(c) David Wright

Upgrading your PC is a necessary step every few years. If you run a business then you may even find yourself upgrading even more frequently than this to keep up to date with the times. Upgrading can relate to three things: upgrading the software, upgrading the hardware, or buying a new computer.

Often the first two of these elements will go hand in hand, but this article will consider these three aspects individually at first.

Upgrading the Software

Upgrading the software is the cheapest way to upgrade your computer, but it can also often have a huge impact on productivity and your efficiency. Upgrading your OS is the best place to start because this will speed your processes up and get the ball rolling. Continue Reading »

Here is a challenge for you: If you are in your 20′s or 30′s, I want you to make a goal to be outstanding for just one year.  What does it mean to be outstanding?  It means trying to be the best at whatever you do.  Don’t know how to be the best?  Good!  Read one book per week on outstanding behavior for your profession.  Read an article a day from the internet on how to be the best.  Spend time thinking about the ways you can improve, and continuously improve!

It can take a lot of energy and stamina to be outstanding.  But guess what, you can do it!  You can do much more than you believe you can!  You can work hard, study constantly, and continuously improve.  You can be the best… the fastest, highest quality, most productive at what you do.  Whatever that is whether it be business, accounting, CEO, front desk clerk, or factory worker, you can be the best.  And each position needs great people, and many companies are willing to pay more for the best. Continue Reading »

Entrepreneurs create businesses.  We love to create things from scratch and develop a business into it’s full potential.  However, there are many things that go into managing a business that we hate, and here is a partial list:

Paperwork

Many tax agencies make us fill out tax forms every year.  I know that this year I have filled out my 1120′s, payroll tax forms, and my personal 1040.  I hate it.  Because I have a daughter in college, I also had to fill out the FASFA.  Back a few years ago, I used to have to fill out forms to keep my son on our health insurance, every 6 months.  I dread it all.

Accounting Continue Reading »

If you’re one of those people who isn’t happy unless they’re bucking the trend, standing out from the crowd, and getting noticed by everybody, there may be an IRS audit in your future. With the amount of tax returns that find their way to the IRS each year, not every return is reviewed for accuracy. Instead, the returns that have noticeably questionable information contained in them invite IRS scrutiny.

The same rules apply to your small business and possibly even more. If you’re combining your business takes with your personal taxes, being outside of the norm on the personal side of your return may invite more scrutiny on the business end of your taxes.

In order to decide what is outside the norm, the IRS looks at the average amount of deductions claimed per income group for each year and those averages are compared with the amount of deductions you claimed. These categories include medical expenses, taxes, interest, and charitable contributions. How does your 2011 return compare with these figures? Continue Reading »

An entrepreneur creates a vision and sets out to make his vision a reality.  What is this vision thing anyway?  Is it inspiration from God?  Well, vision is kind of putting together the pieces in order to create a world which does not yet exist.  An entrepreneur starts with an idea about making a profit.  For instance, I buy something for $25 and sell it for $50, making me a $25 profit.  Except… what keeps the customer from just buying from my supplier for $25?  I guess maybe he doesn’t know where you get it from and you won’t tell him.  Perhaps you have to buy in a quantity that the customer can’t buy in.  Let me tell you a secret, somebody can.

So that makes creating your own product important right?  If you have a simple product, you know that somebody can come along and copy it, making them your competitor.  You could patent your design or product, but patents do expire. Continue Reading »

Business phone systems should be considered to be core business issues. Business phones are working parts of your business. In many cases they’re also used for actual transactions, document transfer, and administration and are hooked directly into various parts of your intranet. There are multiple issues for staff training here, including basic competence, security and the ability to identify and fix problems. The payoff is that good training will increase the effectiveness of your phone system while also improving overall business performance.

Training issues- How to start from scratch

Phone training is actually simple enough. The problem is usually making sure it’s done properly, and that staff have enough time and space to familiarize themselves with the various applications and functions involved. The classic disasters in phone system management are usually based on spending 5 seconds on explaining a process that really needs about 5 hours to get a reliable level of fluency and competence. Continue Reading »

Small business owners often live or die based on their reputation. Because they don’t yet have a product or service that transcends themselves, customers purchase based on their opinion of the owner. This may change as the business grows but until then, reputation management is just as important for a small business as it is for a large, well established corporation.

21^st century businesses take advantage of the latest technologies and many now find themselves doing much of their business online. As convenient as this is, there are problems that come with doing business over a computer where the nuances of a personal relationship don’t translate. Continue Reading »

With the Powerball jackpot at some $640 million last night, a lot of people were talking about what they would do if they won.  They would buy houses for all of their friends.  They would buy a new car.  Fund their children’s college.  Perhaps they would give a large amount to charity.  What would you do if you won a smaller sum, say $1 million?  These things are what you should put down on your dream list.

Take out a piece of paper and list all of the things you would do with $1 million.  Then figure out how you can get to $1 million in revenue with your business.  Not that you want to stop at $1 million, but it’s a good place to start.  Once you get there, make bigger goals.  You can’t see generating $1 million in revenue with your business?  Perhaps it’s time for something a little different, or something completely different… Find a way to break down barriers and grow your business.  Don’t give up trying different things.

We have been struggling with growth lately.  Our little products business is now generating over $2,000 per month in direct sales every month.  Not much you say?  Well, the business is scalable and we’re working on growing volume.  Perhaps soon we will have revenues of $5,000 to $10,000 per month.  We just keep shooting for growth.  We just had my wife quit her job so she could take on more of the business tasks, hopefully contributing to some more growth. Continue Reading »

Disgruntled employees are becoming ever more apparent in the modern workplace. The halcyon days when employees trusted their employers and vice versa can, at times, seem a distant memory. This is bad for productivity. A happy worker is a hard worker but no worker will be happy when they view their employer as uncaring. So what can be done?

Employee Assistance Programs (or EAP services) have become a popular method for employers to get back in touch with their staff. Observe the following reasons for employee dissatisfaction and how Employee Assistance Programs can resolve them:

Emotional Problems can contribute to low productivity, absenteeism and resignation. By providing professional, prepaid, counseling an EAP can get an employee back to a state where they can continue to be the productive member of staff they were when they joined the company. The employee will also appreciate the company’s offer of help. Continue Reading »