Brokentoy

After reading back a few articles I’ve decided to put Brokentoy on hold until I can find more of a voice in my writing. My articles are all substance and no spice, and at some times come across even robotic. Until I can put some pep in my writing step I think I’ll leave it to the professionals.

I suggest reading 43 folders, Frugal For Life, and Get Rich Slowly. All have great info on a lot of tech and financial subjects. If you were a regular thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon.

Like many of the over 8 million World of Warcraft subscribers I preordered my copy of The Burning Crusade to get it on launch day. When I went to check my shipping status I was greeted with this slap in the face:

“Due to system maintenance our order status system is temporarily unavailable. Please do not call our customer service center as they share the same system and do not have additional information. We apologize for the inconvenience; please check back later.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade orders are shipping today, on schedule, out of our Louisville, Kentucky distribution center. If you placed an order before 2:00pm (cst) on Monday January 15, 2007, and have NOT received an email from us requesting additional payment processing information, your Burning Crusade order should ship today at the shipping service level you requested.”

Having “system maintenance” on the launch of the year’s most anticipated video game is a such cop out. This bad PR excuse is as believable a publicist’s claim that Britney Spears “fell asleep” on New Years. I’d be more satisfied if the page just said that EB doesn’t want to waste precious server cycles on bandwidth on their own customers. I’d still be insulted, but at least they would be honest.

I was recently asked how I handle charging clients GST/ RST (Goods and Services Tax and Retail Sales Tax for non-Canadians) for my design and code. My quick answer to them is that I don’t. And if you follow this key rule then you can avoid some accounting hassles by avoiding both charging and reporting GST on your invoices and tax returns. It comes down to this:

• If you deliver or publish your work electronically (upload to web, email as attachment) then you are providing a non-taxable service, and do not have to charge tax.
• If you deliver or publish your work as a physical object (CD, print ad, flyer) then you are obligated to charge and remit tax.

If you want the official interpretation then Ontario has provided some example situations to put your mind at ease. From one of their interpretations:

“Where artwork or graphic designs are sold to clients and transferred via the Internet or electronically via a modem to the client or to the client’s printer, on behalf of the client, no RST should be charged to the customer. This is the provisions of a non-taxable service. The provider of the non-taxable service must pay RST on any materials, equipment or taxable services purchased in order to provide the non-taxable service. Where a proof or approval sheet is faxed, mailed or given to clients to show them what was sent to the printer, RST does not apply to the charge for these sheets.”

If you’re outside Ontario your state or province may have a different interpretation of your situation so it’s important to make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for an uncomfortable situation with your friendly neighbourhood auditor. But for any designers or developers in my neck of the woods it looks like if we can avoid getting physical we’ll do just fine.

Technorati Tags: canada, business, taxes, design

A few weeks ago a new financial program named Cha-Ching caught the attention of a few people, including me. With tax time coming up in April I was in the market for a simple app to help me catalog receipts, invoices, and write offs for both a Canadian and US tax return. Cha-Ching is a great fun tool for me to play around with - plus at $14.95 in the beta stage it’s definitely a better price point that two versions of Quicken.

The cabinet and drawer metaphor gives meaning to the folder structure. The “smart drawers” and keyword tags help keep things organized. For example, I have a “current month”, a “write-offs” and a “Apartment furnishings”. More on that below.

A trip to Barrie this week and some horrid temperatures reminded me that the holidays are fast approaching. I found that with Cha-Ching’s photo features and keywords it’s just as useful as a wish list as a financial tool. I made a smart drawer for some frugal new apartment furnishings. I love how I can import a photo, put in a price, and the tally at the bottom of the screen tells me how much my plans are going to cost:

The program is still in beta and there are some quirks, but nothing that should stop you from trying out the demo. Visit the product site and give it a try. If you find any other uses or handy smart drawer rules let me know.

Technorati Tags: Cha-Ching, financial, apps, tools, holiday

My Cheat Sheet articles here are to answer some common questions that my friends and readers ask. It’s not meant to be the defining guide but hopefully it’s enough to put you in the right direction.

