Here is something your CPA wants you to know...
The number one error on personal tax returns we see in our CPA practice happens with estimated tax payments. It seems no one can tell us what they paid to the IRS for estimated tax payments. Typically, we hear, "I paid what you told me to pay. Put that down." If I had to pay $1,000 for every time that was correct, but received $100 for every time that was wrong, I don't think I would ever have paid a dime. I would also be driving a much nicer car and have richer friends - think the Kennedy's or the Bush's.
We now require that clients give us their payments in writing. That gets us mostly off the hook, but that doesn't solve the problem. Many clients give us amounts they paid for prior years. Some must just make up the amounts.
A very select few actually keep track of their payments. They make copies of each check before mailing. That way, even if they give us a check copy for a prior year, we have a fighting chance of identifying the payment correctly. We love these people and send them expensive Christmas cards.
Give your poor CPA a break and make copies of your estimated tax payments before you mail them.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
"Women Entrepreneurs - The Secrets of Success" for Wednesday, June 2nd
Kelli Wilkins
Kelli Wilkins is a multi-published author who has written short stories, novels and non-fiction books. She publishes a newsletter, Kelli's Quill and posts on Facebook, Goodreads and the Amber Quill Press author blog.
She writes in many genres, including romance and horror. Some people think that's an odd combination, but she likes to say that one half of her creative side writes the horror stories, and the other half writes the romance. Writing across a broad spectrum makes for an eclectic writing resume, and her work has been published in The Sun, Weird Tales, and with Amber Quill Press.
Several of her romances have won or placed in writing contests, including the 2005 Amber Quill Press 'Amber Heat' writing contest, the 2004 Romantic Times 'American Title' contest, and the 2003 RWA 'Frontiers in Writing' contest. Her website, www.KelliWilkins.com is the best place to find all of her writings.
8:00 pm EDT
Listen to the live or archived show at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CoachDeb
Kelli Wilkins is a multi-published author who has written short stories, novels and non-fiction books. She publishes a newsletter, Kelli's Quill and posts on Facebook, Goodreads and the Amber Quill Press author blog.
She writes in many genres, including romance and horror. Some people think that's an odd combination, but she likes to say that one half of her creative side writes the horror stories, and the other half writes the romance. Writing across a broad spectrum makes for an eclectic writing resume, and her work has been published in The Sun, Weird Tales, and with Amber Quill Press.
Several of her romances have won or placed in writing contests, including the 2005 Amber Quill Press 'Amber Heat' writing contest, the 2004 Romantic Times 'American Title' contest, and the 2003 RWA 'Frontiers in Writing' contest. Her website, www.KelliWilkins.com is the best place to find all of her writings.
8:00 pm EDT
Listen to the live or archived show at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CoachDeb
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Your bookkeeper stinks
Not just yours - about 90% stink. I am going to reveal the key to the accounting kingdom. Once you understand this concept, you will probably put your bookkeeper out on his / her ass. There is a 90% chance your bookkeeper doesn't know what follows.
When you look at a balance sheet, every number on the balance sheet should correspond to something in the real world. If you balance sheet says your accounts receivable is $100K, then out in the real world your customers should owe you exactly $100K. If inventory is $150K on your balance sheet, that's how much inventory you should have in your warehouse.
If your balance sheet doesn't correspond to the real world of your business, it is time to tell your bookkeeper to take a long walk off a short plank.
When you look at a balance sheet, every number on the balance sheet should correspond to something in the real world. If you balance sheet says your accounts receivable is $100K, then out in the real world your customers should owe you exactly $100K. If inventory is $150K on your balance sheet, that's how much inventory you should have in your warehouse.
If your balance sheet doesn't correspond to the real world of your business, it is time to tell your bookkeeper to take a long walk off a short plank.
How to Become an Entrepreneur on the Job
by Deborah A. Bailey
As a direct result of all of the economic realities we’re faced with, more people are looking into starting their own business. For some people this will be a new and welcome direction. However, starting and running a business isn’t for everyone. When an employee wants to apply entrepreneurial traits to their career, they can do so as an “intrepreneur.”
What’s an intrepreneur? I’m sure there’s more than one definition, but one way to define it is when an employed professional acts like an entrepreneur while remaining in the corporate environment. Instead of being reactive and not having any control over your career, you can use entrepreneurial traits to be more proactive in your career.
No one wants to feel that their work has no purpose. It’s hard to get through a day or feel any excitement for what you’re doing if you can’t see why what you’re doing matters. One reason why people go into business for themselves is because they want more freedom over their lives. They’re tired of being in an environment where they spend the day reacting to the decisions of others.
