Setting up payroll for your small business is at once a simple and increasingly complex process. To gain a basic understanding, let’s start with the simple part. If you’re starting up a business, you have to pay your employees, and obviously they will expect their paychecks to be accurate and on time. You will have [...]
Each year, the IRS sends out charming letters telling you that you didn’t report some income on your tax return. Sometimes those CP-2000 letters come as good news, like one did for a client of mine with Alzheimer’s disease whose family found $100,000 worth of bank accounts when the IRS notice showed unreported interest income. But often [...]
There is a lot of bookkeeping that has to happen when you first start a business. This is important not only so you can run your business successfully but also so that when tax season rolls around—or worse, you get audited—you have pristine paperwork to present to the IRS. As tax professionals, we help a [...]
Starting your own small business can be intimidating. Who will buy your product or service? What prices should you set? When do you hire employees? How do you handle your taxes? How do you promote your business? There are often more pressing questions than immediate answers, and small business consultant Barry Moltz knows this. Moltz [...]
There’s a misconception that many small business owners have about loans made through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). They think that the government hands out money to struggling small businesses. It doesn’t. In fact, the SBA guarantees loans to small and mid-sized companies. Banks and other lending institutions make the loans themselves. SBA-backed loans [...]
For a small business, pricing products and services can be a difficult task. Figuring out your costs can be challenging, but you’ll also need to take into consideration profits, competition, value, and brand image, as well as how you want to position yourself in the marketplace. Pricing communicates quality, says Bryan Ziegler, director of the [...]
For any small business owner, it can be a big decision to expand your office and buy new furniture and equipment—but it doesn’t have to be a big investment. Once you’ve decided you need office furniture—because your business is growing, you’ve recently rented office space, or you’re taking on new employees—it’s time to figure out [...]
Although more than half of all small businesses are home-based, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, you may find yourself outgrowing your home office at some point. Some small business owners decide they need more room to accommodate employees, equipment, and inventory. Others find it helpful to have a more professional place to meet with [...]
Starting a business can be as easy as selling a ceramic bowl you created or having friends pay you to clean their house. If your product or service is good and you’re friendly and professional, chances are more people will want to hire you or buy your products. But what are the first steps you [...]
You will find many exciting new opportunities when starting your own small business. You’re taking your ideas and your passion into the marketplace, perhaps realizing a lifelong dream or making a lifestyle change. However, some aspects of running a business can take you away from your core focus. Still, they need to be done, and [...]
