It's tax time again in Canada. Income tax returns for individuals are due in by April 30th with the self employed needing theirs to be filed by June 15th. Nobody likes paying them but taxes are what makes the world go around. There's no reason, however, not to be sure of getting all your deductions in correctly and minimizing the amount that you pay. Big businesses do it all the time so there's no need to feel guilty about it. More
Even if your business life is hectic, it's more important than ever these days to give customers the impression that you do actually know what you are doing. You know what they say...first impressions are lasting impressions, and all that. It may be mayhem behind the scenes but it's very important that the first contact with customers is a positive one. Even more so if you are an independent practitioner, a tutor, a coach or a small business. More
While it should be incredibly simple, there's little that causes disharmony in the workplace more than payroll problems. All your employees’ want is to have their wages safely at their disposal on payday with no glitches, no problems and no stuff ups. Sometimes that’s not quite as easy to achieve as it seems - even more so if your staff are working in remote areas. 'halo pay for business' is South African based and a new style of pay vehicle - backed by Barclays Bank subsidiary ABSA bank - that goes some way to solving those problems. More
It's a strange thing we are going through at the moment with new startups entering the Main Street retail arena. Whenever I walk down the street in my local town, the biggest changes I'm seeing are plenty of massage and fitness clubs, nail adornment stores, women's clothing stores and new restaurants. Have a look yourself the next time you are in town. It's reckoned that if you are still in business after a year, you are doing pretty well. So, if you are a new restaurant, it's more important than ever to be using the right point of sale (POS) system to ensure you are running ... More
You might have seen a review that FeedMyApp ran recently for an iOS app called Notes Lock. It secured all your notes, recorded conversations and your private thoughts so that prying eyes wouldn't be able to get to them. Folder Lock Advanced is kind of an expanded version of that for both Android, iPhone and iPad that takes security one step further to protect and lock your personal folders, files, photos, apps, videos, notes, wallet and any other kind of data that you need to keep secure. This release is actually an updated and far more advanced version of the award winning desktop ... More
A few years ago I had a friend who had been laboriously plotting a story that he hoped might be taken up as a tv series. He kept it tucked away on his mobile device and worked on it diligently for over a year. I contacted him again a couple of years later after I'd seen the pilot episode of a new series because the plot line bore a remarkable resemblance to his own. He told me that he'd seen the episode and put two and two together and worked out that, while he'd been at a writers’ workshop, he'd left his device unattended and a fellow writer had been able to access all of his notes. The ... More
If there's one word that comes to mind regarding our online activities over the last few years it is security. Not only are there people from as far as the Ukraine and China trying to access our private information but there's also been plenty of occasions when friends, family and co workers have felt the compulsion to see what we are up to on our devices. I've lost count of the number of times that I've seen an embarrassing post on a friend's social media account which has obviously been entered by someone other than themselves when they have left their mobile unattended. What's more, we ... More
You wouldn't think that there would be too many problems in managing physical conference room reservations, would you? One would figure that you just invite people after checking their schedules and then find a room and work out a convenient time for everyone. There are even models in Outlook and Google Calendar that work on that system. Unfortunately, it's not always that simple. What tends to happen is that some rooms get double booked while others remain empty - causing frustration on all sides. After years of testing, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts has put together a faultless, ... More
If you are an Android user you are probably reasonably content with the excellent inbuilt email system. But, while there's nothing wrong with it, there are definitely times when you might need email management that has a bit more clout. This will be particularly useful if you use your phone for business and especially if you have multiple email accounts. MailDroid is a free email app for Android that supports an unlimited number of email accounts whether they be from IMAP servers, cloud mail servers or the usual free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail etc. More
When the app revolution got up and running a few years ago, most of the better apps coming onto the market tended to be rather socially oriented. While there was the odd app specifically made to make business life easier there was very little to help the small businessperson and give them some of the same advantages that big business - with their huge resources - benefited from. Of late, however, there has been a plethora of business apps that go some way to levelling the playing field and giving small business the chance to compete with the big boys. More
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