Business Unusual

I like to think that I’m not sexist, but my reputation may precede me.

At some point during my college years, I started using a reverse-psychology approach with women I knew (usually girlfriends) – telling them they couldn’t do something – in hopes that they’d be motivated to prove me wrong.

Ask my wife – this is the wrong approach. Reverse psychology only works on a certain type of person, usually enemies, and (hopefully) they’re not the majority. People want to be built up, not torn down. The other bad part of this reverse-psychology habit was that as I told women that they couldn’t do something, I was slowly and subconsciously telling myself that they couldn’t.

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I had to stop doing it. Then, a wake-up call came. I learned I’d be having a daughter. Was this my punishment for my transgressions? Would this mean all of the secrets of the female psyche would be revealed to me? Probably not. But I want to make sure both my son and daughter, if they choose to follow my footsteps into a technology field, are both given the same opportunities and the same treatment.

As soon as I learned I was having a daughter, the articles about sexism in tech became immediately more personal and relevant. A lot of attention had recently been paid to conferences, female speakers (or lack there-of), and conference behavior. I took this all to heart as I was planning a conference that was held right before my daughter was born – WordCamp. I made a conscious effort to have a good representation of women speakers.

In the WordPress community, it’s not difficult to find and meet amazing women doing amazing things. Look at Lisa Sabin-Wilson, my neighbor to the east – she wrote a book. I’ve thought about writing a book – but she actually did it! However, you don’t have to be a superstar or “internet famous” to add to the conversation. Maybe that’s why I enjoy working with the WordPress community. It’s easy to meet all types of people doing great things.

Even though WordPress is written in PHP, I found that there’s a big difference between these two communities. I’ve only been to two PHP conferences: php|tek in the mid-aughts and most recently MidwestPHP 2012. At both conferences, the only female speaker was Sara Golemon. Maybe it was just coincidence. Sara is a highly respected contributor to the PHP community and she’s also a published author. But my feelings concluded that she had become the token female spokesperson for PHP conferences.

So what can we (especially men) do? First you need to change your mind. If you don’t have a daughter, imagine one of the few girls in your technology field as if she were. Is she being treated fairly? Are you treating her fairly?

Then start leveraging your power for good. Be your own superhero. If you’re organizing a conference, go out of your way to include women. Pay it forward: my business partner teaches a class called Black Girls Code. For those who don’t know him, he is neither black, nor a girl. If you’re involved with the interview process at work, bring some women in. I guarantee they’ll bring new perspective to your old boys club. It may only take a couple of GI Jane’s in a male-dominated field to turn the tide and welcome a new wave of female geeks.

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Disclaimer: this is not meant to offend any Mormons. My wife’s family is predominantly Mormon (though we are not). However, I’ve witnessed several of her cousins announce their engagements after only weeks of dating. And their wedding date was typically 3 months out from there.

I would never plan a 3 month-long engagement because I don’t think it’s enough time to plan a decent wedding and maintain your sanity. Weddings only happen once (if you do it right). Get it right the first time.

Like young, naive lovers, WordCamp organizers also need to suppress their hormones. We tend to get over-excited about WordPress – like evangelists that have been given a free podium. Pocket your emotions, and follow the advice from those who have come before you.

This post could serve both groups as a guide on how fools rush in. It’s possible to plan something this big in 3 months, but believe you-me, it is much less stress to take your time. I wish we had followed this advice – but we didn’t. In 3 months, despite the odds, we still managed to pull things off.

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Let’s do a WordCamp!

Since no one had organized a WordCamp in the Twin Cities since 2010, fellow MSPWP member Kiko Doran decided he would say “I do” – just to get the ball rolling. I decided to join him. My business partner, John Hawkins, has been organizing WordCamp Las Vegas since 2009. I figured he’d be a good resource to tap for questions. Besides, how hard can it be?!?

Kiko originally chose the date: 4/20. It came with an obvious Rastafarian theme, and he even had a logo put together before we locked in a venue:

WordCamp Rule #1

The first rule about WordCamp is that you don’t plan anything until you have a venue. Before Christmas in 2012, Kiko and I visited the downtown library and had the booking company save the date. Right before Christmas we were informed the space wasn’t available. The Friends of the Library get free reign of library rentals (as they should), and already had 4/20 wrapped up.

