Small Business Tax Cuts

February 18, 2015 by

64002400The tax reduction small business owners are taking advantage this year is the 75% reduction on the first 250,000 in income. The new tax cuts the governor of Ohio is proposing may seem like a good deal to many small businesses, until those businesses can see, the tax cuts will be minimal. For more news about small business news and what is happening in Ohio, follow the links below.

Meet Congress’s new small business leaders

Rep. Steve Chabot can empathize with small business owners. Before launching his political career – and between his two stints in Congress – the Ohio Republican and seasoned attorney owned and ran his own law practice in Cincinnati.

“We were a small storefront law office, and we had to deal with all the things that come with running a business,” Chabot said in a recent interview on the Hill. “I have seen firsthand the challenges that are faced by small business folks.”

It’s that experience that lured Chabot onto the House Small Business Committee when he first arrived in Washington 1995. After 19 years on the panel (he lost a reelection bid in 2008 only to win back the seat two years later), Chabot last month took over as chairman. He replaces Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who stepped down in keeping with self-imposed term limits.

Tea Party’s Disastrous Tax Cut Experiment Comes To Ohio

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wants to mimic a tax cut experiment that has already brought fiscal calamity and public service cuts to a state 600 miles west of his.

Kasich describes his $696 million tax cut as a helping hand to small businesses. But the design of the cut would put the bulk of that benefit into the hands of just a few high-income business entities with a handful of employees while providing just a few hundred dollars each to the vast majority of the people who would benefit, according to an analysis by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. For nine out of every 10 companies that would benefit from the Kasich cut, the total yearly savings would be $364 or even less.

For the remaining 10 percent of companies affected, savings could be as high as $8,000 a year, a number that Kasich administration officials acknowledge is far too low to create even a single job per company. Instead of pitching the cut as a direct job creator, the officials are marketing it as an “every little bit helps” move for hardworking entrepreneurs.

How social media can make your small business go gangbusters

Social media is constantly being touted for its brand-building power, and rightly so. But many small businesses fail to reap the expected benefits from their investments of time and money in social media, largely because they haven’t fully grasped the unwritten rule of social media marketing: It’s not which tools you use, it’s how you use them that spells the difference between profitable performance and lackluster results.

Like professional marketers, successful small business owners target their social media activities for maximum impact. While their competitors are adrift in a sea of tweets and blog posts, savvy strategists focus and fine tune their social-media plays. Consider three social media campaigns that generated big results through careful targeting:

  1. When Denver-based Sword & Plough launched its business to recycle military surplus material into tote bags and related products, it had a bold idea and grassroots support, including a $6,500 award from Harvard’s Pitch for Change competition. The firm’s start-up financing strategy focused on building its network of contacts via social media as the springboard for a Kickstarter campaign.
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Gov. Kasich’s Budget Proposal

February 3, 2015 by

business (6)Many of the states that are considered “small business friendly” are those states that do not have income tax. Gov. John Kasich tax reforms for Ohio and the proposed elimination on income tax from small business owners, is an attempt to help Ohioans share the wealth of the state. Among other proposed tax initiatives is increasing personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000. For more news about Gov. Kasich tax plans follow the links below.

John Kasich to propose eliminating income tax on most small businesses, boost exemptions for low-, middle-income Ohioans

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The budget proposal Gov. John Kasich will unveil Monday will include reforms that would eliminate state income tax on nearly all small businesses in Ohio and increase exemption levels for lower- and middle-income Ohioans.

Kasich revealed his plan in an appearance Thursday before a conference of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. He also used the event to highlight initiatives in his budget that will help to lift the poor out of poverty and make Ohio’s welfare programs operate more effectively.

His tax plans, touted as “a comprehensive plan for helping all Ohioans share in our state’s prosperity, call for:

  • Elimination of income tax from small businesses — pass through entities such as sole proprietorships and S-corp. companies that report income on the owners’ individual tax returns.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000 a year from $2,200 to $4,000 in 2015.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning $40,000 to $80,000 a year from $1,950 to $2,850.

Governor’s new budget to include the elimination of the state’s income tax for many small businesses

CLEVELAND – Cleveland’s West 25th Street is a large part of the city, no doubt, but it is a large part made up of small parts.

