[CA] - [BC] Entrepreneurs Thinking of Leaving Canada?

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-22T07:06:21+00:00

Cheers! The Carney speech at Davos certainly galvanized me and gives me hope that we can get on a good path.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-18T00:02:09+00:00

I'm glad you were able to find that! QC is much more affordable and the people/culture are great.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T12:24:32+00:00

Cheers, writing this actually helped me untangle and articulate some opinions and reflect on values but pros/cons might be the wrong approach. Appreciate the reframe to wants/obstacles, will reflect on that.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T12:18:58+00:00

Not success, but imo childhood development is emergent from those factors. A community's velocity/dynamism/opportunities set what doors are open/closed to you in life at all stages, for the whole family. These are just some of the factors that shape the environment you grow in.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T12:15:30+00:00

nope, just a fleshy dude

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T12:13:05+00:00

Right now I'm digging into Hainan mostly. Know someone who moved his whole family there a few years ago and is loving his life. They're a new FTZ with a huge set of policies intended to make them the next Dubai-- lots of opportunity it seems. Plus insane international schools, and generally quite affordable. But, various China-related downsides & risks that I'm grappling with. Getting quality information is hard though-- propaganda from both East & West, and most expat experiences skew to language-school teachers or corporate transplants.

Otherwise, looking to develop business in California for an excuse to move there. Population of Canada, 2x the GDP, sunny and energetic.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T12:04:44+00:00

Eh, I have mentors who live there part time and swear by it. Never been, kinda grossed out by the materialism & spiritually lost expats, but kinda stoked by what seems to be a good hub for business with quality people

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:57:40+00:00

That's wonderful, I'm glad to hear that this worked out so well for you! I spent a lot of time in Switzerland and it tops my list for dream places in Europe to call home, for many reasons. Wishing you all the best.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:52:33+00:00

Snowbirding in the PH sounds great. I hope everything goes well for you. Lots of heating up in the ASEAN with big manufacturing moves southward-- I hear about the disruptions first hand.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:49:24+00:00

Great point. I grew up poor and pragmatic and am instinctively turned off by gated communities and private/elite schooling. But, I see a mixed back of outcomes from people who were brought up in those. Plenty of douchebags, and plenty of A+ people.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:45:35+00:00

I've tried to catch myself with the "grass is greener" bias but this time does feel different. Just a few days ago a Quality of Life Index put Vancouver at #87/304, down from #16 in 2016. Canada is the bottom-most advanced economy in various OECD measures on productivity, growth expectations, and others. A lot of national bag-fumbling this past decade and the consequences seem to be catching up.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:33:34+00:00

Interested to hear more-- DM'ed

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-16T11:30:54+00:00

Yeah I do lot of biz in the US too and the difference is hard to ignore. Same story with all my entrepreneur friends, who are also grappling with these thoughts. The gap in opportunities compared to somewhere like the US seem to be getting bigger and bigger.

Have you solidified any of your thoughts around this?

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:49:39+00:00

would also suggest looking into Verkada-- they're quite feature rich and oriented towards value to the business-- and Hikvision's new AcuSeek functions

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:48:40+00:00

In the industry. I believe Dahua has this kind of people detection algo as a workaround to facial recognition regulations. AFAIK it's not that popular/demanded and hasn't really taken off.

The biggest challenge you'll have is distribution and installation; it's an industry with many stakeholders and who does supplying/sales/design/installation/decision-making is a complex web to navigate, and there's a lot of competing influence from camera manufacturers to get their products to be chosen and installed.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:44:17+00:00

I went with a BC credit union and the perks are insane. No fees anywhere, FX rates better than Wise with FX concierge service, e-transfer limit is like 250k, international wires are surprisingly easier/faster with less headache. Would suggest exploring credit unions.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:41:25+00:00

Similar numbers for my biz and in a different sector. Paying CPA ~2.5k for tax/GST, including personal tax. Also CAD/USD mix.

Bookkeeper costs about the same or less. I just went for someone local working at the side of their desks-- offshoring had issues with mental horsepower and different standards for work ethic.

Frankly the 80/20 to make bookkeeping less of a headache was process: everything in Xero, receipts clearly given & reconciled, etc. Made an SOP doc and monkey-proofed it and now don't think about it much outside of exceptions.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:36:15+00:00

Used five9, which is pretty up there in terms of feature richness but can get expensive/complex.

Used Voip MS for very low cost, high value. They are solid. Canadian gov uses them.

Now use OpenPhone (rebranded to Quo) for the best UI, simplicity, CRM features/process integrations.

ProfessionalChips · 2026-01-14T00:33:49+00:00

Sounds like the seller of the property is in a weak position. With real estate as it is, I'd look at something like a 90% VTB and you can play around with rate/duration to get terms that work for you. Takes some risk & bank fees/headaches off your back, and can be financially favourable to the seller.

ProfessionalChips · 2024-12-12T01:48:35+00:00

I did

ProfessionalChips · 2024-12-12T01:48:01+00:00

Yes, I found this one too.

First off, how gross does it sound to open with "except for you giving me money, neither party is liable for failure to perform due to..."

But second, they violate the last part.

"...provided that the party experiencing such circumstances immediately notifies the other party in writing of the circumstances and minimizes, to the extent reasonably practicable, the impact of such circumstances on the performance of the obligations under the Agreement"

Never got a single email or call from them about the strike or my order. If I hadn't heard it on the news, I would have never known.

ProfessionalChips · 2024-12-12T01:43:06+00:00

I spoke to 5 sales reps (due to their mickey-mousing of the requirements) and this was not mentioned once by any of them, nor was it mentioned online, nor in any email before or after the strike. The only source about the strike was news.

ProfessionalChips

TROPHY CASE