Below we list the businesses that we have added, including a link to their new web sites, and the links to their directory listing on Ablistings.com. This is basically an introduction to their Calgary-based businesses and we can tell you a little bit about their products and services.

Here is the list of new business categories these companies are providing for;

1. Plumbing & Heating
2. Mobile Catering
3. Portable Toilet Rental
4. Portable Sound Systems
5. Real Estate
6. VOIP Office Phone Systems

1.) Plumbing Heating Calgary – this is a very new plumbing and heating site that is managed by ERM Plumbing and Heating. They provide residential and commercial services to Calgarians who require their long list of services. Their site is called PlumbingHeatingCalgary.com. This is their directory listing on Ablistings.com.

2) Mobile Catering Calgary – this is a unique catering company that serves food to the poor and to businesses that have events in Calgary. They have a “patty wagon” so which they drive right to the location of your catered event and they serve food literally hot off the grill. They specialize in BBQ catering events, but serve seafood and many other foods. Their site is called MobileCateringCalgary.com. This is their directory listing on Ablistings.com.

3) Portable Toilet Rental Calgary – this is another unique company with a unique service. Ideal for construction companies who need high end portable toilet facilities for their staff, managers, shift bosses, and employees. Their portable toilets are of the highest quality and they are heated as well – real porcelain toilets! Their web site is called PortableToiletRentalCalgary.com. This is their directory listing on Ablistings.com.

4) Portable Sound Systems Calgary – this company rents and sells portable sound systems in the Calgary area. They also provide sound system installations for churches, schools, business, etc. Their inventory line of portable sound systems is very impressive as well and they have EXCELLENT customer service. Their site is called PortableSoundSystemsCalgary.com. This is their directory listing on Ablistings.com.

5) Realtors In Calgary – this is a listing for a Calgary-based realtor who has decided to begin building a strong online presence for home buyers and home sellers in Alberta. His site is called (you guessed it) RealtorsInCalgary.biz.  This is his directory listing on Ablistings.com.

6) Business Phones Calgary – this company is a business to business company and they provide high-end and state-of-the-art office phones systems to Calgary-based businesses who want to take advantage of cloud server based VOIP communication in the office environment. Their site is called BusinessPhonesCalgary.com. This is their directory listing on Ablistings.com.

So that’s it for today’s new Alberta business listings on our site. We hope they call get some more business from using our services.

If you have an Alberta-based business and you want a low-cost directory to advertise on, please sign up for a $4.99 per month subscription. We are getting a lot of traffic from consumers to our site looking for businesses, and we out rank the Yellow Pages for MANY business verticals in Alberta.

There are only around 80 certified accountants listed on our directory so far. Please register your account to add your free listing if you are a Certified General Accountant serving the Greater Calgary Area. If are serving businesses anywhere in Alberta actually -please add your company to our growing list. As we are home-grown business directory, it’s important that we list all accountants, and not just the accounting big firms.

If you accounting business (or firm) is already listed for free here at Ablisting.com, we highly recommend upgrading your account ASAP. By doing this you are ensuring that your company is listed at the top of the page, making your accounting services much more visible. If you have a Silver, Gold, or Platinum listing your business information will be elevated above all the free listings on the page.

What to Look for in a Good Certified General Accountant

Finding a good CGA is a critical step when launching any new business. You need to have someone (or a team) that really has their skills down, and has a full understanding what the Government of Canada is looking for (and not looking for). Before I list off my opinion on what to look for in a CGA, I want to direct your attention to the Certified General Accountants of Alberta Web Site - there you can read allot of valuable information, and if you ever have any dispute with an Accountant (hopefully this never happens of course), you can take it up on this page. There is also a search function where you can check to see if an account is truly a registered CGA in Alberta.

5 Good Reasons to Have a Good CGA

1) Why You Need a CGA in the First Place - The most important thing to understand about a CGA is making sure you get one? If you get an accountant that is not a registered CGA you could be risking your business in the future. You want to have an accountant to crunch your numbers for you so you can get every bit of security possible when filing your tax return(s) (personal, business, corporate, etc.). As your business grows you want to make sure that all aspects of your business don’t end up being to complicated for the every-day-run-of-the-mill accountant. Many bookkeepers will “play” accountant for clients who want to save money and not hire a professional CGA. Big mistake – if your business every begins to grow in leaps and bounds your bookkeeper/accountant will be in over their head.

