Small Business Profit Explosion

10 Surefire Ways to Make More Money and Keep it in the Bank!

Go to www.myprofitguru.com to listen to our free webinar that will show you the following 10 Surefire ways to make more money and keep it in the bank. This one hour webinar is jam packed with information that I have used over the last thirty plus years to help business owners increase their profits.

The following are the items I cover that I know can help you double or triple your profits this year:

1. See what the crowd is doing and do the opposite.
2. Focus your time on the work that increases profits, sales and cash flow.
3. Manage & improve every step of the sales cycle.
4. Increase sales to current customers.
5. Create a marketing system to get the big customer.
6. Speedup and improve all areas of the business transaction cycle.
7. Understanding & utilizing the most important rule of business.
8. Using 5 critical accounting numbers to increase profits, sales & cash flow.
9. Never totally trust your bookkeeper.
10. Be a lifetime learner.

At www.myprofitguru.com you will also receive a list with all legal business tax deductions (So you don’t ever miss a legal deduction again!), 65 tax cutting tips and a list of QuickBooks keyboard shortcuts.

Please let me know what you think of this free webinar.

Thank you for your continued support and let’s make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

The #1 reason small businesses prosper

(Growing Your Business Series: Part 3) 

As I wrote in my last blog, one of the big advantages a CPA has working with small business owners is that we get to learn what makes them profitable and what makes them fail. 

In my last blog (The Top 25 causes of small business failure. http://bit.ly/xkoyMF ) I gave you the reasons small business fail. But, while avoiding these reasons for failure is important, it is just as important to understand how to succeed.

Moya K. Mason released a paper this month on What Causes Small Businesses to Prosper? (http://www.moyak.com/papers/small-business-success.html). In it, she writes, “What does matter, it turns out, is having a strong grasp of the business basics. Without exception, companies that outperformed their industry peers excelled at what we call the four primary management practices – strategy, execution, culture and structure.” My observation of small business owners who prosper agrees with her findings. To this I would add the following reasons that small business owners prosper: 

• They have or acquire a strong, working knowledge of business basics.
• They have a strategic profit plan.
• They build their strategic profit plan around a clear value propositions for the customer.
• They are committed to marketing and selling their product.
• They concentrate their sales efforts to a niche rather than trying to sell to every possible customer.
• They develop a way to make their product something their customer “must-have” rather than something that would be a “nice-to-have”.
• They continuously turn out innovative products and services rather than reacting for events.
• They deliver products and services that consistently meet and exceed customers’ expectations.
• They hold themselves and their people to a high level of performance.
• They empower their employees and managers to make independent decisions and to find ways to improve operations.
• They make it easy for their employees and customers to work with their organizations.
• They hold on to talented employees and actively work to develop more.
• They get a mentor on board.
• They practice the “Golden Rule” in all of their business and personal dealings.
• They develop a good accounting system that provides them with strong management reports.

We will be launching a series of free and low cost webinars to help the business owner acquire the business knowledge they need to prosper. Keep a look out for future emails from me introducing these webinars.  

Thank you for your continued support and let’s make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

The top 25 causes of small business failure

(Growing Your Business Series: Part 2)

One of the big advantages a CPA has working with small business owners is that we get to learn what makes them profitable and what makes them fail – without losing any of our own funds. On top of that, we too are business owners who face many of the same kind of opportunities and challenges that all small business owner’s face.

So what have I learned? Well for starters, launching a small business is risky and the chances of building a successful business are small. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% are out of business in the first five years. Of the ones that survive past five years, less than 1% reaches a level that allows the business to survive the retirement or death of the founder.

