That’s probably to be expected. After all, every freelancer has a different set of skills and level of proficiency. Whether you’re a web designer or programmer, or both, some of us are better than others. While experience is relative, ability is not. Ability is a key component in the formula of establishing the perfect fee structure for you.

Another factor is the rate of delivery. If you can push out quality work at a faster pace than the average freelancer, you should charge for it. Clients will always want their projects “done yesterday”. If you’re able to meet their needs, which otherwise would stretch another freelancer thin, you’re justified in asking for more.

The greatest factor is simply your current reserve of work. If you have ten projects lined up, complete with signed contracts and starting dates, you can afford to raise your prices. You’re a hot commodity. This is the basic law of supply and demand — it’s the very thing that dictates the price of everything you buy, from movie tickets to gasoline. Why should your services be any different? Be sure to only raise your prices in small $10/hour increments as you test the waters, or you’ll never pinpoint the rate that works perfectly for you. If you raise them too much, trust me, you will know. If the frequency of new work starts to greatly slow, adjust accordingly.

New Rule: Charging A Lot Can Be More Positive Than You Think

Finally, some basic rules to remember. The less you charge, the cheaper your clients will be. If you find a potential client negotiating your prices lower before you even discuss the project, you must let them go — that’s not who you want to work with. Another thing worth remembering is that most corporate clients will translate your hourly rate into some measure of skill. The companies with money want to spend more of said money on your services, because when business goes macro, money often does produce more favorable outcomes. Basically, they think that the more they pay, the better work they’ll get. Target these clients. Give them those high prices they want (part of any business is customer service, right?). Try to feel comfort knowing that while you sit worrying about your rate being too high — about scaring clients away — that, to some, your prices may actually be too low. There’s always a flip side.

Of course, there are a myriad of other factors that you should consider when settling on your hourly rate. Just don’t complicate it — that’s what made you read this article in the first place. No one can tell you what to charge, and nor should they. You know the type of work you can produce, and you should be able to think critically enough to decide what it is worth.

The post How Much Should I Charge My Clients For Web Design / Programming? appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

I currently work as a 3d animator and modeler on a indie video international game development team by the name of  “Remix Games”. I was recruited over a year ago, when the team consisted of 4 individuals and was essentially in its infancy as a portfolio building project. Since then the team has grown to having 12 individuals, 6 of which put in close to 20-30 hours a week into development in order to produce the game “Alpha Project: Line of Fire”, a first person shooter that we have hopes to achieve AAA quality made with Unity3d.

Some of members who have joined were people we already knew prior to being a part of the team, others were guys who applied for a position and went through an interview process and then an art or coding test (depending on the role they applied for). However, we weren’t able to do a traditional interview in the sense that we had them come into an office and sit down to find out if they were right for the job. We had to conduct the interview using the same tool that we use to communicate while developing, Skype.

3D gun speedart and development – Building our video game!

Building a Strong Communication Backbone

Skype is our communication backbone, without it development wouldn’t be possible. Every day, I don’t get up and go through the 9-5 routine for work. Instead I get up, boot up the computer, make some coffee, and come back with everything I need to work already started up.  There is no set time that everyone has to be signed on unless it’s decided prior that everyone needs to be on at a certain time for a particular reason. The team is  scattered across the globe. We have guys on East and West coasts of the United States as well as the Midwest. Our GUI artist is located in the UK. Two of our coders and our concept artist lives in the Netherlands, and our lead 3d artist is moving (back) to Germany. We have only 1 main rule in terms of “coming to work”, you join in the Skype chat everyday to at least provide an update on your work or provide a reason why you won’t be able to work/talk for that day or in the upcoming days.

The international game development team is made up of guys ranging between the ages of 17-23 with the exception of 1 person who is in his late 20s. I’d also like to say that before you dismiss the team for being comprised of such young individuals  I’d like to point out that some of the youngest guys have produced work better than what I’ve seen some of my fellow college graduates produce. Some of the young guys have industry veterans mentoring them who provide help and criticism regarding their work.

We all have school, some of us have other jobs, and we all have social lives (or try to). This means we can’t be very strict when it comes to “being at work” simply because there’s not really a way to enforce it nor is there a time when we are all awake. However when it comes to needing to talk about development or test features  it means that many of us end up working late into the night or early in the morning. I have found myself working from 2 pm till 6 am since I needed to talk to our coders and finish up some 3d models asap. Needless to say, communication can be quite a difficult issue to deal with. On numerous occasions our coders have had difficulty finding the right English word or phrase to describe an issue there are having since their native language is Dutch.

