Sometimes when topic is of a particular interest I do visit launches in Gladstone Hotel organized by Interacative Ontario.  I find their events very informative and in some way motivational as you get people in the room that have similar vision to yours.

This past Friday the topic was  Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC) . OIDMTC is a refundable tax credit based upon the eligible Ontario expenditures claimed by Canadian corporation for an interactive digital media products.

These are my notes from the discussion:

-bigger portion of the discussion was centered on SR&ED vs. OIDMTC . Conclusion: SR&ED is better since you can apply for it year long and you don’t have to have a successful product in a time of application. However, if you are in doubt either your company is eligible for SR&ED you can apply for both programs and government will choose which is the most appropriate program for you. You can’t stack two of these credits.

-OIDMTC is a labour credit. Some nuances might arise when you sub-contract work to other companies. If you do plan to claim this credit make sure you meet with an accounting firm that has an expertise in this field to make sure you stay in requirements of the credit.

-it is a good idea to hire an accounting company to fill out the application for you as it can be very difficulat to do it for a person. Most of the accounting companies work on contingency basis (10%-25%) depending on a difficulty of an application

-when you do use outside company make sure you still understand the process of the claim and what is submitted to the government. When they come with an audit you want to be able to showcase that you do what you claimed you do in your application.

-some of the other funds used for financing are Telefilm Canada New Media Fund and Bell New Media Fund

-you have up to 4 years to claim OIDMTC and if you constantly update your product (for example website platform update) you can only apply once in two years. From what I understood you have to apply by the end of your fiscal year.

-two deadlines May 11th and October

Overall it seemed like that if you are eligible it is actually humanely possible to receive this credit and people in OMDC are actually pretty nice and answer phone calls. Being a new entrepreneur during recession times there are so many things I have to take care of and sometimes it is hard to pay attention to everything. However, optimizing you company and getting financed through governemnt should never go off your radar as cashflow and investment is a bloodline for a start-up business.

I will post in the future my experiences with applyijg for different tax credits.

Comments?

Almost a year ago I published an infamous post Koodo Mobile in Toronto or why develop a fake brand? which generated a lot of controversy between and my readers (mostly just my friends). Back then I thought couple of things:

1) What is the point in creating of what I call a fake brand or sub-brand of Telus?

2) Originally Koodo was supposed to be targeting younger people and I didn’t understand how is 80′s work out tape relates to the target audience

3) I didn’t think that “fat free mobility” was actually fat free.

So was I right or wrong? I think I was right in some things and that Koodo adjusted in a year and is now looking more like what is supposed to resemble. Here is my reasoning:

-Now almost a year later same advertising agency Taxi 2 changed its advertising campaign from 80′s workout tape to clever new words like “bigbiliffication,” but still kept the same colors.  I think that was a great move as that 80′s tape was annoying the hell out of people. Just check out Twiter if you don’t beleive me. I still don’t know what is the point of people with big mouths, but I think they have a cleaver slogans and it was good they kep the colors to keep the branding going.

-Telus did grow their customer base quite a bit, but is not releasing how much of it is attributed to Koodo.  Somehow I think if the figures were good they would release them openly

-They deviated from “fat free mobility” and now offer: web browsing, mms, call forwarding and when you add all the services it still doesn’t come out that cheap

-They did eliminate service charge – which made them look like an actual discount brand.

I still beleive that brands like Koodo, Fido, and Soho are just one of the way to trick consumers in buyng the same service. Some people do it, because they like marketing others just don’t see any other alternative. My opinion is that when new players like Globalive enter the market Rogers, Bell, and Telus will have to adjust and make their prices reasonable as a a result Koodo, Soho and Fido will have to either disappear or become even more discounted in order to attract customers that would want to use services from new players.

I personally can’t wait for that time. We really need a second GSM company in Canada!

I will be upfront that I am not an expert or anywhere near in social media. I know how it works in theory, but implementation been lagging I just don’t seem to have enough patience or maybe my strategy is just wrong and I need to hire social media specialists. In my mind I compare every life situation with either driving on highway (don’t ask I have a whole theory) or martial arts training, so I figured that social media is like martial arts – never happens overnight, takes practice and lots of patience.
That is a reason why I feel very happy even when I make small steps to improve my social media profile and skills. I did two things in last couple of days to improve:

Twitter:
It seems that everybody on the net talks and uses Twitter these days. I’ve been slow in using it and only have 56 updates – partly due to a simple fact that I had no followers. However, now when T4C is near its completion it is time to reach out to the public of Toronto, I said to myself, it is time to start actually using Twitter. Now, I know that my approach is totally wrong – I should have been developing relationships and followers along the way and now it will take some time till I build creditability with the community and actually benefit from Twitter – but hey, it is better late than never right?

