The business of doing business

Being a teacher for most of my adult life, my expertise in the business world is lack and for this reason, I find many things like pricing, bookkeeping, taxes, and fees very confusing.  It has taken me two years of running the academy to start to get my head around this aspect of the business.  My philosophy should not be and is not that "the books will balance themselves".  This I have found out as I am still trying to show that this business is a viable option for me to spend 8 plus hours a day on and not show a profit.  The number of costs associated with a business is truly staggering and makes me wonder how any business makes a go of it in this taxes and fees structured world.  I found out now that I do not have to charge PST but do have to charge GST for the events I run.  I do have to charge PST for the products I sell.  This is due to the fact it is a coaching and training events for under 18-year-old participants.  But I have found that the following cost has made it difficult to show a profit in the first couple of years of business.  Costs like business license, corporation set up fees, trademark acquisitions, lawyers fees, participant insurance fees, association fees, accountant fees, computer software fees, equipment fees, advertise and promotion, credit card fees, gym rental costs and allow the other little costs.  It is truly a major headache to do and explains why many would shy away from the monumental task of setting up a system to look after all these minor time sucking items. 

I am learning all the time and getting better at it. but I still have a steep learning curve.  In the end, the one item which I find hard to get my head around is the large cost to rent gym space and difficulty I have securing the times in a gym.  A challenge but one that just needs to be learned like all others.

In the end, I am still enjoying the activities and will continue to try to offer the training at as cheap is is possible with the associated costs.