A prototype development shot to show you our progress!

In addition, like in any workplace, we knock heads from time to time in regards to what IS getting done in contrast to what NEEDS to get done. Although I am not the project manager, more often than not I’ll find myself trying to defuse or moderate a situation in order to keep things civil. Of course I’m not the only one who has to fill this role, the entire team understands that although we technically have a “project manager”, we all have to manage the project as well as ourselves in order to efficient. And believe me, it can be extremely difficult to get a young individual to practice good time management (it took me 3 years of college to finally discipline myself to choose to get work done rather than be tempted to launch up a game or browse the internet).

Imagine yourself being in your late teens/early twenties and in order to get work done you have to sit at a computer for hours on end. Needless to say it can be extremely easy to get distracted. There is no ”boss” sitting in the next room who can possibly pop in to check on you and if you don’t want a team member hassling you to get work done, the Skype “invisible” or “offline” status is literally 2 clicks away. The point I’m trying to make is that self disciple is essential in order to be productive.

Growing Your Network and Problem Solving

Now if you’ve browsed forums or read blogs on the internet (and I’m assuming you have since you’ve read this far) you’re bound to come across people with different opinions arguing. Conflict is inevitable and essential. It’s how you come up with a better solution to a problem.

So having a very diverse team is a curse and a blessing. I’ve heard what I believe to be the stupidest ideas from a person and within a 5 minute time-span that same person will have transformed it into fantastic idea having heard input from everyone. We are friends more than coworkers, so although we respect each other, we also tend to make fun each other and sometimes this will lead to someone crossing the line with a cultural, racial, or sexual comment. The one thing the team has learned from this is to ‘let it go’. The person saying it didn’t intentionally offend you. Give a valid (sometimes explicit) retort and tell them what they said was inappropriate. Then proceed to carry on with working because more often than not the person who said the offensive thing got the message. So far there hasn’t been a situation where  team member is mad at another team member for more than a day because we clear the air asap.

When working with such a diverse international game development group you have to have a sense of humor about your own culture because it’s inevitable to have a few jokes thrown your way about it. For myself, I didn’t realize that there were so many ‘Murican jokes but the team’s coders and GUI artist have (gladly) brought me up to speed. If anything, making jokes about a team member means that you feel comfortable enough to poke fun at them. It’s just not something worth getting mad over. Although the chat is often filled with jokes when we taking a break from work, it isn’t all just senseless dribble. Religion, politics, family situations, and educational plans are often discussed and its quite interesting to have such  variety of cultures contribute to these types of conversations.

It is these conversations that truly made me realize that although people can be quite different, we surprisingly can have very similar values and beliefs regardless of where we are from. I can’t think of much better way to experience other cultures around the world other than spending the money in order to travel to those countries and experience it firsthand.

Organization of Files and Sharing Them

Probably one of the most stressful downfalls of not being in the same building is how we have to manage our actual project files. We have a premium Dropbox account that everyone has their computers synced to. Typically we don’t have an issue with the DB but when something does go wrong it can be quite stressful. Dropbox loves to constantly create conflicted files which can ultimately lead to the project crashing for everyone and can be a real big mess to clean up since everyone has to delete the conflicted files or else they will just keep getting re-added. Thankfully the DB also creates a backup of the project whenever something gets changed. However, this also means quite a bit of work can be lost if a restoration has to be done. The team has looked at alternatives to using Dropbox, however since we really don’t have the finances DB is pretty much our only feasible route.

More game development images for you!

Working on with this group of individuals has been something quite extraordinary. Never would have I thought I’d be working with people on the other side of the world every day, much less consider them some of greatest friends I have had to this day. I do hope our game turns out to successful since there are plans to open up an actual studio in Europe where we can all actually work together in person. That would be a dream come true but for now I am quite happy with how things are.

Yes on occasion there are issues and conflicts regarding work ethics and lack of communication, but it’s to be expected. However, the experience I’ve gained, not only within the realm of 3d modeling and animation, but also with various cultures is something I find to be invaluable. If you ever get the chance to work on this type of team, I highly recommend pursing it.

Don’t Be Shy, Follow Us Our Progress

 If you want to join the team and learn about Alpha Project: Line of Fire, by following us on Facebook!

The post Working on an International Game Development Team appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

What is Ideas and Pixels?

