Planning for an Awesome 2013

For businesses with fiscal years that coincide with the calendar year, the slate of revenues and expenses will be wiped clean on New Year’s Day.  Starting with a clean slate gives us a chance to reflect on our 2012 results before we enter 2013 and experience the hope that comes with a new year.  

Hindsight is always valuable, and we can learn important lessons from our past mistakes that we can now more objectively look back on.  We can take those lessons and incorporate them into our plans for the new year so that we can continue to learn, grow, and prosper.  

To create your plans for an awesome 2013, here is a list of questions and documents to consider in your business.

Revenue Plan

We can make budgeting more fun by looking at the revenue side first.

• Are you happy with your 2012 revenue levels?
• What new product or service lines can you roll out in 2013?
• Are there any product or service lines you should close in 2013?
• Should you raise prices?

A revenue plan is useful because it can feed into your annual budget as well as drive your marketing plans.

Staffing Plan

Business is more fun when you have the right team to support your vision.

• Is your current team sufficient to support your business goals for 2013?
• In what areas do you need more help?  Should you hire or outsource?
• Are there any team members that are not pulling their weight?
• Was there a turnover that you would have rather not had?  How can you retain your best talent?

Master Budget

Your revenue plan and staffing plan can feed into your master budget, which can be loaded into your accounting system.  Tracking actuals against plan and prior year numbers will help you determine how you’re staying on track throughout the year.

Special Projects Plan

What special projects should you consider for 2013?  This might include a move, new fixed assets, or replacing systems and processes that you are outgrowing.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Each year, we watch the news and see people and businesses that were affected by extreme weather events, fires, theft, or other disaster.  Are you protected?

• Is all of your data backed up to a remote location that is away from your local area?
• Do you have the necessary insurance coverage for all areas of your business?
• Are you comfortable with the risks you are taking in business and are you prepared for the worst-case consequences of those risks?  If not, take action to reduce your risks.  


Planning for Awesome

Planning helps you become more successful, and it reduces the risks of doing business.  There are many more types of plans, and it’s up to you to decide which ones will benefit your business.  If we can help out in any way, please reach out and give us a call.

Your Year-End "To Do" List

It’s almost the end of the year, and although the holidays are coming, there are a few tasks you need to address before year end. Getting your financials in order now will start you off right for the New Year. A Step Up wishes you a very merry holiday season and a prosperous 2013.

1. Invoice your clients for all outstanding time and expenses. You want to be sure that invoices are sent for all work done during the year, and many of your customers will want to pay you for this work now to lower their tax liability. Make it easy for them to do so! Receiving payments at the end of the year also gives a cash basis business a bit of flexibility. You can count the income in this year by using the check date on the payment in QuickBooks. Or move it to next year by using the date you received or deposited it (be sure this is actually in 2013).

2. Review your open receivables and determine if any should be sent to an outside collection agency for assistance or if they are un-collectible. If you are on an accrual basis, you can write these off as bad debts and lower your business profit totals. Even if you are cash basis, getting these off your books gives you a truer picture of what is outstanding for the new year.

3. Reconcile all bank accounts, credit card accounts and loan accounts. You need accurate balances to make informed decisions for the future. Ensuring that the totals of your accounts match the bank also improves the likelihood that you haven’t missed any deductible expenses.

4. Prepare a budget for next year. Review this year’s reports and set a plan for realistic growth next year. What income categories were profitable? What expenses can be trimmed? Set a plan for how you will increase revenue and lower expenses in the coming months. You can also enter this information into QuickBooks, and then you can compare how you are actually doing against your plan from month to month.

5. Double-check all employee addresses and social security numbers. Make sure that employee paycheck names and Social Security numbers match their SS cards and W-4 data. Remind employees to submit new W-4 forms if there has been a change in their filing status due to marriage, divorce or dependents (birth, adoption, child turning 21), or if they want to retain their federal ‘exempt’ status.

6. Ask your payroll service (if you use one) for a W-2 adjustment run, or run a Payroll Summary report before closing out 2012 to verify and correct:
- excess SS withheld
- additional amounts paid to employees that must be captured on W-2s, including relocation expense reimbursements, personal use of company vehicles, company-paid educational assistance and other taxable items that were paid outside of the payroll system;
- manual or voided paychecks not in your system;

7. Review 2012 paychecks outstanding more than two pay periods so you have time to void and reissue in time for 2012 W-2s.

8. Get address and social security numbers for all 1099 contractors. Send W-9 forms to obtain this information if needed. Review all names, addresses and tax ID information as well as the categories of payments made for accuracy.

9. Meet with your CPA to review your preliminary totals. There are things you can do now to reduce your business tax liability, such as contributing to a retirement plan or paying employee bonuses, but they often must be done before December 31st. It also may or may not be a good idea to make a large equipment purchase at this time. Depreciation deductions are not as favorable if the majority of the year’s purchases were made in the last quarter. Corporations will need to calculate and pay out shareholder distributions by the end of the year. Talk to your CPA about your tax strategy for this year. Of course, you will want to have your records in order and caught up to reap the most benefits from your meeting.

A Step Up Bookkeeping is available for assistance with getting your record-keeping caught up. Give us a call for a no-obligation consultation at 603-679-2022.

Compliance Checklist: Seven Items You May Have Forgotten

Running a business is filled with regulations everywhere you turn.  These can drain precious time away from the core of your business, but if you ignore them, there could be huge financial consequences you may be risking without even realizing it.  The best way to handle them is to understand your exposure, consult with any experts you need to bring in, create a checklist, and make sure you’re in compliance.

Here’s a head start in creating that checklist.  This is by no means a comprehensive list.  These items apply to most businesses and are often overlooked.   Go through the list to make sure there aren’t any surprises for your business.  If there are, feel free to contact us, and we’ll help you find out where to get answers.

1. EIC notice to employees.

It’s now required annually to notify certain employees about the Earned Income Credit so that more people who need it can take advantage of it.   If you have employees, the next deadline for this compliance item is the first week of February 2013 and can be met if you get the right W-2 forms.  Details are in IRS Publication 15.

2. Corporate meeting minutes.

Just about the first thing the IRS will ask for in an audit is your corporate meeting minutes.  If you are incorporated as a C Corp or S Corp, you need properly formatted and executed documentation of the annual shareholders’ meeting, even if it is just you.  The risk in not having it includes a potential increase in tax liability from undocumented deductions.
 
3. PCI compliance.

PCI stands for Payment Card Industry, and if you take credit cards, you may have compliance requirements under this industry standard.  The standard is designed to provide the cardholder with a minimum acceptable level of security, and your requirement is to maintain certain processes and procedures to safeguard the stored credit card data.