This is where looking at yourself as an intrepreneur can change your entire outlook. If you’re ready to adopt entrepreneurial behaviors such as taking more risks and creating a vision for what you want to achieve, you’ll be less likely to get stuck in a career rut. It means taking responsibility for your decisions and for the results.
Here are tips to become an intrepreneur in your career right now:
1. Take an honest look at your job situation. How do things look in your company and in your industry? Are there growth opportunities?
2. Be open to learning and growing. If your skills have not been updated in years, find opportunities to upgrade them now.
3. What’s your vision for your future? Where do you see yourself in six months or in a year? Are you willing to take steps to reach your goal?
4. Become more of a risk taker. Is there a project that you’d like to work on or a new process you’d like to introduce to your department? Are you willing to share your ideas or make a request for what you want?
5. Learn to trust yourself. If you don’t have confidence in yourself or your ideas, it will be difficult for you to take charge of your career. You have to believe that you deserve to have a better experience and that you do have something to offer.
Whether you stay in your work environment or decide to move out into business ownership, you can transform your relationship with your work. Take charge of your career and go from employee to intrepreneur.
Copyright © 2009 Deborah A. Bailey
This article originally appeared in Identity Magazine.
As a direct result of all of the economic realities we’re faced with, more people are looking into starting their own business. For some people this will be a new and welcome direction. However, starting and running a business isn’t for everyone. When an employee wants to apply entrepreneurial traits to their career, they can do so as an “intrepreneur.”
What’s an intrepreneur? I’m sure there’s more than one definition, but one way to define it is when an employed professional acts like an entrepreneur while remaining in the corporate environment. Instead of being reactive and not having any control over your career, you can use entrepreneurial traits to be more proactive in your career.
No one wants to feel that their work has no purpose. It’s hard to get through a day or feel any excitement for what you’re doing if you can’t see why what you’re doing matters. One reason why people go into business for themselves is because they want more freedom over their lives. They’re tired of being in an environment where they spend the day reacting to the decisions of others.
This is where looking at yourself as an intrepreneur can change your entire outlook. If you’re ready to adopt entrepreneurial behaviors such as taking more risks and creating a vision for what you want to achieve, you’ll be less likely to get stuck in a career rut. It means taking responsibility for your decisions and for the results.
Here are tips to become an intrepreneur in your career right now:
1. Take an honest look at your job situation. How do things look in your company and in your industry? Are there growth opportunities?
2. Be open to learning and growing. If your skills have not been updated in years, find opportunities to upgrade them now.
3. What’s your vision for your future? Where do you see yourself in six months or in a year? Are you willing to take steps to reach your goal?
4. Become more of a risk taker. Is there a project that you’d like to work on or a new process you’d like to introduce to your department? Are you willing to share your ideas or make a request for what you want?
5. Learn to trust yourself. If you don’t have confidence in yourself or your ideas, it will be difficult for you to take charge of your career. You have to believe that you deserve to have a better experience and that you do have something to offer.
Whether you stay in your work environment or decide to move out into business ownership, you can transform your relationship with your work. Take charge of your career and go from employee to intrepreneur.
Copyright © 2009 Deborah A. Bailey
This article originally appeared in Identity Magazine.
Deborah A. Bailey is author of two non-fiction books including, “Think Like an Entrepreneur: Transforming Your Career and Taking Charge of Your Life
.” She's also the creator and host of Women Entrepreneurs Radio, a weekly internet talk show. Her fiction work includes a short story collection and a novel, available on Amazon.com.
.” She's also the creator and host of Women Entrepreneurs Radio, a weekly internet talk show. Her fiction work includes a short story collection and a novel, available on Amazon.com. For more information, visit http://www.BrightStreetBooks.com.
Monday, 31 May 2010
Tory Johnson's Spark & Hustle National Conference
Want to start or grow your small business? If so, Tory Johnson's three-day Spark & Hustle National Conference in July is something you can't afford to miss.
Tory's company (Women For Hire) was launched 11 years ago as a small, unknown, solo-venture and has grown into a multi-million dollar business with multiple income streams and a national presence.
Her commitment to each attendee is to provide simple (yet, often overlooked), strategic, and easy to implement solutions anyone can use to increase their bottom line right now.
No fluff. No theory. No "experts" trying to sell you something from the back of the room. Just real-world strategies designed to enable everyday business owners—from crafters, coaches and consultants, to publicists, product inventors and proprietors—to make 2010 their best year yet.
Snag your spot in the jam-packed program and receive national editorial coverage of YOUR business. Use code DB2010 for special savings. Click here to learn (& earn) more!
Tory's company (Women For Hire) was launched 11 years ago as a small, unknown, solo-venture and has grown into a multi-million dollar business with multiple income streams and a national presence.
