Registering your new business in Canada is actually a lot easier than people think. While there are separate permits and such that you may need — a liquor license, for example — depending on the nature of your business, one of the most important steps you must take is registering your business name and getting it approved.

Before we go any further, let me clarify one critical issue. If you operate a small business under your own name — like how I run my freelance writing business — then you don’t actually need to register your business name. This is only if you operate by your legal name only. What this means is that when I send out an invoice to a client, I bill them as “Michael Kwan” and not as “Michael Kwan Freelance Writing Services.” If I decided to brand my company… let’s say I want to call it Beyond the Rhetoric… then I would have to go through the business registration process.

Most provinces have a one-stop online shop, so to speak, where you can apply and register for all sorts of things, including your business name and web domain, as well as telling them whether you’re a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or an incorporated business. Below are a few links to some of the bigger provinces, but similar information can also be found for Canada’s other territories.

• British Columbia
• Alberta
• Ontario
• Quebec

I am happy to say the blog is online and we have started some of the needed final steps over at bluefurcode.com to get everything going. There are some debates on the theme, test used to determine the level of php users and where to find users.

If you are interested in joining the discussion, learning or just getting involved in development you should join the group at bluefurcode.com as we need more people.

We will no longer be doing weekly updates on this blog about BlueFurCode but will announce new projects once they are ready to go here so that new members can come if they are interested in that project.

BlueFur and John Chow dot Com are please to bring you another evil blog contest. This time we’re giving away a brand new 24″ wide screen LCD monitor from LG Electronics. The L245WP is the latest in a string of award winning monitors from LG. The wide screen LCD features digital HDMI input, 1920×1200 resolution, 1000 to 1 contrast ratio and a fast 8ms response time. Imagine how much your blogging productivity will improve with this baby sitting on your desk?

To enter our contest, all you have to do is write about it in your blog. Link to John Chow’s Make Money page using the anchor text “make money,” link to BlueFur.com using “hosting Canada” and link to this contest post. Here’s an example of what we’re looking for.

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away a 24″ wide screen LCD monitor! To enter, you just have to write about it. This is my entry. Now give me the monitor! The contest is sponsored by BlueFur, who wants to let you know that they’re hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

Feel free to add as much or as little information as you want. When you finish your blog entry, send John an email with the URL to the post. Once he confirms the post meets the entry requirements, He will print it out and add it to the draw box.

The deadline for entries is July 31st 2007. On August 1st, we’ll draw a name from all entries received and that person will win a brand new 24″ wide screen LG monitor! This contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world (as long as you have a blog). We will even accept entries from non English blog as long as they following the linking rules.

Good luck and enter now!

Granted, there haven’t been any studies that have concluded once and for all whether talking on cell phones can cause accidents, but I think we can all agree that it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you’re the type of person who isn’t a fan of those Bluetooth headsets that latch onto your ear, then something like the SuperTooth Light Bluetooth Handsfree Speaker from BlueAnt might be just the thing for you. Instead of having it physically attached to your head, this Bluetooth speaker can latch onto your car’s visor through the provided magnetic clip, keeping everything completely out of the way. Because it’s Bluetooth, there are no wires to speak of either (until it comes time to charge the internal battery, of course).

BlueAnt is a lesser known company based out of Australia, but based on my time with this device thus far, I am very impressed. Synching with your Bluetooth-capable cell phone is a cinch, and the SuperTooth Light can keep up to five devices in its memory (though it can only connect to one phone at a time). The buttons are large and easy to use. The speaker is very loud and I got no complaints from people on the other end about being able to hear my voice.

The suggested retail price is US$99, but I’ve seen it for sale locally at a Bell Mobility store for about $150 Canadian.

Congratulations to this weeks geek Jeff who scored on our TV Geek questions. This weeks Fathers Day questions are:

1. What is Bill Gate’s father name?
2. Who is the ‘father of the Internet’?
3. What does Microsoft DAD do?
4. What is Steve Jobs adoptive fathers name?
5. What does DAD software do?

What do 300 Kids and Rain have to do with BlueFur?

Today we had our booth at the local Brookswood Summerfest and were handing out Free BlueFur on a stick (cotton candy). Have you ever seen 300 kids run to your booth with parents in tow? It is truly a magical experience.

Even though it was raining for the majority of the day we were surprised how much we ended up giving out. We were happy to see a few customers at the event and if you missed it stay tuned to our blog for our next event.