So I did two things:

1) I installed Twitter – Facebook application. What it does is copies my Twitter updates to Facebook, I don’t think it works in reverse. This allows me to tap into more developed Facebook network while building up my Twitter account as well. I think this is a first step one should do.

2) Now before I go to sleep I go to search.twitter.com and search for terms relevant to T4C it is amazing how many people are on Twitter from Toronto while nobody around me doesn’t even know what Twitter is. I read through first two pages and check out interesting people. I don’t want to follow each and everyone, because then really it will be impossible to follow all of them. So I click on user profiles, check out their updates and their blog or website. If a person is interesting – I follow. Then – magic this people start following me as well. So in a day I grew my followers from 8 to 30.

I know that mastering Twitter is a slow process and I also need to bring value to people who follow me and not just promote my content. That is why I am going to take my time to develop this relationship and gradually grow the readership. I think next step would be to get custom designed Twitter page and participate more in conversation of people I follow already.

Toronto Food Blogs
Really there is no direct competition to T4C ( and that is why we started the project), but it doesn’t mean somebody is not starting the same project and you still have to follow other players in the industry. From my perspective the nearest to us in topic are food blogs and entertainment guides. Finding major ones is pretty easy, but how do you go deeper? I used a system that I read from Dave’s Fleet blog :Practical 101s: Google Reader And Persistent Search . So I set a brand new Google account, so it doesn’t mix with the regular feeds I read and set up a system that monitors every media company in Toronto I could think about as well as keywords like “Toronto Restaurants” or “Toronto Dates.”
Yesterday I logged in to this account and scanned the 660 feeds that appeared over there in a matter of 10 min I found 15 local Toronto blogs that are dedicated to food – I was amazed, because I couldn’t find them before when I was doing the research for my business plan.

Now these new websites that I discovered could be our competition or in opposite could become our content partner – you never know. What I do know that as a professionals in what we do – we just have to keep on eye on what these guys do and try to develop a relationship with them where everyone will benefit.

So here they are – my baby steps in social media. I think I will spend more time with blogs and Twitter for now, and not going to use use Stumble or Digg anytime soon – because I want to be authentic and that requires time and patience.

It is been a long time since posting on here. The reason is plain simple: I was not actually working, but rather I was waiting for the company I hired to finish toronto4couples. Without finished website that I could work with, I lacked self-discipline to stay motivated and to keep moving forward (I hope my Sensei doesn’t read this). Well the website is sorta done and you can see it you will go to toronto4couples.com.

I feel very exited and sometimes overwhelmed at the same time to be finally working on the website. So much needs to be done and everything is important.  If you are in the same boat with me here is my advice: This is a time to have fun, watch your breathing and think about one thing at a time.

Where we are going:

-some of the writers we cooperated moved on to some other projects, so we will need to find couple of new ones.

-everyday new bugs are found on the website that need to be fixed

-loading the website with the content and organizing it in the most user friendly way possible

-promote

-wait

-promote

-wait

-hopefully make couple of bucks

Lessons learned:

-when dealing with web designers or any creative people for that matter stricter contracts needed. From now on anybody we work with will have to reduce the price of the project if they are late with their deliverables. When you think about a typical contract is usually puts all the obligation on the ordering party: pay on time, communicate on time. However,developer only estimates everything. We won’t sign contracts like this anymore, even if would mean a deal breaker. if you don’t like relationship with your suppliers – get out of early if you can. Face the brutal facts and understand that it will be cheaper in a long run.

-everything takes longer than expected, make sure you have something that keeps you motivated. There is always work to be done, whether it is prospecting, educating yourself and researching your competitors

I thank everybody who stay tuned during this whole time and I promisse more to come very soon. I would like to keep this blog as the window to how we are building the RomanZ Media Group Inc.

Here are couple of photos from my meeting with writers for Toronto4couples. All of them have such distinct and interesting personalities. It was lots of fun to hang out with them. I guess that is why I quit my job and started the business, so I can have fun while making money.

As usual my  $.o2 of advice:

Spend as much time as you need to get the right people on the bus:

I received close to a hundred applications for writers (I wish that was the same for sales rep position), and I and my partners took the time to read each application’s samples to get a bit more about their personality and select only the ones that fit. We decide that if we don’t find anybody – we just keep on looking instead of settling in.

For those of you who didn’t read Good to Great a word of advice: it is crucial to get the right people on the bus, more important than the direction of the bus. Market conditions change everyday (just look on past two days) and the strategy might change – direction of the bus. However, if you have right people on the bus you will be able to effectively adopt to whatever market throws at you.

Get to know the people on the bus:

Some of corporate souls I know are against becoming friends with your staff for obvious reasons (maintain the position of control, what if you need to fire them next day etc..). I don’t follow this principle though. While I agree that the certain level of distance is needed when talking about business matters it is very important to get to know people you work with personally.

