Work-Life Balance: Remember, it’s Saturday!

It was a glorious Saturday afternoon in early summer and I was hunched over a picnic table garnishing a hamburger when my cell phone rang. I had been in the middle of a good laugh after someone had told a delightful little anecdote but noticed it was one of my employees and, since they were calling me on the weekend, thought it must be something important.

I politely excused myself and gave my employee my undivided attention. I had handed him a rather large project from an important client and several weeks earlier had asked him how long it would take to complete the project. They were apologetic that this was the day that they had said they would be able to finish it, were almost at the finish line, but that friends had come in from out of town.

Before he could even finish his story I asked why he was working on the project when it was so beautiful outside. I told him quite succinctly to stop his work and go out and enjoy the rest of the day and not bother me until Monday.

When I returned to finish garnishing my burger, the group of acquaintances I was sharing this beautiful barbecue with looked at me with their mouths agape saying, “I wish you were my boss”.

“Telling an employee to enjoy life is a boss’ job,” I replied. And I truly mean that, for the following reasons:

1) I handpicked my employees and I trust each and every one of them. I also know that none of them slack off when it’s not time. I let him set the parameters of when the job would be completed, I understand the nature of his job and what it would take to actually complete the project, and I knew full well that his finishing it in a couple of days meant I wouldn’t have to break any promises to our client. So we’d stay in good standing regardless. My experience has shown that giving my employees a great deal of freedom has yielded better results.

2) There is no evidence that working longer hours makes a person more productive. In fact, there have been several studies that outline the benefit to a company’s bottom line by giving employees greater flexibility in their working hours and that overworking employees can have very negative effects. Some studies even go so far as to suggest that overworking an employee can lead to them suffering from a variety of health issues leading to them having to miss work. If that weren’t enough, at least one study, Impacts of Late Working Hours on Employee’s Performance: A Case Study on Engineers in Telecom Company of Pakistan, by Quereshi et al., even suggests that overworking an employee could lead to unethical behavior including, “sexual harassment and breaching the code of conduct of the organization”.

3) I know that if I behave erratically, or make irrational demands from my employees, that it makes them question if we are a good fit. Pushed too far and I could be down one employee and that can be worse than the work not being done on time. Although telling him, “Sorry bud, the work has got to get done” might not have been an irrational demand on my part in this particular instance, I’m still stating quite clearly to him that work is more important than his relationship with his friends.

What is more important?

So this does raise the question: what actually is more important, work or friends? Many people spend more of their time, in a given week, at work than anywhere else, so we are forced to make several considerations based on this fact. The first is that, if they are going to be asked to spend so much time there, is it too small a thing to ask that they enjoy themselves? Second, should work and life really be kept so separate and need to be kept in balance, or is work very much a part of life that should fit harmoniously with all the other aspects of existence that we engage in? And finally, in business, it’s important to remember that relationships are everything, and that the social capital you build in fostering them, whether with clients or with staff, will last with you for the rest of your life.

The Power of Affiliate Marketing

A savvy entrepreneur is always looking for alternative sources of revenue and affiliate marketing can be a powerful way of generating income while cutting through a lot of the time consuming legwork of manufacturing, branding, and developing marketing strategies. At its core, affiliate marketing involves bringing a particular product to the attention of your consumers and sharing the revenue generated from the sale of that product through you, with whoever supplied the product.

Affiliate Marketing in Real Time

As an example, in order to provide context, imagine that Happy X is a supplier of natural supplements. GrowNatural is a health food store that deals with naturally sourced products. Happy X is trying to promote its launch of a brand new supplement designed to help people get more essential vitamins and nutrients. All sales are done online and delivered by Happy X’s supply system through their warehouse in order to keep shipments centralized and all revenue streams traveling through Happy X. Happy X has a strong history of delivering a great product but are looking to expand their reach, so they approach GrowNatural in hopes that they will help sell their product as an affiliate. GrowNatural also has a strong base of loyal customers, some of who may not be familiar with Happy X. Should GrowNatural make any sales through their clientele of Happy X’s product, they then share the profit.

