My husband and I are planning to move to Toronto this year, Both of us are fairly young and ambitious, and we would ideally like to start something new ourselves (Guess, like most hopefuls!).

It would be helpful to get a few ideas of what canadians/CDs would like to see more of or less of in terms of small businesses/ services / shops or whatever....it can be related to anything and everything....this would help us to get to know Canada ( more specifically Toronto) better and maybe give us all a few ideas.....

I.e. if you could..would u... like to open a 'Somasa Hut' ? Or maybe An Indian/Canadian fusion bar/lounge aimed at professions? A high end indian fashion wear label aimed at CDs? A dating service ?

It doesnt have to be desi at all....just BRAINSTORM and let us know..THANX

Aiyo ...no replies..try this, might induce the mind

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

The best business in Canada is done outside Canada. There is no business like the Immigration business. You should get into this business and you will have offices all over the world, with clients begging you to take up their case. You do not need to refund any monies, no quality problems/returns/credit issues.The client pays upfront and you become a messenger.
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The second best business in Canada is to set up settlement services which include temporary staying homes, services for ESL, Placement/Job/Resume preparation services. You get money from the Canadian government.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------I have a friend who has all the equipment for making Pizza/Pizza Joint available for sale. He had invested CAD 100 K and was making vegetarian pizza and he could not sustain his business in Brampton. He closed it down a few months ago and he has not able to sell his brand new equipment for making pizzas. He has currently quoted CAD 19K for the whole set of equipments.

Any interest ?, If so I can put you onto his accountant for further discussions.


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There is another South Indian fast food joint available in mississauga at the intersection of Dundas/HWY10. The owner wants to get out of business. It is a fastfood, cash and carry business. Last he was asking for a price of CAD 60K for the business plus plus other costs. If you are interested I can put you onto the right people.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------There was this used CD/DVD selling joint called "The Beat Goes On" at the intersection of Mavis and Eglinton right next to the CAA. They were also a bright/young/professional couple from Singapore just like you have described. They ran this franchise and recently I found that they had closed down their franchise. I saw a message left on the closed shop. I found it a bit interesting. They had started the message with following lines.This franchise of The Beat Goes On is closed. The orders of this franchise will be executed at the Oakville shop.We would like to thank our patrons for putting us through this suffering.

There are many such horror stories and many success stories too !.The common thread in many of the success stories is that they do business in CASH. Are you ready to do cash business that is to buy in cash and sell in cash ?.

Every day a few businesses go out and a few come in. Hence please keep looking out for such deals from various brokers, who can help you to locate such steals.

The best bet for CANADA is a franchise of Tim Hortons but you'll need a cool Million for this startup.

Good Luck !

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"

Outsourcing to India is good, as a matter of fact excellent. Tough, though.

Thanx shankar for the reply, much appreciated

Outsourcing too is a great idea...but i think its more for multinationals, where benefits are obvious.....

by the way there is an excellent, informative book called 'The world is flat' by thomas friedman. It talks about (in very plain english) the technology boom, how and why it happened and where now...it also dwells on outsourcing to india..its very interesting to know what is being outsourced...its not just the call centres anymore...but literally anything that can be, from american kids doing their homework online with an indian teacher(ie tuition..u know how big india is with that anyway!!) to hospitals outsourcing their patients x-rays to be examined in india!

PS: off the subject, but any thoughts regarding the indian economy boom? can it be sustained? will it crash? mainly due to out sourcing ??

hey guys..how about shakars second idea, of setting up Placement/Job/Resume preparation services with investpro's outsourcing.

set up a site, with clients requirements detailing what they are looking for..i.e whether its a job, or accomodation, and the exact specifics of it and then let a few guys in india frantically search the web and short- list a few options..ie do all the research and tedious work for them?
or is this already being done (probably is)

I actually meant become a broker. I have a number of friends who make upwards of a quarter million bucks a year from brokering in outsourcing- and that's only the commissions here- plus commissions overseas is an extra- and they've only been in the business 3-4 years. They make frequent trips to India- like everytime I turn my back, they are in India, so to speak- and flying business class or first class- no coach. They live in million dollar homes when 3 years ago they lived in shacks, so to speak. Very low keyed people. No false airs. No suits, no ties- just jeans and tees but their homes are amazing! Most have Canadian born and bred partners who do the fancy Canadian accent spiel and then the Indian guy/s take/s over.

There is the plain vanilla type which is contact/call centre stuff. Then there is the more involved one in book-keeping, insurance, medical transcriptions and so on.

Then I also know people brokering medical tourism, though it seems that is more tedious.

The simplest I gather is contact centre work- measured in man-hours. Extremely competitive. But book-keeping and accountancy outsourcing do not have many players and is extremely lucrative.