The following are the top 25 reasons I have seen for small business failure:

1. Choosing a business in an industry that just isn’t very profitable.
2. Not having actual hands on experience in the industry before opening the new business.
3. Unwillingness by the owner to take responsibility for everything that is not working in their business.
4. Poor management skills by the owner.
5. Lack of necessary effort by the owner. They often don’t understand that they are not in a 9-5 job anymore.
6. Unwillingness of the owner to be a continuous, lifetime learner.
7. Failure to have a business and marketing plan.
8. Inadequate cash reserves.
9. Failure to truly understand their customers wants and needs. This also includes not understanding what triggers a customer to buy.
10. Lack of marketing & sales skills.
11. Failing to price your product or service correctly.
12. Failure to anticipate or react to changes in the marketplace, competition or technology.
13. An overdependence on a single (or a few) customers.
14. Uncontrolled growth.
15. The owner believing they can do everything themselves.
16. Poor customer service.
17. Unqualified or untrained employees.
18. Failure to seek outside professional help.
19. Employee fraud.
20. Poor location.
21. Poor inventory management.
22. Poor credit arrangements.
23. Absence of performance monitoring.
24. Over borrowing.
25. Failing to innovate and introduce new products or services.

A review of the list shows that the key reason for business failure is the inexperience and lack of business knowledge by the owner. We will be launching a series of free and low cost webinars to help the business owner acquire the business knowledge they need to succeed. Keep an eye out for future emails from me introducing these webinars.  

Thank you for your continued support and let’s make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Are You the Reason Your Business Isn’t Growing?

(Growing Your Business Series: Part 1)

The short answer is – yes. If your business is not growing the way you want it to it is almost always the business owner’s fault. The business, after all, is your creation. You decided what it looked like and how it would be run.

Many times, the business owner does not know the reason the business is not growing. But, frequently it is the business owner who deliberately is slowing down growth. Usually, this is due to the business owner not feeling comfortable that they have the people and resources to grow the business to the next level.

I have personally been in the same situation where I felt I had to do all the work myself. I didn’t feel I could trust my staff to do it right! They didn’t have my experience, judgment and ability to get the work done correct the first time – every time. And, since it wasn’t their business, they didn’t care about it the same way I did. This led me to believe that the only way things were going to get done right was if I was the one who was doing it!

If this sounds familiar you are not alone! This is one of the main complaints I have heard from business owners over the years. Here’s the catch though – if you want to have a growing business that provides quality to your customers every time, you have to create business systems that allows your business to function without you micro-managing every little detail. 

Over the last thirty plus years I have read numerous business books attacking this from many different directions. This business growth series is a brief outline of items I have “borrowed” from these books that has worked for me and many of my other clients and colleagues I have worked with.

In order to grow your business you must master the following areas:

1. Managing your-self
2. Organizing your business
3. Hiring the proper people for the job
4. Create a strong, vibrant workplace where people want to work.
5. Setting employee goals & performing well planned, organized employee performance reviews on a weekly basis.

I will get into each of these areas in more detail in upcoming weeks. But, in the meantime …… are you stunting your growth? If so, what are you going to do about it?

Thank you for your continued support and let’s make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Lessons Learned – Profits are all that matter!

The myth most business owners believe: The most important thing is to get the sale!

Why this myth causes a problem: It focuses on the wrong thing! The only thing that counts in a business is to make a profit. You didn’t start a business to make a sale and turn around and send all the cash out to vendors and employees. Most business owner’s started their business in order to at least be reasonably prosperous (some even wanted to be unreasonably prosperous).

Most business owners who have rapid increases in sales for the first time almost always run into cash flow problems. They have spent so much time focusing on increasing sales that they failed to have the financing and systems in place to support the increased costs in inventory and employees to deliver the product to the customer. The result is usually serious financial trouble and sometimes even bankruptcy.

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! Successful business owners have learned that, in business, the only thing that matters is profits! A profitable business provides the means to support the business owner and their employees while also paying all vendors, bank loans, tax liabilities and investors.

 

Profits allow the company to have the strength to survive the tough times and to take advantage of good business opportunities when they appear.

 

The successful business owner starts every year by creating a profit plan. A sales and marketing plan that focuses on profitable sales is obviously a large part of that profit plan.

