If you’re a business owner and your company lends you money, you’ll enter it in the books as a shareholder loan. However, if your return is audited, the IRS will scrutinize the loan to see whether it is really disguised wages or a dividend, taxable to you as income. Read more
When Starbucks or Wal-Mart or Home Depot comes to town, how can a small business successfully compete? That’s a tough question, one that’s been the subject of numerous magazine articles, Internet blogs, and doctoral theses. One strategy that doesn’t work is doing nothing — sitting back to watch what happens. Read more
It is interesting to note how many partnerships were formed over a weekend. You meet someone at a party on Friday and by Monday you are in business together. No courtship, no honeymoon, just off you go into business. Well, let me suggest that such partners secure a good set of boxing gloves, because they are going to need them. Read more
There is an almost endless list of things to do when you start a new business. Here is a brief list of some of the most important ones: Read more
Business owners and managers spend most of their time monitoring operations and dealing with everyday problems. But just as an annual checkup from your physician helps to monitor and manage your personal health, an annual checkup can do the same for your business. Read more
January is always a busy month for companies. You’re trying to get business off to a good start in the new year, you’re trying to close the books on last year, and there’s 1099 reporting to complete by month-end. Read more
If your business is like most, you put a lot of effort into attracting new customers. After all, that’s an essential part of growing the business. But sometimes it’s more productive to step back and review your existing customers, and perhaps even get rid of a few. Read more
Keeping costs under control is crucial in today’s challenging business environment. Without a doubt, one of the quickest ways for a business to cut costs is through staff reduction. But cutting jobs is not always the best cost-cutting strategy. Read more
The figures on an income statement report the sales, expenses, and net profit or loss of a business. But these figures can be helpful in another way. They can be used to compute the breakeven point for the business. Knowing your breakeven point can help you run your operations more efficiently and profitably. Read more
You’ve done your part. The job is complete, your customer is satisfied — but a month has gone by, and your invoice is still outstanding. You’d like to work with the customer in the future. So how do you get your money without losing the customer? Read more