My online sales career is long and illustrious. I’ve been at it since 2001 and have sold everything from art, jewelry, perfumes, household knick knacks, to – currently – skincare, both direct and via marketplaces (Ebay and others). It is at once a hobby, an addiction, and, in the early days, a safety net. And I’m always and forever trying to find ways to reduce the shipping costs. Even in pre-COVID times, shipping rates were getting out of hand and kept going up every quarter. Got to a point where to ship a 200g/0.5lb package to BC would cost about $25.

Yes, it’s true, even with Canada Post there are ways to save, like sending without tracking for smaller packages, but that wouldn’t work for fragile boxed items. Even for small flat bubble mailers it’s not worth the headache when a package gets lost. So many emails, “please wait another week”, “okay we’ll ship out a replacement”, “oh, the first one’s arrived 8 weeks late, great! what do we do about the replacement” and so on. Plus, Paypal and Stripe really like seeing shipment confirmation in case of a dispute. It’s rare, but can get unpleasant and it’s best to be armed with a tracking number.

Happily, last year I found FreightCom. I recommend it if you need a faster service with better rates. Their UPS rates for parcels going to the US save me at least $5-7 per pkg vs Canada Post, but the main advantage is the speed of delivery. To be fair, even in 2020 and now Canada Post has been great at getting packages to the border, but then USPS takes over and it can take a very long time. So that’s where UPS or Fedex come in, and FreightCom is a good option, highly recommend depending on your priorities.

However, if you don’t care much about timing and just want to save, save, save, go with my latest find – ChitChats! They pool the packages and then hand them off to either Canada Post or USPS in most cases. Still the same network, but for some reason, way better rates.

I’m somewhat reluctant to share this secret out of fear that I’ll ruin a very good thing. And then I think, the more customers they have, the better the rates they can offer. Probably. Hopefully. So here you you go. ChitChats.

I just created a shipment for a 100g package going from Toronto to North Carolina and it cost five dollars sixty nine cents. Canadian. Includes tracking and insurance. I kid you not. Canada Post would charge at least $12 for a tracked packet service. But typically you can expect something like $8-10 with ChitChats. Still very decent, almost like in the “old times”, in the “old normal” etc etc.

The post OMG! Cheap Canadian Shipping appeared first on Phantasmix.com.

But I was unpleasantly surprised by Stripe’s order reversal / refund / chargeback policy. Call it whatever you want, but if the customer returns the item and you issue a refund, Stripe does not refund the original processing fee. That can be a large chunk of change depending on what you sell.

The post Paypal vs Stripe: Refund Policy appeared first on Phantasmix.com.

If you’re considering doing your work for free, this infographic might help you decide whether you should.

Click to enlarge. Start in the middle.

© Jessica Hische

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How many Internet webpages or websites does your corporation earn income from?

Wasn’t very clear to me.

I list hosting and domain registration as separate expenses every year, but I have no direct revenue from the sale of “widgets” on the website (this blog excluded). I called Revenue Canada to clarify what they meant: do they want to see the websites I operate or just the ones I use to directly sell stuff? The answer was “List 0 (zero) website if you don’t sell anything off of them”.

Frankly, Revenue Canada is pretty nosy so I couldn’t believe it. I’ve sometimes called twice, three times with the same question, and each agent would have a different answer for me. The more elaborate answer was found at the Revenue Canada website. This is from their corporate return form but I assume it’s the same for partnerships/sole proprietorships:

You may earn income from your webpages or websites if:

• you sell goods and/or services on your own pages or websites. You may have a shopping cart and process payment transactions yourself or through a third-party service;
• your site doesn’t support transactions but your customers call, complete, and submit a form, or email you to make a purchase, order, booking, and others;
• you sell goods and/or services on auction, marketplace, or similar websites operated by others; or
• you earn income from advertising, income programs, or traffic your site generates. For example:
  • static advertisements you place on your site for other businesses
  • affiliate programs
  • advertising programs such as Google AdSense or Microsoft adCentre
  • other types of traffic programs.

• Also file this schedule if you don’t have a website but you have created a profile or other page describing your business on blogs, auction, market place, or any other portal or directory websites from which you earn income.

Verdict: If you have an online profile for your business with a way to contact you, then yes, you must list the website(s).

Then there’s the next question:

What is the percentage of the corporation’s gross revenue generated from the Internet in comparison to the corporation’s total gross revenue?

This one you have to evaluate for yourself. Do you get most of your business via the website, referrals or some other way?

The post Taxes (Canada): Internet Business Activities appeared first on Phantasmix.com.

How does it work?
A business line of credit is very different from how a traditional loan works. It has no fixed payment terms (really! see the next paragraph) and the interest rates are adjustable. Furthermore, it can only be used for your business and must be paid back. For example, if you own an auto mechanic shop and suddenly a vital piece of equipment broke down. The cost of replacing it is too much for you to simply go out and buy. By taking out a business loan you can invest in the machine and keep your business running while turning a profit. Your business can use these credit lines at any time up to a certain amount that is agreed upon by you and your lender.

Advantages and the downside
Business lines of credit are far more flexible than any loan type you can get through a traditional bank. If you can qualify for a secured line of credit loan it’s probably your best option, because unsecured credit loans have much higher interest rates due to the fact the borrower isn’t putting up any collateral. However, the interest rate is adjustable. Your loan rate is based on how quickly you can pay it back.

Saving small businesses when big banks don’t
Smaller lenders have a long history of saving small businesses when larger banks refuse to help. In a ‘USA Today’ article about how small businesses turn to alternative lenders in their time of need, there’s a story about a small business owner who sought a 50K loan from a big bank to buy toy inventory for his comic book shop right before the holiday season. He was turned down! (In the spirit of Christmas, ha) Instead, he sought help from an alternative lender who granted him the loan. This allowed the entrepreneur to not only expand his inventory, but thanks to the business loan, he was able to increase his annual revenue by 50 percent to $500,000 that year.

It is for reasons such as this that alternative lenders help stimulate the economy by helping small businesses succeed when big banks (the ones responsible for the bad economy) refuse to help small business owners who show projected profits.

Borrow responsibly
When contacting your lender be sure to speak with a professional and help them determine a good loan amount if you don’t already have a firm number you need to stay afloat. Borrowing responsibly is the key to keeping your business running strong.

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