Categoriearchief: Business

9 Resources to Get You Prepared for Tax Season

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Don’t let tax season overwhelm you. Utilize these nine resources to help you take the stress out of preparing your taxes for Uncle Sam. April really is the cruelest month. But when British poet T.S. Eliot immortalized those famous words in his literary masterpiece “The Waste Land,” he never could’ve known that they would end up ringing true for business owners and entrepreneurs living in 21st-century America. Getting all of your receipts, financial documents and bank statements in order can be an arduous task. But there are solutions so that you can focus more on running your business and less on sifting through mountains of paperwork. Seeking outside help from a trusted accountant or bookkeeper is a great option, and technology has taken the grunt work out of organizing and preparing your own tax records — making April not seem nearly as cruel as it used to be. We asked nine entrepreneurs from YEC to share the resources they use to simplify things and help get their taxes in order.  

1

Track1099

Issuing 1099s was always a slow, costly process that required a CPA or advanced knowledge of Quickbooks. New online services such as Track1099 make processing your business’ 1099s much easier. These services connect to your accounting program, pull the information from the appropriate recipients of 1099s and take care of all the communication with both the recipient and the IRS. Online and cheap. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

2

Mint

Mint is a great way to review your business transactions from the past year. It is a mobile finance app you can link to credit cards, bank accounts and investment funds. Mint will automatically tag and categorize purchases to help you identify donations, gifts and other tax-deductible expenses that you’ve incurred over the year. – Adelyn Zhou, TOPBOTS

3

QuickBooks Self-Employed

Intuit recently launched a new offering called QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE), which is perfect for small businesses that aren’t ready to jump into the full-service offering that most are used to seeing advertised. QBSE is great for independent contractors and freelancers as it allows a user to quickly and easily detangle expenses that might be intermingled across personal/business accounts. – Corey Eulas, Factorial Digital

4

Xero

We implemented Xero about two years ago, and it is a great cloud accounting solution with superb integration for other platforms so that you have Xero as the heart of your organization. There’s also lots of customization possibilities due to their open API. We are still using a personal accounting firm, but remotely, we use Xero as a cloud accounting solution. – Philipp Mohr, Hashplay Inc

5

A Bookkeeper

The best way to plan for taxes is not to leave everything until the last second. Hire a good bookkeeper and have them take care of your books year round. I’d recommend having them utilize a widely used system like Quickbooks Online, which will give you real-time access to your financials. This will allow you to focus on growing your business as opposed to spending more time on taxes. – Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas

6

Evernote

I like Evernote because I can put all my files, notes and receipts in one place via a cloud-storage format. It just makes it easy when I’m on the go and can save and upload from anywhere. – John Rampton, Due

7

QuickBooks Online

I absolutely love using QuickBooks Online to help keep me organized and my books reconciled for tax time. It has made my life so much easier, and I love their mobile app for ease of use while I’m traveling or on the go. I can actually run payroll off my smartphone — how cool! – Rachel Beider, Massage Greenpoint, Massage Williamsburg

8

Google Sheets

In addition to many of the other well-known tax software products out there, Google Sheets is definitely going to come in handy. Google Sheets is free to use and nearly identical to Excel — with even more benefits. Access your data from anywhere and also share or convert to a different file type with the click of a button. – Zac Johnson, Blogger

9

An Accountant

Outsource your taxes. It’s not going to be expensive if you use an independent accountant that has your best interests at heart. You can make more money in the time (not to mention avoid the headaches) that you’ll save yourself. – Thomas Smale, FE International

Cutting Your Restaurant’s Operations Costs

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Running a restaurant is expensive. You have operational costs that seem to only go up, regardless of your restaurant’s success.

Running a restaurant is expensive. You have operational costs that seem to only go up, regardless of your restaurant’s success. You can turn your hard-earned cash at the end of each day into more profit if you cut costs in a few areas without cutting into the quality of your food or service.

GO
GREEN

@BusinessSolutions

Look at your restaurant with the eye of an environmentalist. You may find areas in which you can save money and help the environment. For example, if you’re using traditional incandescent lighting, you could switch out bulbs for fluorescent lighting.

