Sal Talash

The first time a small business takes money online, the question is usually "which one is cheapest?" The honest answer is that the headline rates are close, and the extra fees, the mix of customers and the way you sell matter more than the first number on the page. Disclosure: I founded UOVA , an AI website builder and creative studio in Toronto, so I have a stake in the market for small-business websites and the tools around them. I have no arrangement with any payment company below. All rates come from each company's own Canadian pricing page as I read it on October 1, 2026. They change, and some businesses negotiate custom rates, so check the live page before you decide. The published online rates Stripe Stripe's Canadian page lists, for online card payments: 2.9% + CA$0.30 per successful transaction for domestic cards. + 0.8% for international cards. + 2% if currency conversion is required. + 0.5% for manually entered cards. For in-person payments, Strip...

Most small-business owners think about website security only after something goes wrong: a defaced homepage, a contact form sending spam, or a call from someone who no longer has the password and no longer answers the phone. By then, the fix is expensive. The good news is that the basics are short, and most of them are about decisions, not code. Disclosure: I founded UOVA , an AI website builder and creative studio in Toronto, so I have a stake in the website market. Nothing here depends on which platform you use. It draws on guidance from the Government of Canada's Cyber Centre and Get Cyber Safe, and on documentation from Google and Let's Encrypt, all read on October 1, 2026. Start from the official list The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security publishes "Baseline cyber security controls for small and medium organizations." It names thirteen controls, from "Develop an Incident Response Plan" to "Secure Portable Media." Several apply directly to ...

Field note · Website planning A website generator can produce a layout in minutes. The harder job is giving it a true, specific account of the business. This is the brief I would write before asking any tool to build the page. Start with facts the business can defend “Make me a premium website” is a style request, not a business brief. It leaves the tool to guess who the customer is, what is sold, where the business operates, and what a visitor should do next. Those guesses can look polished while being wrong. Before choosing colours or imagery, write down the facts that must survive the build: the business name exactly as used, the products or services actually offered, the service area if relevant, the preferred contact route, opening or response expectations, and any claims the owner can substantiate. Leave unknown fields blank. A blank field is easier to resolve than a fabricated guarantee. A worked example Illustrative example only; this is not a client project. Imagine a small f...