4. Document retention.

While it’s a great thing to go paperless, you may get caught by surprise if you are not downloading and preserving the items you used to have on paper.  The IRS and other agencies still need proof of these items in order to approve the deduction.  This includes invoices that are coming via email in PDFs, bank statements you’ve gone green on, and direct deposit payroll stubs, to name a few.

Fax copies fade after a few years and can catch you by surprise when you go to look up an old record and can no longer read it.  It’s best to scan fax receipts in so they will stay readable for the length of the retention period.

You’ll also want to keep up-to-date on how many years it’s necessary to maintain these items in the case of an audit.

5. New hire reporting.

In small business, most of us are hiring so infrequently that it’s easy to forget this one.  Most state unemployment agencies require that you report new hires within about three weeks of their start date.  The purpose of this is to track fathers who have missed child support payments.

6. Changes in state tax compliance.

As geographic borders disappear and our business expands, we need to regularly re-evaluate state requirements on income, franchise, and sales tax obligations.  It can be too easy to “do things the way we’ve always done them” and forget that as our business expands into new territories, new obligations can arise.
If we’ve hired a virtual employee in another state, we may have new obligations.  If we’ve earned money during a speaking engagement in another state, we may have income to report in that state.    And, of course, if we open new offices in another state, we have new compliance items to deal with.

7. Payroll posters.

Surprisingly, the highest payback item in this list for those of you that have employees may be posting your payroll posters.  Compliance usually costs less than $100, and the fines avoided can be as much as $17,000, a pretty big dent, no matter how big your small business is.
Small Business Compliance

Are You Vulnerable to Fraud?

Three components need to be present in order for fraud to occur:

1. Motivation (or Need)
2. Rationalization
3. Opportunity

When fewer than three legs of the triangle are present, we can deter fraud.  When all three are present, fraud could occur.

Motivation

Financial pressure at home is an example of when motivation to commit fraud is present.  The fraud perpetrator finds themselves in need of large amounts of cash due to any number of reasons:  poor investments, gambling, a flamboyant lifestyle, family requirements, or social pressure.  In short, the person needs money and lots of it fast.

Rationalization 

The person who commits fraud rationalizes the act in their minds:

• I’m too smart to get caught.
• I’ll put it back when my luck changes.
• The big company won’t miss it.
• I don’t like the person I’m stealing from.
• I’m entitled to it.

At some point in the process, the person who commits fraud loses their sense of right and wrong and their fear of any consequences.  

Opportunity

Here’s where you as a business owner come in.  If there’s a leak in your control processes, then you have created an opportunity for fraud to occur.  People who handle cash, signatory authority on a bank account, or financial records with poor oversight could notice that there is an opportunity for fraud to occur with the ability to cover the act up for some time.

Prevention
 
Once you understand a little about fraud, prevention is the next step.   To some degree, all three points on the triangle can be controlled; however, most fraud prevention programs focus on the third area the most:  Opportunity.  When you can shut down the opportunity for fraud, then you’ve gone a long way to prevent it.

The Typical Fraud

The median cost of an occupational fraud case was $140,000, according to the ACFE.  It goes undetected for a median time frame of 18 months.   The most likely way to discover fraud is a tip from an employee who works at the victim organization.

Small Business Vulnerability

Small businesses are the most vulnerable to fraud, because they employ the least amount of fraud prevention controls.  Here are just a few quick tips to help prevent fraud in your organization:

• Create a culture within your organization that deters fraud and provide employees with education about fraud prevention to reduce rationalization.
• Tighten down access to financial areas, segregate duties, and use other internal control best practices to reduce opportunity.
• Provide financial literacy programs to employees to reduce need or motivation.
• The ACFE recommends that small businesses provide employees with an anonymous way to report suspicious activity.

While we hope fraud never happens to you, it makes good sense to take preventative steps to avoid it.  Please give us a call if we can help you in any way.

Six Quick Productivity Tricks So You Can Go Home Early

If you have an endless to-do list, you’re not alone these days.  Most of us are constantly looking for ways to work smarter and get more done.  Here are six quick tips to help your productivity so you can go home early.

1. Group tasks

If you have lots of errands to run during the week, why not set aside one day or a part of a day to get them knocked out all at once?  It saves start/stop time and may also save gas and time getting dressed up (if you work at home).

You can also try grouping tasks such as personal care appointments, doctor’s appointments, sales calls, and client visits.  Your schedule will be freed up in big blocks of time so you can focus on creative projects without having to constantly watch the clock.

2. Use checklists

Checklists are best when you have a task you need to repeat.  They’re great when you’re stressed and don’t want to forget a step (such as in packing your suitcase for a trip).  They’re also great for tasks that repeat infrequently (Now how did I do that last time?)

Stop and take a minute to create your checklist the next time you perform a routine task that you will repeat in the future.  You’ll thank yourself the next time.  


3. Organize your email

If you are using Microsoft Outlook for email, consider getting it to work as hard as you do.  As your email comes in, you can have Outlook sort the low-priority emails that come from lists, Google alerts, social media notifications, and subscriptions into folders.  Create a subfolder in your inbox called “lists.”  Then set a Rule to have that type of email go into the “lists” folder.  This one step will substantially de-clutter your inbox.  

4. Delegate more

If you’re a little wary about delegating, try this exercise:  Look at your to-do list and put an hourly rate next to each task that you are doing.  If someone paid you to do that job, what would you get on the market?  Then look at the tasks with the lowest dollar value next to them.

If you feel your time is worth more than the lowest rated tasks on your lists, it’s time to help someone else out who is unemployed so you can be freed up to use your more valuable skills.

5. Order online

When is the last time you’ve been to the office supply or pharmacy when you know they deliver?  (Yeah, me, too. Enough said.)

6. Avoid long learning curves

Whenever you realize a task will have a really long learning curve, then it’s a red flag that it’s time to find someone to hire to do it for you.  Here are several examples:

• Doing your taxes and researching all the tax law changes
• Installing a new accounting system and customizing it
• Learning about every new social media platform out there
• Writing a legal contract
• Creating a report
• Troubleshooting a computer problem

Create an Easy, Head-Turning Elevator Speech

You’re sitting in a room with 30 other business entrepreneurs.  Each of you has one minute to introduce themselves to the group.  You are number 25 to speak.  Will anyone listen?  What can you do or say to catch your peers’ attention, be memorable, and have them approach you for business?  Most importantly, what can you do to get every business card in the room wanting what you have (so you can go to fewer networking meetings and get back to running your business)?