Lesson learned: Start each year by making a profit plan that maps out exactly how the business will hit the profit goal that the business owner has set. By focusing on what is really important in running a business you will greatly increases your odds of truly becoming successful.   

Thank you for your continued support and let’s make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Life Time Value of a Customer – Part II -Up-selling and cross-selling

On Monday’s blog we showed how a $250 tax return client really has a life time value of $5,250. Now let’s look at how up-selling and cross-selling can massively increase this customer’s value. (Up-selling is adding related products or services to the original purchase. Cross-selling is getting this customer to buy a product or service totally unrelated to the original purchase.)

Your current customers are the easiest sale for you to make. They already know you, like you and trust you. So why do most businesses spend all their money and efforts trying to sell to new customers who don’t know them, like them and trust them? It’s because they do not understand how much up-selling and cross-selling can quickly increase their profits.

By training yourself and your staff to offer other services and products to customers, you can easily increase profits. By addressing your customer’s needs when they buy one product, you may know of other products that will further help them. This will instantly increase sales, profits and improve your relationship with your customers.

Let’s look at what happens to the life time value of my tax return client if I use up-selling and cross-selling:

1. Tax return preparation ($250 x 7yrs)                                     $1,750
2. Up-sell year-end tax planning ($750/yr x 7yrs)                    $5,250
3. One time QuickBooks training for their business              $1,250
4. Annual QuickBooks support  ($600/yr x 7)                           $4.200

                    For a total of                                                                         $12,450

     5.Two referrals with same services                                               $24,900

        For a total life-time value of                                                           $37,350

Up-selling and cross-selling increases the potential life time value of that one customer from $5,250 ($1,750 x 3 customers) to an amazing $37,350!

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

Life Time Value of a Customer – Part I

The life time value of a customer is one of the most important numbers every business owner must know and understand.  You calculate it by taking the average price that your customers pay for your main products or services and multiplying that average by the number of years they will remain a customer. Then add the value of the average number of referrals they will send you during their time as a customer.

Calculating this number often changes how much you would consider spending on each customer and how you and your staff treat them. In my case, the average personal tax return customer is charged $250. If I only look at this amount how much should I spend on advertising and how much time should I spend with each return?

But, let’s calculate the life time value of that new tax return customer. Assume that this new customer will stay an average of seven years and refer two other tax return clients during that time. The life time value of that customer is $5,250, calculated as follows:

 

• $250 times 7 =                                   $1,750
• Two referrals @ $1,750 =                    $3,500
• For a total of                                      $5,250

Now that I know that this new customer is worth an average of $5,250, not $250, how much should I spend in time and money to get this client and to keep them happy?

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Don’t take a Holiday from Selling!

Holidays are a great time to say thank you to your customers and to sell tastefully. Buy Christmas cards and sign each one personally. Also, have each envelope addressed by hand. If you have bad handwriting like I do, have someone else with good handwriting address them for you.

But, don’t just sign them. Add a personal note to each. Suggest lunch, write in your email address or your telephone number. Include a gift or a discount. This is a good way to introduce a new product or service.

Smart business owners never stop selling!

Lessons Learned – Paying your payroll taxes is not an option!

The myth most business owners believe: There are really two things that many business owners do that can, and often does, lead to a visit to the bankruptcy attorney. First, they hire an employee and either they ignore the filing and paying of their payroll taxes or they hire someone and never check to ensure that everything is being done correctly. 

The second serious mistake many business owners make is to delay paying their payroll taxes when they are short of cash.

Why this myth causes a problem: You, as the business owner, are personally responsible for any unpaid 941 taxes – even if your business is a corporation! So, if you are not personally reviewing that your returns and payments are done correctly you are putting your business survival in someone else’s hands.

And, when a business owner “borrows” from their payroll tax returns they are driving straight into quicksand. This leads to high penalties that can often add up to 50% to the original taxes. And, since the business owner is short of cash, the ability to” borrow” from the IRS allows the them to ignore the real underlying problem that is causing them to be short of cash. Until they address the real problem they will continue “borrowing” from the IRS until the IRS closes the business down.

