Small Business News

May 14, 2015 by

62227730To start a business, regardless of where you live, you have to considered the many advantages a particular state or city has on the success of your business. Paperwork and taxes are too cumbersome for many small business owners to consider, so the less they have to deal with those issues the better. The attraction of many cities for the small business owner is the possibility to finding funding, less taxes and paperwork.

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Small-Business Owners Gained Confidence in April

WASHINGTON — Small-business owners in the United States gained confidence in April and were surprisingly bullish about capital expenditure plans, further supporting views that economic growth is rebounding after a dismal first quarter.

The Labor Department also reported on Tuesday that job openings fell in March. The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday that its Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.7 points to 96.9 last month. It was the largest gain since December.

Small businesses historically have accounted for half of private gross domestic product. The economy is clawing back after being hit by a mix of bad weather, disruptions at ports, a strong dollar and deep spending cuts by energy companies.Data on employment and consumer sentiment have suggested a pickup in growth momentum at the start of the second quarter, but the dollar and lower oil prices continue to weigh on manufacturing.

San Francisco Chamber CEO Applauds Small-Business Rebels

Small businesses take center stage in San Francisco next week, with an emphasis on disruptive technology and businesses that have butted heads with the status quo.

Uber and Airbnb sprang up in this city, beginning as startups testing new, even quirky business models. They quickly transformed into global companies.

Chamber of Commerce President Bob Linscheid says there are lessons to be learned from businesses — startups or established companies — that challenge the norm.

“That lesson is that you must constantly innovate,” he says. “Our city is a haven for innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The Best And Worst Cities For Small Business Employees

Last month, Forbes reported on the best cities for starting a business this year, and much attention is frequently given to the locations working the hardest to attract founders who’ll create coveted jobs. But which cities are the most hospitable to those who hold those positions?

To determine the best and worst cities for small business employees, personal finance site WalletHub looked at 100 of the country’s largest metro areas, evaluating each against 11 metrics that examine the small business climate as well as the larger economic environment.

As a means of measuring the health of the small business scene in each city, WalletHub considered the number of business with less than 250 employees per every 1,000 residents, small business job growth, diversity of industries, percentage of small businesses offering health insurance to employees and employee earnings adjusted for cost of living.

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How To Avoid Business Mistakes

April 30, 2015 by

business (2)Retirement plans for the small business owner is probably one of the most important issues they face every year. Retirement accounts are  not something small business owners offer their employees, but even for themselves is not something that is widespread nor considered at all. Hiring an outside firm to oversee those financial aspects for the business is costly, and many small businesses cannot afford such an expense. Does your business need a loan? Are you making too many mistakes in your business and don’t know what to do? Do you need to set up a retirement account and don’t have any information?Follow the links below for more information about these topics.

Why online lending will take off with small business owners

At a minimum, banks are perfect partners in the new game.

Earlier this month, the momentum behind the online lending industry was in full view at LendIt—an industry gathering that didn’t exist four years ago, but grew from about 700 attendees last year to more than 2,500 this year. What was clear is that it’s no longer a question of whether these disruptors will change the game in small business lending, but how quickly.

In fact, in his remarks at LendIt attendees in New York City, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted that online lenders could eventually capture upwards of 70% of the small business lending market. That may be an overly optimistic prediction, but one thing is clear online lending is a welcome innovation in the small business sector.

Small Business Retirement Plans in the Hands of Lobbyists

 Financial advisers will be lobbying Congress this week on 401(k) plans for employees of small businesses.

The 401(k) accounts many rely on now are complex, require an outside administrator, and as a result are not cost-effective for some small businesses to set up for their workers.

Tom Iorio, an Edward Jones financial adviser in Rantoul, Ill., says they’re lobbying for a program for small companies.

“There are several bills out there in Congress that are trying to incentive small businesses to more easily get into what we think of as the traditional 401(k) market, like a small 401(k) or a ‘simple 401(k)’ is really the term that they’re using,” he says.

In a 401(k) program, employees may make tax-free contributions and select their investments within a plan that is administered on behalf of the employer. Employers also can contribute to employees’ accounts.