The good news is you don’t have to be a poet, a writer, or a great speaker in order to attract attention and desire.  All you need to do is put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes for a minute.  What is it about your business, your products and services, and you that would interest a potential buyer?  Why should they care?  Why should they stop what they’re doing from their busy life and listen to you?  It’s easier to answer than it sounds.  Here’s a formula to help you along.

“I help “my ideal client” “get a certain result” through “my products or services.”

Let’s fill in these three blanks by using some examples:

• I help “young families” “find their first house” by “providing mortgage lending services.”

• I help “people with broken pipes” “keep their homes dry” through my “plumbing services.”

• I “protect families from financial disaster in times of crises” by providing “insurance services.”

• I help “women who want to have beautiful hair” “keep their hair healthy and vibrant” with “my all-natural, organic hair salon services.”  

Now fill in the blanks for your business.  You may have to try a couple of variations until you hit on the perfect one for you.  But this formula beats saying “I’m a hairdresser,” “I’m a plumber,” or “I’m a mortgage lender.”

This is a great start to your elevator speech, but just a start.  Now add a second sentence that describes a project you just completed with another client similar to the one you’re talking with.

“For example, I just closed on a home last week with a mom, dad, the cutest 4-year-old twins, and a yorkie.  They got a great rate, and their payment is low enough so they can afford to start saving for the kids’ college right away.”

One more sentence and you’re done.  This one’s your call to action.  What do you want interested prospects to do, and how can they sample your product at a low risk to them?

“I have a free report, “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Your First House.”  If you’d like a copy, please hand me your business card and I will email you the details.”

“I offer a free risk analysis so you can see if you have any major risk exposures.  To set up an appointment, hand me your business card, and I will get you setup free of charge.”

Put all three parts together and you have a very nice elevator speech.

“I help young families find their first house by providing mortgage lending services.  For example, I just closed on a home last week with a mom, dad, the cutest 4-year-old twins, and a yorkie.  They got a great rate, and their payment is low enough so they can afford to start saving for the kids’ college right away. I have a free report, 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Your First House.  If you’d like a copy, please hand me your business card and I will email you the details.”

Don’t be surprised at the flood of business cards that will come your way when you put this in action at your future networking meetings.

Recognizing a Job Well Done

When was the last time you praised your employees or contractors?  Hopefully, you’ve developed the good habit of frequently praising your team members, and if you haven’t, you’re certainly not alone.  Most of us do not get enough praise, so there’s a strong likelihood there’s room for improvement when it comes to recognition of a job well done in just about every workplace.  Here are some tips to praise more and help your workers flourish.

A Bias for Negativity and Criticism

Our brains are designed by evolution to feel the emotions from negative interactions, including criticism and especially threats, in an exaggerated fashion when compared to feeling the emotions from positive interactions.  When we spotted a saber-toothed tiger, the brain that noticed and overreacted to the tiger by running away was rewarded with surviving.  

That evolutionary trait doesn’t translate very well in the work environment we are in.  It takes a larger quantity of positive interactions versus negative interaction to just keep us at a neutral baseline of emotions.  And studies show we perform better when we are happy and positive.  So that’s why recognition is so important in a thriving workplace.

Dos and Don’ts

Here are some guidelines to help you deliver the most effective recognition in your workplace:

1. Be as specific as possible.

Praise a specific task or interaction when possible rather than generalizing.

2. Direct the praise to a task or effort without listing personality characteristics, especially when you’re giving negative feedback.

For example, saying “The report was creased and had ink blotches on it” is better than saying “You are sloppy.”

3. Be timely in your praise.

Don’t wait a whole year to unload praises and criticisms on an employee.  Let them know where they stand on a frequent basis, and if possible, praise them right after they do something great.

4. If you need to give negative feedback, sandwich it.

The sandwich refers to feedback that is first positive, second negative, and last positive.  It’s important not to end on a negative note.  A sandwich would go like this:

“Jim, I appreciate how hard you worked on the Cole case.  You put in a lot of hours and showed dedication.  In the restructuring section, I would have liked to see you ask for help earlier in the project.    It would have avoided the delay we have now.  The section on asset disposition was terrific; you really know your stuff in that area.”

5.  Always give feedback in private.

It’s important to honor a worker’s privacy when it comes to performance appraisals and even daily or weekly feedback.  If your employee is in a cubicle or other non-private area, you may need to find a place that is more private before you give feedback.

6. Never send negative feedback via email.

It can be really hurtful and is not appropriate at any time.  If a face-to-face meeting is not possible and it just has to be handled right away, then pick up the phone.

7. Use examples.

When giving positive or negative feedback, give several examples of what’s right and wrong so the employee will learn faster and understand better what is expected.

8. Be supportive.

You are on the same team; to grow the company.  The relationship should be supportive and not adversarial.

9. Explain the impact of actions.

Help the employee understand the downstream ramifications of their actions.

10. Encourage future behavior.

Use phrases like “I’d love to see you do more of that.”

Praise your team more often, and when you do, try these tips to watch your employees shine even more.

Seven Ways to Wow Your Clients

One of the main reasons clients leave is because they feel ignored.  The cost of ignoring clients is high; you have to do more marketing and replace those clients when they leave.  The antidote to this is easy:  just stay in touch more with clients, and let them know you care about them and their business.  Here are seven ways to stay in touch with all your clients and especially your long-term customers.

1. Pay a compliment.

Sometimes when we’re in an “all-business” mode, we forget the simple things.  Take a minute to look around and find something to compliment your client on.  What have they done to support you?  What are they a natural at?  What traits do they have that you admire?  Tell them; they will appreciate it because it won’t be expected.

2. Rejuvenate your service with long-time clients.

Recall the first week that you signed a new client.  You were both excited about beginning your relationship, and your service was likely top-notch.  Now take a look at the service level of clients you’ve had for a while – for months or maybe even years.  Is it the same?

If not, consider putting the spark back into the relationship!  Long-term clients deserve a higher service level than new clients; yet it’s often the other way around.  Take a look at what you can do to spice up your service level, whether it’s returning calls and emails faster or delivering the work earlier as a surprise.  Your long-term clients will appreciate it and know that you’re making an effort not to take their business for granted.

3. Acknowledge referrals quickly.

Clients that pass you referrals are taking two risks when they refer you: 1 – that you will do a good job, and 2 – that their friend will like you.  Help them feel like it’s worthwhile by responding quickly to the referral as well as acknowledging and thanking your client for the referral.

This is best done by a thank you card or a phone call.  

4. Send a newsletter.

Keep clients informed of tips, discounts, new services and products, and events with a newsletter.  There are many ways to create a newsletter, and the most important aspect is to make sure it’s as relevant as possible to your clients.

