If you’re starting a small business on a fixed budget, you’ve probably spent some time trying to figure out where you can cut costs and do more on your own in order to stretch the funds you have available. One area where you may consider doing it yourself instead of farming it out is accounting. If you have an accounting background … Read More
What’s Your Business’s Purpose?
Defining Your Purpose If you don’t know what is is, your customers won’t either. Also, you won’t be able to tell your customers why they should choose you over your competitors. Surely when you decided to start your business you were inspired. Was it to provide a service or product better, faster or cheaper than what was currently available? Was it … Read More
Check-Up On Your Business’s Health
A body requires routine checks and examinations for its health. So does a business. No matter what stage your business is in, to keep it going you must check its systems, pay attention to any ailments and prevent early death. For the newborn business, the goals and system checks are pretty simple. Merely staying alive and maintaining your sanity is … Read More
Tax Records: What to Throw, What to Keep
Now is a great time to clean out that growing mountain of financial papers and tax documents that clutter your home and office. Here’s what you need to keep and what you can throw out. Let’s start with your “safety zone,” the IRS statute of limitations. This limits the number of years during which the IRS can audit your tax … Read More
Save Your Startup From Crashing Early
The failure rate of startup businesses is a common story. And many of these startups were founded on great business ideas. You might ask yourself why businesses built on brilliant ideas still fail. The answer is usually fairly simple. Having an idea for a business and having an idea about how to run a business are two entirely different things. The … Read More
Having a Home-Based Business
More than 52 percent of businesses today are home-based. Garages, basements, and attics are being transformed into the corporate headquarters of the newest entrepreneurs–home-based businesspeople. And, with technological advances in smartphones, tablets, and iPads as well as rising demand for “service-oriented” businesses, the opportunities seem to be endless. Is a Home-Based Business Right for You? Choosing a home business is … Read More
Giving Yourself More Time
If you can free up an hour a day, you’ll create a month a year for yourself. If you’re a business owner, that could be a breakthrough thought. What would you do if you were able to free up a month a year? Perhaps you’d use it to focus on growing your business. Or maybe you’d simply take four weeks’ … Read More
Where to Get Small Business Advice
When you own a small business, everyone wants to give you advice. It can come from all kinds of sources: friends, family members, neighbors, social media connections, people you meet walking your dog. A lot of times such advice is not very helpful. If you’re looking for worthwhile advice, there are many people who have worthwhile insights and experience that … Read More
A CPA’s Keys to Increased Sales
Sarah and Tim own an independent home entertainment retailer, selling televisions, music systems, phones, computers, games and consoles as well as other consumer electronics. Having completed their year-end accounts and tax work, they were looking for increased sales. Their CPA presented the couple with a three-year business performance review, which highlighted three key issues: Sales had declined year after year … Read More
A CPA’s Advice Helps Law Firm
David, the sole practitioner of a law firm, found that his revenue had stagnated and he was constantly facing cash flow problems. David was jolted into action by an honest conversation with his CPA, who asked him how many hours he worked in his firm each year. The lawyer estimated approximately 2,000. The accountant then asked the lawyer to divide … Read More