8 Creative Ways to Brand Yourself with Content

by Kenya Halliburton

You know that you need a strong personal brand to succeed today, but how do you go about establishing one? Personal branding is a long-term strategy that pays off down the road, but you have to start somewhere. Here are 8 ideas on how to creatively set yourself apart from the herd.

Blog

Writing a blog is the absolute best way to brand yourself online. It allows you to share your expertise, show your personality, and get your fans involved. These are all essentials for branding yourself and a blog lets you kill all of those birds with one stone.

Signature Words and Phrases

Sit down and try to write a short sentence or simple phrase that communicates to people exactly what you do and how you benefit them. This is what's known in the marketing world as a 'tagline.' For example, if you're an SEO expert, you might write something like, 'I get you found online.' It serves both purposes - telling what you do and emphasizing benefits.

Your Brand Photo

Like a logo, a brand photo instantly identifies you. It also gives people a good first impression which might be the only one they get. Make sure that you look good in the picture and that you're smiling if you want to convey a friendly image. Be consistent with your image, using it everywhere you go. You might consider making a few different versions; for example, a more professional suit-and-tie picture for LinkedIn and something more relaxed for Facebook.

Regular Events that You Run

Get involved and start hosting regular events. Events show people that you're passionate about what you do and it's a great way to get them involved directly in your brand. Events are also a wonderful way to network. Online you can do podcasts and webinars. Both are cheap options that offer global reach.

Speak in Front of Groups

Look around for opportunities to speak in front of groups. When you're a recognized speaker, this boosts your credibility and gives you instant expert status. Like hosting events, it also gives you a chance to network. If you're not a great public speaker, don't worry; a little practice will turn you into a confident speaker quickly.

Mentor Others

Offer coaching and mentoring, even if you don't get paid well for it. This adds immensely to peoples' perception of you as an expert. If you can teach others about your subject matter, this shows that you really know your stuff.

Create an Infographic

Infographics are all the rage now and you can create one that's all about you. Your own personal brand infographic is like a visual resume. There are online tools that you can use to create your own infographic cheaply and easily.

A Compelling Story

People love a good story and it's an important component to your branding. For example, you're a city kid who grew up poor and then discovered Internet Marketing. Or, you're a stay-at-home mom who does freelance writing. A unique story about how you got here makes your brand more memorable and helps you to stand out.

Remember that the purpose of all of your branding efforts is to set yourself apart from everybody else. Use these creative methods to show how you're different and the unique value you bring to what you do. Branding really takes off when your personal passion comes through, so let it shine.


Do you want to know how to win clients & cash with your content?
Kenya Halliburton specializes in helping busy entrepreneurs who hate to write create compelling content and install proven marketing systems to grow their business online hands-free & stress-free.  Sign up for her highly-acclaimed and miraculously free 6 Figure Content + marketing Formula and find out how to build a client-getting, profit-winning web presence in 6 easy steps.

Automatic Pouch Packing Machine for Small Business

Automatic Pouch Packing Machine is good Home Based Small Business Idea. Anyone can start a Small Business with Automatic Pouch Packing Machine at Home. 

Demand and Market:

With this Automatic Pouch Packing Machine you can pack oil, milk, ghee, honey, mineral water etc. liquid things in pouch and you can sell these in the market or supply orders. The demand and market of this job is found all throughout the year.

How to pack liquid things in pouch:

There is a tank in the machine. At first, milk, honey, oil, ghee whatever you want to pack, pour it into the machine. Now start the machine. There is a pump attached with the machine. You can pack liquid in indicated weight such as 50 gm, 100 gm, 200 gm etc. as you want. The pouch will come out automatically with the liquid in indicated weight.

It needs ½ hp motor and 220 volts to operate the Automatic Pouch Packing Machine.

Price of the Automatic Pouch Packing Machine:

The price of the Automatic Pouch Packing Machine including motor (which can make upto 300 gm pouch) is approximately Rs. 1 lakh 20 thousand.

Where to buy the Automatic Pouch Packing Machine:

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013,

You can find many companies manufacturing a wide range of Automatic Pouch Packing Machine.