A newsletter does not have to be elaborate or time-consuming.  At its simplest form, it can consist of a single, short article.  As you further develop it, you can add in components such as a brief company description, a quote, a testimonial, an events calendar, a customer spotlight, a greeting, additional articles, a poll or survey, and special offers.

5. Celebrate birthdays and/or anniversaries.

Everyone loves to have their birthday acknowledged.  Send a card to your clients in their birthday month.

The best birthday cards are just that, real birthday cards without company logos or sales pitches.  If appropriate, consider a surprise twist on the birthday theme:  send cards to your client’s kids, spouse, or pets.

Another great twist to acknowledge clients is to send an anniversary card on the date they first started doing business with you.  This is a great option if you don’t have clients’ birthdays recorded.  And it’s a great surprise because clients do not see it coming!

6. Offer longevity or loyalty discounts.

It’s common practice to offer new clients discounts.  It’s less common to reward loyalty.  Give current clients better breaks in your prices than new clients.  This incentivizes clients who already like your products to buy more.  The more they buy, the more likely they are to keep doing business with you.  

You can also surprise long-time clients with periodic bonuses and gifts.  Don’t do it too often, because it will be expected.  For best results, the bonus should come completely out of the blue.

7. Express gratitude.

Say thank you to current clients every chance you can.  Thank them for their business.  Thank them for their loyalty.  Thank them for paying their bill on time.  Thank them for being easy to work with.  Thank them for being flexible.  Do this by sending cards or emails for no reason other than to thank them.

These positive interactions with your current and long-time clients will strengthen your relationships with them, help you say what’s often not said enough, and improve your client retention.

5 Bottlenecks to Avoid that Stunt Your Business Growth

As a business owner, you have likely acquired many skills and are wearing many hats in your business.  Although admirable, your versatility can often lead to slower growth for your company.  This happens when you become the bottleneck.  Here are five places to check to make sure you haven’t become the bottleneck in your own business. 

1.      Managing everything. 

It’s definitely good to keep tabs on everything that’s going on in your company, but once your company grows, you may find yourself inundated with information.  Instead, try managing by exception. 

You don’t really need to know everything that’s going on in your company; you really only need to know when things do not go smoothly, or when there are exceptions.  Design a set of management reports that allow you to see these exceptions easily without having to wade through a bunch of information.  This will save you time and help you focus where your expertise and skills are needed most. 

2.      Doing too much production. 

Probably the most common small business mistake is working in your business instead of on your business.  If you’re still generating billable work or working too much in production, it should be work that no one on your staff can do and work that requires a very high skill set.  Otherwise, it should be delegated to staff.  And if you don’t have staff, then they need to be hired. 

3.       Not doing enough marketing.

As a business owner, you are the key person that will be bringing in business, forging partnerships, and creating new opportunities for revenue.  If you spend your limited time doing other things, marketing often goes undone.  Not marketing enough can dry up the pipeline, cause cash flow problems, and get a company in trouble really fast. 

4.       Being the only one who knows how to do something. 

When employees have to wait on you to show them how to do something, you can easily become the bottleneck in the process.  As you train each employee, do it only once by writing procedures for the task as you train.  That way, you never have to train anyone on that task again.  The newly trained employee can show others, and you can be out of the loop, freed up for more important things. 

5.       Having to review and approve everything your employees do.

A great employee is one who is empowered to make as many decisions as possible without further layers of supervisions getting involved.  Often, a decision can be “cookbooked” so that the decisions can be pushed down the lower layers of management.  Take a look to see if any of the decisions that you are making can be documented and pushed down so that you don’t have to get involved.  That way, your employees will have the right balance of authority in order to do their jobs. 

How did you measure up on these five high-bottleneck areas?  When you can clear up the bottlenecks in your business, your firm will be able to grow even faster.  

10 Things you don't think to delegate, but you should

Just about everyone suffers from a lack of time to do all the things they want, or even need, to do in their business.  One of the solutions to freeing up your time is to delegate.  The question is, what are the most effective tasks to delegate?  Here are ten ideas for you to consider (or reconsider) to free up your valuable time for more important things.

1. Social media.

We didn’t even have social media ten years ago, but now that we do, it can be a major investment in time.  Some companies ignore it completely, not wanting to open that can of worms, but done well, social media can have a great payback.

Rather than ignore it or take up your important time, turn it over to an intern or recent college grad who probably knows more about it anyway!

2. Grocery shopping.

You might think this is only for rich people, but it’s simply not true and very cost-effective.

Grocery shopping is a personal task, but time doesn’t distinguish between work and personal; it keeps marching on.  Set up a grocery list and find someone who wants to work part-time (your housekeeper might know someone).  You’ll be able to free up several hours per week, plus you’ll likely be helping someone who needs the money.

The money you pay to your shopper is not a business expense.  Instead, they may be a Schedule H employee, so you’ll need to keep your books separate or alert your accountant.  Also check on any liability issues with your insurance company if they will be driving on your behalf.

Once you get past a few small setup hassles, you’ll love this.

3. Your email.

How much of your email could be handled by one of your employees?  Set up separate emails by function and not by people so that your employees can take over more of this ever-growing task.  Anything that you respond to the same way over and over again can be drafted in a procedure.   Employees or a virtual administrative assistant can be trained on what to send to whom.

4. Training employees.

Once you get one employee trained, that employee may be able to train additional hires, freeing you up from having to do so.  Well-written procedures will go a long way to reduce training time, and even writing procedures can be delegated to the right person.

5. Vendor research and purchase.

Need to find a hotel to host an event?  Or a webinar company?  Or a project management system?  All of these items require research to find good vendors, and as business owners, we may tend to do this ourselves when we can write up a few guidelines and give the task to a capable employee who would enjoy researching the topic and writing up some options for you to review.

6. Hiring.

Hiring can be one of the most time-consuming tasks of all.  I’m definitely not suggesting delegating the final decision on hiring, just the search process.  I’ve heard of business owners who delayed hiring because they froze at the sight of a 6-inch tall stack of resumes they had to go through.

It might pay to hire an agency to do the screening for you so that you are presented with only the finalists.

7. Bookkeeping.

Bookkeeping is also one of those time-consuming tasks, with two added challenges:  everywhere you turn, there are deadlines and regulations, plus it requires special skills that need updating frequently.  All of this screams to be delegated when possible.    
   
8. Sales.

When you first start your business, you are generally the only one selling.  To get it off the ground, you eventually need a team of people to help you sell your goods and services.  As your sales team gets better and better, you can delegate larger and larger sales opportunities to them.  Who knows, if you’re not natural at sales, you may have employees who are better at this than you.