2) Starting Up Your Business – When you initially start up your business you will need some good advice. Depending on your business plan, your CGA will determine whether or not you should be establishing and registering your business as a proprietorship, a partnership, or an corporation. Your business model will determine what way you need to go with this decision. A Certified General Accountant will know the tax implications of your business model and exactly how you need to go forward. Businesses are like human beings – they are ALL unique, even if the market, service, or good(s) being sold are the same. How much you spend on advertising, overhead, employees, etc. will be completely different than another business that sells the same product(s) as you. Simply speaking with another business owner, or friend who knows another business owner who sells the same goods as you plan to, doesn’t mean anything. It’s always “apple and oranges”. Your CGA will understand all this and he (or she) will be able to determine your best plan of action.

3) Bookkeeping for Your Business - You should always have a CGA in the fold when choosing your bookkeeper(s). Often accounting firms will have their own bookkeeping division and their own bookkeepers will configure your books exactly the way they want them for doing your year end, OR; your CGA will have a favorite bookkeeper they like the clients to use for the same reasons as mentioned above. Never reverse this process, and hire a bookkeeper - THEN look for a Certified Accountant. It’s very important that your businesses books are kept in perfect (or very near perfect order) and be presented to your CGA in the correct fashion (as they see perfect to be). I’ve heard of business owners who do their own bookkeeping (not recommended), pass on the data to their CGA, and the CGA turns around and tells them they need their books completely redone or reorganized before she (or he) even starts working on the financial statements.

4) Why a Good CGA is Critical -A good Certified General Accountant is absolutely critical if you want to have a peace-of-mind, a strong personal cash flow, and the tax man (The Government of Canada) happy and off your back. You don’t want to be worried about having an audit, and you don’t want to be an emotional basket case if you actually do end up getting audited. I suggest you tell you CGA that you want to make your tax return in a very conservative manner, and not to be aggressive with your tax write-offs and such. This brings us to our next point for the importance of a good CGA.

5) If You Get Audited You Want the Government to Suffer – Not You - A really good CGA will do your books in such a way that if you are ever audited by the Government, it’s the Government that has to pay. When the Government audits you it’s costs them over $150 an hour to carry out the  audit – so if when the audit is completed, the Government owes YOU money, and not the other way around – the odds of you EVER being audited again are slim to none. A really good CGA can handle your businesses numbers in such a way, that you will come out on top if you ever get audited. I know you are thinking, “Doesn’t this mean I could be writing off much more and getting the maximum amount of money at tax time – am I not leaving money on the table here”. Good question. Wouldn’t you rather not be looking over your shoulder, dreading the outcome of an audit, when you could be sleeping sound at night knowing that an audit can’t hurt your bottom line. I think you know the answer to this question. There is an old saying when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, and it goes something like this;

“Pigs get fat – hogs get slaughtered”

Basically this means don’t get too greedy. Be reasonable and ask yourself, if you were the auditor, would you consider a particular write-off a legitimate write-off. Some companies are getting audited multiple times just because the Government found them playing games with their numbers. Once you’ve lost the trust of the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) you’ve lost it forever.

Of course (as we always mention) if you want your home inspection company to be listed ABOVE all other companies, you can upgrade your listing by paying $49 dollars (per year) to have your company at the top of the list, getting much more attention than any of your competition. This is called a Silver Listing with our Alberta Business Directory.

You can also pay $79 a year for a Gold Listing which gives you more pictures, a company logo, and an extended business description. The Platinum Listing will cost you $129 per year and included more images, a logo, extended business description, and a HIGHLIGHTED ad pushed to the top of the directory. These Platinum listings basically turn your listing into a full web page for the most online exposure possible.

If you home inspection company is based in Calgary, we assure you that you will increase your business by upgrading your listing on Ablistings. We have had many happy clients who have upgraded with us, and we know you will be happy too with our service. After you upgrade, we urge you to ask your new customers where they found you. This way you can see for yourself if your advertising dollars with us have value. Compared to the Yellow Pages, you can’t beat our advertising value anywhere in Alberta.

There are actually only 60-70 Home Inspection service companies listed here on Ablistings, and we know there are more inspection companies out there – perhaps yours! If you really don’t want to spend a cent on online advertising, then you can register your account by signing up for a free listing. Your free listing will always be found below the “paid for subscribers’ inspection companies, but you will still get some attention and exposure for your company. If you have any questions you can always contact us.