“Half of Cleveland’s jobs are in small businesses,” said Sam McNulty. The Market Garden Brewery founder should know—as a small business owner he is an employer and one who could benefit by Governor John Kasich’s budget proposal to be unveiled Monday.

The plan would eliminate the state income tax on small businesses with annual gross receipts of $2 million or less.

“It’s significant and instead of just sending this off to the state… we’ll be able to efficiently deliver those same dollars to the business, reinvest and again creating jobs,” said McNulty. “What this does is this gives all of us the ability to grow the city even more and really supercharge the renaissance we’re seeing.”

The tax cut would cost the state about $700 million over two years and the income tax exemption another $372 million, a fraction of Ohio’s current $60 billion-plus budget.

Big Tax Cuts For Small Businesses

CINCINNATI (Paula Toti) — Governor John Kasich officially released his new budget proposal on Monday. He says the state is doing better financially and it’s time for income tax cuts for everyone. Under the plan if you make less than $80,000 a year, you would see an increase in the personal exemption you can claim. Tax rates would also be cut under the Governor’s plan, with the top income tax rate under five percent (verses eight and a half). The part of the plan getting the most buzz is to eliminate state income taxes on small business. The tax break on small businesses would be big. However, what a lot of people don’t realize is there is currently a big break. In the 2014 tax year, 75 percent of the first 250 thousand in income is state income tax exempt. Kasich would increase that to 100 percent, and the bigger part may be that it would expand to any company with less than two million in gross receipts. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber says that’s 85 percent of its members. While it might not mean every small shop will lower prices, the chamber says it likely means more jobs and investing in the local economy.

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Small Business News

January 28, 2015 by

59350241There are many tax advantages that came into effect for this year for small business owners, and cutting more taxes is one the things Rep. Steve Chabot wants to accomplish now that he is Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Cutting taxes and regulations are a top priority for the Representative, and the small business community cannot fail to benefit from this agenda. Follow the links below for more news about small business.

Small business lending in Ohio shifts toward institutional investors

The biggest obstacle to opening a small business in Ohio is still financing, and Juanita Darden-Jones can tell you all about it.

Darden-Jones plans to open a coffee and wine shop in downtown Dayton called Third Perk this summer, which will mark two years since she first contacted CityWide Development Corp. about getting help raising the money for the equipment and renovations to open the shop.

“Small businesses are almost impossible to finance,” Darden-Jones said. “Banks are not very kind to us.”

The equipment for the coffee shop cost at least $30,000, and Darden-Jones expects to invest about $30,000 in renovations to the store. But that doesn’t include any coffee, food or wine inventory costs.

Small business lending in Ohio is becoming dominated by institutional investors as approval rates at big banks remain rather slim, and small bank approval rates are decreasing.

Big banks improved their small business lending approval rate to 18.5 percent by December 2014, up from 15.9 percent in January, but still lag behind the national rate of 21.1 percent, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.

Small business agenda: Target taxes, regulations

NEW YORK (AP) — Cutting regulations and taxes are on Rep. Steve Chabot’s must-do list for small businesses.

The Ohio Republican, who became chairman of the House Small Business Committee when Congress took office earlier this month, plans to continue the committee’s focus on how the government burdens small companies.

“If there’s one thing government can do for small business it’s to get the heck off their backs,” Chabot says. “We do over-regulate them. We do overtax them.”

PRIORITIES

Chabot plans to hold hearings to advocate for small businesses, as did his predecessor Sam Graves, R-Mo. Chabot says the committee will focus on the health care law and regulations issued by the IRS and Environmental Protection Agency.

Chabot also plans to push for tax relief for small businesses. He noted that when the Republican-led House passed tax bills in the past, the legislation stalled in the then-Democratic led Senate. He’s looking for more progress in a Congress now controlled by the GOP.

“We think we have a much better chance at advancing a whole range of tax reform issues,” Chabot says.

What an Ohio fire truck company tells us about globalization and free trade

Think free trade deals will help small businesses? It’s a lot more complicated than that. 

For 125 years, some small portion of America’s fire trucks have come from Columbus, Ohio. That’s where the family-owned Sutphen Corp. produces shining red masses of steel and aluminum, loaded with ladders and tanks, the kind of vehicle that towns buy as a promise to keep citizens safe.

But when the recession hit in 2008, Sutphen knew that the United States wouldn’t be enough.

