Last year on this day I wrote a post on the 5 things I want to do in the next year, I thought it seemed like a prime idea to take a look back and see if I actually achieved any of them and try to figure out what I want from the next year of my life.

1. Blogging and Social Media, I wanted to up my game with blogging and try to boost my social media profile and build readership.

I’d consider this a partial success, this year I launched GeekTechBlog.com which is aimed at being a Technology blog with numerous bloggers and much more focused on tech news and goings on than Dan’s Tech Blog (this one) which is often more personal.

GeekTechBlog.com has been and is a lot of fun and is growing in readership month by month to thousands of readers, gaining not only international interest from some of the exclusives we’ve been able to get, such as a hands on look at the Nokia Lumia 900 and our exclusive first interview with the new owners of TinyGrab.com. As well as attracting advertiser interest and ending the year with a few people offering to buy the blog, it’s a good start but I hope it will get so much better over the coming years.

I’d love to keep growing this blog and can see it going far, I hope I can keep building it and get more bloggers on board (if you’re interested, get in touch:- dan@geektechblog.com) with more content, more fun and hopefully more invites to those fun free bars & press events.

2. Focusing on projects, I wanted to focus more on my coding projects and sites and get more of them off the ground… This I completely failed at. In fact, I’ve added a few more on the pile of sites I need to finish. Hopefully I’ll have better luck over the coming year…

3. Learn a higher language, I wanted to learn a higher language and in particularly C# so could get into developing on the Windows Platform and developing Windows Phone 7 apps, this I have dabbled with and have started learning C with my University course and have also begun work on a Windows Phone 7 app in C# which I hope to eventually get finished, have many ideas for apps and programs I want to develop so with any luck will get some of these done over the next year and add get some solid Windows & Windows Phone development experience under my belt!

4. Get more involved in the tech scene, I wanted to dive in and meet more people, go to more events and just get myself out there on the scene a bit more. I’ve been to a few great events over the past year including the WebDevConf which was a great experience as got to see some fantastic people speak live.

Another fun little tech night was when I went to Unruly Media’s London base and made a cool little robot bug and had the opportunity to chat with a few other bloggers and the Unruly guys who create some of the kick-ass video ads on the blog.

The Imagine Cup UK Finals at Microsoft HQ also stand out as a particularly great tech event in which I met some great people in the web & tech industry, some of which have become good friends.

5. Building my business(es), as I’m sure anyone running a business hopes the next year will be better, and well it has things are moving forward and it’s great to see everything I’ve been working on growing and this past year has seen some exciting changes with hundreds of additional domain extensions now available, and hundreds yet to come as well as improving existing product lines,. It’s been a good year and I hope can continue to build on what’s been done here in 2012.

Looking forward…

Writing this I am forced to consider what I want from 2012, it’s largely the same as what I was looking for from 2011, however now that I am at university I do need to look at how that will change things, and how my perspective and aspirations have also changed with the past years events. I value things differently, and find myself being drawn towards different areas within the Web & Technology industries and I see the next year as an exciting period where things will really begin to take shape, and my career and business paths for the future will begin to really take hold, it’s going to be fun, exciting and scary. I can’t wait.

It occurred to me as I sit in the 2nd Starbucks of the day that almost all of my day and indeed my entire life is now powered by the Web. Everything I do is connected, funded and enhanced by technology and the power the internet has given, and continues to give me.

Today I came to London for a meeting with a potential employer, the meeting was arranged over email, the ticket was booked & paid online and I found my way across the East-end to the office using my phone & Google Maps walking directions so I didn’t get lost.

Because my super-duper off-peak ticket means I technically can’t get on a train until 7.15 I’ve resorted to sitting in Starbucks all day, enjoying the free WiFi and catching up with months of missed Security Now podcasts on my phone.

On a deeper level the internet has completely changed my life, and without it I wouldn’t be where I am now, through the internet and all the wonderful things which I have learnt from it I now run a successful online business, run successful tech blogs and in the past month I have been offered 3 jobs, most of which have better pay than the average 19 year old can expect.

But, me being me that’s not enough, I want more and I want to enjoy it. I’m heading off to the University of Reading soon again, something which never would have, happened if it wasn’t for the web, and the people I have met through it.

The story behind why I am attending University, and indeed Reading University is all because of the people I have met online, and what they have inspired me to do, and how that has shaped everything.

In an indirect way, me going to University, becoming a Microsoft Student Partner and indeed choosing Reading University in an odd kind of way all comes down to 1 person, who I’ve only met once or twice in person. I met him many years ago on a webmaster forum, moving forward a few years we both follow each other and I notice he was getting involved with Microsoft and the Student Partner program. It seemed cool, and I wanted in too through that I was able to become a MSP and my online social circle exploded.