What To Look For in a Home Inspector

When you hire a home inspector in Calgary or Edmonton (or anywhere in Alberta) you want to make sure they have a solid reputation in the Real Estate business. They should be certified or trained by a good certified home inspection training facility. They must be thorough and understand all aspects of home building and construction methods. They must understand what to look out for, and what to consider regarding your property purchase.

The home inspector must be an expert when it comes to systems, such as; furnaces, hot water heaters, fireplaces, electrical systems, drainage, basements, foundations, roofing, windows and window casings, eves, air conditioning units, appliances, wiring, breaker box configurations, flashing, gutters, downspouts, foundation grading, plumbing, ventilation, doors, ceilings, walls, joists, and you name it!

Your home inspector (or company) should belong to an Alberta Industry Association, or be held in high esteem within their community. Remember not to hire a home inspector that is recommended by any of the Realtors involved in the possible purchase of a property, because you run the risk of getting an inspector who is a “rubber stamper”.

A Rubber Stamper is a person who does a very brief and incomplete inspection and turns a blind eye to problematic issues with a said property. Unscrupulous Realtors will suggest using their “favorite” home inspector and bring in their “rubber stamper”. The shoddy inspector makes a quick buck and the Real Estate Agent moves the property sale along quickly, increasing their bottom line.

These kinds of shady deals are usually quite rare in Alberta, and if it ever happens, they are usually found out and reported quickly. The home inspector will lose all credibility, and the Real Estate Agent will lose their license. As a matter of fact, these kinds of rotten dealings are very rare in Calgary / Edmonton / High River / Grand Prairie / Medicine Hat and Lethbridge (etc). I hope this little bit of information does not alarm you, but it is something to consider when having a your future home inspected for problems.

Just hire your home inspector privately and you will glad for it.

How Much Does a Home Inspection Cost in Calgary, AB

This all depends on the size of the house or commercial property. For our example here we are talking about residential homes. Our house in Lake Bonavista is 2500 square feet and it’s a 2-story with a basement, and a double garage with underfloor heat. We paid around $400 for the inspection and it was a very thorough inspector. He stood between us and the Realtors, and took us aside to make sure he could speak candidly regarding the house and the systems in it. He warned us of up-and-coming maintenance issue we would be facing, and let us know the pros and cons of the property. He knew the contractor that built the house and was very well versed in the business of home building.

If a home inspector comes unproven and cheap (like under $150-$200) I would be a little concerned on what you are getting out of the deal. You need to hire an inspector who is fairly passionate about their work, and preferably someone who actually has home building experience.

I plan to make this list grow exponentially over the years, and some day we want to have every agent in the Province of Alberta listed here. We’ll have to settle for a total of 400 to get started. If you are a real estate agent working in Alberta, please sign up and get a free listing ASAP. This will help us grow out list of agents throughout Alberta more easily then if we had to find all the data ourselves.You will notice on our directory that all of the real estate office and agents are listed in a “backwards alphabetical” format (Z-A instead of A-Z). This was not planned – it’s just how we have chosen to list our businesses in Alberta. If you want to get to the top of the list, it’s very simple – just upgrade to a paid listing. By paying only $49.00 a year, your Realtor listing will be placed higher than all of the other free listing in our directory. For $79.00 a year your listing has 2 images, and for the platinum listing you have everything – 6 pictures, your logo, your business contact and address info, your web site, and your ad is highlighted at the top of the list.

We noticed (when we moved to Calgary all those years ago) that the Real Estate market booms in Alberta, and busts. However, the Alberta realty market is always fundamentally sound and therefore your investment in property is “safe as houses”. Even in hard times, your real estate investment will eventually pay off for you. Alberta has a thriving market of entrepreneurs.

For Realtors in Alberta who want some cheap advertising, we highly suggest getting your account set up. We receive over 200,000 hits month on Ablistings.com from buyers wanting your products and services, and our fee structure is more than extremely competitive compared to the other advertising mediums.

With the onset of web sites like Welist.com, it;s getting tougher and tougher for real estate agents in Alberta to compete for business. So many buyers want to cut real estate agents out of the transaction all together. Online directories, like AB Listing, are going to be even more expensive in the future,  so it’s a good idea to find as many places for your ad.

When we bought a house in Calgary back in October 2003, and we used a Realtor for that transaction. We won’t be using a Realtor in the future either. We can sell our house better than a Realtor and I think we will be seeing more and more of this in the future.

These older landmark theatres play special features the often cater the more educated and sophisticated crowd, while the other movie chain theatres in our directory simply churn out the latest box office hits + really expensive soda and popcorn.