“We saw that we were totally dependent on the U.S. economy, especially municipal funding,” says Ken Creese, the company’s director of sales and marketing. Sutphen’s orders had dropped by some 40 percent, and they were starting to lay people off. They needed new markets, stat.

To find them, the company looked to a country better known for selling stuff to America rather than buying it: China. They hired a vice president for international relations, began responding to solicitations by local governments, and quickly started filling orders. Now, about 11 percent of the 250 trucks Sutphen makes per year sell overseas — not only in China, but Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. Just last week, the company signed a $3.8 million deal with a Chinese fire department.

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Small Business Growth And the Top Scams of 2014

January 22, 2015 by

Customer Relationship Management business chart on a digital tabDuring the holidays, scams are rampant and catch people unawares, but scams are truly present throughout the whole year and that is why you have to be aware of them. Businesses and individuals alike fall victims to these vile scams and tactics from these individuals, protecting yourself and learning of these tactics can help you avoid them altogether. Follow the links below for more news about small business.

Better Business Bureau’s top 10 scams of 2014

The Houston Better Business Bureau has tallied up the statistics from 2014 and created a Top 10 Scams list. Here’s a heads-up to what scams consumers can expect to see again in 2015.

The BBB’s Top 10 Scams of 2014

Microsoft/computer scams
A caller claims to be from Microsoft or a representative from another computer software company. The caller offers to solve a computer problem or sell a software license in an effort to gain remote control of the consumer’s computer, and later requests a fee for service. Always check out a company first and only hire trusted repair businesses. Microsoft does not make unsolicited phone calls for computer help.

IRS scams
People report receiving calls from “IRS representatives” who claim they owe taxes and must pay or a warrant will be issued for their arrest. Or, they claim the IRS is pursuing a lawsuit against you and you must make a payment immediately. The IRS never uses phone calls for collection purposes. Instead, they only contact taxpayers via U.S. mail.

Small-business transactions hit a record in 2014

A report by BizBuySell.com shows that small-business transactions in 2014 were at the highest level since the online business-for-sale marketplace started tracking data in 2007.

The report aggregates statistics from business-to-sale transactions reported by participating business brokers nationwide.

A total of 7,494 closed transactions were reported in 2014, an increase of 6 percent from 2013, which was the previous record.

This marks the second straight year of such strong activity after several slow years during and immediately following the recession. On average, 2013 and 2014 transaction totals are up 55 percent from the recession and recovery period from 2010 through 2012.

Managing business growth: expert advice for small businesses

Although cash is undoubtedly king, fast growth can wreak havoc on a fledgling business if not managed correctly. When you’re expanding faster than you’re being paid, hiring staff, finding an office and managing stock can take on added difficulty. We held a live Q&A on the topic of managing growth, with advice from a panel of experts. From chasing payments to deciding when to hire, here’s what they suggested:
How can I push a client to pay without losing them?
Late payments cause havoc with an SME’s bottom line. However while encouraging a client to pay, you don’t want to shut the door in their face forever.

Technology can help you here, says Ashley Driver, education specialist at Xero. “There are some great services available to help chase your clients, for example Chaser. We’re seeing some great results from our business owners, accountants and bookkeepers using these types of solutions.”

Another suggestion is to implement a small percentage rise in your product or service, suggests Robert Rutherford, chief executive officer of QuoStar. “If you feel the rise is justified then often you have to stick to your guns,” he adds. “You can also re-contract a set rate or capped rate for the duration of the contract.”

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Do You Have A Business Strategy in Place?

January 14, 2015 by

64521313There are some small business owners that started their business out of necessity; they got laid off, they got fired, or they did not agree with the ideology of the new management.Whatever the reasons they had to start their own business, they believe that the road to success was possible through this venue. There are probably many entrepreneurs that made it, but some are still wondering what went wrong. Being a small business owner requires you to do many “jobs” daily. The task is not easy, and the time you seem to require to accomplish those tasks seem to grow bigger every day. Time management is an important factor for every entrepreneur, planning and executing tasks on time are of the utmost importance for the success of your company. Are you having trouble finishing your tasks daily? Is your strategy for your business not even in place? Read the following articles below for more information about this topic.

Stop Thinking Long Term. Execute Strategy 90 Days at a Time.