We’re a web marketing company although we are better known for creating and executing high quality websites. When I first started the company, I made the mistake of telling people that we did web design. Without a doubt, the best decision that we ever made was to start calling ourselves a web marketing agency. I think it’s because people consider marketing an actionable, proactive thing, while getting a website made sounds passive and static. We have a lot more to offer companies than just building them a site.

How did you come up with the idea?

It was 1997, I was 9-years-old, and the realization that the internet was probably going to be around for the foreseeable future was just coming to fruition for most people. Microsoft had just released the newest version of their budding Windows platform, and like millions of other middle-class American families thriving through the booming 90s, my family had just purchased our first home computer.

“This internet thing is going to be big. You just wait and see,” my dad would tell me. “And the best part about it is that if you start learning it now, you’ll be two steps ahead of most adults. They barely even teach this stuff in college yet. Heck, you have a chance to be better than the teachers that will be teaching this years from now.”

Eventually that really began to make sense. After much poking and prodding, I finally accepted his logic, and went with him to purchase my first book, Web Design for Dummies. It’s very ironic in retrospect. I read a book called For Dummies, and it was the smartest decision I ever made in my life.

What was the biggest surprise in starting your business?

Finding out how much of a micro-manager I was. That and actually getting out of the way of the expansion of our business. I think when you work 12-hour days building up a company from nothing, it becomes very dear to you–almost too dear. And when it comes time to relinquish tasks to others, we all have a tendency to hover over shoulders, making sure things get done right. But you can only hover over so many shoulders until you’re stretched thin, and your business suffers because of it. Letting go isn’t easy, but it’s necessary for strong growth.

Where did you find your first employee?

When Ideas and Pixels was a one man show, I would occasionally hire out developers from websites like Elance, but eventually I realized that there were some things that had to be handled in-person, so I set out looking for someone with a vision and drive. Don’t let me confuse you; that also meant someone who would work on the cheap with the promise of a shared future of success.

I finally began working with a friend that I had went to high school and college with, Matt Valvano. We had known each other for many years, but had somehow never realized that we both worked in the same field. After a few conversations over coffee, I knew I had my business partner.

What does a typical day in your business look like?

Each day couldn’t be more different. I can tell you that it always starts and ends with emails, really early and very late, respectively.

What are some of the advantages to doing business in Ohio?

We enjoy working in Ohio with other Ohio businesses. Coming from Cincinnati, a city with both a major league baseball and football team, hometown pride has never been hard to come by, and I think that’s probably the greatest advantage. People in Cincinnati, in Ohio for that matter, have a certain respect for their neighbors. When we do business with those companies in and around our city, we never miss a chance to chat about last night’s game or talk about next week’s marathon. I think the personal and professional camaraderie you get from that really does have value.

Can you share a funny or amazing entrepreneurial experience with our readers?

The first time someone from Dayton told me they had heard of our company, which was pretty amazing. Then from Louisville, followed by some partners from Cleveland. Knowing people hundreds of miles away are hearing about the work we’re doing is very exciting for me.

What inspires you?

That’s a tough question. Political events inspire me. I think that the world of business is changing. It’s becoming much leaner, more efficient, and cutthroat, and unfortunately, creating gross disparities in wages between owners and their workers.

I once watched a documentary about a company whose CEO made roughly the same amount as even the lowest paid worker, effectively allowing everyone at the company to have decent, stable pay. Everyone who worked at the company held private stock in it, and consequently, everyone cared deeply about how it performed. I would like our company to follow a similar model, and inspire other companies to consider doing it as well.

What founders do you admire and why?

I admire when a mother who has lost her child to leukemia starts a charity run to collect money for research, or when a sister sells cookies and cakes at her school to help her injured brother coming home from the Middle East. Dedicating so much time, money, and care to help others so that they may spare others the pain that they went through seems awfully admirable to me.

What’s next for you?

With enough luck, a vacation!

The post I&P Founder Allen Gingrich’s Sit Down Interview With HVM appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Google Plus has been channeling its inner child, and is now allowing custom text overlays to be added to images. You will now be able to create your own personalized memes on Google+.

Our Step Process To Make A Meme with Google Plus:

Step One: Think of an Idea and Find an Image

Once you have an idea, it is time for the best part &mdash finding your meme image! I absolutely love browsing through BuzzFeed for examples of memes and other crazy ideas.