You can also save on energy costs if you turn off equipment that isn’t in use for an hour a day – you can save up to $400 per year on ovens, according to Shipley Energy. If you swap out your regular toilets in your restaurant with low-flow toilets, you can save up to $1,000 over a year, depending on the cost of water in your area.

Another benefit to going green, or greener, is that sustainability sells.

Customers who are environmentally conscious are more likely to spend money at a restaurant that shows how it’s helping the cause.

You can also save on energy costs if you turn off equipment that isn’t in use for an hour a day – you can save up to $400 per year on ovens, according to Shipley Energy. If you swap out your regular toilets in your restaurant with low-flow toilets, you can save up to $1,000 over a year, depending on the cost of water in your area.

Another benefit to going green, or greener, is that sustainability sells. Customers who are environmentally conscious are more likely to spend money at a restaurant that shows how it’s helping the cause.

 

How to Find the Best Bank for Your Business

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Business banking isn’t a hot topic — but having a good bank is crucial to your business’s success.

Small business banking is a topic that sometimes gets short shrift. With interest rates only just beginning to rise and business services at big banks closely resembling one another, small business media coverage tends to focus on more interesting topics such as technology, operations and company culture.

Because the banking news is static, it’s easy to forget how critical banks really are in the day-to-day of a small business. However, trying to differentiate competing banks is a difficult task. National banks tend to match one another too closely in the pricing and structure of their small business products, while local banks vary too widely based on local conditions. Still, there are a number of basic qualities that make a bank the ideal choice for a small business:

Active Small Business Lending

@BusinessConsulting

Banks are the main source of funding for many entrepreneurs, providing loans and credit products suited to many different needs. A bank that is serious about pursuing relationships with small businesses will offer financing options for every stage of a small business’s development.

The easiest way to determine which local banks are active supporters of small businesses is to speak with their bankers in person. Brick-and-mortar banks have a significant advantage over online banks or lenders in this respect. If you’re interested in banks that participate in government-backed financing, the Small Business Administration also provides information on the most active SBA 7(a) lenders through its online resources. One example of a highly active small business lender is Wells Fargo, which has $459 million in outstanding SBA loans as of January 2017.

However, smaller banks tend to offer better service than national banks like Wells Fargo because they’re able to concentrate more of their attention and resources in their immediate neighborhoods. Though they may not have as much capital available, you’ll find that local banks tend to be more flexible and accommodating towards your business’s specific circumstances. While online lending has made great strides in recent years, your best chances of getting a competitive loan rate are still with your local banks.

Want Profits? Bottoms Up!

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BURP: Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

I’m not suggesting that you host an open bar at work. What I am suggesting is that you adopt the BURP strategy in your place of business. Okay, now I’m sure you think I just returned from a two martini lunch, but alas I’m quite serious (yes, sober too). The BURP strategy (Bottom’s Up for Remarkable Profits) is based on a single premise: nobody knows how to make your business succeed like those that do the work.

In business, high-level managers are responsible for creating the vision and mission, setting the direction in which the business will go and the means by which it will go there. Mid-level managers are responsible for implementing the policies and plans created at the highest level. Front-line managers direct the activities of the non-managerial personnel. Each of these people are subordinate to someone. If you’re the CEO, it’s the Board; a VP, it’s the CEO; and so on.

Bottom’s up? Why does it matter?

@ArtOfTheTattoos

Every subordinate is the expert when it comes to the jobs they’re entrusted to do. Success and profitability depend upon the performance of each and every subordinate. Imagine that staff at any level are not aware of the compelling vision and mission.

Imagine that the instruction given to them is not sufficient, clear and practical. Imagine there’s no feedback loop, and all these things go unnoticed.

Who knows best when things are not what they should be? The answer is the subordinates — every single one of them. Bottom’s-Up matters because those who are performing a task know better than anyone (Yes, even better than the one who assigned the task) whether or not things are working well and how they can be improved. A more effective and efficient workplace is one that can and will achieve greater profitability.

Mtn Business “Coffee”

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Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 30 June 2013, MTN recorded 201.5 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.  MTN’s brand is the most valuable in Africa, and is ranked in the top 100 brands worldwide. MTN’s shares constitute the biggest primary listing on the JSE – Africa’s largest stock exchange.