Avoiding Small Business Blunders

Entrepreneur Reva Minkoff aims to stop small businesses from making the same mistakes over and over.

Common mistakes account for too many small businesses wasting an average of 25 percent of their pay-per-click advertising budget each month. After identifying the same basic mistakes in 95 percent of the accounts she consulted on, Reva Minkoff started the award winning-website DigitalGroundUp in the summer of 2012 to train small business advertisers and over 300 students in successful digital marketing through short, hands-on online courses.

The company has since collaborated with major companies such as Facebook, while Minkoff herself wasinvited to the White House to live tweet the arrival ceremony of new British Prime Minister David Cameron. I recently interviewed Minkoff by email.

What are the worst mistakes small businesses make in advertising?

Not tracking their results. It drives me nuts when companies don’t know what’s happening on their website, what the results of their marketing are and how both are factoring into their bottom line. If they’re spending money on something, they should know what they’re getting out of it, and if they don’t, their agencies and developers should be working with them to help get them that information.

What are the most common pieces of advice you give students?

I remind students to focus on the overall concepts and not the interfaces. The fundamental digital marketing concepts haven’t changed from day one. As long as students understand them, they’ll be able to adjust to any other changes that may come their way and make the right decisions when faced with a new concept.

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Minority Owned Businesses and Gov. Kasich’s Budget

April 23, 2015 by

54642287Minority owned businesses have increased over recent years, and the US government knows the important growth these businesses provide to their local economies, and the nation’s economy  overall.  The increased in minority owned businesses have more than double compared to those of non-minorities nationally, and the City of Cincinnati, Ohio is now looking into promoting the inclusion of minority owned businesses for the State.  To read more about this and other topics follow the links below.

Ohio House Markedly Improves On Gov. Kasich’s Budget Plan

Last week, Ohio House leadership introduced a substitute bill to Governor Kasich’s proposed budget that would make many notable improvements to the tax plan. This is good news, because the proposed tax plan that came from the Kasich administration was deeply in conflict with itself.

The central element of the governor’s proposal was to reduce the individual income tax, which Kasich argues has “sucked the vitality out of this state.” The internal conflict, however, came from the revenue offsets the governor chose, which would have placed greater hindrances on, well, economic vitality. When first details emerged, I wrote on Forbes that the governor’s plan may be a tax cut overall, but that doesn’t make it good policy.

The governor’s proposed hikes included an increase in the state’s unique Commercial Activity Tax (arguably the most distortive tax in Ohio’s code), a hike to cigarette taxes, new taxes on electronic vapor cigarettes, hikes in the severance tax, and a hike to the sales tax. When done correctly, tax swaps can reduce highly harmful taxes while offsetting revenue losses by leaning on less distortive taxes. The Kasich proposal, by contrast, leaned on economically distortive, nontransparent taxes to make the ledger balance.

Here’s how Cincinnati is pushing for minority-business inclusion (Video)

Sorry, small business: Middle-market companies create most net new jobs

Companies with revenue between $10 million and $1 billion created 2.1 million out of the net 2.3 million new jobs added over the past seven years, according to an American Express/Dun & Bradstreet analysis.

Maybe it’s time for politicians to drop their rhetoric about small businesses creating most of America’s new jobs — since 2008, it’s actually been middle-market companies that have driven job growth.

That’s according to a new analysis from American Express and Dun & Bradstreet. It found that middle-market companies — businesses with revenue between $10 million and $1 billion — created 2.1 million of the 2.3 million net new jobs added over the past seven years.

Middle-market companies “have been the unsung heroes of employment growth,” said Susan Sobbott, president of global corporate payments for American Express.

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Are You Ready for Growth?

April 15, 2015 by

64002400Responsible parents teach children how to manage and mitigate risk.  One of the classic childhood lessons is how to cross the street safely.  We are taught to Stop, Look (both ways) and Listen before crossing.  It’s an important skill for both children and adults to acquire.

