Resources for business owners
Guides, a three-minute fit assessment, a partial-sale calculator and a glossary — written by operators for owners of established companies weighing growth, equipment, expansion or succession capital.
Everything here is free and none of it is gated. If a guide tells you that a bank, a Community Futures office, a CDFI or a grant program is a better answer than our members, that is the guide doing its job.
Each piece carries the date we last reviewed it. Canadian programs and tax rules change several times a year, so check the date before you rely on a number.
Tools
Fit assessment
Nine short questions, three minutes, an honest read on whether our members are a fit — and a specific next step either way.
OpenPartial-sale calculator
What would selling 20% actually put in your pocket? Illustrative arithmetic on EBITDA or SDE, a multiple range, and debt.
OpenGlossary
Forty terms you will meet raising minority capital, defined in one or two sentences each.
OpenGuides
Long-form, written by operators, and dated — Canadian programs change several times a year.
- Sep 29, 2026Grants vs Investment: Which One Are You Actually Looking For?Grants don't require you to give up equity, but they're rare, competitive, and often come with strings attached. Investment capital from our members is faster to access and comes with operator expertise—but it means sharing ownership and decision-making. Here's how to know which one fits your situation.
- Sep 29, 2026Pitching operators is different: a 10-slide outline for established companiesA pitch to operator-investors isn't a venture deck. Start with who you are and what you've built. Then show the gap you need filled—money, people, time, or know-how. Our members back operators. They want to see your track record and your next move.
- Sep 29, 2026Case studies: anonymized deal storiesOur members back established companies across manufacturing, trades, distribution, and services. These anonymized stories show how operator-investors structure deals, the scale of cheques written, and what happens when an owner and experienced operators work together to grow or transition a business.
- Sep 29, 2026Office Hours: six short videos with transcriptsOur members answer real questions from business owners. Watch six short videos on equity, succession, growth capital, and what it means to work with operator-investors. Read the full transcripts. Use them to brief your team, feed your AI tools, or share with advisors.
- Sep 29, 2026How Small Businesses Are Valued: SDE vs EBITDA, and What a Minority Stake Is WorthSmall businesses are valued using SDE (seller's discretionary earnings) or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization). A minority stake costs less per dollar of earnings than full ownership—the discount depends on cash flow, growth, and how much control you keep. Our members price each situation differently.
- Sep 29, 2026Southwestern Ontario Main-Street Capital Survey (Annual)Our members back established businesses across Southwestern Ontario with cheques from $50,000 to $5 million. This year's survey shows how companies in your size and sector are finding capital. We've gathered data on financing trends, deal structures, and what owners are actually doing.
- Sep 12, 2026Capital structures explained: preferred shares, revenue notes and loans with warrantsThree structures do most of the work in minority investments into established businesses: preferred shares with a dividend and buy-back, a revenue-based note, and a shareholder loan with warrants. Each pays the investor from cash flow rather than only from a sale, and each fits a different revenue pattern.
- Sep 12, 2026The diligence-prep checklist: what investors ask for, and whenInvestor diligence on a $1M–$25M-revenue company asks for about forty documents across six categories, collected in stages. Nothing sensitive is needed to apply; financial statements come before the member working session; contracts, references and a site visit come in the final four to six weeks.
- Sep 12, 2026What investors look for in a $2M-revenue manufacturer: a 20-point checklistInvestors looking at a small manufacturer test twenty things, and only three of them are financial statements. Customer concentration, quoting discipline, capacity utilization, tariff and platform exposure, and whether the plant runs when the owner is away carry most of the weight.
- Sep 12, 2026What is an operator-investor, and why should a Main-Street owner care?An operator-investor is someone who has run a company like yours, invests their own money into it — a minority or a majority position, whichever the situation needs — and then works in the business: a board seat, monthly meetings, introductions. Unlike a fund or a lender, their return depends on operating outcomes they help produce.
- Sep 12, 2026Succession without selling 100%: the Canadian owner's guideYou can take money off the table without selling the whole company. Six routes exist — a partial sale to an operating partner, management buy-in, staged MBO, employee ownership, a seller-financed transfer, and a family transition — and each has a different tax, control and timing profile under Canadian rules.
- Sep 12, 2026Bank loan vs BDC vs revenue-based financing vs operator-investor: which fits?For a $1M–$25M-revenue company, six financing shapes are realistically available: bank term debt, government-backed loans, BDC or mezzanine, grants, revenue-based financing, and equity from operators. Each has a different cost, speed, dilution and personal-guarantee profile, and most good outcomes combine two of them.
- Sep 12, 2026Windsor-Essex manufacturers: capital options after the tariff-relief loansTariff-response money arriving in Windsor-Essex is mostly debt, and local manufacturers have said publicly that loans miss the point for an under-equitized balance sheet. Here is what is actually available in late 2026 — federal, provincial, local and private — and which layer solves which problem.
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