Ideas and Pixels Cute Cat Photography

I suggest using one of your own images so that you can start your own viral meme. Cats are always a good canvas to start with, so that’s what we did! You can’t deny how adorable these casts are hugging (they belong to our owner)!

Step Two: Add Text To Your Meme

Once you have the image that you want to use for your meme, simply drag and drop it into your Google+ share box.

Add text to your image to make your meme

After it is uploaded, click the “Add Text” icon. Don’t forget you can change the alignment and font options before you share your meme!

Add Text To Your Meme Using Google Plus

Step Three: Share Your Meme Photo

With your new meme in hand, share it to the world! Who knows — maybe it will catch on and you will start a viral trend. Below is our cute cat meme, and please, feel free to share it! Cheerio.

Share Your Memes and Make Them Catch On!

The post How To Make A Meme With Google+ appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

With the positive results from this one insert, we have learned that if you provide the knowledge and insight – potential customers will follow!

The Reason: Over 85% of our clients we meet  in person or are referred to us through word of mouth. We wanted to expand our creative reach towards other potential clients.

The Objective: Reach out to businesses, which are not active on the web and tend to stay away from social media outlets.

The Solution: Produce new informational print material that can be sent through the mail or handed out as inserts, within our larger brochures.

Details: The high gloss front cover of the insert was designed to captivate the notion of moving forward. This is portrayed with the large bold tag line – Is your online presence getting you business? – overlaying a background scene of downtown Cincinnati. Since the back of the insert is a mat finish, your natural instinct is to flip the card over and see what is on the back. We provided four ways to generate more business online. This showcases information that any business can use – to gain more results and business online.

The Result: A strong print marketing insert that can stand alone or together with our other brochures. Take a look below, what do you think? Marketing Insert Front – Online Presence Getting You Business?

Marketing Insert Back – Generate More Business Online

The post Print Marketing Material | Tips to Generate More Business Online: June 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

In the web design world, trends come and go. It seems that every day something new and interesting comes up. There was a time when Flash was the way to go for interactive websites, yet a few years passed, and HTML5 and CSS3 have taken over. Recently, there has been a new trend in web design called Parallax Scrolling.

If you’re scratching your head wondering just what exactly is this parallax scrolling, chances are you have seen it before — you probably didn’t know it had a name. Parallax Scrolling websites are the latest in website fads; in which you scroll down, but certain elements of the web page wont move (usually the background). In simple terms, it makes page elements scroll at variable speeds. So one thing moves at 100%, while the other at 60%. If you are curious to see some examples, visit this page.

As web designers, sometimes clients will ask us to develop a site with specific features based on some of their favorite sites. Just because you see something that may seem cool at the time does not mean that its functionality will benefit your business or increase awareness. If someone tells us to build something for the sake of being “cool”, it’s most-likely not a good idea.

Personally, I would not recommend parallax scrolling to clients that may have a lot of information on their pages. Customers will want to scan the information quickly, which is one of the downfalls of this type of scrolling. The information will be hard to find, and it will require more time and engagement from customer. This could lead to the user exiting the site disappointed, and without the information that he/she seeks.

Now, if your site has little information, and a few pictures, parallax scrolling will add depth and interest to the site, allowing the user to experience the information in a more interesting way. If your website is based around art or creativity, parallax scrolling is a great way to present simple content in a dynamic fashion!

Again, it’s important to remember that just because some new trend is cool, does not mean that it will work for your site. Hell, its popularity will probably wane before you know it, as many trends already have. Always make sure that your site’s functionality is adequate to the content that you are interested in presenting.

And remember: cool is not always right.

The post Web Design Trends: Parallax Scrolling appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

April flew by before we knew it, here at Ideas and Pixels. On top of our growing clientele, we have been tidying up our presentation skills. We were recently invited to Antonelli College to have two lunch and learn speaking events, with their students. Our presentations went into detail on how to market yourself online and what your online presence says about you.

Here is a snippet of our speech. Enjoy: What are some things that come to mind when I say social media? Social means “Of or relating to society” and media means “through the means of mass communication.” One thing is clear though: there’s a social media revolution going on.

We’re all a part of it. But more than that, it’s a media revolution. Companies becoming more transparent, more human – and like humans, they are networking. Networking is something people have been doing ever since the first caveman met the second one. It’s a word you’ve heard in business for years. “Build your network,” “Expand your reach,” “Grow your prospects.”

So how important is social media and will it land you a job? It’s not everything it’s cracked up to be. Hundreds and thousands of SEOs and Social Media experts purport that it makes the world of difference, but that’s most-likely just them justifying their jobs and fat paychecks.