A responsible business owner needs to stop, look and listen when he is thinking of expanding his company.  Growth is a high risk area, which involves a multitude of new challenges.  It is up to him to make sure he understands and is ready to meet them, because many successful businesses fail when they attempt to go to the next level. 

There are a variety of reasons for why they fail.  The biggest one is the lack of preparedness by the owner, who attempts to grow without giving thoughtful consideration to the changes he needs to make to be successful.  He falsely believes that what he did in the past will support future success.  Unfortunately, it rarely does. 

One of the reasons that past success is not a good indicator of future success is that many do not understand the dynamic of growth.  He thinks that because he was able to grow from a start up to a $2 million company that the same skill set will continue to be usable for a $4 million one.

However, as a business grows it demands different requirements from the owner. A few of these requirements include: learning to read more complicated financials, keeping up on increased tax liabilities and government regulations, understanding additional human resource requirements, finding and retaining good employees, developing an operational knowledge of profit and loss, and knowing how and when to delegate. 

The duties and functions of management change with growth.  If an owner does not keep up with these demands he will start to lose control.  When the business is growing, he must grow too.  Many a business has become a victim of its own success because he was unable learn new behaviors and skills.  He did not stop, look and listen.

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Employee Praise and Last Minute Tax Tips

April 7, 2015 by

59948705Google has been for a while now considered one of the best places to work for.  Thousands of new applications are received daily for employment at Google, and even a movie has been made about Google being the place to be.  Taken those points into account, one has to consider whether Google is actually doing things right.  According to research done by The Gallup Organization, they discovered that for a place to be considered a great place to work, one of the four characteristics they had to have was recognizing and praising employees for doing good work.  They stated that; “Praise and recognition are essential building blocks of  a great workplace.”

To read more about this topic follow this link. To read more about tax tips, follow the links below.

Last Minute Tax Advice for the Self-Employed

Every tax paying American knows April 15 is the deadline to file your federal income tax return, but do you know about this year’s tax code changes that can have a big effect on your 2014 tax return and your wallet? As the American public, including millions of self-employed business owners, race to meet the April deadline, there are some important changes to the tax code to keep in mind that could help ensure your return is filed accurately – and with the greatest possible financial benefit.

 Health Care Penalty:

The biggest change is the new health-care penalty, if you chose to not to obtain qualified health-care coverage. As part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), everyone is required to sign up for health-care coverage, or face a penalty that increases each year for non-compliance.

5 Tax Breaks Overlooked By Small Business Owners

For the small business owner, tax season can be stressful, and the prospect of shelling out a load of money to the government is not exciting. That’s why small business owners love tax benefits. Here are 5 tax benefits that are often overlooked by small business owners that can save your business money.

Please consult your tax professional before following any of the suggestions below. If you do your taxes yourself, there is a resource which compares the online offerings of TurboTax, TaxAct, and HR Block.

1. Have Lunch Meetings  
If you often buy lunch (eat-in or take-out) while you are working, you might be able to deduct 50% of meal expenses. If you and your business partners or employees have meetings, consider having meetings over lunch.
As long as the dining expenses are reasonable, you are allowed to deduct 50% of meal costs when eating with business partners and employees while conducting business operations. If you buy lunch every day and spend around $8, you can deduct $4. If you do the math, that amounts to over $1000 a year in claimable deductions ($4/day x 5 days x 52 weeks).

Getting coverage Small-business owners seek affordable health care options for workers

The days when Annapolis’ Prographics offered all of its employees health insurance may have ended.The graphics firm’s owners are considering their options as they try to get 2015 coverage for their staff of six by next week’s deadline.

Costs have increased so much, they said, that it might be cheaper for employees to get their own insurance through Maryland’s exchange, rather than doing so through the company.For weeks, Chris Larson and his employees have been examining coverage options that last year came with a $300 monthly premium but would go up to$700 in 2015.
The same employees could qualify for $344 premiums by getting individual coverage through the exchange.”We’re sort of being forced to look at other options,” said Larson, who runs the firm with his wife, Carol. “We have to look at where everybody falls and make the decisions of cost savings.”
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