business

Small Business Owners And The Estimated Tax Payment

by Paul Joseph May 17, 2012 Featured

For new small business owners, meeting your tax obligations is a big adjustment – particularly when you’ve been used to having an employer take out income tax withholdings with each paycheck. When you have your own business though, tax time isn’t just once a year; rather you have to make estimated tax payments throughout the year. If you’re not sure if you need to pay estimated taxes for your business, read on to learn more about small business estimated tax payments: What are estimated tax payments?  Individuals and businesses are required to pay taxes over the course of the year, and not just at “tax time.” If you’re working for an employer, your employer most likely withholds these taxes for you throughout the year. When you’re self-employed or own a business, you’ll be expected to make these tax payments to the IRS and state on your own. Who has to pay estimated tax payments?  The rules for estimated tax payments vary based on business type: For sole proprietors, partnerships, S Corporation shareholders, single member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a sole prop or an S corporation, or multi-member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a partnership or an S corporation: If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes when you file your income tax return, you most likely will need to make estimated tax payments to the federal government (and potentially your state government too). There’s one exception: if your witholdings and tax credits add up to as least as much as your prior year’s tax, you do not need to made a federal estimated tax payment. For C Corporations and multi-member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a C Corporation: If you own a Corporation, you will need to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $500 or more with your tax filing. When are payments due?  Estimated tax payments are divided into four payment periods throughout the year: April 15th June 15th September 15th January 15th If your business is a Corporation, your estimated taxes are due on the fifteenth day of the 4 th , 6 th , 9 th , and 12 th month after the end of your company’s fiscal year. Once you’re in the system, the IRS will send you estimated payment vouchers at the end of each tax year. However, whether you receive these payment vouchers or not, it is your responsibility to make payments for both the Federal and State taxes. How to Pay If you’re filing as a self-employed individual or disregarded entity (i.e. single-member LLC, partnership, or S Corp shareholder), you should complete Form 1040-ES . This form contains blank vouchers for mailing your estimated tax payments. You can also make your payments using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) . For your state payment, you have to search online for the appropriate form, complete it and send it in with your payment. Corporations must submit their payments using EFTPS, or can arrange for a tax professional, financial institution, payroll service, or other trusted third party to make deposits on their behalf. How much should you pay?  For self-employed individuals and disregarded entities (i.e. single-member LLCs, partnerships, and S Corp shareholders), the IRS recommends using Form 1040-ES to calculate your individual estimated tax payments. Corporations should use the Worksheet on Form 1120-W to calculate estimated tax payments. Alternatively, if you expect the current year’s earnings to be relatively similar to last year, you can use last year’s tax return to calculate your estimated payments. Or if you experience fluctuating income, you can choose to calculate your estimated taxes based on the actual amount you made that quarter. You don’t need to show the IRS how you arrived at your estimated sum. However, it’s in your best interest to reach as accurate a figure as possible. Paying too little can result in an unfortunate surprise when it’s time to file your annual taxes, in addition to potential penalties for underpayment. Conversely, by paying too much, you’ve essentially taken money out of your business and you could have invested that money for a higher return. If you’re unsure about your estimated tax obligations, it’s wise to consult a tax specialist who can advise you on the best calculation method for your business and how to properly track and record your earnings and deductions. Just remember the more time you invest in your estimated tax payments, the easier your life will be come tax time. Piggy Bank Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends Small Business Owners And The Estimated Tax Payment

Tagged as: business, experts, llc, llc taxes, registered-trademark, small business trends, small-biz-experts, small-business, starting a business, taxes, var-page

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Innovation in Education from UC Berkeley

by Paul Joseph May 17, 2012 Featured

A whiteboard style discussion from an independent study by Sara Beckman. It outlines what she believes to be true innovation in the educational space, currently being spearheaded by UC Berkeley. Continue reading →

Tagged as: business, copyright, education, innovators, modern classroom, news, social-media, video, youtube

