Tag Archives: start-up

Lightning-fast Connectivity: The Fastest Broadband in Canada For Gamers

Let’s get right to it! Here is the breakdown:

You can find the full dataset here.

Earning it the nickname ‘Canada’s Silicon Valley’, Kitchener, Ontario, is a technology powerhouse with numerous tech companies, start-ups, and research institutions. It achieved first place for broadband speed at 287 Mbps

Toronto follows closely behind, with 283 Mbps. As the country’s largest city and financial hub, boasting a thriving economy and a diverse range of industries, the demand for the Internet is high, and providers have clearly delivered. 

Neighbouring Brampton scored similarly, with 277 Mbps. Home to a growing business sector, particularly in industries such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology, the city has the third-highest connectivity speed in Canada.

The only city in the top five that isn’t in Ontario is Surrey, landing in fourth place. Renowned for its beautiful natural surroundings, including parks, green spaces, and the stunning Fraser River, Surrey achieved an internet download speed of 271 Mbps. London, Ontario, follows closely behind with a broadband speed of 270 Mbps.

It makes sense to see Ontario cities landing in the top 5 as recently the governments of Canada and Ontario invested over $54 million to make the Internet accessible to more than 20,000 homes. This not only will bring a necessary Internet connection to rural Ontario but bring reliable high-speed Internet access to the whole of the country.

Methodology:

  1. BonusFinder Canada wanted to reveal the best Canadian cities for gamers to live in.
  2. In order to achieve that, they created a seed list of the 20 most populated cities in Canada using Data Commons.
  3. Fixed download speeds were obtained from the Ookla dataset with gridded worldwide internet speed data. The data was spatially joined with the coordinates of the cities in Canada using the Geopandas package in Python, which allowed for an average download speed (in megabits per second (Mbps)) per city to be obtained. The coordinates for Canada were obtained from the GADM geospatial data set, (except for Quebec and Montreal which were obtained from the overpass api).
  4. Data was also collected on the number of gaming conventions in each city in 2023 using Video Games Con for gaming conventions and Board Game Geek for board games conventions.
  5. TripAdvisor was then used to count the number of ‘game and entertainment centres.
  6. The number of game development companies in each province was found on Alberta Video Game Studios – Canadian Game Devs.
  7. The number of gaming jobs in each city was found using Indeed, using the search term ‘video game’ as well as each city included in the seed list. 
  8. All data was then combined into a definitive ranking which was equally weighted. BonusFinder Canada was then able to assign a final score out of 10 to each city and determine which is best and worst for gamers.
  9. Data is correct as of July 6th, 2023.

For the Silo, Marissa Pysarczuk.

Here is a link to our friends at https://bonus.ca/ who commissioned this data.

7 Serious Tips for Better Bookkeeping in Canada

Bookkeeping is tedious for most business owners unless you are a seasoned accountant or a fan of working with numbers. That is because businesses have a lot of financial details that need to be recorded, for instance, which supplier should be paid, outstanding customers, equipment to buy, significant purchases to make, and more. Without an accounting and bookkeeping system, you may lose essential business data, miss important goals, or make uninformed decisions that may affect your company’s finances.

Proper money-handling strategies are integral in any business as it helps you keep track of your long-term goals, improve your profits, and streamline seasonal cash flow changes. In addition, it will help your business stay out of trouble with the Internal Revenue Service or IRS.

By adopting good bookkeeping habits, you can avoid costly errors when it comes to record keeping. You can opt to have an in-house team to handle all your bookkeeping services, but this can be un-economical for small business owners. To save on cost, you can work with a bookkeeping agency, which often offers professional online and virtual services in Canada at very fair rates.

Here are seven tips for better bookkeeping for businesses in Canada.

Separate Your Business and Personal Finances

If you are a sole business owner, you should learn to separate your personal and business accounts. This will help you maintain records of every business and personal spending and help you keep the boundary to alleviate eating into the business growth finances.

For limited liability companies, the business is a separate entity from you, and your finances should be kept separate. That means you need to know which assets belong to the business and which are yours. By eliminating all personal transactions from the business accounts, you will lower the number of transactions the bookkeeper needs to categorize and reconcile. Additionally, your tax preparation and filing process will be seamless. You can find a bookkeeper in Canada to help you separate your accounts and provide outsourced business and personal bookkeeping services.