Responsibilities of, and Benefits to, the Supplier

As the manufacturer of the product, Happy X’s responsibilities to GrowNatural is to provide them with all the materials required to sell the product. Happy X provides GrowNatural with all the necessary copy and links that they can post on their website with all the revenue sharing streams and stat tracking in place. In the short term, although Happy X loses money to GrowNatural in direct sales, Happy X regards any sales through GrowNatural as sales that would not have otherwise been made. In the long term, although the return on investment may be less than through a direct sale, Happy X now has the attention of the customer and has widened the base of its clientele.

Responsibilities of, and Benefits to, the Affiliate

Affiliate marketing is really the lazy man’s approach to making sales. Ultimately, the more effort an affiliate makes to push a particular product the more sales they can expect to make. It is the affiliate’s responsibility to make their customer base aware of a particular product and then back that product with their seal of approval. Any new product opens up a new revenue stream for the affiliate. In this case, Happy X has done all the work in developing the product and making it available to the consumer. GrowNatural, as the affiliate, is tasked with merely making their following aware that this product is available. How they go about this is completely up to them, but can involve any marketing strategy under the sun. It can be as simple as a banner on their website or as an involved as an email blast to everyone on their list. Affiliates that communicate regularly and are in tune with their audience tend to be the most successful.

Some Do’s and Don’ts

There are some very salesy people out in the world who generate their entire income through affiliate marketing. There are even websites and hubs where you can sign on as an affiliate to sell just about anything. However, it’s usually preferable to find a niche and stick with it. If you have a particular talent for something, or consider yourself an expert in any subject, it is advisable to market products that are closely related to that subject so that you can justify being an authority on things related to the product.

Don’t ever market a product you don’t actually believe in. Although it can be tempting to strike out and begin to market anything that can make you money, remember that anyone who purchases through is considered part of your following. They go through you because they trust you and suddenly providing them with an inferior product can result in losing their trust and the income that they generate.

Co-working Spaces for the Self-employed

With a rising popularity in self-employment and freelancing, co-working spaces have become a popular phenomenon that has been embraced by those who work independently, but crave a sense of community in response to working in relative isolation.

Co-working spaces are essentially communal open-space offices and are an affordable solution to having a working environment outside of your home that is not a private office. They are popular among freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and independent contractors.  A simple Google search will show that there are a wide range of co-working opportunities in most major cities in North America.

Besides being an affordable alternative to a private office, a co-working environment can provide many other advantages.

Escaping Isolation

Working in a home or private office can leave one craving face-to-face interaction from others during the day – especially those who aren’t clients! Self-employment can be isolating when your day to day activities are individual ventures. Co-working spaces provide the opportunity to work independently while being surrounded by others. Taking regular coffee breaks or having engaging in some water cooler gossip can help break up the day, create new friendships, and give you a chance to clear your mind from the daily grind of self-employment.

Creating a Community

Those who work in co-working spaces generally have the same values and influences, as they are usually made up of entrepreneurs and freelancers who are working hard to develop and build their business.  As the co-working environment is usually an open concept, it aids in developing relationships and finding inspiration from those around you. As friendships form, the community will naturally rally around each other and help each other out, building a mutual bonding through independent work that one can’t experience when working alone.

Networking

With a sense of community in the co-working space, networking opportunities will naturally follow. It’s great to find contacts that may be able to help you out in the future and for you to offer your services as well. Looking for a copywriter? Chances are someone in your co-working space has a recommendation. It’s much easier to go with a trusted referral rather than searching online and hoping for the best. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals can help your business grow and can build some strong and lasting relationships.  

Averting Disaster – Do Your Research (Part 2)

When close to 1000 hours of work have gone into designing and marketing a product and suddenly, because of legal complications, the product has to be completely rebranded – where does one begin?

The following story is true. Certain names and details have been altered to protect the privacy and integrity of those involved.  Read Part 1 of the article.