Finding what’s on at the movie theatres is one of the most common things to do online when the Internet was born – it saved listening to the automated “movie phone” voice as they went through the list of movies playing, and the “Coming Soon” list. It’s much easier to just see in on a computer, and you can check our a few different web sites for a full rundown of the up-and-coming big screen shows, including reviews, directions, showtimes, ticket prices, and sometimes they will even list their concession stand prices!

My wife and I live in Southeast Calgary so we usually go to Canyon Meadows, or the Empire Studio 10 down Macleod Trail in the Shawnessy Shopping Centre – beside the Starbucks/Chapters, and right by the Superstore. Regardless of where you are living in Calgary, you will find a movie theatre close to you and your family. Thanks your for coming by ABListings.com and we’ll see you soon!

We notice that most of the popular directory sites for Alberta (in this case Calgary) are owned and operated out of Province and out of Country. Most of these directories list major cities all over the World. We at ABListings.com are only interested in creating a superior business directory for our fellow Albertans.

The Yellowpages is the highest profile business directory (so far) and they started with the famous Yellowpages in print form. Mostly though, the directories we have listed are online in nature. This means they sometimes don’t have phone numbers, street addresses, or even an email for contacting them. Many online companies don’t have your typical contact information – Google is a good example of this. With them it’s very tough to find a phone number so you can talk to real person. In fact, the major search engines (Yahoo!, Bing, and Google) are great directories for Alberta businesses because their search algorithms are so much more powerful than the directories we have listed here.

If you run a business and you wish to submit your listing for free, just click the register link and get a free account. After you have your free account you can create your free business listing. Your business must be operating in Alberta. Your listing will go live right away. If you want an upgraded listing, you will find the upgrade link in your account on your My Listings page.

We decided to go old school with ABListings.com in the way our directory is laid out. It’s very clean and there is no advertising on the home page. We only list businesses in Alberta and we don’t allow reviews and opinions to be posted by users – this way we can avoid having negative comments on your business – EVER. You have complete control of your message.

By using Ablistings.com you are supporting a home-grown directory, at the same time increasing your sales and customer base.

When I moved to Calgary from Saskatoon I went to some of the show homes built by their more popular custom home builders. I had been to see some show homes (earlier in my life) in other Canadian cities like Vancouver, Victoria, and Saskatoon. The custom builders in Calgary are over-the-top when you see their work compared to some of the other custruction companies in Canada. The workmanship and materials seem to be above par. Now I’m no expert when it comes to construction, but others agreed with me on my observations.

Our list of custom home builders for Calgary will start off with half a dozen to start with, and then we’ll build from there. If you want your company listed in the custom home builder category please see sign up as a member.

Some of these Calgary based event planners can handle 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and all the way over 10000 guests for an event. They provide P.A. (public address) systems, microphones, speakers, staging, chairs, tables, table wear, etc.

Most of these party planners focus on corporate events (obviously) because that is where they can make the most money for the events they do. Some do conventions. Some do sightseeing tours, ski vacations, and Stampede functions.

Event planners do allot of charity fund raising events which is as popular to these companies as any kind of corporate gig. Big money in charity events for sure. Spiritual retreats are popular too, and there are allot of good spiritual retreats in the greater Calgary area. Banff is very common destination for spiritual event planning.

Security is often provided as well as transportation by shuttle. Security is always required for high profile events such as political speaking engagements. These kinds of events require some serious planning because the security requirements involved. Calgary (or Canadian) even planning companies are really good when it comes to securing a perimeter and securing a location. Highly trained professionals – and this is why so many high profile celebrities and politicians enjoy coming to here.

We have made a list of event planners in Calgary for you to consider for your function. We have only listed a handle of recommended companies in our directory, but you can always find more on Google. Most of these planners have access to catering as well – just thought I should mention that.

There are the typical party events that I best not leave out, such as;

• Magicians
• Jugglers
• Comedians
• Dancers
• Clowns
• Balloon Artists
• Emcees
• Face Painters
• Impersonators
• Cirque-Style
• Children Entertainers

I suppose that could go without saying though, because these are so typical. We do not list adult entertainers here – we like to keep things PG.

There are the four major grids in the City of Calgary where you will want to choose a florist for Mother’s Day. I’m assuming you are using the Internet to find a reasonably priced florist near the recipient’s home address. I’ve done this many many times – called a florist near where my Mom lives and order an arrangement to be delivered to her door. She’s not even surprised anymore . I always choose an area of the city close to her so that delivery is cheap and fast.

