I think some things could make your work far easier than mine, but in my case there are a lot of hoops to jump through. I initially wanted to bootstrap myself in my garage, but discovered over time that this is essentially illegal and I'm required to operate out of a business address. This is also virtually forced on me because there are a variety of compounds I can't order without a registered business and accompanying business address, which is manually verified. Fine, I totally get regulations around hazardous chemicals, though in my case it seems excessive. But, if I were to summarize the things that have been most frustrating:
- Rents in industrial spaces are absurd in my area, and I suspect they are for most of Canada in any HCOL area. If you can't wing it out of your garage, your burn rate just exploded
- Getting permits has been exorbitantly slow and complex
- WorkSafeBC cooperation and inspections are a major time sink (gets better after the first stretch)
- Getting certficates to export plants is—in my opinion—unnecessarily complex and slow, such that I don't think I'll even bother at this rate
- Inter-provincial regulations and standards can be hard as hell to nail down. Asking random people on forums can yield better results than extensive google or LLM querying
- Keeping track of things like write offs and deductions can span years for single costs. I understand why, but I don't like it
- Admin and oversight often feels like half the job. I need to be on top of so many things that aren't 'the work', and it takes a lot away from focusing on making a better product
- Shipping things is expensive as hell, and I anticipate this problem will worsen over time. Not a big deal if you don't ship anything
- Depending on the type of business you've registered, the admin overhead at different times of the year can be significant
It probably sounds like I don't understand what regulations are for and I hate red tape, but that's not the case at all. I think small businesses are disproportionately slammed by some of the requirements they create, though. I also wonder if there are blanket policies which cause some people to be pressed much harder than necessary. It makes you wonder if any of it is worth it at all.
Again though, if you just go around repairing things or you provide software services, your life will be orders of magnitude simpler. I used to have a sole proprietorship here in BC providing software consulting services, and it was fine. I had one tax hiccup in something like 10 years, and it wasn't a big deal. I rarely had to think about it.
I do wonder if this friction could be part of why Canada arguably has a lack of interest and innovation when it comes to producing material goods. It's genuinely a pain in the ass to be allowed to do it by the books, and to continue operating accordingly.
Caveat: I could be lazy and stupid