To read the reviews and buy the Automatic Pouch Packing Machine visit websites-

http://www.pouchpackagingmachines.com/pouchpacking-machines.html

http://www.jiabopackaging.com/Sachet%2FPouch+Packaging+Machines-c35854086.html

28 Aug, 13 KK

3 Beliefs You’ll Need As A Woman Entrepreneur

by Kendall SummerHawk

May I get a little vulnerable with you?

If you’ve been following me for awhile you probably think I’m always totally confident, completely in my power and never have a down day.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth!

I wouldn’t be human if that were true, and I certainly wouldn’t be a woman entrepreneur! Sure, I have a ton of confidence…except for those times when I slip into an old way of thinking.

Such as every time I begin to up-level my business.

LOL, right? But it makes sense because every time you make a big shift in what you want to achieve you’re going to come up against old beliefs that you thought you’d had handled…only to find them resurfacing at the least opportune moment.

What I’ve learned in the process of being tapped into my femininity AND growing a successful, multi 7-figure coaching business, is that every new level creates an opportunity to step more fully into my connection with spirit AND my confidence as a feminine leader.

Want the same for yourself? Good! Here are 3 core beliefs it’s time you strengthen if you’re serious about creating greater success in your business. Which one of these resonates most for YOU?

Belief #1: You ARE Good Enough

Not feeling good enough can undermine your confidence, causing you to under charge and over deliver. It can also cause you to over-worry about what others think, and fear being “found out” as a fraud.

Here’s a simple exercise you can do: identify 3 specific ways in which this belief worms its way into your life. Then ask yourself, “how would someone who doesn’t doubt her value respond or handle these situations?”

Journal your answers, then post them where you can see them for the next week.

Belief #2: You’re WORTH Being Respected

If you struggle with boundaries and always seem to be putting the needs of others first, then your self-respect is going to suffer. The solution? First, what are 3 areas in your business where you’re tolerating bad service, inferior work or late delivery?

Then, ask yourself, “if making excuses for others were no longer an option, what would I ask for instead?”

Journal your answers, then post them where you can see them for the next week.

Belief #3: You Have Valuable Gifts That DESERVE To Be Paid For

Not believing in the value of your skills and talents will cause you to give away your services without charging, to over deliver or to struggle with difficult, demanding or needy clients.

To fully claim the fees you deserve, try this: ask yourself, “as someone who has a rare talent for _____________, what is a fee that honors my gifts?”

First thought, best thought! Jot the number down and post it where you can see it and practice saying it out loud for the next week. You’ll be amazed at how you “grow into” your new number!

Would you like to learn simple ways you can brand, package and price your services, quickly move away from 'dollars-for-hours work' and create more money, time, and freedom in you business? Check out my web site, http://www.KendallSummerHawk.com, for free articles, resources and to sign up for my free audio mini-seminar "Money Blocks & Breakthroughs.

Award-winning, million dollar marketing coach Kendall SummerHawk is the leading expert in women entrepreneurs and money.

Using Commercial Real Estate as a Supplemental Retirement Plan

Friends, Redskins, countrymen, lend me your ear.  I come to praise Rex Grossman, not bury him.  Which is odd, since I have blamed him for everything from the increase in DC suicides to congressional gridlock.  The NSA has a secret surveillance program to figure out where he's throwing half the time.  Rex is the best third string quarterback in the NFL.  He is Bret Favre, without the talent, Peyton Manning, without the brains, Tom Brady, without the smokin' hot supermodel wife.   But, he is better than Pat White.

Pat White is the rule to which RGIII is the exception.  White is the rule that running quarterbacks can't throw.  Have you seen him throw to the right side of the field?  Not and complete a pass to someone wearing burgundy and gold.  So, I raise my glass in a toast to Rex Grossman.  May he forever stay on the Redskins sideline holding a clipboard.

Here's what I'm not talking about when I advise using commercial real estate as a supplemental retirement plan.  I am not talking about Rich Dad, Poor Dad nonsense.  I am not talking about buying real estate for no money down and flipping it in six months, thus becoming fabulously wealthy.  That won't happen.  You'll just go broke.  You're not that smart.  I'm not either.