Most savvy executives fully understand the value and necessity of doing strategic thinking and planning. After all, the saying goes, “Without a map every direction looks good.”

There are many well-known planning tools for businesses to use as guides, such as Jim Collins and Jerry Porras’ Big Hairy Audacious Goal, a blueprint for helping enterprises hone in on an objective, or Michael Porter’s Five Factor Analysis.

But while planning tools are very appropriate for defining the current state of a company as well as its desired future state, they rarely include a process for getting there.

Envisioning where your company will be in the future is important but the companies that are really great at executing their long-term vision do it 90 days at a time, focusing on bite-size pieces of progress that everyone in the company can understand and work toward collectively.

10 secrets of success for small business

What do you want to achieve in 2015 for your small business? The beginning of January is the time for New Year’s resolutions, so here are my top 10 resolutions for small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

  • Focus on recurring revenue.You may be thrilled to find any source of income, but some types of customers contribute more significantly to your long-term financial well-being. Focus foremost on customers who have the need and capacity to buy from you repeatedly rather than one-off purchasers.
  • Limit your time on social media.Social media can eat up your day even when it’s for a business purpose. Establish a time limit (I’d say 30 minutes maximum), schedule it for a specific time each day and then click off and get back to work. To limit your time on social media, schedule your social media posts in advance using a social media management tool. We use Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com). Others are Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) and TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

Dodge The Unknowns In Your Business

The New Year is a great time to challenge our assumptions concerning what we know about our businesses. A fresh look includes questioning whether business givens are all that accurate. You may be aware of Donald Rumsfeld’s famous comment about the dangers of the unknown:

But there are also unknown unknowns…the ones we don’t know we don’t know…it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

In the business world, the point of this idea is that we need to keep an eye out for those things we don’t know – but think we do. Bad assumptions lead to bad business judgments.

5 assumptions that can lead to bad outcomes

Paraphrasing to protect the innocent, these comments I heard in 2014 demonstrate the business risk of bad assumptions you can avoid in 2015.

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Time Management For Your Business and Personal Life

January 7, 2015 by

business (5)Almost half of Americans make a New Year’s resolution, and a very small percentage of those people are successful.  But one of the most frequent New Year’s resolutions is the wish to spend more time with their family or loved ones. If your business is taking too much time away from the things you wish to do, isn’t this a year to fix it?  Efficiency in the workplace can be accomplished, thus giving you more time to take care of other issues that will enable you to have more time to enjoy life.   For more about time management and efficiency in the workplace, follow the links below.

5 Fundamental Ways To Save Time And Increase Personal Efficiency In 2015

One constant in my management career – and I strongly suspect in many, many others – was that with challenging projects, challenging people, and a host of intractable business problems, there were never enough hours in the day to do what, in a perfect world, needed to be done.  Simply put, in management you never have enough time.  Accordingly, here are 5 fundamental ways to save time and increase personal efficiency in 2015.

Letting go – Are you delegating all you should be?  Are you holding on to things that others on your staff could be doing just as effectively as you?  Do you tend to bottleneck projects, with others waiting for your decisions and being delayed in the process?  The fact is, all really effective executives are also highly efficient delegators.  There’s no choice.  With multiple projects and priorities swirling around, they have to be… or they wouldn’t be effective for long.

Keep at bay the Great Devourer of Time – I’m speaking of course of meetings, which have a vast appetite for corporate time… and, as everyone in business knows, are too often inefficient.  Time wasted in meetings when other projects needed doing was a constant pet peeve of mine in the business world.  To the extent you can save time both in those meetings you attend (Do I really need to go? Can I send someone else in my place? Can I find out what I need to in a quick phone call instead?) and those you set up (Do I really need to schedule an hour? Might a half hour do? Or even 15 minutes?), your schedule will thank you for it.  Naturally some meetings are valuable and essential, no doubt about it.  But if you approach them all from a certain skeptical standpoint of operational efficiency, you’ll likely find yourself returning useful time to your calendar on a regular basis.

5 Secrets to Managing Your Business While Traveling

Traveling the world and running a business at the same time seems like a glamorous lifestyle: You can work from anywhere you want, make your own schedule and be your own boss.

But the characteristics that make it desirable also turn it terrible.