Step 1 – Scramble

Upon receiving the news that The Tea Council had to be retooled, three things happened almost immediately. The first was our project manager had a brief meeting with each individual involved in the project and asked us what was necessary and what was possible based on what needed to be rebranded. He asked specifically if it could be done in a week. The second thing that happened almost instantly was a decision was made on what to now call the conference. It was changed to “The Tea Lovers Summit”. Finally, an email blast (about 40,000 emails) was sent to everyone who had already signed up for, or purchased, the summit explaining that it was being pushed back by one week.

Step 2 – Rethink Possible

My initial reaction was that it couldn’t be done. For my part, I would have been responsible for removing any mention of the term “the tea council” from both audio and video of all content materials. When I considered that I had already put in 100 hours of work and had to contemplate the host of the conference potentially redoing or scrapping several interviews, I thought there was no way it could be done along the desired timeline. Upon deeper reflection, I thought about removing most of the work from my own time and allowing most of the work to fall on my computer’s shoulders.

It takes far longer to grow a hedge than it does to trim it. Removing any specific mention of “the Tea Council” didn’t mean listening through and completely reediting the interviews or completely building a new video – the processes that are the most time consuming – it meant just chopping off a few bits and making a new file. Luckily the lawyers did a lot of the work for me. Transcripts of every presentation, which had already been done by our team, were handed over to the summit presenter’s lawyers and were then transferred over the Council on Teas legal team for review so as to determine what kind of verbiage would need to be omitted from the presentations. We discovered that the Tea Council was only ever specifically mentioned during the introduction and outro of every presentation. I had the presenter record a standard introduction that used the new moniker for the conference, which I then replaced with all the previous introductions, and simply cut any mention of the conference should it have happened an the end of the presentation. This meant that almost 99% of the presentation stayed in tact. From there it was a simple replacement of the audio from the videos with the new presentation audio, instead of building a brand new video from scratch.

Step 3 – Prepare For a Few Sleepless Nights

Besides all the work on my end, there was the website which thankfully didn’t have to be rebuilt, only migrated. All the copy had to be changed, and with all the banners and logos the style was fine and only the wording had to be tinkered with slightly. Getting all the content back out took a mere 3 days, and most of that work was my computer rendering new files - I simply had to be around to set it up and execute it.

The Fallout

At the end of the day we had all our materials approved and ready for the new launch a solid 48 hours before the conference was finally released to the public. Dealing exclusively digitally meant that no manufactured products had to go to waste. Ultimately, what it amounted to was nothing more than 24 hours of unwarranted panic because of course it was possible to rebrand the entire conference. All it takes to do anything is a competent team, assured in their own strengths, with the commitment to get the job done. Admittedly, the conference did not achieve the lofty expectations we had initially set out with, but we learned what our team was capable of when put under duress – and the response was nothing short of splendid. Furthermore, we learned a very valuable lesson – before you do anything, do your research.

GST Registration for Canadian Businesses

Most Canadian businesses are required to register for GST.  The exception being some small suppliers – sole proprietorships, partnerships or corporations that have total taxable revenues that are less than $30,000 annually after expenses or if your business only provides GST exempt goods or services (i.e. child care or music lessons).  To determine if you are exempt from GST registration, click here  for the CRA requirements.

Even if you qualify as a small supplier, you may want to consider registering for the GST anyway.  Because you’ll be paying GST on purchased goods for the business, your GST registration will allow you to recoup some of the GST paid out on business purchases through Input Tax Credits. 

Registering for GST is actually quite easy.  The main thing to remember is that it needs to be done within 29 days from the day in which your business exceeds the small supplier amount in revenues ($30,000).   GST registration can be done either online or over the phone with the CRA.  You’ll be given a GST/HST number (also called a Business Number) to be used on invoices, for accounting and on all tax-related paperwork. 

