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According to Fortune Small Business Canada is third in the world as a "place relatively few hurdles in the path of business owners. In each nation it takes between two and five days to start a business and requires five or fewer steps to do so."

Lewis posits that the reason we have so many high-expectation entrepreneurs is that entrepreneurs are "culturally supported" here. Being an entrepreneur is a respected career choice, there are plenty of entrepreneurial role models and failure is not severely punished; a failed business is not considered a family disgrace or a 30 year struggle to pay off creditors here. Via Small Business Canada

Other points include "relatively low marginal tax rates, legal systems that protect intellectual property, enforce contracts, and provide relatively rapid adjudication of disputes."

Me? Yes You!

Feel like you are held hostage by an employee? Feel like they should be fired but struggle with making 'the' decision? You are not alone, I have heard this from many business owners.

The 'artful dodger' has above average people skills, are familiar with your comings and goings, and know how to work around you. You feel a sense of insecurity but feel that you need to make a business decision. No matter how much you think about it, you feel conflicted, and are not sure why. The employee in question does a good job. I have seen cases where their performance is above average job. But you still feel this person is hampering your ability to move forward. Via How do I decide whether an employee should be fired?

I wrote this in 2006 but the theme How do I decide whether an employee should be fired? is just as valid today as in 2006.

I talk about how an employees situation can change and how that can affect their performance as well as dealing with trust issues and creating a 'stop loss' order.

Current trends in search technology and how these can be tapped to help the growth of online advertising, will be discussed during the Red Herring East Technology Event to be held on June 26-28, 2007 at the Hyatt Harborside, Boston, MA.

Red Herring East Event Panel Discussion: Search: The New Frontier

Experts from Microsoft, Ask.com, Answer.com and more will gather for a one-of-a-kind panel discussion exploring trends in search technology, and how new search developments are expected to help the evolution of online advertising.

For more details, check out the agenda, full list of speakers and registration information.

Sponsored post by Red Herring East.

If you do a lot of business with customers in the U.S. you might be feeling the pinch due to the Canadian dollars rise against the U.S. dollar.

I do a lot of business with clients in the U.S. and back in 2000 I remember getting 1.57 CDN for each U.S, dollar. Today it is just $1.04 or $1.05.

Big difference. Failing to re-examine changes in the assumptions behind your business can result in bankruptcy:

A high Canadian dollar and new passport rules are driving away American clients, says the owner of an eastern Ontario woodworking school that recently went bankrupt.

Since January, new rules have required U.S. citizens to carry passports when they fly to and from Canada. Those rules have been lifted for the summer while the U.S. tries to catch up on a backlog of Passport Applications.

"On any given week, you'd have basically three full-time employees, a couple of the guest teachers, and then up to 14 students," he said. "Even though Rosewood was only here for a short period of time, it's done a lot for the town." Via CBC

Startup non-profit Zero Footprint has opened Zero Footprint Toronto.

The company is fighting global warming in two ways: encourage carbon reduction, and sell offsets for the remainder.

First, they are encouraging people and companies to be aware of how much carbon they are emitting into the atmosphere through consumption (cars, heating, food, etc.) and encouraging them to find ways to lower those emissions. Via TechCrunch

The goal of the toronto site is to "The City of Toronto is partnering with Zerofootprint to launch Zerofootprint Toronto, the first ever community-wide initiative aimed at engaging all citizens to fight climate change on a massive scale." The site offers a emissions calculator, list of zero footprint employers, a blog and other information to help individuals understand their carbon usage and learn what they can do to reduce their footprint. They also work with companies as well:

They've recently signed an agreement with Air Canada that went live just a week ago. The program encourages customers to buy an offset when purchasing a flight ticket on the airline.