🔮 I see Minis in your future
Minis 4 u, Vice death, Airlines strike, Inflation inflates, GenZ 'are havin' a bit of a larf yeah?', the Canadian crypto-currency no-one asked for
Hi there!
Despite being forever-doped-up on Claritin in an effort to cope with the onslaught of birch pollen season, we’ve been working hard (indoors, windows closed) to bring you something a little different.
This week, in addition to the usual news and comment from the wonderful world of business (scroll down if you must), we’re selfishly interrupting your regular programming to introduce you to our latest and - therefore greatest - achievement: Minis.
What are Minis? Well, let’s pause for a second and spin back into history - context is everything.
When we started huumans during the alcohol-rubbed heights of the plague years, it was because we (the founders of huumans) were more than a little frustrated by the current support available for Small Business owners who were clearly in a ‘mild panic’ about ‘simple things’ - like the ‘survival of their actual business’.
In the before-times, if you had a business and you wanted to get the books done and get your taxes sorted, you’d google ‘accountant near me’ and hope you found a good one that wasn’t going to charge an obscene amount of money. No promise of good service, no guaranteed support - maybe that email you sent would get answered in a few weeks, maybe it wouldn’t. In short - Small Business owners, despite the unbelievable stresses they handle on a day-to-day basis - were largely placing their business - the thing they’d nearly killed themselves building - in the hands of an unknown entity that cost untold magic beans that their cousin Neil told them were ‘good enough’. But during the pandemic businesses needed IMMEDIATE SUPPORT they could TRUST. They needed real people to speak to, on demand, who knew things about constantly changing rebates, grants, payroll and…well…pretty much everything all at once.
So we built huumans to be a trusted partner for Small Business owners facing any eventuality. Unlimited next-day support. Total transparency. Capped pricing. Simple payroll. A good service for a good price. Friendly chats. Experts on-tap. We then went a bit further (because we’re a bit overachieving like that) and partnered with Xero to provide expert technical support to first-time, day-one, business owners. We partnered with Total Mom Inc to provide a solid foundation for female founders. And, to be honest with you, we’re going to keep doubling down on our real-life commitment to Small Business ownership because we are 100% trauma-bonded to it, and our therapist is consistently worried that our obsession is wildly unhealthy.
So today, against our therapists advice, we’re launching Minis. Minis are simple services with a simple, one-off price. No subscriptions. One payment. One service.
Can’t sleep at night because you’re worried about your business health? Want to speak to a Chartered Accountant about it? We got you. Not sure if you’re categorizing your expenses correctly? Let our Bookkeepers have a look. Getting audited by the CRA? We can help with that. Think your payroll is wonky? Our experts will fix it. Mad you paid too much in tax? Let’s have a chat. No subscription required.
Minis are super-accessible micro-services for those owners who just need a little help now and then but have nowhere reliable to turn to. And for those who already subscribe to huumans (hi there!), there’s Minis for you too - from Compilations to Statements of Income - and Personal / Dual Tax Returns (coming soon).
To welcome Minis unto the world, as long time readers of The huuman Layer, it seems only fitting to provide you all with a one-time 20% discount so you can try them for yourself over the coming month.
Simply choose your Mini - and use MINI20 at checkout.
BTW - did you know you can reply to this email? We always read the responses and welcome feedback. Let us know what you like, what you don’t and what you’d like to see more of in the future!
If you find this report useful, why not share it with the other small business owners in your network? They’ll join hundreds of subscribers in accessing the best Small Business insights in Canada - for free!
Top story this week☝️
WestJet on strike
It would have been nice to come up with a funnier headline for this, but given the monopoly that Westjet and Air Canada have on…well…pretty much all domestic and international routes, any industrial action in this space is devastating in it’s effects and…not really that funny. On Friday, WestJet pilots will walk out for 72 hours. On the long weekend. With 3 days notice. So if you’ve got a flight booked with WestJet or Swoop - now is the time to come up with alternative plans to get where you’re going. Keep an eye on the negotiations - WestJet have said that the lockout notice they’ve issued does not mean the strike will occur - but in reality, I think we can safely say that very few Westjet planes will be taking to the air come Friday morning.