I am also not talking about buying commercial real estate with your IRA money.  You have to be pretty stupid to do that.  It gives up the main tax advantage in owning real estate, the lower capital gains rate when you sell it.  If you put property into a qualified retirement plan, you don't pay taxes when you sell the property, but you pay ordinary income taxes when you take the money out of the plan.  Stupid - really stupid.

I am talking about buying space from which you will operate your business.  If your business doesn't require office or warehouse space, please go back to your porn site.  This post isn't for you.  There are three great reasons to buy commercial real estate for your business operations.

First, you are paying rent already to somebody.  You might as well pay it to yourself. This is the primary reason we bought our office space.  At the end of a five year lease, our monthly rent doubled, just because we needed to lease office space in a tight market.  When we bought our office space, we forever ended rent increases.  For the first few years, making the mortgage payment was difficult.  However, the payment was never going to increase again.  Our rent, in the form of the mortgage payment, was never going to increase, let alone double, again.

Second,  over a period of ten or twenty years, your commercial real estate investment will increase in value, and you get capital gains treatment when you sell it.  If you intend to be in business for less than ten years, again go back to your porn site.  Commercial real estate, in the short term, is a wild ride best avoided.  Prices can move down or up twenty percent in a year.  However, if time allows you to sit out the price swings, commercial real estate is a great investment.  The eventual appreciation is a great tax advantaged supplement to other pension plans.

The third reason to own commercial real estate for your business is that the rent is an excellent way to get money out of your S or C corporation without suffering the tax disadvantages of dividends or salaries.  You also have wide latitude in determining a fair rent to pay yourself.

How can you afford to buy office or warehouse space?  The SBA loves making real estate loans.  They love hard assets.  You'll have to operate your business there, though.  The SBA doesn't loan for investment properties.  Pretty much nobody does anymore unless you have forty percent down.  For your purchase, you'll likely need ten percent down.  The place to look for an SBA loan is a local bank specializing in small business lending.  Look for a bank that makes a lot of these loans.  You don't need an amateur banker, who is more comfortable with home mortgages.  Commercial real estate loans are a whole different animal.

Here's a hint on owning the real estate.  Create a limited liability company (LLC) to own the office or warehouse space.  Then make the LLC the landlord for your business.  This separates the building from your business for liability purposes.  If your main business goes bankrupt, you may get to keep the building since it is in a separate entity.  No guarantees there.  Check with your lawyer.  You can also easily sell the business, or real estate, separately from the other.

Commercial real estate can be a valuable part of a comprehensive retirement plan.  I drank the Kool Aid myself.  But have realistic expectations.  It is a part of the plan, not the whole plan.

Thanks for reading.  For real tax and accounting advice, please visit the main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com.  Also, please like the "How to Screw Up Your Small Business" Facebook page.  I post snarky tips there three or four times daily.

Until next time, let's do it to them before they do it to us.

Working from Home: A Win-Win for Business Owners & Employees

by Michele Unangst 

Other ways to describe them are work from home, virtual office, home based jobs, flex jobs, but the prevailing phrase is telecommute jobs.  They've become the new employment model over the last ten years.  As companies and employees are changing the structure, so many new benefits and job opportunities are emerging due to telecommute jobs.

Ten years ago, the ability to have a telecommute job was only for highly technical or executive positions.  Now almost 40% of the nation’s employers have them  In fact there are companies today that have no traditional brick and mortar office and every employee telecommutes with every job being a telecommute job.  Great examples would be Upworthy and Evolving Wisdom, all of their jobs are telecommute jobs.  It would beg several questions as to why?

First there is a huge cost savings for the company in offering telecommute jobs.  Companies are able to hire all over the world, and save on the cost of facilities and operations.  Take Aetna for example.  Almost 47% of all positions ranging from medical, customer service, sales, operational, and administrative are telecommute jobs.  This has saved Aetna millions upon millions upon millions of dollars.  In turn?  In turn they have been able to hire more and more people for positions.

