WZCC Toronto Chapter January 2019

The formal launch of the World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce, Toronto started off auspiciously on 2nd January 2019, with two excellent presentations and around twenty members present in spite of the 0-degree temperatures.

Afreed Mistry gave a brief into about the WZCC and then welcomed all the speakers and the invitees and then opened the floor for the presentations.

The first presentation was by RBC Bank who had sent three of its representatives to conduct a PPT session. Geruza Baptista, and Karan Kapoor, both Business Account managers and Tom Magnowski, Commercial Account Manager.

RBC talked about the 5 challenges that every new business faces and how RBC can help. They talked about understanding Canadian Business culture as an essential part of any business and their commitment to providing relevant information, resources and expert guidance.

Having a Business Plan was an absolute necessity and that asking key questions would go a long way in designing a good marketing plan.

They also mentioned how banks look at how you will manage your cash flow, your liquidity and how well you have worked on forecasting your business needs to determine your break-even numbers.

They discussed the different packages for down payments depending on cash flow/financing deals/guarantees etc. They dwelt on the concept of working capital finance having fixed fees while if buying/leasing equipment it would have term fees.

They gave a few tips on building up a good credit history which would come in handy in getting access to financing from them. Their different methods would be: 1) Business line of credit 2) Business credit cards 3) Term loans 4) Leasing 5) Overdraft protection.

The second presentation was excellently done by Mahyar Hansotia, CPA, President and owner of Sobel & Co, a Professional Corp.

He started by emphasizing that you need two “partners” from the very beginning, an accountant and a lawyer who will guide you with their experiences.

He explained that there are four types of businesses and how each business is unique with different requirements and goals and gave an overview of each

entity. Viz: A Sole Proprietorship, A Corporation, A Partnership and lastly a Joint Venture.

He gave an overview of each type of business and then the advantages and disadvantages of each of them along with a few myths that most people believed in.

He then also talked about HST and GST and how it was mandatory for all businesses to register if the threshold was met. He mentioned how different provinces have different rules for taxes, and how different goods are taxed.

He explained further how additional different filings may be required. Eg: T4 if you have employees, T5 if you pay interest or dividends, or foreign reporting forms if you have assets in other countries, etc.

He then ended by saying that having your own business is a lot of hard work, a lot of stress, requires a lot of administrative work to be done, but it can be very rewarding too. You learn new skill sets, financially you will do well, you will enjoy what you are doing as it is your own baby and that you will always no matter what have a boss…Your customer!

Lastly, he said the key to it all is to have fun!

After thanking all the speakers, we had an election for the new board of the WZCC Toronto Chapter and the elected individuals are: Cyrus Patel, President, Arashasp Shroff, Secretary, and Meherwan Wadia, treasurer

Afreed then read out a letter by Edul Davar, WZCC Global president who heartily congratulated the formation of the new Toronto Chapter and wish all success to the new team. He also enthused all, to attend the WZCC-Global AGM scheduled in Orlando, Florida, from May 1st to 5th 2019.

The meeting ended with a scrumptious dinner enjoyed by all.

Dilnavaz