Published 11:40 am Thursday, December 4, 2025 By Darrell Greer, Local Journalism Initiative Northern News Services There are a number of challenges to starting one’s own small business, and different business owners may find different aspects of getting started the toughest challenge of all. For Harry Towtongie, of Rankin Inlet, bookkeeping was his biggest hurdle back in 1992, when he launched Arctic Heating. Towtongie said he knew absolutely nothing about bookkeeping when he first opened the doors to his shop. He said he had no concept of the legal requirements involved with small business, or a number of other aspects, for that matter. “At that time, I really had no idea of what I was getting myself into in,” said Towtongie. “I had to hire a part-time accountant. I was looking at a number of different things, like monthly reports and meeting the requirements of Revenue Canada. It wasn’t ideal, but we made it work. “I used to hire people when I worked for Housing at one time, so I had some previous experience at it, but not much.” When first hiring employees for his plumbing-and-heating business, Towtongie said he was only looking for qualified journeymen. He said looking for a suitable location to work out of was another challenge he faced at the time in Rankin Inlet. “It was very hard finding the space I needed, but I never let it get me down or anything like that,” he recalled. “I just went with the flow and kept going, and going, and working toward where I wanted to be.” Towtongie said he soon realized the best route was training people for the job himself, so they’d have the knowledge he needed them to have. When all was said and done, he trained about eight-to-10 workers to be prepared to earn their trades tickets and become mainly plumbers and heating technicians to meet the demands of his shop. “There were also support labourers to have in place, but it all came together fairly quickly with some friends and family members helping me out a bit,” he said. “I didn’t really have a hard time having employees. I set things up as a sole proprietor type of deal and it was pretty small. We kept pretty busy right from the start.” Towtongie said there will always be challenges to launching a new business, along with a learning curve for some. “Watch out for Revenue Canada when you’re first starting out and understand your obligations to them. You don’t want to be juggling too much at once,” he advised.“It’s far better to start a new business knowing as much as you can about everything and not taking on things that are absolutely new to you if you can avoid it. “You need to start the business doing what you’re trained to do or what you’ve learned to do well and stay organized. Things will go much smoother for you that way.”
Small business owner recounts launching his venture in Rankin Inlet