Control Your Business Credit

One of the common signs of an insolvent business is the inability to make payments promptly. The company may need better credit scores, lack of funding, or challenges in fulfilling its working capital needs.

When your business depends on bank financing to fund everyday operations, you will need help to pay back your high-interest debt. Therefore, you need to do due diligence before taking external funding.

You should set strict deadlines for your clients to pay what they owe and consider blocklisting repeat offenders that are taking advantage of you. Eliminate any late payments, as it is just like an interest-free loan. Your business may quickly become a cash-flow crisis if you lack rigorous credit control.

Track Business Expenses

Business expenses may be claimed against tax; therefore, tracking them is crucial if you want to cut overhead and maintain a healthy cash flow. You should always use a business credit card and keep records of expenses based on business activity.

Categorizing your expenses can be crucial, especially when your business is undergoing an CRA audit. The numbers on tax returns are often estimates, and these records help offer supporting evidence. Always remember that even trivial expenses will add up, and having records of everything can be helpful in the long run.

Overspending negatively affects any business; hence, keeping track of your expenses will ensure you track all your expenditures. Always remember that every dollar that you spend takes the business one step away from making a profit. Therefore, when running a business, keep a close watch on all your expenses, understand the benefit you gain from each expense, and document everything carefully. With outsourced online bookkeeping services, you can keep track of all your business expenses and maintain good records.

Schedule Routine Bookkeeping Times

As a business owner, you are handling many things at once, which can eat into the time you can use to monitor your financial record books.

The best way to keep your accounts is by consistently scheduling times to balance your books or working with a bookkeeping company in Canada. You can set aside time when your credit card statement is due and check through your monthly transactions to ensure everything is accurate. Although this task will take about one or two hours, it will simplify your life during the tax season by making tax preparation and filing much more effortless.

Create Budgets For Your Expenses And Set Financial Goals

Planning for business expenses, especially significant purchases, can help you best utilize your business resources and credit while giving you the peace of mind you need. Setting up and reviewing business budgets is directly related to the success of your business.

According to research, small businesses that regularly review their budgets on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis have success rates of 95%, 75%, and 25%, respectively. Therefore, if you want your business to succeed, you must have relatively high unused credit balances. In addition, you should also ensure your budget is monitored regularly, understand the benefits of using credit for your company, and be able to earmark the right amount of business payroll expenses.

Automate Manual Processes

One of the best accounting tips for growing businesses and start-ups is automating routine bookkeeping. Most accounting and bookkeeping activities are repetitive, and automating them will make your work easier and seamless.

Some repetitive bookkeeping processes you can automate include paying employees’ salaries monthly, following up on late invoices, and tracking invoices you send to customers. In addition, you can also automate the calculation of mileage payments for employee reimbursements and document utility bills in a central database.

Business owners can make life much easier by utilizing unified accounting project management solutions to help track expenses, automatically send invoices, and generate customized reports.

Consider Hiring a Tax Accountant

Investing in a seasoned tax accountant near me can be valuable for your business, even if the professional commits just a few hours every week or month to work on your small business bookkeeping and accounting needs.

A certified bookkeeper will record income and expenses and categorize them for a specified period. Conversely, a chartered accountant will help file your business taxes and set up your business’s accounting backbone. A reputable bookkeeping company will have certified tax consultants near me ready to assist you.

With an expert bookkeeper or chartered accountant handling all financial tasks, business owners can focus entirely on their business to attract customers and satisfy existing clients. They can also develop new products and services and grow their business.

Final Thoughts

Bookkeeping is a necessary evil that businesses cannot escape because almost everything depends on it. With an accurate and robust accounting system, you will get information about the business’s cash flow, performance, and financial condition, and it will help you make informed financial decisions. With the tips mentioned above in mind, you can ensure your small business bookkeeping records are available and can make better decisions for your business. You can also eliminate the headache of bookkeeping by outsourcing this function to a certified bookkeeper to help you out. Having a safe pair of skilled hands providing bookkeeping services for small businesses will give you, as the business owner, the confidence and freedom to lead from the front by focusing more on growing your business.

