About Saliem Talash
Saliem Talash is a Toronto-based founder. He is the founder of Zome, the growth platform for trades and home service businesses, and he founded ZELR, a publication of notes on tools, work and the city, which he edits.
The two pieces of work point the same way. Zome is where he builds the tools a small service business needs to be found online, win the job and keep its customers. ZELR is where he writes down the plain, checked information that surrounds that kind of work: the tax rules and dates, the records worth keeping, the technology a small operation depends on, and the city it runs in.
This page sets out what he is building, what ZELR covers and how he edits it, every note he has written for ZELR, and the other places his work appears.
What Saliem is building
Zome is the growth platform for trades and home service businesses: plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical, roofing, landscaping, cleaning, painting, pest control, garage doors, handyman work and most other home services. Its starting point is simple. When someone has a leak or a cold house, they search on their phone, and the best crew in town often never gets the call because nobody built it the tools that national brands have. Zome sets out to give a small crew those tools, grouped into four jobs:
- Get found. AI websites, local SEO, the Google Business Profile, reviews and listings working as one.
- Win the job. Online booking, instant price ranges, missed-call text back, one lead inbox and an AI receptionist.
- Keep customers. Follow-ups, maintenance plans, referral rewards, a customer portal and job updates.
- Run your business. The Zome app, with requests, reviews and results in one place and a plain-English summary every month.
Any business can start with Zome’s free AI report: it takes about a minute, needs no sign-up, reads public information only and returns a score with the findings to fix first. Zome is onboarding founding partners in trades and home services now and building alongside them. He explains what it is for in What Zome is for: a note from its founder, Saliem Talash.
What ZELR covers
- Money basics for working for yourself in Canada. GST/HST, the Canada Pension Plan, instalments, vehicle records and the paperwork a sole proprietor keeps, taken from Canada Revenue Agency pages.
- Everyday technology for a small operation. Passwords and two-factor sign-in, domains and email, a business phone, AI tools at work, and the spreadsheets and policies that keep work moving.
- Running a small business plainly. Pages and documents customers actually read: how the work is done, what it costs, what happens when.
- Toronto. Practical guides to using the city: its markets, ravines, underground walkway and bike share, with the official rules, hours and prices.
How he writes and edits
- Sources first. Every rule, date, fee and number is checked against a primary source, government pages and the organizations involved first. The sources are listed at the foot of each note.
- Dated and corrected. Each note carries its publication date. Rules and prices change; when a note is found to be out of date, it is corrected in place.
- No invented stories. No made-up anecdotes, quotes, clients or results. An example that is not real is labelled as fictional.
- AI assistance, disclosed. Notes are drafted with AI assistance, then checked against their sources and edited. Every note ends with the line “Drafted with AI assistance.”
- General information. Nothing on ZELR is tax, financial, legal or other professional advice. More on how ZELR works.
Written and edited by Saliem Talash
Every ZELR note, 15 since , newest first. Each one is written and edited by Saliem Talash.
- What Zome is for: a note from its founder, Saliem Talash
- Registering for the GST/HST in Canada: when you must, how to do it, and what changes the day after
- Keeping a vehicle logbook for business driving in Canada: what the CRA expects, and a method that takes two minutes a day
- Owning your domain and email: a plain guide for a small business
- A one-page job tracker in a spreadsheet: the columns that matter, the statuses, and a weekly review
- Toronto's PATH: how the underground walkway works, and how to find your way in it
- Bike Share Toronto, explained: passes, prices, the 30- and 45-minute limits, and riding in winter
- A business phone for a one-person business in Canada: a separate number, the options, and keeping it when you switch
- How to write a “how we work” page for a small business website
- Your first year self-employed in Canada: the dates and thresholds that matter
- Household paperwork in Canada: what to keep, for how long, and where
- Passwords, passkeys and two-factor: a sensible setup for a small business or a household
- Using AI chat tools at work: a one-page policy for a small team
- Toronto's markets, a practical guide: which one, which day, and how to get there
- Walking Toronto's ravines: where to start, how to get there, what to know
Elsewhere
- saliemtalash.vercel.app, his tools and writing for small businesses.
- zome.io, Zome, the company he founded.
- Founder profile on Zome, his page on zome.io.
- Toronto, practically, his field guides to the city.
- YouTube, short visual guides.
- Substack, notes for one-person businesses.
- Blogger, worked examples.
- Google Sites, start page.
Also on Linktree, TikTok, Tumblr, Issuu, Behance and SoundCloud.