I met lots of awesome people, both those involved with Microsoft and other geeks on Twitter in Reading. This lead to me attending a few of the Reading Tweetups (#rdgtweetup). Again, I met a lot more people and fell in love with the Town of Reading, I love it and there are some great people there.

All this, from being the fat geek who sits in front of a computer all day…Awesome Job offers, awesome friends, and an even more exciting future. Not bad eh?

The new year is almost upon us and I can’t wait! 2011 will hopefully be a busy and exciting year, with many aspects of my life changing quite dramatically. I hope to be at University come September 2011, something which will no doubt change almost every aspect of my life with the leap in freedom, independence and surroundings. There are quite a few things I’d like to do between now and then however…

1. Blogging and Social Media, I would really like to make a conscious effort to take my blogging efforts up a notch and continue to make something out of it. Recently I have jumped back into blogging and already I seem to be getting some of those benefits, such as more people approaching me for advertising and reviews. I’d like to continue this with regular, interesting posts and build the readership!

2. Focusing on projects, I have a bad habit of starting things and not seeing the projects through, I have got a few projects to a good stage now and would like to see the development continue and get more products and modules in use, particularly my WHMCS Modules which I am posting over on WHMCSextra.com and of course finishing off the pile of websites I started and didn’t fully develop!

3. Learn a higher language, like C#. I am fairly well versed at the wonders of PHP and most web-based languages, and would like to get a grasp on C#, particularly as this should help me get some kind of foothold in developing for the windows platforms, and enable me to develop for the Windows Phone 7 as well as the desktop.

4. Get more involved in the tech scene, I would love to get more immersed in the tech scene, and meet more people and generally be part of the UK tech community. I am going to try and get to as many tech events in the UK as possible, and try and meet as many interesting tech people as I can get my hands on, particularly in Reading, with the Microsoft Events and Tweet-ups which I hope to be able to re-attend soon.

5. Building my empire business, I have been working on my business now for a few years and as with everything else I’d like to keep building and really ramp it up to the next level. I have been working on a new site for it for what seems like a decade and hope I can get it finished soon, I’d like to get this finished and launched along with a wide range of new and exciting products and of course working on some very exciting specialist products which will enable me to provide a unique spin and customisation to some types of products which many of my competitors cannot offer!

I recently has a interesting pondering as to if it might (theoretically) be possible to reduce the amount of VAT that you as a person pays for the normal every day goods and services we all use.

Now I will get my mini disclaimer out the way… I have not acted out nor intend to act out anything which is mentioned in this post, nor do I encourage or endorse anyone who chooses to do so after reading this.

Bottom line, I am just thinking out loud, don’t sue me if you try it and its illegal.

Anyway, as I was saying… 17.5% of pretty much everything we all buy as UK residents is VAT (Value Added Tax), however it is my understanding that companies which are VAT registered have the ability to claim back VAT on all their purchases and of course are required to charge VAT on the goods they sell.

Now as I mention I have done pretty much no research into this idea and have no clue about its legalities.

But I wonder… Could you (in theory) register a Ltd company, for example “The Company of Dan Ltd” register it voluntarily for VAT (as you don’t have to register unless your revenues are > 68K/month, but you can do it off your own back) and then instead of Dan buying all his goods and services “The Company of Dan Ltd” buys and pays for these items by means of a directors loan from… you guessed it Dan.

So now we have a company which has brought a load of stuff and borrowed money off its only director to do so, now because this company is VAT registered it can (in theory) claim back the 17.5% VAT on all the taxable goods, “The Company of Dan Ltd” can then donate/give the items it purchased to Dan.

Now, there would be other costs to consider, for example say £20 to register the Ltd company and around £500/yr to have an accountant balance the books (required).

So now if you spend more than £2971.43  [ ((£500 + £20) / 17.5) * 100 ] on taxable goods everything after that you save 17.5% and if we assume that at the end of the year the tax man goes, ok fine we owe you… £xxxx in your VAT claims the company now has £xxxx money, which of course can be put straight into your back pocket by means of “The Company of Dan Ltd” paying off some of its (probably reasonably large) directors loan from Dan.

Now the company serves no business point obviously and if this is/was legal would purely be a tax dodge, and you would eventually end up with Dan being director of “The Company of Dan Ltd” which owes Dan many 10000′s in directors loans… which Dan being the generous feller he is… can write off… leaving Dan with a company with no debts and saving 17.5% of most of the things he buys…

Now as I said in the begging I am not and won’t be trying this, but I am still interested to know if its *LEGALLY* possible or if there is some rule or legislation which would prevent it from being allowed… as always, comments are welcome.. particularly if your a business lawyer who (doesn’t want to sue me) and can provide an answer if to this is (theoretically) possible.