Business 101: Who Prepares Your Taxes?

For better or for worse, it’s that time of year again. If you run a small business, one of the questions that you to answer is to determine who will be preparing your income tax return. This is true of simpler returns, like sole proprietorships, or more complex returns, like registered corporations.

If you have a home-based business with very little in terms of complexities, it may be easy enough to complete the tax return on your own. There is software out there, like Ufile Standard Edition that can easily handle self-employment income. Don’t be fooled into buying the “Plus” version of the software, because the Standard Edition can do self-employment income.

For more complex returns where you have to file your corporate taxes as well as a personal income tax return, it is probably in your best interest to hire a certified tax professional. There are many more intricacies and details that come into play with this kind of configuration. Even if you have a sole proprietorship, it may still be worthwhile to hire an accountant. There is an added cost, of course, but for many people, it’s worth it.

What about you? Who prepares your income tax return?

Business 101: Expanding Your Brand

When your name is your brand and you’ve come to be known for one or more specific projects, it can be difficult to reach a little outside of this niche and expand your brand. HGTV is a television channel that focuses on all sorts of home-related matters, from buying houses to renovating them. Peter Fallico is one of the more popular on-screen personalities.

He is the current host of Home to Stay, a television show where a homeowner needs some help with renovations and home decor. They may have lived in their current house for a few years, thinking that they would move on sooner rather than later, but they have later decided to make it a forever home. As such, they turn to Peter and his team to make it a home to stay.

This is the branding that Peter Fallico has attached to his name, so what can he do when he wants to expand this brand? Well, over at HGTV, they are launching a new television show called Home to Flip and, yes, Peter is the host. This plays off the name of his other show and it tackles similar subject matter, but it is an entirely different show.

Rather than renovating a house so the homeowner can live there for years to come, Home to Flip aims to renovate a home so that it can attract the most money on the open market. This is a different mentality, but Peter Fallico and his team can still capitalize on their existing skillset.

If you have a business of your own and you’re looking to expand, consider how you can take advantage of your current branding and expertise.

Business 101: Risks and Rewards of an Open Forum

More so than ever, the business environment has changed in regards to how companies communicate with their customers. In the past, we would only see commercials on television and press releases blasted out to news outlets. It was a one-way form of communication. As Internet preferences shift, so have the means of communication.

Take this blog, for example. If this was a traditional company website, it would host the company information, the products and services available for sale, and perhaps a contact page of some kind. With the blog, however, readers have the opportunity to leave their mark via the comment form. This creates a conversation rather than a simple soapbox. The same can be said about having Facebook and Twitter pages.

The reward is that customers and consumers can feel more connected to your company, giving a more personal connection that can result in a long-lasting relationship. They get to know the people behind the brand and the reverse is true as well. Fostering these kinds of relationships can be positively critical to your company’s success.

On the downside, there is a significant risk that people may not always have positive things to say. They can have negative feedback and this becomes public in a very immediate way. The key, then, is to address these concerns in as timely a fashion as possible, putting out any fires before they get out of hand. Every company can improve in some way; you just have to listen to your customers.

Business 101: Update Your Website Regularly

You’ll hear just about every business consultant encourage their clients to put up a good website to represent their company, since this can greatly improve their brand presence in the marketplace and can attract all sorts of new clients into their fold. Some companies go about this the right way, expanding their online presence with Twitter and Facebook pages too. That’s good.

However, there are countless other companies that go about this in entirely the wrong way. They may have launched a website ten years ago for their restaurant, floral shop, or any other kind of store, but they fail to keep it up-to-date with new information. I’ve been to a few restaurant websites that look like they belong on Geocities from a design standpoint. That’s not good.

To make matters worse, clicking on the link for “this month’s specials” can sometimes direct me to a page for the specials for May 2007. Ironically, some of these specials are still applicable, but the page explicitly mentions that they are from May 2007. That’s not good at all. If you are going to have dated material on your site, ensure that it is kept up to date. Otherwise, place more general information on the site that can be more “evergreen” in nature.

A great way to keep the site updated with minimal effort is to have general background information about your company and the products or services it offers, but to have a company blog section as well that can be updated with a brief post every week or two. This keeps the site fresh and helps from a search engine optimization standpoint too.

Business 101: Best Day for an Announcement?

Whether you are going to unveil a brand new product or you are going to tell the world about new management, there is always the question of timing. When is the best time to break the news to the world so that you can maximize the exposure and coverage that you may receive?

Interestingly, it seems that many companies like to choose Tuesday as their primary product release day. Why Tuesday? Well, many people are too busy catching up on their work and getting back into the groove of things on Monday, but they are usually better prepared to digest your news the following day. Time the announcement a little later in the week and it can get lost in the mix.

On the flip side, it seems that product announcements very late in the week can be useful too. By making an announcement on a Friday, some outlets may feel compelled to take action with your news that day. This is because they usually don’t work on weekends, so they want to clear out their plates before leaving for the day. Contrast this with a Wednesday or Thursday where they can fall into the “I’ll do it tomorrow” pattern.

What’s your take? When your company is preparing to make a major announcement, what day of the week seems to be the most ideal?

Business 101: Morale Over Productivity

After the Super Bowl on Sunday, CBS debuted a new series called Undercover Boss. In case you are not familiar with the show, it takes high-ranking executives and CEOs from major corporations and places them in entry-level jobs within their own organizations. This way, they can see first-hand what their employees experience on a day-to-day basis.

For the premiere episode, we followed the president and COO of Waste Management as he took on several entry-level positions within his company. This was an eye-opening experience for him and, above all else, he learned about the impact that some of the rules and policies have on his workers.

One example was when he followed a female driver, seeing that she could not veer off her route when nature called. Instead, she was forced to use an empty can. That is no way to work and this really hurt her morale. She had a strong dislike for the organization and the COO instantly recognized this. Also, employees were docked two minutes for every one minute they were late coming to work or coming back from breaks.

While these policies were designed to improve efficiency, they made for resentful sentiments toward the company and this ultimately hurt productivity more than it helped it. The COO is now working to fix some of these problems. For your own company, consider how morale can be ultimately much more important than efficiency-minded policies. A happy employee works harder and more effectively.