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The “Belong Subscribe And Engage” Marketing Plan

by Paul Joseph May 17, 2012 Featured

A sound and holistic  marketing plan  has always  combined these areas: Advertising : any paid form of communication through  mass communication Sales promotion : any short term incentive to encourage trial purchase Events and Experiences : sponsored events or activities Public Relations and Publicity : non paid ways to promote image and reputation Direct Marketing :  one-to-one  communication such as mail, telephone, e-mail and Internet selling Personal Selling : face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective customers Using these marketing areas was simpler when there was only traditional media: TV, Cable, Radio and Print. Now, with the addition of the web and online worlds, plus social media, our choices have increased dramatically. Regardless of  all the options and choices, the best way to grow brand reach and impact is still an integrated marketing approach, using things together, so that you reach the most people with your message and solutions. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and underwhelmed, with so many choices, products and platforms. The truth is, many of these options are not really right for you and you shouldn’t  be using them. Just because something is popular or the “thing” of the moment, doesn’t mean it’s going to last or be around.  (Here are some  Social Media Failures for 2011 , that many regret signing up for.) Answer these three simple, but important, questions first: 1) What do you do? 2) Who is your core customer? 3) How do you reach them where they hang out and engage? Applying those answers to these areas will help you know what you need to belong to, subscribe to and engage in. Belong To The Right Organizations What’s your networking in person plan? Pick a chamber, be a member of a professional organization, a union, networking or hobby group, or meet ups. Be willing to go to them and get to know others who can become valued peers, colleagues and friends. Be out consistently, show your face and bring your personality. Subscribe To The Most Important Content Who are the leading voices and experts in your field and related fields? Subscribe to their blogs, newsletters, white papers, news feeds, and tips. This will keep you on the forefront of relevant and current trends and information. Engage Where Your Customers Or Followers Are Wherever your customers, fans, friends, peers and colleagues are is where you should be. Get more active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, selective chat rooms, online groups, Tweet/Facebook chats. Choose the activities that are best for you and build in time to be on them. Who are your best playmates, playgrounds and games? The business world is just a big park, playground and party.  Get into the conversations and be apart of the discussion.  When you put yourself out, in a targeted, focused way with a brand and branding plan that makes sense to reach the best people for you, you create a natural self marketing plan that will reward and return. Mix and match, use and try media, marketing and promotion until you find the best ROI and RON (return on networking).  Stay curious and be proactive in trying new things that are on top of consumer trends that impact you.  Here are 10 ways to stretch your marketing budget  from author Mark W Bly from his book The Marketing Plan Handbook.  If you’re using social media for marketing your business, you should be measuring it, according to  Union Metrics  founder Jenn Deering Davis. Be brave, bold, adventurous and follow a game plan, when it comes to marketing yourself! Be willing to adjust, tweak and adapt. What’s your personal marketing plan? Marketing Plan Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends The “Belong Subscribe And Engage” Marketing Plan

Tagged as: business, experts, internet-marketing, llc, privacy-terms, small business trends, small-biz-experts, small-business, trends, var-page

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Media & Entertainment Reimagined by Collaborative Innovation

by Paul Joseph May 17, 2012 Featured

Established firms in the media & entertainment space struggle to prosper in the Digital Age. New business models, enlivened by technology, erode traditional sources of profit. What possibilities for reimagining the business exist? In this article, I suggest one avenue to pursue: the benefits that come from learning how to convene a community on the critical question by embracing the practice of collaborative innovation; then applying the practice to help people work to their potential. Continue reading →

Tagged as: build capability, business, entertainment, financial, innovation, kickstarter, news, people & skills, social-media

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CEO Drama and How to Avoid It