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! Experienced business owners know that they must take personal responsibility for making sure that payroll tax returns are filed and paid correctly and on time. They do this by:

• Electronicaly paying their 941 taxes on line after every payroll. Those companies that pay their 941 deposits after every payroll, even if they are not due, never get into trouble.
• The owner checks that the 941 taxes are paid every pay period. Even if you outsource the preparation of your payroll, you must check that they are paying the taxes to the IRS. There have been many cases where the taxes were taken out by the payroll company but not paid to the IRS. The owners have been held responsible even though they had already paid them. You can do this easily now by signing in yourself to the EFTPS system and checking that the payments are made.
• Outsource the preparation of the payroll returns and W-2s to an expert. I have seen too many times where a business owner tried to save money by preparing required payroll reports themselves or by trusting their bookkeeper. Many of them have ended up paying penalties for errors they have made that were many times the price of hiring an expert.

Lesson learned: DON’T MESS WITH TAXES! (Bad pun intended.) You, as the business owner, must make sure that your payroll tax returns are filed and paid correctly and on time.  

So How Do I Know If My Employees are Making a Good First Impression?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog article about the importance of making a good first impression on your prospects (http://bit.ly/sblW7W). But, how do you know if your employees are losing possible customers by making a bad first impression? One of the best ways is to “Mystery Shop” your own business or practice.

You should do this with your employees’ full knowledge. Being open with them about it will:

1. Let them know it will happen. They will not know how or exactly when so they will automatically treat prospects better.
2. Let them know that the results will be part of their reward, bonuses, pay raises, etc.

You can hire someone yourself or can check out www.mysteryshop.org and www.shopreports.com to hire from businesses that specialize in mystery shopping (Disclaimer: I have not researched the quality or level of service they offer. You should still do your normal due diligence.)

Making sure your customers are receiving the best service possible is always your responsibility. Testing your staff isn’t dishonest, it’s good business practice.

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

The six areas that every business owner must master in order earn massive profits.

James Malinchak is a motivational speaker and a star from last year’s ABC shows The Secret Millionaire. After the show he had a course that listed the four M’s that a business owner must master in order to be successful.

His four M’s are:

1. Master your mindset
2. Master your marketing
3. Master making connections
4. Master making a positive difference in other’s life.

 

To this list I would add the following:

1. Master your people management skills
2. Master your money management skills.

My experience working with business owners for the last 35+ years is that very few of them have become proficient in these six areas – never mind master them. Imagine how much your profits would increase if you did work hard to master these six areas?

 

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Lessons Learned – Most of your profits happens after the sale!

The myth most business owners believe: My work is done when the sale is complete and paid for. Most business owners plan what happens with the customer before and during the sale but never follow up after the sale.

Why this myth causes a problem: If you just concentrate on the sale you are leaving most of your profits on the table! Most business owners never follow-up with the customer to see if there are other products or services that the customer may also be able to use in addition to the product that they originally came in for.

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! Most of the advertising and marketing costs is from getting the customer to buy from you the first time. Successful business owners understand that the real profits happen after the sale. They look for opportunities to sell additional products/services. These include:

• Look for opportunities to sell the customer related products/services.
• Send them monthly specials.
• Create a customer frequent buyers club.
• Create a product of the month club. Something similar to  the “coffee of the month club”.
• Look for opportunities to cross-sell them into unrelated products/services. For example – business owners who come to us for tax preparation may be excellent prospects for our QuickBooks training.
• Put in a referral program that entices them to refer their friends.
• Design new products/services that their current customers will buy. This is an excellent way to test a new product. If you’re current customers won’t buy the new product it is unlikely that prospects who do not know you will buy the new product. 

Lesson learned: The real profits happen when you plan what you will sell the customer after they buy the first time. 

 

Marketing Tip of the Week- Marketing Is Never An Option, It’s A Necessity!