Telecommute jobs have proven regardless of the industry that the employees work at a higher level than those in a traditional office environment.  They offer some flexibility to employees that allow them to work more, be more productive, and the retention of employees has risen 19%, because they are working in that type of position.  Why?  Employees, love to have the ability to work from home.  Telecommute jobs save the employee mountains of money and time.  Freeing up an average of $11,000 dollars a year in commuting expense and incidental cost.  Gas, childcare, eating out, and spending on lunch hours.  Not only is the employee keeping more of their check, they are ultimately happier working in the environment they prefer the most, their home.  Telecommute jobs are not a trend. It is the new model.

Companies such as Apple, Aetna, UHaul, Humana, American Express, to name a small few of the 1000's of companies that have adopted the telecommute model.  It is the ever-increasing employment model.  These positions now service all positions: customer service jobs, sales jobs, medical jobs, financial jobs, technical jobs, management, project management, administrative, and education jobs.  They're the desired opening for both employer and employee.  No longer reserved for the few but open to the many.  When searching for your next position get the job that you want and need and desire to have, the telecommute job.

About the Author: Michele Unangst, is the Founder and CEO of Get My Mom a Job and its coordinating subsidiaries. Specializing in telecommute jobs only, the company's mission is clear: "Women do not have to choose between work, career, and their family or personal life." 

Potato Chips Making Machine for Small Business

Potato Chips Making Machine is a very good option for set up a Small Business at home.

Demand and Market of Potato Chips:

Everyone likes potato chips. There is good demand of potato chips in cinema hall, shopping malls, home etc. places all throughout the year. It needs Peeler Machine, Cutting Machine, Diesel Oven and Mixer Machine to make potato chips.

How to make Potato chips with Potato Chips Making Machine:

At first you have to buy potatoes from the market. Then you have to peel off the skin of the potatoes with Peeler Machine. Now wash the potatoes with water. Then put the potatoes on the hopper of the Cutting machine and start the machine. Now wash the cut potatoes again in clean water. Then you have to xtract extra oil from potatoes with Oil Hydro machine. At last you have to mix spices and flavor with Mixer Machine. After packing it you can sell it in thee market. You can make about 100 kg potato chips per hour with this machine. It needs 1 hp motor and 220 volts to operate the machine.

Price of the Potato Chips Making Machine:

The price of the Potato Peeler Machine is approximately Rs.30,000.

The price of the Cutting Machine is approximately Rs.30,000.

The price of the Diesel Oven is approximately Rs.25,000.

The price of the Oil Hydro Machine is approximately Rs.25,000.

The price of the Mixer Machine is approximately Rs.25,000.

Where to buy the Potato Chips Making Machine:

You may afford the machine in the address given below-

Bharat Machine Tools Industries, 61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013.

You can find many companies manufacturing a wide range of Potato Chips Making Machines. Their machine matches high technology electronic control.

http://www.jasenterprise.com/potato-chips-machine.html

http://www.dynamechengineers.net/

21 Aug Kk

Screw Up Your Schedule

Get President Obama on the phone.  I have a solution to the diplomatic crisis with Russia over Edward Snowden.  We give Pussy Riot asylum.  They can keep Snowden, and we'll give them three other commie pussies to make it even.

If you can't manage your time effectively, you have one of two problems.  Either, you aren't using the time you have efficiently, or you just plain don't have enough time to get your tasks done.  These two problems have different solutions.  If you don't know your problem, you'll get the wrong solution.

To determine which problem you have, step one is to track what you currently are doing with your time.  In my case, this is easy since we have time tracking software in our CPA firm.  At the beginning of a task, I start a software timer.  At the end of the task, I stop the timer and record the time against a project.

At the end of the day, I have a record of my day.  If I only have four hours of billable time, I know a lot of hours leaked out of my day.  I then immediately determine where the rest of the day went.  Sometimes, the time that leaked resulted in something worthwhile.  Some days, I got interrupted a few million times and got nothing accomplished.  The key is that I know immediately what happened to a day.  Over the course of a week, I can determine if I'm simply running out of time or have too many unscheduled nuisances crowding out productive work.

Tracking your time can be easy.  To start, keep a daily schedule.  This is your time budget.  Outlook is great for this.   At the beginning of each day, schedule times for the tasks you hope to complete.  At the end of the day, determine what tasks got done and why some tasks weren't completed.  Were you interrupted too often to get anything done?  Or, did you just run out of time to get everything done?