by Paul Joseph May 17, 2012 Featured

You don’t need to be the leader of a multimillion-dollar corporation to create unnecessary drama in your business. Today’s news is full of stories about the latest CEO missteps. Here are some of the headlines, along with some lessons to be learned and tips on how to be a better leader in your business. Setting the Right Example Don’t let personal relationships interfere . Even the founder of Best Buy, Richard Schulze, finds his head on the chopping block (in a manner of speaking) in connection with the alleged “inappropriate relationship” between his hand-picked successor, CEO Bruce Dunn, and a female subordinate. Of course, Schulze is a multimillionaire many times over, and Dunn himself walks away with a cool $6.64 Million in severance. Still, your reputation has no price.   ( Lesson: When improper conduct is reported against another executive, take action, don’t sweep it under the rug.) WSJ All eyes are on the CEO . You’d like to think that in 2012 your private business is…your private business. But when you’re the CEO, more than just the two people in a relationship are impacted. ( Lesson: See your relationship from the eyes of subordinates. Employees watch the person at the top closely. Relationships between managers and subordinates can lead to poor morale, charges of favoritism, and stress on the company–not to mention broken family relationships and blights on otherwise spotless careers.) Small Business Trends Making the Wrong Decisions Resume padding will haunt you . As one CEO found out, claiming to have a degree when you don’t can topple even the loftiest. And trying to claim that you didn’t write your bio, but that a headhunting firm did won’t save you. ( Lesson: Focus on what you do have and don’t pad it. It’s an obvious lesson, but true.) Christian Science Monitor Poor decisions will have huge implications . Just ask Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, whose company lost $2 billion on the CEO’s watch—way to go! In apologizing for the poor decision-making leading to the loss, Dimon said at a board meeting “This should never have happened. I can’t justify it. Unfortunately, these mistakes are self-inflicted.” ( Lesson. Poor decisions will affect not only you and your business but others who depend upon you and your business, too. Everyone makes mistakes, but using poor judgment and making bad decisions not in your company’s best interests will have repercussions.) ABC News Lessons Learned from Missteps Don’t try to avoid responsibility . WalMart CEO Mike Duke is discovering that one way or the other, he may not be able to escape responsibility for his company’s bribery allegations in Mexico. The company’s senior managers apparently knew about the issue and didn’t disclose it to anyone until they found out the media was likely to disclose it anyway. ( Lesson: Large or small, no entrepreneur should try to skirt responsibility for their business mistakes, especially by trying to hide those mistakes once they’re likely to be made public.) Your misdeeds will find you out . The above list of leadership errors is just the beginning. Other recent examples of such shenanigans include Chesapeake Energy founder and CEO Aubrey McClendon, who supposedly improperly tapped his own company for personal loans and Green Mountain Coffee’s CEO and chairman, who also flouted the rules to buy himself a 163-foot yacht.  ( Lesson: No matter what size your business may be, self-centered behavior shows a lack of discipline and will damage both your business and your reputation in the end.) Avoiding Problems in Your Business How to gain wisdom and avoid foolishness . Just as wisdom does not require age and experience, foolishness does not indicate a lack of intelligence. Both, according to blogger Stephan De Villiers, involve being able to ask the right questions and get the right answers. The Leadership Connexion Recognize the traits that could kill your business . Traits like dishonesty, lack of respect, arrogance, greed, and inattentiveness are amongst the problems that can cause the downfall of even the most successful CEOs, as we’ve seen above. But they are certainly not traits confined to large businesses alone. Here blogger Victorino Abrugar lists for us these and other traits which could kill your business before it even has a chance of becoming more successful. BusinessTips.ph Choosing A Better Path Your behavior will reflect upon you and your business . Business blogger Arthur Piccio reminds us that others remember the ways we have treated them badly far longer than the good things we have done. Remember that whether your bad behavior affects customers, partners, suppliers, or the community, it will likely be remembered for a long time to come. UPrinting How to be a better leader in your business . To end on a positive note, there are ways to lead well in your small business. Whether you’ve thought of it or not, Dr. Shannon Reese says every entrepreneur has decided at some point to be a leader. Her four part series beginning here looks at what qualities are necessary to be the right kind of leader in business and in life. Strategies & Tactics for Women From Small Business Trends CEO Drama and How to Avoid It

Tagged as: business, copyright, experts, llc, privacy-terms, registered-trademark, small business news, small business trends, small-biz-experts, small-business, terms

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Do You Organize Your Business for Innovation?

by Paul Joseph May 16, 2012 Featured

Before innovation happens, there are two very important steps which are often ignored or are not executed properly. Continue reading →

Tagged as: build capability, business, culture & values, facebook, governance, history, innovation model, latest-posts, shoaib shaukat, strategy, youtube

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Does Flextime Benefit You More Than Your Employees?

by Paul Joseph May 16, 2012 Featured

Are you resisting offering employees at your small business flexible working hours because you think it’ll give them an excuse to slack off? Well, some new research should convince you otherwise. It seems flextime may actually be less flexible than a regular schedule. The 2012 National Study of Employers , released by the Families and Work Institute (FWI) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), found that U.S. employers are offering employees more options for managing when and where they work. The tradeoff for the employees, however, is that employers offering more flexibility are also requiring  them to essentially work more. Compared to 2005, the study found significantly more employers are allowing at least some employees to: use flextime and periodically change starting and quitting times within a range of hours (77 percent, compared to 66 percent in 2005); take time off during the workday to attend to important family or personal needs without loss of pay (87 percent, up from 77 percent in 2005); work some of their regular paid hours at home on at least an occasional basis (63 percent, nearly double the 34 percent in 2005); and have control over their paid and unpaid overtime hours (44 percent, compared to 28 percent in 2005). But although employers were offering more flexibility in some ways, they were offering less flexibility in others. The study found significant decreases in the number of employers allowing at least some of their employees to: return to work gradually after childbirth or adoption of a child (73 percent, down from 86 percent in 2005), take a career break for personal or family responsibilities (52 percent, down from 73 percent in 2005), and move from full-time to part-time work and back again while remaining in the same position or level (41 percent, down from 54 percent in 2005). In other words, fewer companies are letting employees take extended time off. So what are the costs and benefits of flextime? You’re probably getting more work out of your employees in the short term; a 2010 Brigham Young University study of IBM employees found that those with flextime worked an average of 19 hours more per week than those on traditional schedules. But are you risking burning them out in the long term? Don’t get me wrong—I’m a huge proponent of flextime and, as the study noted, offering some form of flexible hours is pretty much essential to attract employees these days. But as entrepreneurs, we have “flextime” too—and it doesn’t take a study to convince any smartphone-toting business owner that flextime doesn’t necessary lead to work-life balance. Flextime is a great option for employees, but make sure you give them some real time off, too. Stop Time Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends Does Flextime Benefit You More Than Your Employees?