This first sheet is for any Canadian looking to set up a business as an individual:

Decide on corporation or sole proprietorship

Setting up a sole proprietorship is the easiest way for an individual to get started as a business. Corporations have more benefits when it comes to filing a tax return, but they’re are a lot more complicated and require a lot of planning before they can be registered. My choice is start small, and when I’m confident that my business will be a success then I’ll hire aaccountant specialized in setting up corporations to convert everything over.

Register online at the Canada Revenue Agency

Register here to to avoid all the hassle of paper forms and calling queues. If you’re in British Columbia, Ontario or Nova Scotia you can also share your information with the provincial equivalent and kill two forms with one click.

Sign up for a GST/HST/RST account

You might not want to rush into this step. If your personal and business revenue is under $30,000 a year then you qualify as a “small supplier”. You’re not obligated to collect taxes from your clients or customers but also can’t claim a tax credit for your business expenses.

Start saving those receipts

Save your receipts for everything. I started with a small envelope and now I’m up to an end table drawer full of this junk. It’s a pain to get out of the habit of throwing out receipts for small purchases but those small things can really add up. Give special attention to receipts for:

• office supply and computer purchases
• client lunches (even if your client is on email, IM, Skype,etc.)
• lease payments for cars you use for business travel
• rent for any living spaces you use as a home office
• gas, mileage to and from all business meetings

Put some income away for a rainy day

I learned this lesson the hard way. When you start making a steady income avoid the temptation to reward yourself the a new 17″ MacBook Pro or a new flat panel TV for your living room. There are always unforeseen expenses, and when you don’t plan ahead things can get real messy real fast when it’s time to file your return.

There’s always room for improvement

I’m no expert yet. At eight months into my business I’ve got a lot of surprises before I’d consider myself a seasoned business owner. Hopefully by my good (and bad) experiences can help you make the most out of your venture.

Technorati Tags: startup, business, Canada

1. Due to the liquid ban there’s now a Starbucks in every checkpoint area. You certainly sure showed us, terrorists.
2. If you want a non fat latte be prepared to repeat yourself six times.
3. Bit Torrent works in the terminal. But that guy behind you is probably an MPAA spy so don’t try anything sneaky, bub.
4. You’re much more likely to make a new business contact sitting beside somebody and sharing power outlet than at the airport lounge.
5. If you start playing World of Warcraft you will meet at least four people that sign and “wish they thought of that”.
6. On the red eye people prefer to complain how hung over they are instead of using 4 hours to sleep it off.
7. Even in Vegas the most unruly obnoxious people STILL come from Oshawa.

Lesson learned: book ahead. Procrastination isn’t worth a long layover stuck in the only boring building in Las Vegas. It was good to be back in the homeland for a little bit but now duty calls and so does my pillow. Expect some more Working Abroad updates next week.

Technorati Tags: travel, las vegas

At my last job I let a 2-3 hour commute get the best of my fitness plans. Now I’m much closer to my new digs and I’m picking up where I left off and getting back into good health and nutrition habits. A month or so into the routine I saw Traineo featured on Solution Watch. It looks like the a decent web tool that could soon compete with some of the paid subscription weight training and weight loss sites out there.

So far you can:

• set a goal for your weight loss or weight gain (for muscle building)
• track calories burned by choosing from types of common activities
• estimate how well you keep to your diet with clever slide bars and informative graphs
• keep to your goals by sharing your results and receiving feedback from “motivators” that you select

I think this is just a few steps away from eclipsing many paid services. I’ve been using the Men’s Health Abs Diet web app because it gives me a meal plan and workout routine that adjusts the more I use it. In the Traineo forums some of the staff have been hinting that this is the next direction to go. Definitely something to keep an eye on if you’re interested in fitness or weight loss.

Technorati Tags: traineo, fitness

Last night I went banner hopping and came across designerID, a directory and portfolio service for designers of all kinds. I completed the first part of their sign up form but stopped at the free trial when I had to enter my credit card. I added it to my ma.gnolia bookmarks and made a note to take another look later. To my surprise I got an autoresponder email from Brian at designerID that really impressed me:

Dear Michael,

We noticed that you identified yourself and did not make the account active by finishing the last step. I would like to extend a year-free trial to try designerID out and not have to enter your credit card information. At the end of the year trial you can either disable your account if it is not a fit or simply pay for the next year. Simply enter “[omitted]” in the promotional code field on the credit card screen and ignore the other fields and hit submit.

