HST explained

I've been asked a lot lately and it got brought up again at the Kingston Arts Council workshop on Thursday night how the HST will work. Here's the simple low-down on how you will have to deal with taxes in 6 months time.

Basically it will be just like GST and no PST for business owners. If you currently are required to register for GST (revenue of more than $30,000 in the year) than you will be required to collect and remit HST. If you currently aren't required to and haven't registered for GST you will not have to.

PST will no longer be. You will not have a vendors permit, therefore you will not be tax exempt when you purchase supplies for resale, the tax amount will just become part of the regular expense of the item. You will not collect PST from your customers and therefore you will not remit anything to the government. So for a lot of artists this means that our prices will go down a bit in the eye of the customer! Yeah.

Sorry for the somewhat boring post today - we'll get back to more fun later this week.

When the Cash Flow is More like a Frozen Pond

Well, I'm not sure if your business is like mine or not, but this time of year not only is the ground frozen up, but my cash isn't flowing much either. I know retailers are feeling my pain right now too. So what are we to do about it? Here's some tips that may help:

1. ask for longer payment terms on supplies from your regular suppliers
2. ask for larger down payments on custom orders
3. host a seconds sale (I'm hosting a Leftovers Potluck on February 15 as a twist on a studio open house - drop by if you can and bring some friends)
4. check in on those consignment accounts and see if they can pay you
5. eat leftovers (see #3 for a fun twist on this :-)

Oh yeah, and next year heed my advice (from experience) pre-plan for your slow times.

Show Time

Now is the time when most artists are planning their shows for the year. Applications and payments are usually due in the first 3 months of the year. It's really a great system, the winter months are typically slower for sales and allow for more admin time (yuck!) and it forces us to sit down and do our planning. The trick is putting all this money out in show fees when our sales are lower. Artists should take this time to do a little cash flow planning as well. It doesn't matter how much money you make at the end of the year if you can't pay your bills in the middle.

So sit down with your cheque book and your spreadsheets, just remember to take time in the studio too!

When Supply is Good

For beach glass artists May is the month to celebrate. It is prime time for finding unique and large quantities of beach glass. So today when I was out collecting it made me thinking about supply and demand.

Most artists that I know, including myself for everything other then my glass, buy supplies as they need them. In fact, I can often be found at the local bead store buying 10 specific beads to finish a project in the works. The problem with this method is that it doesn't always make the most financial sense.

If there are times in your industry where supplies are plentiful (like May for me) it may be a time to buy in bulk and stock up for later, as often that's when store owners apply discounts. Not only will you save by buying in bulk but also by taking advantage of buying during a sale. The same reason people buy holiday wrapping paper in January!

It also made me think about what happens when your product isn't available anymore... but we'll save that for another day.