Artificial Intelligence Or AI Is Set To Take Over Many Industries

Is there any question that Artificial Intelligence, or “AI”, is going to play a huge role in the future? The short answer is no- it’s already playing a large part today, so let’s delve into this new tech and look at how it is benefiting the energy sector and what we can expect to see from this AI phenomenon in the not so distant future.

AI In Energy Sector

Digital Serbia Partnership Launches To Set Serbia As Digital Innovation Hub

“Digital Serbia” is the non-profit private partnership initiative launched by Ringier Axel Springer Serbia and leading tech companies. Its mission is to focus on improving the framework and ecosystem required to enable tech entrepreneurship and digital innovation in both industry and education in Serbia. The founding members of the initiative are Infostud, Microsoft, Nordeus, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ringier Axel Springer, Seven Bridges, Startit, Telekom Srbija and Telenor.

“Digital Serbia” has been established as an association, bringing leading technology, IT and telecommunication companies together to drive digital innovation for Serbia and for its people. The Steering Committee of “Digital Serbia” will be made up of representatives of the founding companies. The Committee will be headed by Branko Milutinović, CEO and co-founder of Nordeus.

All of the association’s activities will be directed towards setting up an improved framework and investment climate to encourage technological entrepreneurship, innovations in the Serbian IT industry and a better level of digital literacy and education in the digital economy. Companies who want to participate in the realization of this goal, and to contribute to Digital Serbia, are invited to join.

“Digital Serbia” has been launched following the success of “digitalswitzerland”, and builds on the efforts of digital hubs such as London, Tel Aviv and Berlin, which joined the digital tech and innovation bandwagon early on.

Jelena Drakulić-Petrović, General Manager of Ringier Axel Springer Serbia and founder and initiator of the Digital Serbia Initiative: “Technological development brings unprecedented change at a high speed. Innovation in business and education helps to increase productivity. It allows for new solutions in the development of products and services. As a media company, we believe in the importance of enhancing digital innovative strength in Serbia, as this will be the driver that helps to create new jobs and grow our business. With “Digital Serbia”, we are seeking to unlock the vast potential we envisage for the Serbian economy and its people.”

Branko Milutinović

Branko Milutinović, CEO and co-founder of Nordeus: “Thanks to digitalization, success can now be boiled down to its essence: creativity, know-how and professionalism. This is our opportunity. Together, we will work hard so Serbian innovations and success stories may develop from a stronger foundation and gain more attention. That’s why our decision to invest in digital education and tech entrepreneurship is so important to the future of our entire community.”

“Digital Serbia” will provide basic information and support to innovative companies, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises in the IT sector, on how to operate in these areas, and will provide assistance to companies and society in establishing contacts through various forums and fairs. In addition, “Digital Serbia” will actively participate in identifying and addressing legal restrictions that slow down the development of e-Business in Serbia, and will provide active support for technology startups.
The website www.dsi.rs has been launched with detailed information about the initiative.

Also building on the success of “digitalswitzerland” is the initiative “Digital Poland”, which will be launched on June 1, 2017 in Krakow during the Impact Conference (www.impactcee.com). The initiative will be supporting digitization for the economy, supporting education and the legal system around issues relating to digitization and innovation, and helping companies in Poland to transition from offline to online. For the Silo,  Fouzia Hussain.

About “digitalswitzerland”

digitalswitzerland is a joint partnership between businesses, public authorities and the scientific community, which wants to shape Switzerland as the leading international hub for digital innovation. digitalswitzerland is already active in a wide range of fields such as knowledge transfer, education, start-up ecosystems, and political framework conditions. The association includes more than 70 of the most renowned companies and organizations as well as innovative locations throughout Switzerland. The initiative was launched in 2015 by Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier AG. More info can be found at www.digitalswitzerland.com

About Ringier Axel Springer Media AG

Ringier Axel Springer Media AG was founded in 2010 by the Swiss Ringier AG and the German Axel Springer SE. The company operates in the growth markets of Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a broad range of media services, comprising more than 165 digital and print offerings. The company’s registered offices are in Zurich and it employs a total of about 3100 employees.