Once you’ve registered for GST, you’ll be assigned a reporting period based on your total annual sales, which can be either monthly, quarterly or annually.   For your reports you’ll need to prepare a GST return showing the amount of GST/HST you’ve charged customers as well as the amount of GST/HST paid to suppliers.  This can get complicated when factoring in your Input Tax Credits as well as the various classes of GST/HST goods and services.  For more information on this, please visit follow the link. 

It’s important not only to keep your records and bookkeeping up to date and accurate, but also to understand the GST registration and reporting process from the outset so that you’re not scrambling to prepare your reports for each period and you’re maximizing your Input Tax Credits as much as possible.  

For One Day Only We Pay Your Professional Fee!

After weeks of preparation, the tax season has finally come to a close and we want to celebrate by paying the professional fee on your next business incorporation.

On May 1st we will cover the cost of the professional fee ($99 value) when you incorporate your business with CorporationCentre.ca.*

Incorporating your business protects you and your shareholders from debt and liabilities associated with your company and can help you save on taxes!

For more information on the advantages of incorporating, click here.

To take advantage of this offer, simply use the Promotional Code CC99INC2014 before submitting your incorporation order. The promotional code is valid on May 1st 2014 only.

Click here to start the order process.

*Plus government fees and optional products and services. Does not include non-profit incorporation. 

Named vs. Numbered Corporations

Choosing a name for your business can be a tough task. Not only do you need to come up with something distinctive and original that describes your company, you also have to make sure that the name isn’t similar to any other named corporation out there. Each jurisdiction has its own set of requirements for names and this can lead to a frustrating process.  Sometimes your first choice just doesn’t cut it and you have to go back to the drawing board.

 Numbered corporations allow you avoid delays and expense involved in searching for and reserving a corporate name. So if you need to incorporate quickly, this is a good option. You would be required to use your incorporated number for any legal matters or relations (i.e. contracts, government filings), but you are able to register a trade name and be known to your customers as operating under such trade name. Or, you can always file Articles of Amendment at a later time to change from a numbered to a named corporation.

If you’re set on having a named corporation, make sure you have at least 3 possible options for your name.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket or the outcome may be very disappointing! Having variations of your name submitted allows for a better chance that at least one will be approved and you’ll avoid the back and forth paperwork, time and expense of re-submitting names. Stay tuned for our blog post on how to choose a corporate name, for tips on best practices when coming up with a name that suits your business AND the legal requirements.

There are positives and negatives to choosing between a named and numbered corporation and it is dependent upon the objectives of the business and its shareholders. For the best outcome, weigh your options carefully and create a plan of attack before you begin.

For more information, visit our website at www.CorporationCentre.ca !

Canadian Corporate Taxes

How to Maximize Your Return

It’s that time of year again –the dreaded tax season.  For business owners with incorporated corporations whose fiscal year has ended, this means having to file two separate returns – personal and corporate. It’s a daunting task to say the least, which is why many businesses chose to hand over their paperwork and receipts to a trusted accountant. But for those of you who are do-it-yourself types, here’s a guide to help you maximize your corporate tax return.

Type of Corporations

There are various types of corporations in Canada, all of which are subject to tax rates dependent upon corporate status. The corporations that have the lowest tax rate are Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs).  These are entirely private corporations controlled and operated within Canada. CCPCs are eligible for the Small Business Deduction which, at this time, stands at 11%, the lowest tax rate available to corporations. All other corporations that do not fall under this category, whether private or public, are taxed at a higher rate. It is worth investigating at the outset the potential of having your business structure set up as a CCPC in order to benefit from the deduction.

Corporate Tax Credits

Research and Development Tax Credits: To qualify for an R&D tax credit (or the SR&ED Program) your company must be involved in experimental development, applied research, basic research and support work which would lead to advancement or address uncertainty in technological and scientific areas. This can encompass a wide range of R&D and is particularly useful for tech and environmental start-ups that are developing new products or improving upon existing products in the marketplace.

