Marketing your business, whether you are brand new or experienced, is an ongoing challenge. The good news is that the number of ways in which we can get ourselves in front of potential customers has proliferated. The bad news is that an initiative, that might have been working, suddenly stops delivering results, often for seemingly inexplicable reasons. (a recent google update has significantly impacted the ranking of my blog which inspired me to write this article which is as much for me as it is for you). This means that we have keep on top of our marketing efforts, and monitor their return on investment (ROI), on an ongoing basis. Since our financial resources and time are not infinite, we want to make sure that they are as effective as possible. We also want to ensure that we do the accounting for our advertising and marketing expenses, meaningfully.

The deadline for submitting tax returns, unless you or your spouse are self employed, has passed. Many (especially tax preparers) are breathing a collective sigh of relief as the stress (often relating to simple procrastination) has largely dissipated. Of course there are still a few of you who have not yet been able to file. If you have not filed and are not an unincorporated small business/self employed, then you will be charged penalties based on the amount due. You should try and file as soon as possible as the late filing penalty is 5% immediately and then 1% every month of the balance due. Alternatively, if you can’t file, pay as much of your estimated taxes as possible to reduce the amount of penalty. If you are expecting a refund, then there are no penalties, however any support or credit payments will be help up until you file.

Below I have enumerated a list of what to expect, and do, post tax filing:

The federal budget that was released on April 17, 2024 was controversial, to say the least. For years, finance people have been hypothesizing about an increase to the capital gains “inclusion” rate. This budget finally made good on that speculation and was perhaps the most significant provision of this budget.

A capital gain occurs when you sell an asset for a higher price than what you paid for it. Of the gain that you realize i.e. the difference between the sale price and the purchase price, currently only 50% of the gain is “included” and is taxable.

It is now April and we are getting closer to the tax filing deadline. Some of us have anxiety just thinking about it and have understandably decided to procrastinate as the only reasonable response :). Of course there are those of you who have already filed their tax returns, thereby (mostly) eliminating their stress and should be commended for their judiciousness.

As I’ve been immersed in taxes (for what seems like an eternity), I have received a number of questions. I thought I would share a handful of these with you:

It is easy to get sucked into the vortex of social media. It can be a fun distraction and depending on your interests, educational and inspiring. It is also a megaphone where often the most opiniated people hold the most weight. Someone with thousands of followers who confidently asserts a fact, is taken at their word. Unfortunately, thought, some of this information is erroneous or has been manipulated to support an argument and anyone trying to correct errors or present a counter argument is shut down or simply deleted.

As we are firmly into tax season, I thought it would be useful to delve into the endlessly exciting topic of sales tax. I have several blog posts and videos about sales tax which I will link to below, including an FAQ (which I have just updated). In this article, I will provide some context that might be useful.

Sales taxes in Canada in it’s original form was introduced during the Great Depression The federal government introduced a "manufacturer's sales tax" (MST) in 1920 to bolster their revenues during a challenging time. The tax was levied on the sale of goods by manufacturers and was primarily intended to be a hidden tax, that was indirectly paid by consumers.

Anyone who has glanced a non fiction bestseller list over the past few years has likely noticed a book called “Atomic Habits” . The thesis of the book is that small incremental changes to our habits (i.e. atomic units) can lead to significant changes in our lives, over time. He explains the behaviour that drives habits, provides strategies for forming good habits and helps to break bad ones.

I mention this as I was thinking about my goals recently (as one does in a new year) and realized that I had some work to do on defining and refining them. My starting point was an internet search on “how to set goals” which lead me to James Clear’s (author of “Atomic Habits” ) website and this post. He provides some great insight on how to set, attain and measure goals. However, the most interesting insight to me was that the systems (i.e. habits) are more important than the goals:

A few years ago I read a book called the The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. (which I highly recommend). The gist of the book is that too much time spent working in the business and not enough time spent working on the business is a big reason why 50% of new ventures fail within the first 5 years. In other words, many of us (I am certainly guilty of this) spend too much of our time on the technical or management of the business rather than growing it. The book focuses on the franchise model, which allowed McDonald’s (and everyone since) to expand (and create empires) relatively seamlessly by systematizing, documenting and automating processes.

As a business owner, I think a well crafted survey can provide you with a wealth of information about your customers. Creating a good survey, however ( as I have learnt), can take time and effort. It can’t be too long, shouldn’t have too many open ended questions and has to anticipate the needs of your audience. One of my goals is to get more general information on my readers and where there interest and more importantly, their challenges, lie.

As many of you know, the federal budget was released last week. They now give these budgets descriptive titles - this one is Making Life More Affordable and Supporting the Middle Class which is an interesting focus (I imagine they have a marketing department that comes up with these). Given that the biggest economic headline from the last year or so has been inflation, I suppose it is important that this budget is seen as an effort to help make life easier for Canadians. Unfortunately, the budget does not have much in the way of inflation targeting nor is there anything significant for small businesses. There are however (as always) some items of interest.

I would like to preface this by saying that as I was going down the rabbit hole of the digital economy, I realized that the term has almost become synonymous with business. The number of business that do not participate in some kind of online activity (whether it is your entire business or some part of it) is increasingly shrinking:

Hope everyone is having a lovely start to the new year! As a gift please find a mild rant below (please feel free to email me with your own opinions on this):

I’ve had various conversations with people on the subject of small business and personal finance which start with “my friend told me”. This can be compared to a game of broken telephone where the original knowledge is interpreted by the various recipients and often results in amalgam of truth and opinion, presented as fact.