9. Writing.

Writing can be extremely time-consuming for some people.  Great writing requires a long learning curve, so if writing is not a core skill for you, you may want to look around for someone you can delegate or outsource this task to.  This includes things like writing procedures, web sites, job descriptions, marketing copy, proposals, and even something as small as thank you notes.

10. Calendar scheduling.

All that back and forth phone tag, email tag, postponements, cancellations, and other scheduling challenges can be delegated to free you up for making even more appointments.

Your time is incredibly valuable, and the only way to make it more valuable is to accomplish increasingly valuable tasks that only you can do while delegating the tasks that other people can do.  As a general rule, anything that is not in your core skill set or core business is fair game for delegation.  If someone else can do it faster, then it’s fair game for delegation.

Think about what you’re spending a lot of time on (and possibly spinning your wheels at the same time).  This is a task that can possibly be delegated, so oyu can free up your time for more important things.

Are You in the Business of Pleasure?

You might not think you are in the business of pleasure, but we all are, to one degree or another.  If we don’t give our clients a great experience, they’re not likely to come back.  That’s why we can learn so much from the entertainment industry, even though we might not be in it directly.  

Pleasing Clients

From the day a prospect calls you, emails you, or enters your shop, what do they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell?  Is it pleasant?

• In a movie theater, the smell of popcorn is tempting as you take your comfortable seat and watch previews, engaging you while you wait for the start of the movie.
• In a spa, you are treated to snacks and drinks in a comfortable robe while you wait for your session.
• In a restaurant, you are served drinks, music, and appetizers while you enjoy the company of your friends and family.

There’s no reason your customer experience couldn’t be as enjoyable, even if you are a dentist, a doctor, a lawyer, or a professional that’s associated with a somewhat unpleasant service.

Your Company Experience in Surround Sound

The first step you can take to enhancing your prospects’ or clients’ experiences is to map out all of the interaction points they have with you.  Your list could look like this:

• Website
• Phone call
• Office appointment
• Email
• Billing

Or this:

• Walk-in to store
• Employee greeting and interaction
• Sales at register
• Charge on credit card statement
• Thank you note

Make a chart like the one below for each touch point and fill in what you think your customer may experience with you at each point.  It’s perfectly OK to have some that won’t apply; I don’t know of any technology that will get your email to smell!

Click to enlarge

As you review your chart, are there any areas in which you could improve?  The nice thing about charting it out is that it organizes it for you so that any weaknesses or strengths pop right out.  


Where you have touch points with limited sensory impact such as email, phone, and billing, it is important to make the most of the senses you do have access to since they will be amplified.

If you feel like you cannot be impartial or simply don’t know what your customer experiences, you can hire a mystery shopper to provide an objective report of your customer experience.  

A Movie with Great Reviews

Your client already has a movie going on in their mind about what it will be like to do business with you.  Your job is to impress them with an experience they won’t forget, and you can do it in any situation, no matter what business you’re in.

Examples:

• Dentists:  One of the worst parts of going to the dentist is hearing the sound of the drill.  Pass out iPods and headphones with a choice of music styles to drown out the unpleasantness.

• Restaurant owners: If your customers have to wait for a table, hire a mime, clown, or performer that can keep them occupied and make the wait time go fast.

• Plumbers:  Leave behind a clean house and scented oils for the kitchens and bathrooms.

• Retail shop owners:  Heat up a pinch of cinnamon in your microwave to have the whole store smelling like an apple pie or some scent that coordinates with your merchandise.  

If your clients call you by phone rather than see you in person, you can script a pleasant greeting for your employees to memorize.  For clients on hold, give them something memorable to listen to such as a poem, jokes, or unusual music.  Even with email, you can create a great signature line that appeals to your clients, and of course, craft a message full of gratitude and compliments.

When you can wrap an excellent experience around the products and services you sell to customers, your word-of-mouth will spread, saving you time and money.  Think of what will work in your industry, and give your ideas a try.

Life Beyond the Profit & Loss Statement – Do You Know Your Lifestyle Ratios?

Each month, you may anxiously await the reports that provide the numbers that help you manage your business.  Revenue, net income, total expenses, and payroll costs are just a few of the items that you may be monitoring on your profit and loss statement.  Those numbers will help you meet and improve your business goals, but the question is, what numbers are you using to determine if you are meeting your life goals?   

It might be fun to come up with a few lifestyle ratios to help you measure and move toward your personal goals.  Here are a few for your consideration:
Passive vs. Active Income

If you’d like to work less as time goes by, then you’ll want to create your passive vs. active income ratio.  Make a list of all of your sources of income (not just business) in a spreadsheet.  You might have interest income, rental income, and investment income along with your business income or salary.

Then write down how many hours you spend working to earn each type of income.  For interest income, it is likely to be very little.  Investment income will only include the time you take selecting your investments and managing your portfolio. If you are active in your business, this will be the lion’s share.

Income is passive if you spend almost no time earning it.  Income is active if you spend time earning it.  (These definitions correlate to your time spent, not the IRS definitions.) Put the income in the appropriate column, passive or active.  You can allocate if necessary.

In the example below, this person is well on their way to retiring.  They also might question why they are spending so many hours working so hard for a fraction of their monthly income!

Click to enlarge

The “aha” comes when you see the numbers.  The numbers often drive people to action.  You might decide to be more intentional about moving your income to passive sources so you can do the things you want to do.  

Leveraged vs. Unleveraged Revenue

Leveraging your business revenue is a way to work less while making more money.

Measuring leverage is business-specific.  Examples of revenue that are not leveraged include seeing clients one at a time and selling hours-for-dollars services without a staff.  Revenues that are partially leveraged include group programs such as classes and events like webinars and conferences as well as hourly consulting that your staff performs with your limited oversight.  And revenue that is fully leveraged includes product sales.  Once the product is developed, it takes little incremental time to sell (unless you’re in retail).

Here’s an example, assuming this business owner has a staff of five people.  Both hourly consulting and training classes are partially leveraged because the business owner spends time teaching, consulting, and supervising.

Click to enlarge

If your revenue streams are flexible, you can work on moving more of your business income over to the leveraged side.  To create more leverage in the example business, the owner could sell or develop more products, hire another teacher, hire an additional consultant, and/or hire someone to review the consulting work of the employees.  

Days Off vs. Days Worked

This ratio measures how much time we are able to spend away from the office.  It’s simple to compute, and you can estimate it if you don’t track your time.

Assuming a 5-day work week, there are about 250 working days in a year, not including about 10 holidays.  Estimate the numbers of days you were off, and divide by 250.  For example, if you took 5 1-week vacations from work last year, that would be 25 days, resulting in 10%.  This assumes you worked the rest of the year.

