of thousands of fans expected to visit, attend games, and experience everything our province has to offer. Buy Social Canada has produced a report highlighting that Toronto expects to generate $392 million in GDP while creating over 3,000 jobs. It’s anticipated Canadian host cities will also earn an approximate $150 million in tax revenues during the tournament.

How can your company tap into this exciting opportunity? The keys to success here are knowing who the buyers are, what they’re buying and when. Here are some of the key buyers you can cater to.

6 Types of Buyers for Major Events

For each sporting event, there are generally six groups of buyers. Although many businesses fix their sights upon the organizing committees, there are many more who operate behind the scenes:

1. Rightsholder. This is the organization that controls the rights and decides upon host locations. Examples include the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and the TED conference. Leading up to and during the games, the rightsholder holds all of the organizations involved to the rules and standards of the commercial and competitive aspects of the event.
2. Partners/Sponsors. Corporations and government jurisdictions who have paid a marketing fee for the right to associate their brand/location with the event. Many of the partners use the event for VIP receptions for key customers, distribution partners and may also plan public events, such as Fun Zones and concerts during the event.
3. Broadcasters/Media. Like the rightsholder, broadcasters and media have a great deal of staff on-site, many of whom are stuck in a specific location for long periods of time. Others may need to move quickly between locations. Boxed lunches and valet-type personal services are key for them, as well as local additional technical expertise and goods and services related to their equipment.
4. Competing Federations. While teams are fully looked after by the organizing committee, there are many other delegates from each competing country who must manage their own accommodations, meals, personal and professional needs while in Canada. They organize unseen events, such as meetings receptions and leisure activities for their sponsors, as well as friends and family of competing athletes.
5. Sport Tour Operators /Hospitality Companies. These highly specialized tour operators combine event tickets, travel, accommodations and sightseeing packages for sponsors, friends and family of athletes and individuals who wish to travel to the events.
6. Organizing Committee. A temporary local company created to manage all the aspects of staging the event in a specific location. The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) is an example of an organizing committee. The goods and services they purchase cover a broad range and are detailed below.

Goods and Services Your Business Could Provide to Major Events

Sporting and cultural events have a fairly common organizational structure and distinct language. To give you a basic understanding of that language, here are a few of the common terms and purchasing segments use:

1. Overlay: Furniture, fixtures, trailers, tents, mechanical, electrical and signage.
2. Hospitality and Travel: Catering, event management, accommodations, uniforms, service ware, hosts.
3. Services: Broadcast, event production, photography, printing, entertainment, couriers.
4. Games Operations: Medical equipment, medical services, security, transport, medals, flowers, training equipment.
5. Administration: Accounting, staffing, insurance, office supplies, apparel, name badges.
6. Arts and Cultural Festival: Staging, lighting, AV equipment, entertainers, security, food and beverage, promotional items, portable facilities, such as kitchens and bathrooms

Once you identify the section that your business fits into, then you can work to contract your products and services.