Social media experts should not be seen as “experts” or paid as such, but they are. This will most-likely normalize over time. The most basic and important thing to remember when contouring your social media presences for the business world is that most of the effort you put into grooming your profiles is not beneficial; it is to curtail any negatives that may come about from scouring your pages.

The post Speaking Events | Antonelli College: April 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Most people struggle when they’re asked to estimate the time they need to complete a project. Some people error on the side of pessimism, quoting far too much time, while others are too optimistic, leading to missed deadlines and unhappy clients.

Being able to estimate the amount of time required to complete a task is a skill that every project manager should have. In fact, project managers are almost wholly graded based on their ability to see a project to it’s timely completion.

First, You Must Identify The Task

It’s impossible to know how much time a task will require if you don’t first understand the true scope of the task. Often, projects are late not because of lack of effort, but because the details of the project were not properly identified and prioritized. Once you know the tasks, it is up to the project manager to include the necessary parties involved in the estimation process. The person who will be doing the work will always have the most accurate estimation.

Break The Project Down

When you look at a project as a whole, it’s often difficult to conduct a true analysis of the requirements. This is especially true for large projects. Breaking down your project means segmenting all of the different moving pieces into so-called “mini projects”. From there, you can allocate small portions of time to certain aspects of the project. Finally, you add together the projected time of all of the mini projects, resulting in a more accurate final duration length. By narrowing the scope to these single “events”, you will be able to provide a better overall estimate.

For an example, I will use a website project. A client contacts you and asks for you to quote him on a time span to complete his site. You could go out on a limb or reference past projects as the standard deviation. Or you could break the project down into the individual pages. “The header and footer will take two hours. The home page five. The about, services and contact page should each take about three hours each. In total, that comes to 16 hours.”

Using The PERT Formula To Make Your Time Estimates Even More Accurate

PERT stands for Project Evaluation and Review Technique. It’s a project estimation technique used by thousands of organizations around the world.

Many top organization employ mathematical formulas to estimate a task or activity. While there is some science involved, most of the effectiveness comes from the psychological effect that using a cold calculation can provide. I prefer to use the PERT formula, for it’s simplicity and accuracy.

In order to use PERT, you must first identify three simple estimates:

1. (Tm) The Most Likely Time Required
2. (To) The Most Optimistic Time Required
3. (Tp) The Most Pessimistic Time Required

Now apply the following formula:

Our PERT Formula Solution!

Voila! Now you have a fairly accurate estimate based on mathematical calculation, not emotion, greed or guilt.

The post How To Estimate Time On Any Project (with the PERT formula) appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Recently we had the privilege of stopping into an amazing art gallery in our lovely city of Cincinnati. The gallery showcased nine extremely detailed portraits of our hometown fallen soldiers, whom fought courageously and gave their lives for our country in 2005.

Nine memorial paintings were displayed at Colerain High School for a week and brought in over 2,000 viewers that helped donate over $800 dollars. Amazingly that amount was just from the walk-ins. They had so many people show up that the organizers provided a second memento of an autographed Marine Corps flag for the showcase. A large part of the success of this display can be attributed to Pat Murray. She’s always looking for ways to shine the light on those like her fallen son, Sgt. David Kreuter, and has found many creative ways to help donate to other injured Maries and their families. Respectfully, she knows that she will never see her son again, but Pat knows he is looking down at her with a smile on his face.

As the gallery came to an end, the packed assembly gave a standing ovation to everyone who was a part of this memorial and special thanks were given to the portrait’s creator, Anita Miller. I, too, gave prays and condolences to my fallen cousin, who is Sgt. David Kreuter, Pat Murray’s son. At only 26, I know he did more for my country than I have or ever will. However, every day the dedication that he gave only pushes me to give back and help out charities in and around the Greater Cincinnati Area as much as possible.

With that said if you know of a charity in which needs help with marketing, web development or anything design related; please, feel free to contact Ideas and Pixels.

You have my promise that we will be here, willing and ready to help! You will be missed forever, but never forgotten. Image source from news.cincinnati.com. Photo of the Lima Group.

The post Cincinnati Art Gallery Tribute: February 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

As a co-owner of a small business, I know how important it is to structure out operations. We focus on every aspect of building a strong business, and part of this involves taking careful considerations for our taxes. It’s important for all small businesses to manage their accounting as best they can, and in turn, create write-offs to help reduce the income tax you need to pay quarterly.

