‘Performance Plus‘ is a great financial tool available to small businesses. I used it extensively when creating financial statements for my business plan. It allows you to access industry averages for income statement and balance sheet items, financial ratios, and profitability information for small and medium sized businesses. You can search by industry code (NAICS) and see the financial averages of companies in various categories. You can perform a search on a national (all of Canada) or provincial basis. The data is very dependable since it comes from a sample of actual Revenue Canada tax returns of incorporated and unincorporated businesses.
When you are applying for a grant, loan, etc., you will be required to provide financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow). An area that can be problematic is providing expense data (since the business is not yet off the ground). Performance Plus provides you with an accurate cost structure of similar businesses in your industry. You can also analyze expenses based on different revenue levels and thus project how your cost structure may change as your business grows. Existing companies have the option of entering their business data (revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, etc.) which can then be used to benchmark their company against industry averages. This can help them identify areas in which their business deviates from the industry (e.g. not spending enough on advertising).
Another powerful free tool that should not be overlooked!
I was talking to my programmer recently and asked him about how he markets his business and generates leads. He told me he doesn’t do any marketing. All his business comes from word of mouth or referrals. I asked another friend of mine who operates a successful translation company with several employees. He told me the exact same thing. In both instances, I was expecting to hear about marketing strategies related to advertising, cold calling, B2B marketing, or today’s catch word, social networking. 