As a manager/leader you have to know your people’s dreams, goals, and problems. You have to know what keeps them up at night. If you know what makes your people happy it is easier to assign projects, training and keep them happy. You got to make sure that the job they are doing is good fit not only to their skills, but also to their desires and goals. Once you know where they strive at give them all the initiatives on running the project.  Ultimately that would lead to happy workers. Happy workforce is 80% of success.

What is the better way to get to know the guys over nice dinner and then drink after?

I am not drunk just eyes half closed as usual

You got to love the ladie's smiles

Quick note that I attended a networking event organized by AMA Toronto chapter and Craig Lund. This part Thursday.

The location and the events itself was pretty cool. The crowd was a mix of glamour, professional and anti-corporate lifestyle professionals.

I came with a goal to find some potential sales reps, writers and designers. I did get couple of leads from there and working on it.

At the same time it amazes me how a lot of marketers don’t know by themselfes how to market. Some ideas that came in mind after this event:

• -be nice to everybody, i saw some people that changed the attitutde when they realized they can’t sell anything to a person. The person might know somebody or need your services in the future
• -if you come to the networking event – bring your business cards. Some people “ran out” it is such a simple thing, yet it has a good impact
• -if you are doing a presentation – don’t read from your power point especially when you are presenting to marketers who earn their living my doing presentations
• -don’t drink too much. While it is ok to drink to some, to relax and be laid back. Being drunk won’t help you to get that next gig.

Overall it was a usefull event I will atend it again. I woudl reccomend it to anybody who is looking for a work or business opportunities in marketing industry in Toronto.

I am always looking for great advertising sales representative. Check out the video I made about the position and who are looking for. Disclaimer: This is my first video of that kind and obviously there is no professional edit.

Advertising Sales rep for Toronto4couples from Roman Zelvenschi on Vimeo.

Update: I am moving along with my plans and even have a preliminary date for the launch of a website and a paper. I am officially done today with really rough draft of my business plan (with all the ratios, costs and projected revenues). Financial part as it should took the most time. I must say that writing a business plan helped me organize my thoughts and move from just idea that I had before to a plan on how to execute this idea. I just wish I was writing this plan 6 months ago when I was still working to give an ample time to iron out every detail. Begining of the September is the one of the best time to launch a media product and now I am in a race against the time to get everything done by the middle of September.

In order to help out other new entrepreneurs in Canada I compiled a list of my reading that I thought is essential for anyone who wants to run business in Ontario and Canada in general. Here it is:

Governement of Canada publications:

• Circular 89-2R2 take a look on section 227.1 about Director’s liability. Just in case you were thinking that now when you have a federal corporation in Canada you can do anything you want.
• IT-291 Transfer of property to corporation - if you are planning to add some of your own equity into corporation you could do it without paying taxes.
• T4001 Employers Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances - of course you accountant will explain it to you, but I like to understand at least the basics by myself first. It is a bit complicated even for experienced mind like ours.
• T4032 Payroll Deductions Tables
  
• Government Assistance – General Comments : if you are planning to get subsidies from a government this is a must read
  
• Statement of business activities – this is how you are going to file taxes for a corporation, explanations on what is classified as business expense and revenue.
• Commencement of business activities - if you incurred expenses before the corporation was made and want to claim as an expense read this bulletin

Other Links:

• Interactive business planner – the good thing about this planner is that it is free and it calculates automatically cash flow, balanche sheet and income statement. It also provides lots of examples of existent business plans.
  
• One Stop Index for Canadian Small Business – lots of articles that make sense to unprepared readers.

I will be addidnt to list the more I dive into the business. I am expecting that soon another rollecoaster will start wich will be trying to sell the newspaper.

My little brother is finally here, so between playing a parent and celebrating Canada Day (I celebrate anything that gives me a good reason to part) I’ve been a bit busy. I was very keen on writing a post yesterday, but guess what? My Rogers Wireless was down and they couldn’t even fix it, because their own systems were down. This can be pretty disastrous if you work from home and using internet for pretty much everything you do.

Instead of describing my phone calls with Rogers (which were lessons on how not do customer service) I just want to put my two cents in for this whole Iphone in Canada story. As many of you know Rogers reveiled their Iphone pricing couple of days ago and a consumer backlash was phenomenal. I wanted say that I am proud for Canadian consumers who created a website ruinediphone.com and right now already more than 30,000 people signed the petition. Btw I encourage everyone who didn’t do it to sign it right now.

While I don’t think the petition will change anything since Rogers/Fido is an only GSM carrier in Canada and only they have exclusive rights to sell Iphone (which is a total anti-capitalistic approach). They are just milking this thing for whatever they can. I am still proud of Canadia consumers who are so aware that they are being ripped of. When I moved to Canada two years ago from Chicago – I found the prices for cellur service shocking. I was so ticked with the fact that despite the high prices everyone was used to these plans.