Thanks for taking the first step and we hope you’ll take this next one.

We look forward to seeing you on designerID.

Best Regards,

Brian Hock
Chief ID Officer

–

designerID
2175 Central Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45214
USA
+1.513.289.4048
www.designerid.com

There are a lot of annoying autoresponders out there (GoDaddy and LinkedIn are on my worst offenders list) but this one really stood out as a great example of how to do things right. Let’s go through the details:

Tell me who you are and how you got my email

The first thing I look at is the email’s from line. The message is the real name of a real person working at a real company. Brian Hock, not the name of a department like “sales@freestuffgateway.com” or the arbitrary name the developer set up in his php mail() function. I would even be happy with a from line like “donotreply@abccompany.com ” if nobody was responsible for monitoring the list. Now that I know who is emailing me how you got my email I can stop freaking out that one of the sites I used this email on has sold me out to a spam list.

Clearly tell me what you want

The first sentence of the email tells me why you’re emailing and what you want to offer me. You recognized that some people interested in your free trial weren’t expecting to hand over their credit card information and you want to give me another option to become a customer.

Some marketers try to sneak a few sentences from their mission statement before they get to the point. People don’t fill out forms and hand out their emails to products they know nothing about. Not unless Kevin Rose or 37signals tells them to, anyway. This isn’t the proper time for you to try and explain me anything but why you’re taking my time up by reading your email.

Impress me with the little things

The email was addressed to my name. It thanked me for my time and extended an invitation one final time - tactfully. Plus I got the full contact information of a real person. Truthfully, I found it difficult to tell if this was an autoresponder or an actual person emailing me. And in this situation I’m happy to not know the answer.

Startups take heed

This email made enough of an impression on me to make me take a second look at designerID. If anybody out there has a project on the go then do yourself (and your customers) a favour and use this email as a guide.

And the icing on the cake? When I complimented Brian on designerID’s email I got a reply back before I finished writing this post.

Technorati Tags: designerID, business practices, etiquette, marketing, communication

I’ve been reading Digg for just about a year now.� I stumbled onto the Podcast scene around episode 10 and it’s been a steady source of tech news, offbeat sites and entertaining videos.� Recently I’ve been taking a more active role in the community by adding stories and trying to add value to the comments.� The results have been a little unsettling.

When I post a comment on a blog I make sure I follow some basic rules of courtesy:

• fully read and understand the post
• acknowledge the authors and previous commenters’ opinions
• check the article the next day and respond to anybody who responds to my comment

In contrast, the majority of commenters I saw on Digg:

• read the article title and go right to the comments
• repeat each other because they don’t read other comments
• rarely respond to criticism of their own comments

It’s rare to see a high rated comment that adds value.� Usually the top comments are stinging one-liners to a beligerant user, a Simpsons quote or “tubes”.� It feels like high school - the class clowns get all the attention and the people there to learn are ignored.� I’ve decided to keep submitting articles but I’ll leave the commenting to somebody else.

Technorati Tags: digg, etiquette

Back in March I heard about ClaimID , an online identity manager. The idea is that you create your profile and start linking any website, article, meta site or blog comment that has anything to do with you or your work. It’s a great tool if you want to show people what you’re up to professionally or around the web community. It also has a cool side effect - it can drastically increase your search engine ranking.

One of the things that Google and other search engines look for to determine a page rank is third party URL recognition. The more external links you have to your domain the better. Putting Brokentoy on ClaimID helped bring my page rank from #12 to #1.

Unfortunately for me a glass blower, a Bishop, and a handful of CEOs share my name so getting it on the first page is going to be difficult. I’ll take any help I can get.

If you have a website you want to promote then I highly recommend signing up for ClaimID. Here’s my ID if you want to see an example.

Technorati Tags: seo, search, claimid