Your Lifestyle Goals

What’s on your “bucket list?” (This is a list of things you want to do in your lifetime before you die.)  Figure out the metric that will get you thinking about doing your dreams sooner rather than later.

You can have fun with metrics and ratios in and out of your business.  Here are some more ideas to think about:

• The number of customers you have that really fit your ideal client and how many more you need to go.
• How many countries (or states) you want to visit each year vs. how many you’ve already visited.
• How many volunteer hours or dollars you spend vs. how much more you like to.

When you put your goals into numbers and on paper, they seem more real and achievable.  You can get an “aha” just by computing these ratios.

The Power of Permission

What have you been wanting to do in your business for a really long time?  Perhaps you’ve been wanting to raise your prices.  Maybe you want to hire an assistant or another team member but haven’t gotten around to it.  Or maybe you want to work less and focus on personal time, but you haven’t taken action for one reason or another.  

Ask yourself what project you’ve been thinking about forever but haven’t taken action on.  We all have a wish list.  The question is, why are we waiting?

What causes us to put these important, yet inconvenient or uncomfortable items on the back burner?  In many cases, there’s a really simple answer.  Here are three questions you can ask yourself if you would like to get unstuck and move forward with your list of items.

1. What’s it costing me to delay this decision?  In six months, will I be better off or worse off having done nothing?  This helps you bring a sense of urgency to an item.

2. Do I simply need to give myself permission?  It’s surprising how this simple revelation can create the shift you need to gain momentum.  Going deeper, this can be a deservability issue, i.e., do I deserve to charge a higher fee?  If that’s the case, working on your confidence is something that will help you get unstuck.

3. Am I getting stuck because I don’t feel like I have the skills, or is it possibly a mindset issue?  Making the distinction between the need to build skills and the need to work on your mindset can help you determine the next logical step to take.  Often, however, it can be both, and in that case, start by parsing out the skills you feel like you need.  When you do that, often the mindset will take care of itself.

By habit, we wait for other people’s approvals since we’ve done this all our lives.  We’re used to getting the approvals of teachers, parents, professors, bosses, spouses, and relatives, but when we’re in business for ourselves, we don’t need to ask anyone!

Is there something you’ve been delaying that you need to give yourself permission for?

• Giving your business or yourself a long-wanted gift?
• Starting a long-awaited project?
• Hiring someone or making a staffing change?
• Launching a new product?
• Raising prices?
• Making a purchase?
• Working less?
• Taking your business to the next level?

If there is, ask yourself what you’re waiting for.  The power of permission might just set you free.

12 Low-Cost Employee Perks for Fun & High Performance

It’s always a good idea to help employees stay motivated, and there are many things you can do besides the traditional cash bonus.  Here are twelve ideas that cost little yet go a long way with employees, contractors, and other business associates.

1. Compressed workweek.

Employees love getting Friday afternoon off, or even a full day a week.  Providing weekday time off cuts absenteeism since the employee has a window to run errands that need to be done during business hours.

2. Social activities.

Create social events that become a tradition in your company.  The employees will look forward to them.  If you’re not sure what to do, consider the hobbies of your employees, plan an event based on a holiday or anniversary, or simply have a meal out.

A business owner who offers training classes can have movie showings in their training rooms complete with popcorn on Wednesday evenings.  The cost of the movie and popcorn is minimal compared to the fun everyone will have.

3. Telecommute part-time.

If possible, consider allowing employees to work from home one day a week.  They love the flexibility, often get more done without constant interruptions, and save road time.

4. Customized recognition.

Every employee likes to be recognized for a job well done, but each may differ in exactly how the recognition is expressed.  Instead of guessing, ask at the time the employee is onboarded whether they prefer gift certificates, time off, sports event tickets, cash, or public recognition.

5. Bring a child to work.

Last-minute emergencies can come up regarding child care, and the question is whether the employer can help out.  Create a policy around when employees can bring little ones to work.  You might also want to have a list of childcare and/or eldercare referral services handy.

6. Education.

Education is always a great perk.  Here are some ideas along those lines:
• Cross-train employees on job duties other employees do so you have a deeper bench of knowledge to pull from.  
• Consider reimbursing for professional memberships or allowing employees to attend professional association events.
• Bring in an instructor who can teach self-defense.
• Have on-site fitness yoga classes.
• Encourage employees whose first language is not English to take English as a second language or accent reduction classes.
• Send employees to learn a foreign language.
• Bring in a teacher for CPR and first aid training.

7. Stress reduction.

Who isn’t stressed out?  Treat employees to a massage, or bring in an instructor who can teach stress-reduction techniques like meditation.

8. Casual dress.

On days with no client appointments or perhaps every Friday, offer a casual dress day.  It cuts down on dry cleaning, and employees are more relaxed.

9. Errand concierge services.

Cut down on absenteeism and long lunch hours by bringing the errands to the employees.  I suspect local businesses would love the business.  Find a nearby dry cleaner that can pick up onsite and maybe even throw in a discount.  Do the same for car wash services, take-home meals from a caterer or local restaurant, prescription refills, postal services, banking, and more.

10. Transportation.

Offer a subsidy for carpooling, public transit subsidy, or purchasing a hybrid car.

11. Discounts on products and services.

Provide discounts on your services or merchandise for employees.

12. Time off.

Offer a creative twist to holiday pay.  Instead of the standard holidays, allow employees to have their birthday or job anniversary as paid time off.  Consider also providing pay while philanthropic employees volunteer their time and talents to nonprofits.

Try one or more of these twelve employee perks to rev up the motivation on your team.

Are You Fully Supported in Your Business?

Whether we run a large company with dozens of employees or run our own solo business, we rely on a support team of vendors, customers, employees, contractors, and other associates that help us carry out our business goals.  Here’s a fun exercise to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your business support team and how you can increase and strengthen the support you have. 

Take out a blank sheet of paper, and draw a small circle in the middle.  Write your name in the circle.  This represents you. 

Draw a little larger circle next to your circle.  Write your employees’ names and major functions in this circle.  Draw a similar circle for contractors’ names and functions.   If you have partners and/or affiliates, include them in a big circle. 

Draw a small circle for your five largest clients, and write their names in the circles.  Draw another small circle for your five largest vendors, and write their names in the circles. 

Draw one more circle for your business mentors and coaches, and write their names inside the circle.  If you have any more major groups related to your business, draw them now. 

These circles represent your business and all of the people you rely on to get your job done. 

Now, think about what groups you belong to that relate indirectly to your business.  It could be a professional association, a licensing agency, or a networking group.   Make large circles for each of the groups you feel connected to, and write some of the key names you know that are part of each of the groups. 