After all, with complete freedom to choose between exploring far-off lands (and people) and sitting in an Internet cafe doing SEO chores, participating in conference calls and writing emails, who would choose to do the latter tasks? Not many people.

Given the option, you would probably close your computers and go exploring with those beautiful Scandinavians who just invited you to the beach.

The digital-nomad lifestyle may seem appealing, but there’s nothing glamorous about freaking out because your Internet connection in a small town suddenly went out two minutes before an important conference call or product launch.

Yet it’s possible to find a balance and successfully run a business from the road, relying on time management and careful planning.

Build Your Business For Lasting Success With This Tip From The Grateful Dead

Whether you’re into hippy jam bands or not, you have to admit: The Grateful Dead were masters of their business. Sure, they only had one Top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They didn’t win a Grammy during three decades of active music production (though they did finally receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007).

But they found a niche and they dominated it — and their strategy is one that businesses of all kinds can learn from.

You’ve heard about the fox and the hedgehog: the ancient Greek poet Archilochus penned the oft-repeated phrase “… the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The poem is a philosophical touch point for business theory, personality testing, and more. The Hedgehog’s one big thing — curling into a ball to protect himself from attack — helped him fend off the more cunning fox, whose every creative effort to eat the hedgehog is foiled.

The hedgehog approach is key to starting a successful business. A successful startup knows its one big thing and does it better — or cheaper, or faster — than anyone else.

It’s exactly what the Grateful Dead did in developing and marketing their music. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the founders of Hubspot, argue in their book Inbound Marketing that the Grateful Dead found extraordinary success by doing three simple things: they created a niche market, they upended traditional marketing strategies to build an audience, and they focused like a laser on the one thing they could do best.

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Is Ohio Good For Your Business?

December 30, 2014 by

business (3)The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has released the 19th. Annual “Small Business Policy Index 201 4.”  The SBE Council rates the states on policy measures and costs Impacting the small Business community and entrepreneurship.  Ohio according to the SBE Council is the number 11th. State to be the most entrepreneur- friendly.  South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming, and Florida the most entrepreneur-friendly states do not impose an income tax.  For more about this and other news follow the links below.  Have a Happy and Safe 2015!

Gov. Kasich shares his vision of what Ohio can become

COLUMBUS — Attend one of Gov. John Kasich’s speeches and you’ll likely get a history lesson on Ohio’s economy in the past, present and future.

Kasich has a vision of what Ohio can become — a place where the tax and regulatory environment help support and encourage new energy, biotechnology, information technology and other emerging industries alongside the state’s mainstay manufacturing and agricultural base.

It’s the innovation, Kasich told an audience of business people recently, that’s going to help to drive young people to stay or relocate to Ohio.

“These are the things that will keep young people here,” he said. “… What really gets young people pumped up is the ability to see the future through the jobs that they do. That’s what we have to drive in Ohio. And that means we must have an environment in Ohio that attracts that. We have to have an environment in Ohio that really encourages entrepreneurship and small businesses, because small businesses drive change.”

Feds’ push for better foods, more neighborhood stores is slow-going

WASHINGTON, D.C. – First Lady Michelle Obama took center stage as a cluster of cabinet secretaries and nutrition experts gathered in the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House, to applaud her “action plan.”

Her plan was to use government influence to purge the United States of “food deserts,” or neighborhoods where poverty-stricken residents have lousy or no access to healthy groceries, fruits and vegetables. Everybody – even the poor – deserves proper nutrition, officials said that day.

Yet four and a half years after the White House made that announcement, committing $400 million in federal loans, grants and tax credits to spur grocers to action, the goal is far from being reached, if Ohio is any measure. Mrs. Obama set 2017 as the year in which the last food deserts would disappear. But that almost certainly won’t happen.

Advocates for the poor insist that the market exists for many more stores to sell broccoli and carrots rather than pushing chips, candy and processed foods that are high in sugar and fat. Poor diet is linked to obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic health problems, and health researchers say the grocery industry can play

Ohio ranks warmly for its small business policies

Ohio is a good place for small businesses to operate. That’s the word from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which has released it Small Business Policy Index 2014, which ranks the 50 states based on policy measures and costs for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

As for Ohio, it ranks No. 11 on the list. The ranking may help spread the word on how Ohio has become proactive in working with small businesses.

