The Perceptus Back Story

IMHO, Canadian businesses are at a disadvantage compared to Americans. It’s the little things that complicate life, especially for small firms that don’t have the time or resources to properly deal with it.

Today, I discovered a new trap for Canadians who advertise on Google AdWords to Americans like we do.  We advertise heavily outside of Canada, especially for print-bingo.com since the vast vast majority of it’s customers are from outside of Canada*.

The hidden trap? Competitors who don’t buy ad placements for Canadians searching on Google. Let me clarify.

Like every good marketer, I check my ad placements for a key search terms. Google is smart and knows that I’m searching from Canada. So it only shows me ads for businesses (i.e. competitors) that have explicitly enabled their campaigns to play in Canada. Many American firms won’t do this, so I never see their ads.

Long story short, I just realized that when people in America (and elsewhere) search Google for terms that we bid on, our advertising placement is lower than what I see when I make the search!

To test this, find a way to browse the web from an American IP address. I used a (private) proxy server. If you’re not that technically inclined? Ask an American friend. Or maybe find a free proxy based in the US? Or maybe hire us, Perceptus Solutions Inc., for a consult.

So, watch out Canadians. If you’re not checking, your web advertising placements in the USA might not be what you think they are!

Someday I’ll blog about a few other Canadian issues we’ve had, especially how we reduced our currency exchange fees last year. Hint: Google gives really fair exchange rates.

* Yay! I guess we’re an “exporter”!

If you are a small business in Canada and are already using the “Quick Method” of accounting for your GST remittances, then stop here. You’re smarter than I was.

Sometimes one stumbles upon a quarter on the sidewalk. Today, was kind of like that. While browsing for a CRA payroll form, I ended up meandering to the information page about the “Quick Method” option for GST. I’ve noticed the term on the GST forms… and now I wish I had researched it earlier.

In short, if your business qualifies for the Quick Method, you don’t need to remit your GST collected less GST paid. Instead, after registering, you can remit an 3.6% as laid out in this table for 2008 (when GST goes to 5%). You get to pocket the difference. As a bonus, you skip out on a lot of annoying things like adding up all those ITCs, and calculating ITCs for stuff bought from the US and other non-Canadian sources.

source: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/notice226/notice226-e.html#P198_26328

If you’re a low overhead operation, you’re probably going to save a few bucks. Look into it. You do have to pre-register… so, with the new calendar year around the corner, it’s a pretty good time to consider it.

A blog? How times have changed.

So, what is blog.perceptus.ca? It is intended to become a place where little tid-bits of information about Perceptus’ cool stuff get posted. New features to our websites, the rationale behind some of our operations, etc.

It will also cover various topics that super-small companies (i.e. the more-or-less one man show) face in Canada. Things like taxes, currencies, and international shipping have and will continue to cause frustration to me, Leonard Chan, and my company, Perceptus Solutions Inc. of Vancouver, Canada.

Where is the line between ranting and informative blogging? I’m not sure, but I think we’ll find out soon.