Add a few more circles in the same way if you have more business associates to list or other groups that you didn’t add above.  If you want to, you can also include your personal support team:  the nanny, cook, gardener, esthetician, wardrobe consultant, makeup artist, nail artist, hair stylist, nutritionist, personal workout trainer, butler, chauffeur, masseuse, travel agent, and water boy.  Okay, maybe listing the water boy is getting a little carried away.  

The sheet should now represent all of the important people in your business that support you in one way or another.  It’s a lot, isn’t it?    

Now is where the aha’s come in:

·      Take a look at your to do list and see if there are holes in your team that you need to fill.  Are there job openings or are you ready to bring in more support?  Mark the openings or potential openings with a yellow highlighter. 

·      With a green highlighter, mark the people who are most positive and supportive to you.  You may want to let them know how much you appreciate them if it’s been a while.

·      With a red highlighter, mark anyone who is costing you more than supporting you.  It may be time for a change in team members.

·      With a purple highlighter, list the five people you most look up to and can count on for great advice.  These people should either have expert advice or be ahead of you in business.  

We’ll stop here, but you can continue selecting colors to evaluate the relationship of the people in your circles. 

When you take a look at your social circles, what do you notice?

•       Where are you fully supported?
•       Where could you use more help?
•       Where do you need to make some replacements?
•       What else do you notice about your business network? 

Make a list of action items you can do to strengthen your business support network. 

This is a great exercise to allow you to consciously evaluate and improve the ever-important support system in your business.  When you have a great team, you can accomplish so much!

Do You Know the Lifetime Value of Your Client?

How much is the average client worth to your business?  Not just per project or even per year, but for the lifetime of your business.  Calculating the lifetime value of a client is an eye-opening exercise I recommend to every small business owner. 

Repeat business

Let’s take several examples.  A client who eats a $15 lunch at your restaurant every Monday is worth $780 for one year and $2,340 for three years.  It really adds up, doesn’t it? 

A personal services business, such as a chiropractor, massage therapist, manicurist, or hair stylist has a similar business model where hopefully they can attract repeat clients.  A client who gets a $20 manicure once every two weeks is worth $520 per year and $2,600 in five years, and that does not include the tips.  Grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, and office supply stores are just a few industries with similar models.     

Large purchase with add-ons

Some businesses rely on a larger but less frequent purchase than some of the industries listed above.  This may include furniture stores, airlines, and computer sales.  Many of these larger purchases can be increased by adding service contracts, delivery charges, financing charges, and by selling more items. 

Some businesses will benefit from becoming aware of the lifetime value of their vendors, partners, and employees.  For example, contractors are often reliant on their subcontractors to deliver great services so they can complete the construction projects.  Landscaping firms make great partners with nurseries and bring them much business.  And employees who sell and close large contracts can have a lifetime value to your business of millions in some cases.  

Referrals

One way all businesses can increase the lifetime value of a customer is by counting the amount of referrals the customer sends you.  Let’s say Marni spent $500 with you. She was so impressed with you that she sent three clients your way.  They each bought $1,000.  Marni is now worth seven times what she originally purchased from you:  $3,500.  When each of these new clients refer more people and buy more in subsequent years, Marni’s value to your business gets bigger. 

This might just have you treating your clients like Marni with a lot more respect!

Multiple service lines

The more products and services you offer, the greater your opportunities for increasing the lifetime value of your customers.   Let’s say Katie buys a $500 product from you in January.  In May, she comes back and wants the $2000 service you talked about in a newsletter you sent her.  She’s so happy she refers two clients to you that buy $1,000 apiece.  What can start out as a $500 client has now morphed into a $4,500 client and can easily mushroom into a five-figure client by the end of the year.  I’m sure it’s happened to you over and over again. 

Take some time next week to create a spreadsheet that shows you the lifetime value of your clients.    I'll think you'll be pleasantly surprised to see how valuable your current clients really are.  If you need help with the calculations, let us know.  We’re here to help.  

Are You Working on All the Wrong Things?

Have you ever gone through your list of things to do and looked for the easiest thing to knock out first? Have you ever been moody when you’ve looked through your tasks and said to yourself, “I don’t feel like doing that one, that one, or that one?” Do you have some items on your to do list that have been there for a while (like months)?

If so, you’re not alone. However, you may be working on all the wrong things. One of the top time management secrets that smart business owners implement is to prioritize their tasks in a very special way: by the highest payback, and not the biggest sense of urgency. The hard truth is we may not be able to get to every single thing we want to do, especially those of us who are creative business owners who have an idea every minute!

You may have a lot of them captured on your to do list, and some may still be swimming around in your head. One of the ways that you can choose your opportunities and slim down that ever-growing to do list is to understand the concept of return on investment. For each task, how much money could it bring you if you did it?

Some of the items that are not urgent but incredibly profitable are often the items we’re too exhausted to do once we complete all the required client and compliance work we need to do. The successful business owner will make time for those profitable but not urgent activities. In fact, they will do them first thing in the morning before checking their email or returning calls.

Here’s an exercise to try on your own to-do list. Assign a dollar value to each task on your list in terms of revenue potential or cost savings. If you got to that task, how much could it save you or make you? Then the fun starts.

Sort your to-do list by this new dollar value column you just added. Sort the highest payback tasks to the top and the lowest payback tasks on bottom. What’s jumping out at you on the top of your list that you’re not getting to? Can you find a time on your calendar to do it this week?

When we step back, become more proactive about insisting that we get a return on our time for what we’re doing, we can make a really huge difference in our bottom line. It’s as simple as assigning some values to the tasks on our to-do list, and then re-sorting them by that value. 

However you identify them, the goal is to bring to our attention the highest potential revenue opportunities so we can act on them. Even if you only get to one more per week than you are currently doing, you’ve made wonderful progress. It may take some discipline to resist tackling the urgent tasks. When we accomplish our urgent tasks, we feel needed. We love rushing to the rescue of clients that need us.

When we attempt our high-dollar tasks, it may be a little uncomfortable, even scary. So that’s why we avoid them. Prioritizing is something we all have to do, since we live in a world that competes for our limited time. Prioritizing by highest dollar return on investment is something the most successful business owners do, even if it feels a little uncomfortable in the process.

When we do the serious work of choosing what is really going to move our business forward, we will see the changes in our revenue. If we can help you with any of your high-payback tasks, let us know.

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4 Tips to Rev Up Your Referrals

The least expensive way for just about any business to get new business is through referrals. Yet many business owners simply wait for referrals to show up while shelling out big marketing dollars on other channels. One opportunity that many businesses have, then, is to become more proactive about getting referrals. The question is how to do that most effectively, and here are four tips for your consideration.