We quickly made an appointment with Minneapolis Community & Technical College, gracious host of the MSPWP un-conference event WordUP! They wouldn’t be able to meet until the first week of January. I wanted to keep our search momentum up, so we scheduled a visit to the University of St. Thomas (my alma-mater) around the same time.

St. Thomas’s downtown campus is great but all of the available large rooms were strangely spread out on different floors or in separate buildings. MCTC has a great space, and wanted to help sponsor the event. They weren’t available on 4/20 either, so our date had to be moved a week later to 4/27, which created scheduling challenges for my family in particular, but the show must go on!

Keep Calm and Carry On

After securing a venue things got crazy. We enlisted several people from MSPWP to help out. We let our organizing committee members run with whatever roles they felt they’d excel at. And excel they did! We had specialists for sponsors, venues, catering, and swag. Not to mention the normal kick-ass web development and design that comes with a group of WordPress geeks. I sincerely hope we can assemble a similar team next year.

We did a weekly conference call to make sure things were on track, and used Basecamp for all other communications during the week. I do believe the regular week-in week-out activity helped us keep our hormones in check.

The conference’s last day was 4/28 which was the due date of my wife’s pregnancy. Thankfully, she made it through the weekend labor-free.

Lessons Learned

If I learned anything, it would be to start planning a full year in advance. I think Kiko realized this as he started to talk to me about 2014 before the 2013 event had officially started. I like his enthusiasm but insisted that we first make it through our reboot of this conference before discussing the next year.

I hope we can continue to build long-lasting relationships so the whole community can benefit from a great event like WordCamp. One great partnership has been MCTC. They’re looking to add a WordPress course to their curriculum, and we hope that they can be a long time venue sponsor of WordCamp in the Twin Cities.

Also don’t expect that you, as an organizer, will get to enjoy the event. This same principle applies to a wedding. The best outcome you can have is that your guests enjoy themselves.

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This article’s concepts should be considered independent from the layout of your business: whether it’s a sole-proprietorship, partnership, LLC, etc. We’re only talking about how you file your taxes. This article is also geared towards freelancers, subcontractors, and small companies.

Schedule C

For most people getting started on their own, there is the “Schedule C.” You pay your 15.3% Medicare & Social Security, plus your income tax quarterly, and hope everything works out on tax day. This is a great way for anyone to feel the “pain” of how much you actually pay in taxes. It can hurt so much that you’ll wonder if there’s a better way, and there is. Enter the S-Corp.
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S-Corp

It stands for “Subchapter S Corporations” and is commonly referred to as a “Sub S” or “S-Corp.” I believe the “S” actually stands for “Shareholder.” It is also known as the “Newt Gingrich/John Edwards Loophole” as they helped bring it into law.

As an S-Corp, instead of filing one return, each shareholder files two: a normal W-2 and profit-share filing called a K-1. You take your total profits for the year and split it into two categories for each of these forms: Wages & Earnings (respectively). It’s up to you how to split this: 25/75, 35/65, 50/50 – and there-in lies the loophole.

You can opt to pay yourself less than “reasonable compensation” for your W-2 and save more. The IRS knows this, so as soon as you send in the S-Corp election paperwork, they’ll send you an ominous letter like this:

However, it’s not all doom-and-gloom. A good starting point to split wages & earnings is 50/50 and you still stand to save some money.

A Simple Comparison

This is an oversimplified example using a Minnesotan making $50,000 a year paying taxes at a 25% federal income tax rate and a 7.05% Minnesota income tax rate.

Schedule C

Income: $50,000
Less Social Sec. / Medicare ($7650 @ 15.3%): $42,350
Less Fed. Income Tax ($10,587 @ 25%): $31763
Less MN Income Tax ($2,239 @ 7.05%): $29,254

S-Corp

Income: $50,0000

Earnings (K-1): $25,000
Less Fed. Income Tax ($6,250 @ 25%): $18,750
Less MN Income Tax ($1,321 @ 7.05%): $17,429

Wages (W-2): $25,000
Less Social Sec. / Medicare ($3,825 @ 15.3%): $21,175
Less Unemployment Tax ($105 @ 0.5%): $21,070
Less Fed. Income Tax ($5,267 @ 25%): $15,803
Less MN Income Tax ($1,114 @ 7.05%): $14,869

That leaves you with $32k rather than $29k. With tax preparation costs somewhere between $300-$700, it’s still worth it. My tax preparer, Randy Valtinson at Central Tax Service, charges $400 to do my S-Corp filing. He’s a S-Corp evangelist if I’ve ever met one. I’m glad there are tax nerds like him out there fighting the good fight for us.