Here are a few essential small business tax tips that we found out first hand, based on two years of running our own business.

Receipts This is the most important thing to your overall tax preparation. Scan all business receipts, store them onto a computer and then reprint them, since most carbon receipts will fade with time. If you do not have the time to scan or reprint them, just use a pen and re-write the date, place, what you purchased and purpose of the purchase on the receipt itself (only do this if it is a last resort or if you are on the road). If you do not have proof of your business costs and the IRS knocks on your door, well… just make sure you have other proof (check card statements, credit receipts) if you don’t have your receipts.

Car or Other Vehicle Expenses Most businesses have a company vehicle and when calculating the taxes, use either an Actual Expense Method or the Standard Mileage Deduction. In the long run, they normally come out to be about the same. With the Actual Expense Method it allows the taxpayer to write off the depreciation and out of pocket cost, if they own the vehicle. Just take note that if you choose this way you need to keep great records and what is personal and is for business.

The business percentage is what you need to use for your tax write offs. The expenses that you can write off will included, vehicle repairs (tires, breaks, ext.), vehicle essentials (gas, oil, ext.), vehicle fees and garage rent. You do not calculate miles or use any sort of traffic tickets, which you might have for the year, and a reduction will need to be done for what is calculated as personal use.

With Standard Mileage Deduction, you will then keep records of business mileage at the IRS rate of $.555/mile (rate is for 2011). You need to keep mileage logs that will need to include the date, destination, purpose, odometer Start/Stop and the total number of miles (Round Trip). If you had to spend anything for parking or a toll, record that as well, and try to get a receipt if possible. Personally, I use the Standard Mileage Deduction because I know how to repair my own vehicles and this is a great way to reduce even more of your income tax.

Travel Expenses The major thing that I did not realize for this is that if you receive frequent flier miles to purchase a ticket(s), the airfare cannot be deducted when this is done. Now, if you do not use frequent flier miles your airfare will be deductible and so will be everything else on your trip. Just make sure everything has a reasonable purpose and cost. You can even include your travel tips for food or drinks.

Business Gifts It is only a small amount, but it adds up. You can deduct up to $25 a year, per person, for gifts. Don’t get gifts mixed up with entertainment, because you will subject yourself to the 50% rule. For example if you mark a $25 gift as entertainment, you will receive a deduction to $12.50. Make sure you save the receipt and list the purpose of the gift.

Repairs Repairing business equipment or property is considered a deductible. Be cautious when determining what is considered a repair and what is a capital item. For example, our printer tray needed to be replaced, and this is a business equipment repair. Replacing the entire printer would be a capital item, and would be subjected to a yearly depreciation value. Generally equipment priced over $100 is considered a capital item.

Rent Many rent owners make payments, January to December. These expenses are deductible as long as your business is being run out of it. When a business uses accrual accounting, then it needs to be considered a capitalized expense. On a cash basis, then it will become deductible for the current year. You are able to write off most utilities used as operating costs.

Subcontractors When operating a small business through its first years, there are always the busy times when you cannot keep up and need to hire out help. Keep good records of any subcontracting expenses because you can write this entirely off your bottom line.

Advertising These deductibles included any expense that includes business cards to event fees. You can even deduct billboard rental fees and any advertising campaigns that may arise.

Sponsoring Charity Events All charitable sponsors can be written off and most of the time you just need actual invoice, detailed report of what was done, date, and for whom, along with a written thank you statement from the charity.

Medical Expenses You can write off 90% of all medical expenses as long as they are not over-the-counter drugs. This section of our taxes is going under a change for 2012-13, but we will keep a heads up regarding this on our blog.

Small Expenses – These Will Add Up Subscriptions and dues are deductible as long as they are for business. The only ones that are not are hotel, athletic, airline and sporting membership costs, even though they are considered business-oriented (hotel and airline is categorized in a separate section dedicated for travel expense).

Professional and legal Fees as long as they are legal, included tax or accounting services and appraisal fees are all deducible. Merchant and bank Fees include all bank related fees or costs. This includes PayPal costs and ATM service fees. General office expenses, including all offices supplies, cleaning services, plants, postage, uniforms, phone bills are all deductible.

Hope this helps It took us a little while to get into the rhythmic fashion of running our business, and we hope that this will help you in your own quest to grow. If you have anything else that we can add, feel free to leave us a comment and we will modify the post with a recognition of your addition.

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