So in Calgary you have the four main grids; Southeast Calgary (SE), Northeast Calgary (NE), Northwest Calgary (NW), and of course Southwest Calgary (SW). No matter where your Mom lives in Calgary – because she may live out of town on an acreage or something like that – you can choose a florist that is located in one of the four areas (as above) which is closest to her home. Once you have chosen the location of the florist, just use our directory to find their phone number and/or web site address, and then call them to order your arrangement. If you choose to order her flowers from the florist’s web site, that may be even easier. Most of the florists in Calgary except all of the major credit cards online and you don’t even have to make the long distance phone call. Easy squeezy!

I usually pay about $50 dollars for a Mother’s Day flower arrangement, but you can go as low as $19 dollars for a simple arrangement. This may or may not include the delivery charge on your gift. The average amount of money people spend on Mother’s Day flower arrangements is generally $30 to $35 dollars including the delivery charge.

All of the florists in Calgary have the option to include a small gift or a card to go with the arrangement. I always order a card to go with her flowers, and they will write in your note or message for her and sign it with your name. I always choose a simple and plain card that has some sentiment to it, but nothing too mushy. Something to the point and realistic is always nice.

So all of the typical florists are available in Calgary, like the typical franchises like FTD, but here is just a starter list of some others for you to get started;

Purple Orchid

www.purpleorchidflowers.ca

Kensington Florist

www.kensingtonflorist.com

Anne Paterson’s Flowers

www.apflowers.com

Oasis Flower Shop

www.oasisflowershop.com

Petro Canada Centre Flowers

www.bloomingtonsflowers.com

Red Rose Florist

www.tedbrookesflowers.net

For much more contact, and street addresses for these florist, visit our business directory for more.

You may be looking for a hotel near the Calgary International Airport, or downtown – for business purposes, or perhaps you need a hotel near a suburb where you are visiting family and/or friends – either way, we want to list every single solitary hotel in Alberta. We will have to start with the greater Calgary area first.

We list our directory in alphabetical order, and we don’t list by cost. We may add this feature sometime in the future, but for now it will be ALPHA. We also don’t do “Star Ratings” and reviews on Hotels in Calgary, so you will have to Google that information if you want some customer satisfaction information. We simply provide the hotel’s street address, phone number, toll-free number, fax number, title, email, and web address – the rest is up to you if you want to do business with them or not.

We have no bias at all for any hotels in Calgary, and we don’t ever intend on getting into posting any biased information here. You can find other business directories for Calgary that will do that for you.

Business Directory For Alberta Companies

Because we actually have a staff to pay, and overhead to pay. We maintain ABListings manually, which requires database and script specialists, ad managers, and content control employees. Our content control employees keep tabs on all of the listing to make sure they are up and running. We also have to make sure all your links are active to your web site (if you have a web site).

We do not intent to let our Alberta business directory fade away into cyber-dust, so we have staff to make we are up to date.

Locally Owned and Operated In Alberta

ABListings.com is owned and operated in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The employees of ABListings also live in Alberta. We only manage a directory for Alberta, Canada – we do not manage directories for any other Province or Country – we are what you could call home-grown.

Our Business Directory – Not Yellowpages

We have seen how much Yellow Pages charges businesses to be listed, and we thought we would charge much, much, less, and keep our screen navigation clean and simple. Sort of like clean Google page I suppose. You will notice that our directory is VERY clean and orderly, and you will notice we DO NOT have a review area so people can comment on a particular company. We are not an opinion site.

Why do we not allow commenting? Because we find on the Internet that most comments tend to be negative on businesses, and yet the vast majority of customers, investing in a service or product in Alberta, are happy or satisfied with the value they received in the transaction. We do not want any negative commenting on our directory. We owe it to our customers (perhaps you) to keep biased opinions off our listing pages.

So what we try to provide is a fast and clean Alberta business directory, that is inexpensive, and maintained by humans.

Links From This Staff Support Blog

When we want to highlight a new list of businesses in Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton, etc.) we will post here the new area of the directory and provide a link to it. This way we can highlight new businesses to the directory and keep the eyeballs on the Internet visiting ABlistings.com

Where We Are Located – Calgary

We run our directory from a neighborhood in Calgary know as Lake Bonavista. The parent company of ABListings is Bonavista Web, owned and operated by Brent and Betty Truitt.