When you get interrupted, you don't just lose the time spent disposing of the interrupter, you lose another ten minutes getting back your focus.  Guard your schedule like a pit bull guards a drug dealer.  Shred your open door policy.  Batch your phone calls and e-mail responses.  Turn off the new mail indicator that shows up in your system tray.  Snarl every time someone appears at your office door.  Buy a gun.

Do what works for you.  Your schedule is your schedule not somebody's opportunity to transfer their unpleasantness to you.  You may become known as an asshole, but a you'll be a productive one.

If you guard your schedule like Fort Knox for a week and still can't get everything done, you simply have too many tasks.  The solution to too many tasks is delegation.  I am a master delegator, which is better than being a masturbater and pays better as well.

I was not always so good at delegation.  Desperation taught me well.  You can always come up with reasons why only you can complete a task.  I thought that I was the world's best tax return reviewer.  No one else had my experience, competence, and drive to keep garbage from going out our door.  Last year, my unwillingness to delegate tax return reviews became a major bottleneck in getting returns done.  That bottleneck was costing me money.  I had no choice but to try letting someone else do the detailed number by number reviews.

It didn't work perfectly, but it worked well enough.  I had let perfection become the enemy of pretty good.  Given time and training, pretty good becomes pretty great.  I gave up the time consuming detailed tax return reviews, and the world didn't come to an end.  Our client service actually got better.

Delegation will work for you too.  First, change your attitude.  If you believe delegation will fail, it will.  Next, write down how you complete the task.  This is your procedure manual.  Use your manual, and invest time training your staff.  Finally, you need a process to monitor quality control.

For tax return reviews, I perform a less detailed final review.  I review the initial reviewer's compliance with our review procedures.  If a review hasn't been correctly completed, it goes back and gets done again.  Training is continual and should be.

Fixing your problems with time management is critical to business success.  I once had a staff member who kept telling me, "If I can just get organized..."

I told him, "Don't get organized.  Be organized."  Organization isn't a destination.  It's a process, a battle sometimes.

Thanks for reading!  as always, please visit our main S&K web site www.skcpas.com for real tax and accounting advice.  Also please like the "How to Screw Up Your Small Business"  Facebook page.

Until next time, let's do it to them before they do it to us.

Small Wooden Things Making Machine for set up a Small Business

Small Wooden Things Making Machine is a good idea to set up a Small Business at home.

Small Wooden Things Making Machine

Demand and Market of Small Wooden Things:-

With this machine you can make small wooden things like ladles, paddles and many small things. With some additional attachments, you can do polishing, designing, finishing, grouping etc. also. With some additional attachments you can make bedsteads, wooden doors and windows, almirah etc.

How to make small wooden things with this machine:-

At first you have to buy wood from market. Then put it on the indicated place of the machine and start the machine. You need Press Machine to make small ladle, paddle etc. You can make different things by using different dies.

It needs 2 hp motor to operate the machine and 1 hp motor for the Press Machine. It needs 220 volts to operate the machines.

Price of the Wooden Things Making Machine:-

The price of the machine (including motor) is approximately Rs. 55,000 and the price of the Power Press Machine is approximately Rs.70, 000.

Where to buy the Wooden Things Machine:-

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013.

You can find many companies manufacturing a wide range of Wooden Things Making Machine. Their machine matches high technology electronic control.

To read the reviews and buy the Wooden Things Making Machine visit websites

http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/wood-pallet-making-machine.html

http://www.machinetools.net.tw/wood_working/taiwan-wood-door-making-machine.htm

7^th Aug, 13 KK

The Best Small Business to Start

The Best Small Business to Start

Many people are deciding to go into business for themselves.  The grind of working in an office and taking orders from a boss is not appealing, so people are deciding to start their own small business. When people make this decision, they often don't know what to do.  What is the best small business to start? With so many to choose from, this decision can often be overwhelming.  Obviously, you will want to choose something that you are good at and you have a passion for.  Here are some of the small businesses that have seen the most growth over the past decade:

1. Day care

This is one of the best small business ideas because the demand for it will always be there.  However, it is not the type of business that you can instantly get up and running.  You will need the proper licensing and training.  Running a professional daycare business is not like babysitting for your neighbor. However, the earning potential for a daycare business is very solid.  Because of the tough economy, many couples have full-time jobs.  Since both the mother and father are working all day, they need someone to watch their child.  Since there is not always a relative available, day care services will always be needed.