News 🗞️
Vice pity
The Montreal-founded magazine, Vice, that built a global millennial media empire which at it’s peak was valued at $5.7 Billion, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Another casualty of the millennial news wars, Vice (much like Buzzfeed) is having to switch strategy away from digital-first, website heavy SEO-led advertising - and rethink what the future of content looks like. The early 2010s saw a boom in digital news brands - Vice, Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Vox, Thrillist, HuffPost, etc - which latched on to peak-Facebook usage (circa 2012) and Google-powered hyper-traffic - catapulting them to billions of views and billions of revenues. But with a decline in online advertising, Facebook, and SEO - and the rise of short-form TikToks and Reels (which keep you in-app and suck up viewer time) - we’re also seeing a decline in the what was considered the ‘new face’ of journalism. Which is a shame, because despite their ‘hot or not’ column, Vice did do some high quality work. Link
Inflation nudges higher
Just when you thought inflation was on the downward spiral, along comes Statistics Canada with the unwelcome news that the inflation has now increased to 4.4%. Just last week we were looking at the data from March, which showed inflation reducing to 4.3%, and expecting today’s announcement to be around the 4.1% mark. But no. It also gets worse - Gas prices are up 6.3% and food costs remain stubbornly high - down from the giddy heights of 9.7%, but forever-loitering now at 9.1%. What will happen now? Well, this gives pause for thought for the Bank of Canada. While they froze rate hikes in light of falling inflation, recent job reports and the general increase in spending is causing more pressure on them to re-think things. There maybe another rate hike coming. Prepare yourself. Link
And finally…
At least one airline is celebrating. Link
‘When God opens a website, he closes a website’ Link
Another GenZ identity crisis. Link
The Data Room 🤖
The Data Room is looking into crypto. We’ll keep an eye on them. If they start buying pictures of body drawn apes, we’ll be sure to pull the plug.
Digital beaver pelts
The Bank Of Canada is investigating its own crypto-currency which is, unfortunately, not beaver related.
The Bank of Canada is considering launching what it calls the ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’ (CBDC) and is asking Canadians to fill out this survey.
It’s not the same thing as Bitcoin, so don’t reserve that personalized CBDC licence plate for your new Lambo just yet. CBDC would be tied to the Canadian dollar, and wouldn’t try to replace the cash in your pocket, it’d just be one step closer to that Blade Runner aesthetic we’ve all been waiting for. The sentiments around cash seem to be that it’s the tap water of payments: bland, sometimes has a funny smell, and definitely not your first choice, but its convenience as a utility is something nobody feels like giving up.
Back in 2019 about only about 1 of every 3 transactions were done in cash, and it’s been seeing a further decline since then. Cash isn’t being completely ousted, though, it gets passed around in low-volume transactions where it accounts for 40% of payments below $15. Almost all (97%) merchants in Canada accept paper currency, and most (80%) of us have no desire to go cashless. So it doesn’t seem like cash is being phased out anytime soon, but what are the advantages of CBDC? A big feature is online-to-real-world transactions, CBDC would let Canadians use the same account for everything in a seamless way, both online and offline. The jury’s still out on how exactly the tech will function, but it promises to be completely secure and easier than alternatives like Apple Pay.
One of the major concerns is how this would shift the lending rate. If Canadians had access to a tool that functioned like a no-fee debit card then there would be less incentive for us to stockpile our cash in a checking account at the bank. Without access to those cash reserves, banks would lose out on a major revenue source, and see their liquidity drain out.
If you put all this together it looks like bank loans would have to become even pricier, but, the Bank of Canada has a solution: no interest on CBDC accounts. Whatever dollar value you’d have stored in CBDC would lay flat, accruing no interest, you’d have to put your money into a checking or savings account to get any return on your reserves.
The most obvious problem with this solution is that interest rates on checking accounts are generally abysmally low anyway, and often have fees attached. All-in-all, it’s nice to see the Bank of Canada do some forward-looking research into how Canadians will shift their behaviours in the coming years.
It might even provide a much-needed push for the big banks to follow suit.
Market at-a-glance 📈
BOC Indicators (Link):
BOC Prime Rate: 6.70%
BOC Unemployment Rate: 5.0%
BOC CPI Inflation Rate: 5.2%
BOC $USD Exchange Rate (Link):
Low: 1.3375 CAD [0.7477 USD]
Average: 1.3453 CAD [0.7434 USD]
High: 1.3534 CAD [0.7389 USD]
Best GIC Rates (Link):
1-year GIC: 5.15%
3-year GIC: 4.85%
5-year GIC: 4.70%
Best 5Y Mortgage Rates (Link):
Variable: 5.40%
Fixed: 4.19%
Prime Rates (Link):
TD Bank: 6.70%
BMO: 6.70%
RBC: 6.70%
Scotiabank: 6.70%
CIBC: 6.70%
National Bank: 6.70%
CRA Canadian Pension Plan Rate: 5.95%
CRA Employment Insurance Rate: 1.63%
CRA Minimum Wage per Province: Link