Tax Credits for Small Businesses: In addition to R&D tax credits, Canadian businesses can benefit from a range of tax credits for small business. Some credits are dependent on jurisdiction or depend upon industry, while others are Canada-wide and not industry-specific. Tax credits include areas such as apprenticeship job creation, designated activities on qualified property, child care spaces and pre-production mining.

Corporate Income Tax Deductions

If your corporation doesn’t qualify for any tax credits, take a look at potential corporate income tax deductions, you may be surprised what can be included! Below are some examples:

·         Gifts to employees
·         Automobile expenses
·         Insurance
·         Office expenses
·         Mortgage interest & security
·         Business meals/entertainment
·         Conventions
·         Canadian advertising expenses
·         Accounting/legal services
·         Home-based business expenses

Taking the time to research all the available tax credit and deductions for your small business can definitely help you save money in the long run. Take advantage of the incentives the Canadian government provides small business – that’s what they are there for! Good luck and happy filing.

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Averting Disaster – Do Your Research (Part 1)

I was recently privy to one of the worst branding disasters I’ve ever encountered. The effect on the team launching the product was near catastrophic and hindsight proved just how avoidable it all was. There are a few simple rules to a product launch and I’m hoping that my recent experience can shed a light on how to avoid this problem in the future.

The following story is true. Certain names and details have been altered to protect the privacy and integrity of those involved.

The Product

I work as a digital media consultant responsible for developing content for various companies that choose to market their business on the internet. A well-intentioned individual who runs a website and blog devoted to tea was looking to expand their audience by hosting an online tea conference bringing experts from all over the world to discuss everything concerning tea, called “The Tea Council”. The online conference would be composed of 30 presentations and interviews on various subjects as they relate to tea marketed for free over a one-week period, and available for sale thereafter through the blog and various affiliates for $29.99.

The Team

A tremendous amount of work is involved to put together one of these online conferences for which there are numerous benefits to the consumer. First, during the week of the conference the information is available for free. Second, there is no need to buy a ticket, purchase a flight, or book a hotel room in another city - the entire conference can be enjoyed from one’s bedroom. And finally, the information is available to the consumer in perpetuity. In order to create this product, a whole content team and marketing team need to be assembled to create the product and to put it out to the world. Web space for the “theteacouncil” was purchased and all content and marketing for the conference would be channeled through that space. A single online conference takes a solid 2 to 3 months to put together employing about a dozen individuals all trained in their specific discipline as well as coordinating with a large group of experts who all have a stake in how great the reach is for this conference.

My Role

As the one responsible for designing the content, it was my job to consult with our client on how to make the best use of digital media to communicate the information of an expert with an audience of lay people. An interview is conducted between the conference host and the expert that is recorded and edited, and then turned into a final podcast-type deliverable for the consumer. Those interviews are then transcribed, from which a power point presentation is created. This power point is then turned into a video and is matched with the audio presentation which itself is delivered to the consumer. All in all, for thirty presentations, on my end alone, it was about 100 hours of work.

How It All Broke Down in the Blink of an Eye

We were less than a week away to launch. All the content was in place, all the affiliates were on board, and initial pre-registrations had already taken place. Heavy traffic was already heading to the website and sales were already being made. The client received a cease and desist letter from the owner of a website called “councilonteas.com”. After an initial review from a lawyer, although being reassured that the Council on Teas didn’t have much of a case, legal fees alone would cut significantly into the budget of the conference. The owner of the Council on Teas was also adamant that a deal could not be struck and that the Tea Council was in breach of a trademarked product and would be legally blocked from launching their product, and would face legal repercussions and be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, should they continue with their launch as planned.

 Lesson Learned

A simple Google search would have shown the existence of the Council on Teas company and their website, and the initial decision to launch the conference as “The Tea Council” had to be considered a terrible oversight. Even if the desired web space was available, it would have been preferable to do some initial market research and explore any websites and names that might have even been remotely similar to anything they wanted to launch.

Read on to Part 2 to find out what it took to finally get a completed product completely rebranded and launched.