1. Spread the word.

Make sure all your clients know three things:

1. You are taking new business.
2. How to describe what you do.
3. What type of client you work best with.

It’s not enough to simply say, “We’re looking for more work.” Everyone is so busy that when you make a request that is too generic, it gets lost. Instead, be clear about what you want:

“Hi Ms. Client. I just wanted to let you know we are taking new customers. An ideal customer for us is a retail shop that has been in business in Phoenix for about five years. Do you know anybody like that who needs temporary staffing? We’d appreciate it if you let them know about us.”

You can get the word out through a simple email or a face-to-face conversation. I’ve also seen a line or two added to the signature portion of an email, on invoices, on feedback forms, in surveys, and more.

2. Make it routine.

At some point in your customer workflow process, create a step that clearly asks for referrals. It might be at the beginning or end of a project or sale, or after 30 days of working with a new client. The key is to make it routine. Here are some examples:

a. Ask the client for two referrals as part of the business contract. Let them know it’s a standard procedure. A dentist I know asks for three referrals as part of being a client of his. His clients know up front that providing referrals is part of the relationship.

b. Ask the client to provide a personally-written testimonial letter to send to five other leaders (peers) in the same industry, assuming you do a good job, of course.

c. Ask for referrals at the end of the engagement. Make this a routine, just like getting out the final invoice.

3. Provide incentives.

Let’s take a lesson from my auto mechanic, who handed me several referral cards when I offered to post a testimonial for him on a list I am part of. The referral card is a card that the referral source puts their name on and gives to a prospect. The prospect cashes it in and gets a discounted introductory service. The referrer gets a discount on their next visit. It’s common in many industries, and something similar may work in your industry too. Be creative and think about how you might adapt something like this to your company.

4. Show gratitude.

Be sure to immediately thank your customers and other individuals who refer business to you. (It’s surprising how often this is overlooked: I once sent $100,000 of business to someone who never acknowledged it.)

Send your referral sources a nice card or letter with every referral. If they are a significant source of business for you, periodically treat them to a country club lunch, send them a gift certificate, or make a donation in their name to a favorite charity.

When you can boost your referrals, your revenue will go up while your marketing costs stay low. Try these four tips to rev up your referrals in your business.

8 Smart Steps to Fiscal Responsibility

As our businesses grow and our schedules fill with serving clients, it’s easy to overlook how our personal financial needs might have changed. Here are eight best-practice tips of millionaire business owners and how they personally protect their wealth.

1. Move your money from banks to brokerage accounts.

Instead of having their money tied up at banks, most affluent individuals hold brokerage accounts at investment companies. The advantage is that you can more easily invest excess cash in fairly low-risk interest- or dividend-bearing investments such as bonds. I’ve even seen multi-millionaire use their brokerage accounts as checking accounts.

The bottom line is your money should always be working for you. Make sure you don’t have huge amounts of cash lying around earning no interest. It’s harder these days to get a good interest rate, but not impossible, and every little bit helps.

2. Protect yourself with insurance.

I suspect everyone reading this has the requisite auto and homeowner’s insurance. The question is, are you fully covered for every contingency that could happen, and if not, are you willing to shoulder the risk? Just a few of the types of policies to consider include:

1. Personal: home, auto, health, disability, dental, life, umbrella, and many more.
2. Business: property and casualty, business services liability, director’s and officer’s liability, worker’s compensation, business interruption, auto, non-owned auto if you have employees driving for you using their own cars, health insurance for workers, life insurance for officers, and many more.

I recommend meeting with an insurance professional who can perform a risk audit to make sure you are aware of any coverage holes, especially if your business has grown significantly or your needs have changed.

3. Keep more of what you make.

There’s nothing wrong with paying the least amount of taxes that are legally required. The fourth quarter is when to make most of your tax-saving moves, so don’t wait until March or April when it could be too late.

Make sure you have a great tax adviser, and reach out to them at least once a quarter for ideas on how to keep more of what you make.

4. Hire slow, fire fast.

You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s more important than ever. It’s a good idea to run extensive background checks on all new hires (and current employees as well if you haven’t done so). A criminal background check is essential, and I’d recommend running employment verification, social security number match, education verification, and social media search (one of my most recent customer service applicants was tweeting lots of four-letter words with a known gang leader).

If your state laws allow it, I recommend running a credit check too. Risk of fraud becomes real when three things are present: 1- opportunity due to poor cash controls (which is more common in small businesses), 2- dire need, which has grown exponentially lately as life savings have been depleted and borrowing has increased, and 3- rationalization in the employee’s mind. You can really only control number one, but with a credit check and where it’s allowed by law, you can see if number two is present. Be careful, though; in many states, it’s illegal to make hiring decisions based on credit checks if the person won’t directly be handling money.

5. Create a bright future.

Pay your future self out of the earnings you make today. Set up a retirement plan so that you can maximize deductions and ensure a comfortable future for yourself.

6. Make it easy on your heirs.

It’s never a good time to think about what will happen after you’re gone. But especially if you run a business, you’ll want to not only have a succession plan in place, you’ll want to make sure someone knows enough about your operations to be able to slip in to do an orderly shutdown, a sale, or continue operations. Something as simple as not knowing your passwords and pins or where all of your accounts or contracts are can wreak havoc on your grieving loved ones, not to mention business operations.

If your personal will is not up to date and your circumstances have changed, then it’s time to revisit documents such as your medical instructions, organ donation wishes, burial preferences, and the like. Gruesome, yes. But imagine these two scenarios: 1- your grieving family and they don’t have a clue where anything is, what to do next, what you wanted, and the confusion that exacerbates the grief, and scenario 2- your grieving family who has a clear checklist of where everything is, who to call for help, what to do next, and exactly what your wishes were in these emotional times. Which one would you wish on your loved ones?

7. Pay attention to your numbers.

I hear it over and over again: the people who become millionaires are clearly on top of their operational numbers. They know their business by the numbers, inside and out.

A good accountant can help you develop the systems and reports you need to stay close to your numbers like the millionaires do. Let us know how we can help you with this.

8. Pay it forward.

When you’ve been successful, you can decide if you want to support causes that are near to your heart. This might mean helping people in need that you can relate to, volunteering, or simply providing a big tip to wait staff. People who are highly successful often create their own foundations and nonprofit organizations so that they can become champions of causes they believe strongly about.

How did you measure up on the eight tips to fiscal responsibility? If you know you have some work to do, mark it on your calendar, break it down into small manageable steps, and get started on building or protecting your financial prosperity. If we can help in any way, please feel free to call us.