2. Photography

Even though every smartphone has a camera in it, people will always need experienced photographers to take photos at weddings, company functions or staff photos that will be included on website profiles of various employees.  It does not take a huge investment to get started in this business.  All you need is a few thousand dollars to by a top of the line camera and you can begin.

3. Computer and smartphone training

Are you experienced at using all of the latest apps and features of Macs, PCs and smartphones?  If you are, why not put your knowledge to use and make some money off of it?  We are living in a world of technology.  This is widely considered to be the best small business to start because of the explosion in popularity of smartphones in recent years.  Many older people are who are not familiar with technology are getting smartphones for the first time.  They need someone to show them how to operate their new gadget.  Why can't that person be you?

4. Moving company

This is another one of those businesses that there will always be a demand for.  This is one of the best small business ideas because there will always be people moving into new houses or apartments.  There will always be students moving into dorms.  These people will need help lifting their heavy items, so that is where you come in.  When you start this type of business, you need to make sure you are properly licensed and that you have liability insurance in case you break some valuable items during the moving process.  Needless to say, you or the people you hire will need to be in great physical shape with no back problems for this type of work.

If you are looking for the best small business to start, these are all great examples.  You can duplicate other business plans or if you have an idea to add a new twist to these businesses, I'm sure you will achieve success.  Most important part is that you are not afraid to try.

Trust Your Data

The world is infected with garbage data.  Nine out of ten dentists prefer Pukebreath toothpaste.  Three out of four people prefer AT&T to Verizon.  Some dumb ass voted for Sarah Palin.  Before you can trust data to run your business, there are three things you need to know.  Who collected the data?  Why did they collect it?  How did they collect it?

Who and why are closely related.  If Pepsi quotes a survey telling you that seven out of ten people prefer Pepsi to Coke, you need to know if Pepsi paid for the survey.  If they did, the why part is obvious.  They are selling you something.  Sometimes the connection between who and why is less obvious.

This past week, on the Facebook page that shares a name with this blog, we spoofed Dunn & Bradstreet and Yelp with a bogus business allegedly owned by my mother-in-law, Sharlene.  We called the business,  Between the Wise Sheats (Chantilly, VA).  It's an adult companionship service that serves the over sixty demographic.  In other words, it's a whorehouse for the elderly.  Customers have come here for over a week.  We proved that D&B and Yelp contain a lot of bogus data.

D&B and Yelp collect data to sell it.  Despite protestations to the contrary, they don't care much about the validity of their data.  Data is their inventory.  No inventory, no sales.  After a week, both D&B and Yelp still list our whorehouse.  The next logical step would be to get a tax ID number from the IRS and apply for government grants.  It's a women owned, disadvantaged business.  Surely some dumb ass government worker would give us a grant.  After all, old people need to get off too.  We're willing to sell the business to some genius entrepreneur.  We're only asking $10 million, a bargain given the aging of baby boomers.  Or best offer.  We take credit cards.

I would get the tax ID number from the IRS, except that would be fraud.  I like preparing tax returns more than I like preparing license plates.

So we know the who (D&B and Yelp).  We know the why (to sell the data).  The how is downright amazing.

D&B collects business data from Sam's Club applications.  Sharlene applied for a membership to Sam's Club.  The membership clerk started out using a business application instead of a personal application.  When Sharlene told the clerk that a personal, not business, application was what she wanted, the clerk told her it didn't matter.  The clerk didn't want to start a new application.  Thus, bogus data was born.

D&B got the data and issued the much desired, among fledgling government contractors, DUNS number.  Businesses pay hundreds of dollars to D&B to get expedite issuing these numbers.  Sharlene got one for free via a lazy clerk.