Her commitment to each attendee is to provide simple (yet, often overlooked), strategic, and easy to implement solutions anyone can use to increase their bottom line right now.
No fluff. No theory. No "experts" trying to sell you something from the back of the room. Just real-world strategies designed to enable everyday business owners—from crafters, coaches and consultants, to publicists, product inventors and proprietors—to make 2010 their best year yet.
Snag your spot in the jam-packed program and receive national editorial coverage of YOUR business. Use code DB2010 for special savings. Click here to learn (& earn) more!
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Rely on Your CPA to Run Your Business
Every article in every business magazine I read tells you to “consult your CPA”, “turn to your CPA for advice, and “your CPA will advise you.” What is wrong with this advice? There are three ideas I hope to convey. First, most CPA’s aren’t very good business people. Second, running your business is your job, not your CPA’s job. Third, you can get great service from your CPA, but you have to know how. For this post, I'll tackle the first one.
About ten years ago, we hired a young CPA, named Gerry. Gerry’s father ran a small CPA firm. So we were certain he would catch on to our business and procedures pretty quickly. Gerry was a portly young man. All right, I will say it; he was a jolly, fat guy. Everybody liked him, including my business partner, Paul, and me. At the end of his first year, we sat down with him for his annual review and raise. At this point, I should give you a little inside information about our CPA firm. Our overhead per billable staff person was about $40K per year. Gerry’s salary way back then was about $45K. For the experienced business people reading this, you undoubtedly have an important insight. Our breakeven billings for Gerry were $85K per year. For those of you less experienced in costing, this number comes from adding Gerry’s salary of $45K per year to our overhead per employee of $40K. That yields $85K as the amount of billings we needed from Gerry to break even. Gerry billed about $50K that first year. Obviously, we lost some money on him, but the quality of his work was good. We thought with time he had the potential to make some money for us.
During our performance review, we gave him a 5% raise. For the serious math geeks among you, that was an annual raise of $2,250, which brought his salary to $47,250. Gerry seemed satisfied, and we were happy in that we thought we had a chance to break even in his second year.
The next day, Gerry asked to meet with us again, and told us he felt his raise was unfair. Paul is more of a touchy feely people person than I am and had the gentle human insight to ask him why Gerry thought a 5% increase wasn’t enough given his $50K in billings. Gerry responded with the most unique rationale for getting a raise I have ever heard, “My expenses exceed my income. I need at least $50K to live.” Not laughing wasn’t an option. I had to cover my mouth with my hands. Paul had a great follow up question in store. “Gerry, to make $50K how much do you think you should have to bill?”
Jerry replied, “$55K.” Gerry was offering us the privilege of receiving $5K to cover our overhead and provide a profit for the firm. Do you think Gerry was much of a business person? Knowing Gerry’s personal situation gave me a clue as to why he needed the $50K. Gerry was married to a beautiful young lady – not the sort of wife you’d expect a fat guy to have. I figured one of two reasons made her marry him. Either Gerry had some assets not readily apparent when he was fully clothed, or she thought she was marrying a meal ticket when she married a CPA. I think she was sadly mistaken – at least on the meal ticket part.
About ten years ago, we hired a young CPA, named Gerry. Gerry’s father ran a small CPA firm. So we were certain he would catch on to our business and procedures pretty quickly. Gerry was a portly young man. All right, I will say it; he was a jolly, fat guy. Everybody liked him, including my business partner, Paul, and me. At the end of his first year, we sat down with him for his annual review and raise. At this point, I should give you a little inside information about our CPA firm. Our overhead per billable staff person was about $40K per year. Gerry’s salary way back then was about $45K. For the experienced business people reading this, you undoubtedly have an important insight. Our breakeven billings for Gerry were $85K per year. For those of you less experienced in costing, this number comes from adding Gerry’s salary of $45K per year to our overhead per employee of $40K. That yields $85K as the amount of billings we needed from Gerry to break even. Gerry billed about $50K that first year. Obviously, we lost some money on him, but the quality of his work was good. We thought with time he had the potential to make some money for us.
During our performance review, we gave him a 5% raise. For the serious math geeks among you, that was an annual raise of $2,250, which brought his salary to $47,250. Gerry seemed satisfied, and we were happy in that we thought we had a chance to break even in his second year.
The next day, Gerry asked to meet with us again, and told us he felt his raise was unfair. Paul is more of a touchy feely people person than I am and had the gentle human insight to ask him why Gerry thought a 5% increase wasn’t enough given his $50K in billings. Gerry responded with the most unique rationale for getting a raise I have ever heard, “My expenses exceed my income. I need at least $50K to live.” Not laughing wasn’t an option. I had to cover my mouth with my hands. Paul had a great follow up question in store. “Gerry, to make $50K how much do you think you should have to bill?”