It is not a secret that Canadian don’t like to be compared to Americans (we have free medical insurance over here), but I still think that comparing value packages especially now when Canadian dollar is in par with American way is essential in getting what we rightfully deserve. We already pay more taxes when get our salaries and buy goods, why the price is so much more? I still can’t wrap my hear around it.

-why cars made in Canada and exported to USA are cheaper to buy in US bring back here than just buy a car in Canada?
-why books still cost 30% more in Canadian dollars?
-why electronics that are brought from Asia and distributed through Best Buy cost 20%-30% more over here


Just needed to unwind that is what blogs are for.

Check out theIlube picture!

Even though some of my friends thing I am into technology I am really not that tech savvy and for sure I am not a web designer. That is why the decision of outsourcing the web site creation and maintenance was obvious. My believe is that a business can outsource everything except strategic functions – basis for the competitive advantage. In my business competitive advantage is created through creation if unique content, marketing of the media channel to bring visitors and sales relationships with advertisers. I strongly believe that everything else can be and should be outsourced for lean operations.

I am writing a detailed business plan these days (if you still didn’t participate in the survey I sent you – do it right now, that is a part of marketing research) and needed to understand how much the website will costs. I also wanted a break down of how much each feature I want takes time and costs associated with it. My plan is not only to outsource web site development but also to offshore it. I have connections in both Russia and Israel where the website can be created on the same level as in North America, but for the fraction of the cost.

My first step in getting quotes is to use Elance.com it is a great tool to upload some of the simple projects to someone else. I used it to find a designer Steve Sotto to build a logo for the website.

After posting a brief description of what I need “Entertainment Portal based on CMS” I received more that 40 private messages, some firms even quoted me on a project right away varying from $1000 to $20,000. The experience made me write this post dedicated to anyone who sends quotes or proposals for web development and pretty much for any business. I have to provide a disclaimer that I think in my professional life I provided a top notch service to my clients and that is why when I am a buyer I am very picky. So here are my rules:

• Don’t quote on a project till you know the scope of it - Everyone who quoted without even looking into what I need and furthermore wanted to push me into making a purchase decision were eliminated from the list. It is simple as that: if you don’t have time to make sure you have what I need – I am not willing to work with you daily for 2-3 month in creating my baby.
• Remember who you quoted – a guy wrote me an email that he would be “delighted to go over the project details” with me over the phone and that I can call at my earliest convenience. I did call after 15 minutes of receiving his email. To my surprise he didn’t know who I was or what project I am talking about. It took him five minutes to figure it. I even felt that he unhappy that I interrupted whatever he was doing with my phone call. Gone.
• Read what client wrote -after talking to a couple of firms I understood that I have to write a detailed feature by feature description of what I need. It took me almost a day of writing and making schemes in order to try to translate my vision into paper (even though I thought it is plain clear – apparently it is not). I provided pretty detailed explanation of every feature I need along with examples from different websites that use these features right now. I also included executive summary. Sure enough some fast readers read executive summary and didn’t read the explanations. I got bunch of questions I already answered in the original document I sent. Again it mean a disrespect to my work and project. I felt that people just want to get the project as fast as possible without making sure that they are actually right people for the job. All of those guys – gone.
• Send formal proposal - if you expect me to send you a detailed feature by feature request and schemes of the pages, be kind enough to elaborate on your quote as well. Some people answered with once sentence ” You project will cost $12,000 and will take around 60 days. We can iron details as move along. Looking forward to getting started on your project.” I am sorry that just won’t cut it. I need to know what features take the longest time, your maintenance suggestions and what can be done better. All one liners – gone.
• Don’t quote too low – some people quoted me way bellow average like $1500 dollars. This make me suspicious – too good to be true. If everywhere else it costs $5000 and I get it for $4000 that is a deal, if I get for $1000 – it is a scam.
  
• Don’t slam down the competition – I don’t want to hear why other guys are bad. I want to hear why you are good. Concentrate on yourself and what value you bring to me.
• Do what you tell me you will – if you tell a client that you will send an email by the end of today – do it. Don’t send it after 3 days without even apologies – gone.

I am glad to say that 3 businesses passed all my picky tests and moved up to the next level of competition. My next step in weeding out who is gone it is to look more carefully on the previous work done and their expertise. I am not just going to look on their portfolio, but also to contact their previous clients and see if they would recommend them as suppliers. I will then look on who is “getting it” my vision I meant and with whom I would like to work together for at least all of the next year.

So here it is, I am picky – but I apply  same standards to my suppliers that I apply to my own business.

p.s. I am going to also look on a local level and compare the cost savings
p.p.s. my next post will explain exactly on how long it will take to make the website and what features are the most time consuming