The index examines 42 different policy measures, including an array of tax, regulatory and government spending measurements.

The top-ranked state was North Dakota, while the bottom spot belonged to California.

a role in reducing the number of people at risk for these diseases. A study by the Columbus-based Finance Fund and a Philadelphia-based partner, the Food Trust, found that more than 2 million Ohio residents, including 500,000 children, live in neighborhoods underserved by supermarkets. They may have access to food at corner stores, but it is unlikely to be fresh or healthy.

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Health Coverage For 2015

December 18, 2014 by

business (7)Many small businesses look into their health care plans at the end of the year to look for a new insurance carrier, coverage for new employees, or new health coverage plans for the entire business.  Rising prices in health coverage are making small business look at other alternatives, and although reports suggest that the number of insured American is increasing, businesses still need to look into the different health coverage options they have. To read more about this and other news follow the links below.

Small businesses dropping insurance coverage due to Obamacare

Another unintended – but not unexpected – consequence of Obamacare is being felt as the program enters its second year.

More than 20 million Americans who work for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are covered by employer insurance.  The 50-employee number is significant because if you work for a small business with more than 50 workers, your employer is mandated to cover your health insurance.

But with insurance rates rising, many small businesses of fewer than 50 employees are opting to drop their coverage and have workers purchase their insurance through the Obamacare website.

If employees qualify for government subsidies, like the managers who switched from Italian Oven’s corporate insurance to individual Obamacare coverage, everybody can win.

Owners don’t have to pay premiums, meaning they can give workers raises, invest in equipment or add to profits instead. And employee take-home pay can rise if subsidies — available even to families with middle-class incomes — are worth more than what a company was contributing.

Will You Finally Start Your Own Business? The 3 Stages Of Choice

It could be argued that our lives are nothing more than a series of decisions strung together by contemplation, emotion and sweat. When your decisions involve others – especially those close to you – choosing a path can be mind-bending.

Entrepreneurs face tough calls every day, says Sebastian Bailey: psychologist, author, Forbes contributor and co-founder of consulting firm Mind Gym. “(Entrepreneurs) are faced with decisions around how they assess opportunities, how they make entry decisions, how they’re going to exploit opportunities, how they make exits.”

Each new business owner must search within him or herself to make the tough calls and some entrepreneurs might find that their own spirits stand between them and the right decision in an important moment.

Being Vulnerable in Business Can Be a Good Thing

When it comes to business we have been led to believe we can’t be vulnerable, show our weaknesses or discuss our challenges. Most of us fundamentally believe if we show this side of ourselves, our clients, employees and partners won’t want to work with us and our business will be seen as a failure.

This is completely and utterly untrue.

We live in a world where bravery is often only seen as a physical thing, such as jumping out of a plane or saving an injured wild animal. We forget that being vulnerable, where you are prepared to discuss your weaknesses and failure, is intensely brave and powerful.

Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you relationships are essential to business success and the strongest relationships are made when there is an emotional connection. This emotional connection can only be built with honesty, where two people are brave enough to share their stories of failure and success.

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Workplace Stress and its Ramifications

December 10, 2014 by

business (9)According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention article and a survey done by Northwestern National Life, 40% of workers today report that they consider their job as being “very or extremely stressful.” And according to Northwestern National Life, one-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.  Job stress has become a very common and costly problem that affects the United States workforce, and a problem that needs to be addressed by organizations and individuals as well. For more about this topic follow the links below.

What you need to know about workplace stress

TORONTO – John Tory was officially presented as mayor of Toronto Tuesday during an afternoon ceremony at city hall.

The job is no doubt stressful:  it’s at least four years long, 24 hours a day, includes no scheduled vacation time and puts every decision into the media spotlight.

So what is stress? Physiologically, we think of stress as the brain’s response to any demand.  And different types of stress have different effects – you can have stress from a sudden event like losing a job, or a traumatic event like an accident, or just routine stress related to the everyday pressures of life – which politicians feel a lot of because of the scrutiny they’re under.

The commonly referred to fight or flight response is the body’s response to stress. It is a mechanism that evolved thousands of years ago to respond to situations like being attacked by an animal.