Jerry replied, “$55K.” Gerry was offering us the privilege of receiving $5K to cover our overhead and provide a profit for the firm. Do you think Gerry was much of a business person? Knowing Gerry’s personal situation gave me a clue as to why he needed the $50K. Gerry was married to a beautiful young lady – not the sort of wife you’d expect a fat guy to have. I figured one of two reasons made her marry him. Either Gerry had some assets not readily apparent when he was fully clothed, or she thought she was marrying a meal ticket when she married a CPA. I think she was sadly mistaken – at least on the meal ticket part.
Marketing VA's: How They Help Entrepreneurs Grow Their Business
by Sydni Craig-Hart
One of the best ways to grow your business and increase your income is to specialize in a specific type of virtual assistance. One option is to offer marketing support services. There is an ever growing need for marketing virtual assistants, particularly those who specialize in Internet marketing.
The two things EVERY business owner wants are 1) to make more mo.ney in their business and 2) to have more time to enjoy being self-employed. A VA who specializes in marketing and is directly connected to creating more profits and increased productivity will make herself invaluable to her clients. This type of virtual assistance is not just about supporting the entrepreneur to run their business effectively or waiting for the client to ask for help. It's about taking initiative and being proactive about completing tasks and projects that create more opportunities for exposure and revenue in the client's business.
Speakers, authors, coaches and consultants are part of the growing group of business owners who are hiring VA's to help them market their business effectively. They've found that they just don't have the time or the expertise to market themselves and their services. To create the desired results, marketing needs to be done in a focused and consistent way. By hiring a VA who specializes in marketing support, business owners can focus on their gifts and developing their business, while the VA executes their marketing plan to attract more clients and customers.
The marketing VA can do so many things for their client such as:
If you want more information about how to tap into this popular and lucrative market, you can learn more by investing in some professional training courses. The popular and comprehensive courses offered by SharonBroughtonAcademy.com and VAClassroom.com have helped many VA's expand their business and increase their earning potential. Remember, investing in your business development and education is key to a successful VA business - make sure you allocate the resources to stand out from the crowd.
Sydni Craig-Hart, The VA Success Coach™, is Founder of Executive Assistant to Virtual Assistant!, a company dedicated to providing Administrative Professionals with the support, tools and resources they need to create a highly successful, profitable Virtual Assistant business. Visit www.VASuccessSecrets.com to listen to Sydni’s FREE audio class “How to Start and Grow A Profitable Virtual Assistant Business ...In Less Than Six Months”.
Speakers, authors, coaches and consultants are part of the growing group of business owners who are hiring VA's to help them market their business effectively. They've found that they just don't have the time or the expertise to market themselves and their services. To create the desired results, marketing needs to be done in a focused and consistent way. By hiring a VA who specializes in marketing support, business owners can focus on their gifts and developing their business, while the VA executes their marketing plan to attract more clients and customers.
The marketing VA can do so many things for their client such as:
- Blogging - Setup, maintenance and promotion
- Email marketing - Email blasts, ezines, setting up autoresponders and more
- Research, secure and prepare for speaking engagements
- Email marketing - Email blasts, ezines, setting up autoresponders and more
- Research, secure and prepare for speaking engagements
- Research and coordinate joint venture partnerships
- Social media marketing - Research networking opportunities, increase exposure, maintain/update profiles and more
- Create and help to launch information products
- Manage the client's affiliate program and relationships
- and so much more!
The skilled small business marketing VA is a powerful business partner for her clients. As a marketing VA, you can solve your client's two biggest challenges - how to market effectively and consistently increasing their revenue.
The skills needed to be a great marketing VA (meaning one who creates results for her clients) are quite varied, depending on what niche you want to serve. But in general you need great communication and writing skills, analytical and problem solving skills, advanced knowledge of Internet marketing techniques and advanced people and negotiating skills. By providing marketing services for your client, you can help them increase their revenues and even help them expand their business. Your expertise and knowledge will yield greater results than if the client tried to do it on their own, and you can help them prepare for their business growth. Keeping up to date with your training and skills by investing in training and coaching will ensure that you are able to help your clients efficiently and effectively.
© 2010 Executive Assistant to Virtual Assistant! All rights reserved.
Sydni Craig-Hart, The VA Success Coach™, is Founder of Executive Assistant to Virtual Assistant!, a company dedicated to providing Administrative Professionals with the support, tools and resources they need to create a highly successful, profitable Virtual Assistant business. Visit www.VASuccessSecrets.com to listen to Sydni’s FREE audio class “How to Start and Grow A Profitable Virtual Assistant Business ...In Less Than Six Months”.
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