Freshbooks has a terrific overview, irrererently written, of the differences between US and Canadian Thanksgiving. For those interested, its a good read.
From a marketing perspective, its a big deal that those to the north celebrate today and those to the south celebrate at the end of November. Up here there is no Black Friday, and the Christmas shopping season is more mellow and extends roughly from mid-November to Christmas. For those of you who have connections in both places, understanding the ebb and flow of these subtle but important changes is part of what marketers do – although I’m constantly surprised by those who miss this point!
By the way – Freshbooks has been a huge find for me this year. Its a free or subscription online accounting tool, in my case completely removing my Quick Books usage. I use the free version and use it to track my teaching, writing, and consulting hours. The interface is terrific, and it makes invoicing or “fake invoicing” in the case of teaching hours a snap. For clients the billing process is simpler, for my own learning of the hours I’m putting in by class for teaching, prep, grading, and the like has allowed me to reconsider my course designs with data instead of “boy, that class felt like a lot of work but I don’t know what that means!”.
It turns out Freshbooks has a referral program – if you want to give it a try, here’s a link. Since I’m using free and you likely will too, it isn’t much of a gain, but hey, we’ll give it a try.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, everyone.
