Mentoring Organizations For Your Business
It hasn’t been that long since I talked about mentors, Mentoring and Masterminds,but with resources being scarce right now, I wanted to go over more about mentors and the different places that you can do to find them. Today I wanted to talk about a couple of different mentoring organizations. The SBA has posted a few links on mentoring that you can view here, SBA mentoring, one of the organization that they list is SCORE. From www.score.org, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business
The Bookkeeper…Your Friend In Stress Reduction
One thing that I hear from small business owners frequently during tax time is what a pain it is to round up documents for their tax professional to prepare their tax returns at the end of the year. Keeping track on receipts as well as accounts receivable can be tough if you aren’t keeping track of these things all year. The solution to this problem? The bookkeeper. Your new friend in productivity. Hiring a bookkeeper can help alleviate the hassle of keeping track of receipts, handling accounts receivable and payable, taking care of payroll and handling the reconciling of your bank accounts. What do you look for in a bookkeeper?
Picking the right Tax Professional for Your Business…hint it’s not about location
There are questions to be asked and answered when picking a tax professional to help your small business grow and stay in the good graces of the IRS. Some questions to ask are; Who should I use and what kind of tax professional is for me? What do they need to know? How do I know they are the right person for me? Here are 3 types of tax professional that you will hear about most often although there are tax professionals that are practicing without any kind of additional certification. Click on each to learn more about them. I would have written this out for you but just writing
No One Will Call You Dumb
When it comes to our taxes, it seems like we try and take the easy route which is to do our own taxes. The interesting thing about that is it is actually the hard way. With the tax laws changing constantly and business owners focusing on their business, who has time to keep up with taxes. And frankly who, but the insane people we call accountants, really wants to keep up with it. No one will be questioning your decision making for hiring a tax professional to help you get the most out of your business. There are a number of reasons to use a tax professional with your business.
4 Myths of Tax For Businesses
We have talked about setting up the right entity for your business to save you money in tax each year. There are several myths about tax for your businesses that are out there. I talked with a couple of friends of mine that are tax professionals and discussed the most common tax myths that exist for small business owners. Myth 1. I can write off all of my expenses for my business from equipment to entertainment. Reality: When it comes to equipment that you buy, you may not realize the full write off for several years depending upon if the asset is depreciable or not. As for entertainment, only 50%
Don’t Build A Straw House.
Continuing in our discussion regarding entity structures, we are going to end our discussion talking about building a strong foundation for your business. The way your entity is structured is critical for your protection personally and for the long term success of your business. Build your business with bricks not straw. I have seen statistics that show that over 70% of business are single owner entities with many of these being sole proprietor’s. There are reasons for being a sole proprietor. If you have no worries about being sued and are not concerned with liability from your business then this structure is certainly a decent fit. Some entrepreneurs go the
Tax Advantages of Your Entity
With the different entities available for starting your business, it’s important to look at how to minimize the amount of taxes that you will be paying on the income for the business. This post will give you basic information but it’s important to talk with a tax professional to decide which entity is best for you. Sole Proprietors and General Partnerships: Money earned for a sole proprietorship are subject to self employment tax which is currently 15.3% on the first $90k in income. General Partnerships are taxed in much the same way as a sole proprietorship. The big difference here is that there are multiple people involved to divide income
Nonprofits to Serve Others and Utilize Your Passion
Do you have a passion for service to others but don’t want to create a “business’ around it but still see a huge need that you can fill for the community as a whole? Creating a nonprofit structure around your service idea may be what you need to utilize your passion and make a living doing it. I was talking recently with a colleague about their passion. She talked about some of the various service activities that she was engaged in and was obviously passionate about. When I asked her if she had thought about creating a business around this idea, she told me that she couldn’t possibly profit from
What Business Form or Entity Structure is right for your business?
One step in setting up your business that gives individuals who aren’t accountants or attorney’s pause is the area of setting up the legal and tax structure for your business. We will take a look at the different structures that are available to you in setting up your business. Expertlaw.com breaks down your choices for you in their article; Choosing a business form or structure for your business. It’s important, when looking for a structure, that you do consult an accountant or attorney and talk through your business to make the proper decision on your business. If you are looking to start a business, ask yourself what your business will
You look good, you have talent
Who doesn’t like to hear words of affirmation? Unfortunately mine only come while looking in the mirror and talking to myself. Enough about me and my personal pity party. What I want to talk to you about is your talent. Utilizing it to the fullest a la Ron Burgundy here, is the way to look good and stand out. This is a great by-product of business ownership. You have the ability to utilize your skills, talents and passions to the utmost and use them to stand out. A couple of months ago I shared the spiritual side of utilizing your talents by sharing the “Parable of Talents” from the Gospel