Timing it Right

Another word of advice. If you’re currently filing a Schedule C – time the switch to an S-Corp wisely. I did mine in the middle of the year – not smart. I continued to pay my quarterly taxes at my Schedule C rate and added unemployment tax payments on top of that. It was a tough year that made me doubt that the S-Corp election was worth it. I didn’t feel any relief until a full tax year later.

Learn from my mistake. Your Schedule C should cease on December 31st and your S-Corp should start on January 1st. It will make life much easier for you, your tax preparer, and your wallet.

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I have the privilege of living walking distance from a bus route that has served me well for most of my time spent in the Twin Cities: The 10. When I was a kid growing up in Northeast Minneapolis, my dad would take me to Twins games downtown on the 10. Now in Fridley, I can still take it to any number of businesses along Central Ave. I can also head downtown and make any number of connections. The 10 runs late into the night, so I can even take it home after a long night of imbibing.

However, my closest bus stop (Central Ave. & Gardena Ave. by Moore Lake Beach) is a pedestrian SNAFU, no thanks in part to Fridley’s city planners.

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You’d think that with an elementary school & high school just 2 blocks to the east of this intersection, the city would have provided a safe walking path down to the beach at Moore Lake Park – not the case.

If you are walking down Gardena Ave. (westbound), you must walk in the turn lane before getting to the crosswalk. Not exactly fun if you have a baby in a stroller or if you value your own life.

There is an additional problem for 10N passengers if they wish to disembark at this intersection. The northbound 10N’s stop is actually just before Gardena Ave. (map marker “A”). This is actually in a turn lane on Central Ave. for cars going eastbound on Gardena Ave. Pedestrians also wishing to go eastbound on Gardena Ave. can either walk in the yards (no sidewalk is provided) or walk in the turn lane. In the winter, walking in the turn lane is really the only option. Good luck when it’s dark out, it will be like a real-life game of Frogger.

I’m not asking the city to add sidewalks – I don’t think that battle can be won at this time. I’m just asking for pedestrians and cyclist to be given some respect. This intersection has far too much automotive treatment.

Replace right turn lanes with normal shoulder treatment

Removing the right turns lanes would solve a lot. Just leave the shoulders painted normally all the way up to the intersection so that cars turning right understand that this is “shared space” and that they are not the priority. A good example of this would be the intersection just to the north at Central Ave. & Hillcrest Dr.:

central-and-hillcrest — It’s paint, not rocket surgery

I would remove the right turn lane on Old Central Ave. to Gardena Ave. All you need to do is “erase” the turnout line on the road to reconnect it as a normal shoulder line, and then remove the right turn signs. Residents can put their garbage cans in the street on trash day and pedestrians and cyclists can use the space without fear that they’ll be hit from behind. A side benefit will be that speeding cars will be self-regulated by cars slowing to turn right.

On Gardena Ave. I would also remove the explicit right turn lane and restore normal shoulder painting. Remove the “Straight & Left” arrow from the lane as well and let drivers figure out where they should be going – keeping drivers on their toes will make them more cautious, creating a safer environment for everyone.

Business Unusual

Rants from a working stay-at-home dad

Women in Tech: My bout with Sexism

WordCamp Minneapolis – My Mormon Wedding

Let’s do a WordCamp!

WordCamp Rule #1

Keep Calm and Carry On

Lessons Learned

The S in S-Corp is for Save

Schedule C

S-Corp

A Simple Comparison

Schedule C

S-Corp

Timing it Right

Fridley Hates Pedestrians (Part 2)

Replace right turn lanes with normal shoulder treatment

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Let’s do a WordCamp!

WordCamp Rule #1

Keep Calm and Carry On

Lessons Learned

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Schedule C

S-Corp

A Simple Comparison

Schedule C

S-Corp

Timing it Right

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Replace right turn lanes with normal shoulder treatment

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