These guides are for owners who would rather do the thinking themselves and call only if they get stuck. Each one covers a single decision that most home-based service businesses face, uses worked numbers you can replace with your own, and ends with a short checklist. Read them in order if you can: pricing first, then hiring, then space. Each decision depends on the one before it.
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Pricing a home-based service: a worksheet you can finish tonight
Price from the whole week, not the billed hour. Count every hour the business takes, add your costs and target pay, and build rates, minimums and travel charges from that.
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From solo to first hire: deciding with numbers, not exhaustion
Hire when your prices are right, your week is tight and you are still turning work away. Then pick the role that frees the most billable hours per dollar, and ask the right offices the right questions first.
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When to move the business out of your home
Move when a specific constraint is costing you more than the space would, with a margin for slow months. Until then, a cheaper stepping stone often solves the real problem.
Pricing a home-based service
Pricing a home-based service shows how to calculate what an hour of your business really costs and turn it into rates. It walks through a full time audit, including the travel, messaging, quoting and supply runs most owners never count, and builds a rate from target income and costs.
You'll learn:
- how to find your real hourly rate in an evening
- how to set minimum charges and travel zones
- how to tell existing customers about a price change
- the pricing mistakes that are specific to working from home
From solo to first hire
From solo to first hire helps you decide whether your business can carry a second person and which role should come first. It includes the affordability test, a comparison of helpers, technicians, admin support and subcontractors, and the questions to take to the CRA, your workers' compensation board, your insurer and your municipality.
You'll learn:
- the signals that it's time, and the ones that only feel like it
- how to calculate break-even for a first hire
- what to hand over first and how to train for it
- how to set a review date so a poor hire doesn't drift
When to move the business out of your home
When to move out of home puts numbers on one of the most emotional decisions in a home business. It compares staying, stepping stones such as storage or shared space, and a full lease, and shows how to set trigger points.
You'll learn:
- the four kinds of pressure that push businesses out of the house
- how to cost a move fully, including commute and admin time
- cheaper in-between options and when each makes sense
- how a move changes the way customers find you
Who the guides are written for
They are written for the owner of a service business run from a home or a vehicle, with no shopfront and usually no staff yet. That covers a wide range: house cleaners, mobile groomers, tutors, home-studio hairstylists, bookkeepers, photographers, handypersons, gardeners and mobile mechanics, among many others.
The examples change from guide to guide so you can see the method work in different trades and professions. The arithmetic is the same whatever you do; only the numbers change.
What the guides deliberately leave out
Three subjects are left to the people who are qualified to answer them. Municipal licensing and zoning differ by city, so we point you to your own municipality. Tax treatment, including home-office claims and sales-tax registration, belongs with the CRA and an accountant. Employment law belongs with your provincial employment standards office or a lawyer. Where a guide touches one of these, it links to an official source we have checked and stops there.
How to use these guides
Treat each guide as a worksheet, not just reading. Open a spreadsheet, replace our example numbers with yours, and see where you land. Where a guide says "check with your municipality" or "ask the CRA", that is because the answer genuinely varies or belongs to them.
If the numbers point somewhere you didn't expect, that is usually the most useful moment to talk. The services overview describes how we help with each decision, the pricing page shows what it costs, and the contact page explains how to reach us.
Frequently asked questions
Are the guides free?
Yes. They are written so you can make the decision yourself. If you'd like help applying them, the first 30-minute consultation is also free.
Which guide should I read first?
The pricing guide. Hiring and moving decisions both depend on knowing your real hourly rate, and that guide shows how to work it out.
Do the guides cover tax or bylaws?
No. They point you to the CRA and to your municipality for those questions, and focus on the business arithmetic.