‘Medicalising’ workplace stress could worsen staff morale, psychologists warn 

Low morale is too often treated as an “adjustment disorder”, which risks worsening the worker’s condition. Photo: Gabrielle Charotte

At least one third of workplace stress claims are due to “low morale” but are regularly being treated as clinical disorders, Australian psychologists have warned.

With workplace mental health problems costing businesses $10 billion a year, an Australian Psychological Society conference this week heard that more than 30 per cent of compensation claims were morale-related and therefore preventable.

Clinical and organisational psychologist Peter Cotton told the conference low morale was too often treated as an “adjustment disorder”, which risked worsening the worker’s condition.

“‘Medicalising’ this issue could be counter-productive and make the employee worse,” he said.

Workplace Stress Can Boil Over Months Later

New research suggests workplace stress can lead to counterproductive workplace behaviors that may not surface until weeks or months afterward.

It is common knowledge that a variety of workplace issues ranging from a seasonal surge in business, or a new manager, can lead to stress that results in immediate problems.

However, the impact of the stress may be underestimated as problems may surface down the road.

San Francisco State University organizational psychologist Dr. Kevin Eschleman determined many employees wait weeks or months before engaging in “counterproductive work behaviors,” like taking a longer lunch or stealing office supplies.

As a result, this behavior, which by some estimates costs businesses billions of dollars annually, may actually be far more expensive.

“People don’t just respond immediately with these deviant behaviors. They may also have a delayed response that isn’t caught by the organization,” said Eschleman.

“That means the organization is not taking into account long-term costs associated with these delayed behaviors.”

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Tips To Grow Your Business for 2015 and Other News

December 4, 2014 by

business (5)As 2014 comes to an end, small business owners and organizations start thinking and strategizing for the coming year. Many companies begin the year with new budgets for different departments, and strategies for their marketing campaigns are reevaluated again if they are not working, or if they need to take a different direction. Healthcare packages and other financial incentives for their employees can be evaluated to compare prices and offer them better choices than the previous year.  Follow the links below to read more about small business news, and ways to promote your business for the coming year.

11 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Small-Business Facebook Following

Your business may have a solid marketing strategy, but are you an effective Facebook marketer?

Facebook estimates that it is home to more than 30 million active small-business pages. How will yours get noticed? How do you turn one fan into 1,000? Here are 11 creative (and perfectly legal!) methods to generate a Facebook following that convert likes to sales fluidly:

1. Make your Facebook page home.
Once you have set up a comprehensive business page, request a personalized web address, such as www.facebook.com/ENTMagazine. Promote your new hub of business across your other social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) and on printed marketing collateral including business cards, highlighting: We’re on Facebook!

2. Analyze your advertising efforts.
Through the admin panel of your page, or the Adverts Create Tool, you can orchestrate simultaneous marketing campaigns on your budget. The benefit of Facebook advertising initiatives is that it tracks your customers’ responses in real figures. Examine what works and engineer your efforts according to that response.

 Can small business help Russia bear West’s sanctions? Putin hopes so

 Moscow — Admitting that Russia has suffered a “difficult” year and faces what now looks to be permanent ostracism from the West, Vladimir Putin on Thursday argued that the current economic malaise is a matter of national security that will determine the country’s ability to survive.

That appears to make it official: the Kremlin now believes that it’s locked into a replay of the cold war, which it does not intend to lose this time. “We are ready to meet any challenge of the times and win,” Putin said.

But in a startlingly new appeal, Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address that the way forward is to liberalize the economy and let small business flourish in Russia.
The Russian president rolled out a series of liberal economic reforms in his state-of-the-nation speech today, saying that clearing away bureaucratic red tape and offering tax breaks to small business would soften sanctions’ bite.

Top Retirement Strategies: Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, you are completely responsible for your own retirement planning. Unless your small business is just a side job, you don’t have an employer to set up a retirement plan or choose a set of possible investments for you, and you’re definitely not getting a pension. Further, if you have employees, you may feel responsible for helping them plan for a successful retirement.

This article will discuss the considerations and retirement savings plans that you, as a small business owner, should consider when planning for both your own retirement and that of your employees.

Develop an Exit Strategy

It might seem strange that developing a business exit strategy should be one of your first considerations when planning for retirement. But consider this: The small business you spend your life building might become your largest asset. If you want it to fund your retirement – and if you want to actually stop working – you’ll have to liquidate your investment.

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