D&B then sent Sharlene a letter asking for financial information.  I have extensive experience responding to D&B financial information requests for previous employers and clients.  I volunteered to be her CDO, chief disinformation officer.

Years ago, D&B called our office to get financial information about our CPA firm.  I politely declined having past experience with D&B people.  I'll be honest; politely might be an exaggeration.  I was polite in the way Lee Harvey Oswald was polite to JFK.  I'm not perfect.  You knew that already.

One afternoon, D&B called back and talked to our office manager, Jane.  They told her that we had a contract to provide financial information, but had not provided it.  They needed the information immediately (that night) or we would be noncompliant with our contract.  Of course all of this was total bullshit.

Jane answered their detailed financial questions the best she could.  She wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack on her best days, but that's another post.  She did her best to keep us out of nonexistent trouble.

A few weeks later, I got an offer from D&B to see the information they had on us as a promotion to get us to buy their data on other businesses.  When the report arrived, I learned that we had owned our office space for nearly ten years.  That would have been news to our landlord.  They even had us starting our CPA firm before we had graduated from college.  They were selling this data.  If you bought it, do you think you got your money's worth?

Once I got the DUNS number for Between the Wise Sheats, spoofing Yelp was next.  How better to achieve credibility in the whorehouse business than some satisfied customers?  I created a bogus Yelp account and posted a review as James A. from Ashburn.  In a few minutes, the business had a raving fan.  Feel free to post your own glowing reviews.  I would never own a substandard whorehouse.  Quality matters to me.

Before condemning me as a fraudster, consider this.  Literally thousands of the reviews on Yelp are written by the reviewed businesses themselves or hired whores known politely as marketing firms.  Have you ever visited a four star Yelp restaurant and thought, "What half-wit moron gave this four stars?  Dog turds taste better." (I won't ask how you know how dog turds taste.)  Answer, the owner's social media expert.

If you don't know your data's who, why, and how, consider it garbage.  No data is usually better than garbage data.

Thanks for reading!  For real tax and accounting advice, visit our main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com.  Also please like the "How to Screw Up Your Small Business" Facebook page.  I post there several times daily.

Until next time, let's do it to them before they do it to us!

Business Management Fundamentals

Business management fundamentals

Businesses may be of any size. They may deal in any kind of commodity, and they may have one of at least three structures (sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation). But business management is built on certain principles which are the same regardless of the type of organization in which it is done. Every action and decision has to be coordinated properly so that a carefully chosen goal may be achieved.

Some history

The modern discipline of business management developed with the rise of the modern stock exchange during the 16th century, when the discovery of the New World opened up ocean trade routes, on which trade required more money than the simple proprietorship or partnership could make. Prior to that time, there was no distinction between owning a business and managing it; and those who managed small shops or farms did not plan the exact way in which they would do so. With stock companies, those who brought in their money often knew little about the businesses they were financing, so they hired managers who did possess such knowledge.

What does the business manager do?

Management of a business is as much an art as it is a science since the primary function of the manager is to get people to work more efficiently than they otherwise would. There are four main skills that form part of management:

1. Planning — What is the desired final product? What resources, human and nonhuman, should be used to achieve that goal? If they are not available at the present time, how will they be obtained? What could go wrong, and how will that be prepared for?
2. Organization — How are you going to make things happen? How ready is everyone to do what he or she has been assigned to do? How well trained and motivated are the employees?
3. Directing — Here is the part where you tell each employee what he or she is to do, when to do it and what to use. In this function, the manager may play a role similar to that of the conductor of an orchestra.
4. Monitoring — The manager is focused on making sure that everything is going along smoothly, fixing anything that is not, and in general remaining on top of things.

Small business management

The management of a small business is in many ways a separate discipline from business management in general. The processes described in the previous section do, of course, apply here as well, though they take place on a smaller scale. There are books on the subject, and at some colleges and universities (such as Penn Foster and Flathead Valley Community College), you can even choose specifically to major in small business management. For an example of a college program in that discipline, go here. Software and apps (including those for mobile phones) are also marketed.

When it comes to managing a small business, you need to start with the fundamentals of business management.