Interesting Statistics Regarding Small Businesses

Here is some interesting news regarding the state of small businesses in the U.S. SurePayroll, the nation’s largest online payroll processing provider for small businesses recently conducted a survey asking small business owners what are some of the top challenges of owing a small business. Here are some of the results:

Around 19% said finding and keeping qualified employees
Around 18% said balancing business development and current workload
Over 14% said managing work time and priorities
Almost 12% said managing employees
Another 12% said generating expected revenues
Almost 12 % said cresting a work/life balance
7% said meeting income goals
Almost 6% said acquiring capital for growth

Another survey by SurePayroll revealed that the accountant is the most trusted advisor for small business owners contributing more to the success of the business than an attorney or banker.

With the threat of rising interest rates, health care costs, and inflation, it is rather difficult for a small business to operate in the current economy. By partnering with a small business accountant, small business owners can alleviate some of the challenges mention above; at the same time have someone by their side to ensure the success of their business.

Use a small business accountant to keep your Business N Synergy

Brian N. Stovall
www.thebricogroup.com

Tax Tips for Baby Boomers

As many of our baby boomers get ready for the “good life” of retirement, many will begin to start drawing income from their retirement plans that they have spent years building. There are a few tax implications that may affect many boomers when they begin to withdraw funds from retirement plans and/or cash out of stocks. In the next few weeks, I will post a tip for boomers to ensure that their retirement years are spent enjoying life instead of paying a bundle in taxes.

Early Retirees

Many retirees will elect to receive Social Security benefits at age 62 (the earliest possible age to receive benefits) at the same time they may have stocks and other securities in their portfolios. If this is this case these retiree should not sell any stocks that have appreciated in value in any of their taxable accounts. This will ensure that any capital gains are avoided thus lowering the AGI (adjusted gross income) and the taxes owed on Social Security benefits. Additionally if the boomer passes away, the heirs will not have to pay any income tax on the investments appreciation during the boomer’s lifetime.

For more information on these tax savings strategies, review Internal Revenue Code Section 1022 (d) (2) or stop by our tax seminar coming later this fall. See our website for more information.

More tax tips to come…in the meantime keep your Business N Synergy!!!

Brian N. Stovallwww.thebricogroup.com

Branding Your Small Business Niche

Many small businesses are started to fill a particular need that larger organizations either feel are not profitable or have not devised a viable strategy to penetrate that market. It is very important for a small business to “brand” their service or goods to ensure that the market knows what particular niche they fill. This way a small business can create a lasting impression in the marketplace that can increase their reach and possibly profits.

Following are a few questions a small business owner needs to address to ensure that their goods or services are branded effectively in the marketplace:

What are your clients buying and who are your competitors? Know what your brand means to your clients and customers and who in the marketplace have similar products.

What is your short phrase sentence? This is your one sentence description that describes completely what your firm does.

What is your catch phrase? This is basically your tagline that supports your brand.

Has your brand been in the news lately? This is important for getting your brand out to the public. Make sure the publicity is not negative though.

Do you have a strategy for building your brand up? Brand building should be an integral part of a small businesses overall strategy. Always make this a part of your business and operational plans.

For more on branding your small business check out our free small business seminars at the College Park Library in the Atlanta area. New schedule can be found on our “Firm Notes” page of our website
www.thebricogroup.com.

As always keep your Business N Synergy

Brian N. Stovall
www.thebricogroup.com

Small Business Planning Assistance

With the upcoming fall Small Business Seminars that I will be doing, I thought this would be a good time to provide viewers with some resources. If you are out there in cyberland and are thinking about starting a business or if you have started a business in the past year the Bplans.com site may assist you in constructing a concise business plan for SBA funding or bank loan. Bplans.com is part of Palo Alto Software who also developed the Business Plan Pro software. Their website is a one-click stop for information on how to write a business plan, start and grow a business, and manage your advertising/marketing campaigns.

Specifically the business plan website has calculators for cash flow, currency conversion rates, starting costs estimators, and investments. The site also has industry reports and FREE business plans for the budding entrepreneur. This is a great way to gain valuable insight and prepare a business plan that will get results and keep you new business in synergy from the start.

Brian N. Stovallwww.thebricogroup.com

Excel = (SEAMLESS:INTEGRATION)

In the September 2006 issue of Accounting Technology (a Source Media publication), the article “Living with =SUM” presents an interesting take on how Microsoft Excel has become the norm for integration with accounting and financial software for businesses and accountants. Many software vendors are embracing MS Excel to provide their end users with more flexible modeling capabilities, but at the same time putting a hurdle in front of the end user that may hinder expanding. Although MS Excel is good for the smaller operations, as a company grows it is imperative to have a more controlled accounting system in place to track the companies operations.

This is food for thought for the MS Excel only users (accountants included) that want to stick only with MS Excel for their business. The majority of the software vendors have some kind of interface within their software that gives the end user the feel of MS Excel. Another point made in the article is that Google is experimenting with a free service on Google Labs for spreadsheet users, all the more reason to consider Excel and additional software for your operations.

Look for more information regarding integrating your business with MS Excel at the next small business seminar brought to you by The Brico Group, Inc. Free seminars at your local library in the Atlanta area. Check our website for more details.

Brian N. Stovall
www.thebricogroup.com