Tagged as: business, copyright, experts, llc, privacy-terms, registered-trademark, small business trends, small-business, trends

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How could your company benefit from crowdsourcing?

by Paul Joseph May 16, 2012 Featured

Crowdsourcing continues to be a good tool for innovation. And, you could participate on either the challenge end or the participant end. If your organization hasn’t found a way to try it, here’s a good example.

Tagged as: broken-bulbs, business, creative, ideas, mapping, mitch ditkoff, paul-hobcraft, paul-sloane, thinkerlog

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Accurate problem definition is critical to effective problem solving

by Paul Joseph May 16, 2012 Featured

In business and in life, clear and accurate problem definition is an essential prerequisite for effective problem solving. This may sound obvious, or even trite, but this simple truth can be overlooked by those with pressing needs and a bias for action.

Tagged as: broken-bulbs, business, creative, management, mapping, michael-osofsky, paul-hobcraft, paul-sloane, thinkerlog

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New Bulk Listing Management Tool From Google Places

by Paul Joseph May 16, 2012 Featured

Businesses with multiple locations should be breathing a heavy sigh of relief now that Google has introduced a new and improved bulk listing management tool designed to make the whole process easier and faster for business owners. Google revealed several new changes last week which have been implemented to help SMBs and enable the follow actions: Edit one or more of your listings’ data at once Search through your listings, filtering by specific information or for listings with errors Upload new listings using a data file or by adding them individually within the interface Tell us how we can improve this new interface by clicking the “Give Feedback” link Google has also uploaded two tutorial videos to walk both new and verified users through the process. Tutorial for new, unverified users Tutorial for Verified Users If you’ve visited your Google Places dashboard recently, you may have already noticed that it went through a makeover. Personally, I find the updated dashboard considerably more user-friendly and intuitive. I especially like how easy it is to find listings with errors. The easier it is to spot errors, the easier it is to fix them! If you’re a business owner with 10 or more locations and you’ve been avoiding uploading and/or correcting your information on Google Places because it was too much of a hassle or you weren’t sure where to start, these new upgrades and the accompanying videos help remove both of those obstacles. We’ve said this many times but taking the time to ensure that all of your online business listings are claimed and showing correct information is one of the most powerful things you can do to build your Web presence and your offline customer base. Nearly 20 percent of all Google searches are users accessing Google Place Pages – that adds up to millions of searches a day! If a user can’t find you or it looks like your information is incorrect, they’re not going to keep trying. It’s going to deter them away for your business and push them toward your competitor. This isn’t something you can afford. The release of this new tool from Google is a good reminder of how important it is to claim and optimize all of your business listings. If you haven’t checked to make sure they’re accurate, use today to do it. Consider it a little Spring cleaning as you: Claim your Google Place listing (and all other online business listings) Make sure the information is as accurate as possible and that it’s consistent with what else is out there about you on the Web. It’s vitally important that you align all of your listings and allow them to work FOR you and show your relevance. If you have already claimed your Google Place listing, work on optimizing it. Add some new Google business photos/videos. Update your keywords. Start thinking up new ways to build reviews or point people to your page. Don’t leave it static. The updated Google Maps Bulk Listing management tool is great for businesses for with 10 or more locations, but even if that’s not you, it’s also an important reminder that these listings matter and that Google is looking at them hard to determine relevance and search placement. If it’s been awhile since you’ve optimized your Google Place listings, give it another look. It could be the difference between showing up and being invisible to your audience. From Small Business Trends New Bulk Listing Management Tool From Google Places

Tagged as: business, online listings, optimize listings, registered-trademark, small business advice, small-business, terms, trends, var-page

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