To grow a valuable business – one you can sell – you need to set up your company so that it is no longer reliant on you. This can be easier said than done, especially when, like a PR consultant or plumber, what you are selling is your expertise. To scale up a knowledge-based business, you first have to figure out how to impart your knowledge to your employees, so that they can deliver the goods. However it can be difficult to condense years of school and on-the-job learning into a few weeks of employee training. The more specialized your knowledge, the harder it is to hand over work to juniors.

Understanding financial and accounting statements can be a confusing and even overwhelming ordeal, and much of this has to do with the litany of financial jargon that seems like a Harvard MBA is needed to understand it. However, we have done the hard work for you by breaking down and explaining some of the key terms that every business owner should be familiar with.

Despite the harsh economic reality of the past few years, business owners in the micro-market are once again beginning to reassess their business growth strategies. Regardless of the industry, every business owner reaches the point when they begin to re-evaluate their business plan and examine avenues by which to grow their company. Networking opportunities exist for everyone in the business world, whether it is in trying to find new a job opportunity, trying to expand your network of clients, or trying to build relationships within your respective industry. Although it may not be the most conventional way of growing your business, we are in a new age of commerce where your network of contacts and clients is critical to the future prosperity of your company.

For the majority of small business owners in Canada, the process of selling your business is a unique experience. Most owners have poured a lifetime of work into building a successful company, giving little time or thought to the development of a succession plan. In a 2011 TD Waterhouse Business Succession survey, over 75% of Canadian small-to-medium sized business owners surveyed said that they did not have a succession plan in place. Additionally, more than 40% of business owners recently surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business plan to leave their businesses in the next five years, and more than 70% within the next 10 years. With the majority of baby boomers moving into their early retirement years, more and more business owners are faced with the reality of developing a succession plan. Succession planning is all about having a clearly defined exit strategy. Regardless of the time frame for the sale of your business, there are a number of important steps you can take to ensure that when the time comes it is a seamless process.

Time is rapidly catching up to more and more Canadians, and an aging population means a greater strain on the Canadian labour market, health-care system, and company pension policies. Succession planning has become critical for small-to-medium business owners in Canada because having a clearly defined and prepared exit strategy will allow business owners to seamlessly transfer into the next phase of their lives. Whether that is retirement, or to pursue other business opportunities, it is clear that succession planning will continue to play an important role in the strategy of small-to-medium-size business owners.

Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses that have what he calls a protective “moat” around them – one that inoculates them from competition and allows them to control their pricing. Big companies lock out their competitors by out-slugging them in capital infrastructure investments, but smaller businesses have to be smarter about how they defend their turf. Here are four ways to deepen and widen the protective moat around your business:

It seems like we’re at a fork in the road: there are some positive signs that the economy is entering the earliest stages of a long term expansion, but at the same time, if we dare read the headlines, it seems we’re destined to repeat 2008.

As a small to medium sized business owner, you are already aware of all the time and effort it has taken to be successful. From the first sale to completing the project and receiving payment, you have been committed to growing your business. Now, you have reached your last and most important sale: the sale of your business and capitalizing on the goodwill you have worked so hard to garner. When preparing your business for sale, there are many key considerations that will contribute to the smooth transition of operations to a new owner and result in a strong closing price. Enlisting the services of a Business Broker will allow you to maintain focus on operating in a ‘business-as-usual’ fashion and preparing for succession.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, March 14, 2012 - Beacon Corporation, Brokerage has pledged 1% of its revenues to support a local environmental initiative in the Greater Toronto Area, as a member of not-for-profit alliance 1% for the Planet.  Today, that pledge has been fulfilled. Beacon has chosen to partner with Friends of the Don East (FODE) and will be donating 1% of its 2011 revenues towards the rehabilitation of the Don River. “At Beacon we believe that sustainable development is our corporate responsibility and is good business for our clients” says M. Will Fischtein, President and Broker of Record of Beacon. “This year we made a commitment to fund a local environmental challenge and we are designating our commitment to the Don River in Eastern Toronto.”