Sometimes marketing is an expense and sometimes it is an investment – depending on if it is working or not. But abandoning your marketing plan when cash is tight should never be an option!

First, let’s understand what marketing is. Marketing is everything you do that creates value in the customers mind so that they are enticed to meet with you. Marketing gives you the chance to sell.

Selling is when you convince the prospect that you can be trusted to deliver what your marketing efforts promised.

Based on these definitions, marketing must happen even if you are totally broke. How else will prospects learn about you, be willing to meet with you and, most importantly, be excited to meet with you. The following are four things that can be done even if you are cash poor:

1. Create new products and sell them to your current customers.
2. Form strategic partnerships with companies that deal with your prospects. Get creative and remember to make it a win/win for both parties.
3. Create and work a referral program that gets your customer to refer their friends.
4. Learn more by buying Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson and The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. Both of these will provide you with ton’s of low cost marketing ideas.

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

 

Lessons Learned – Not all customers are right for you!

The myth most business owners believe: Any customer is a good customer.

Why this myth causes a problem: When I was first starting my CPA firm I took every job that I could get. Heck, I had three little kids and had no money, no work and very few customers so I felt that I really had no choice. While selling QuickBooks training I quickly learned that not all customers are created equally!

Good clients were easy to train, appreciated my work, understood how what I was teaching them helped their business and, most importantly, paid my bill in full and on time.

Bad clients fought any change to their procedures (even though they hired me to help them make changes), took no responsibility to learn the program, withheld information or provided incomplete information and, worst of all, always tried to negotiate the bill down and then refused or slow paid the bill.

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! The customer is always right – just not always right for you! Successful business owners learn that when they are meeting a prospect they should be interviewing the prospect in order to decide if they are a good customer for them.

Since our smart business owner knows that 80% of their revenue comes from 20% of their customers they also know that the smart thing to do is to concentrate their sales efforts on prospects who are similar to their best customers. They also learn what “bad for them” customers look like and make a conscious effort to avoid them.

Lesson learned: Being picky about who you take as a customer both increases your profits and reduces your stress.

The Sale Isn’t Complete Until the Customer Pays!

A recent study found that half of all small businesses are having trouble collecting receivables. During good times this is an annoyance. During bad times it is often the path to an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney.

Collecting receivables requires a plan and a system that addresses collections before the sale, at the point of the sale and after the sale.

Before the sale is complete you should:

1. Review the customer’s ability to pay. Big companies use credit reports. But, for most small companies the easiest method is to require a down payment from any customer who you do not have a track record with. How they pay the down payment is a good indication of their payment ability. Plus a down payment lessens your exposure, recovers your cost and speeds up your cash flow.
2. Make sure that your product has value to the customer that is equal to or (preferably) higher than the cash that the customer will pay. This is one of the top reasons for slow pay or non-payment. We have all fallen victim to the slick sales person who gets us to buy something that later we regret. The customer usually “gets even” by slow paying or refusing to pay.
3. Offer incentives to prepay. This can be with a discount but I would rather offer a bonus of some sort that actually increases the value to the customer if they pay early.
4. If possible, don’t deliver without receiving payment. At a bare minimum review with the customer your payment terms. The goal is to eliminate the excuse that they didn’t know about when the payment was due. At this point also keep an eye out for clues that something has changed in the customer’s financial ability between the order date and the delivery date.
5. Invoice quicker. Don’t wait till month end. Invoice as the work is completed.  

After the sale is complete you should:

1. At every step in the collection process remember to keep stressing the value that the customer received. Don’t stop selling!
2. Call shortly after the sale to make sure they are happy with the purchase. You are still stressing the value of the product or service they received. If you can’t call all customers you should at least call the largest sales. (This is often a great time to up-sell to the next level or to sell an add-on product!)
3. Have a system that includes some combination of calls and letters that automatically go out to any account that is past due. The squeaky wheel does get paid first. So squeak loudly! Of course remain polite and keep stressing the value of what they received.
4. At a certain point (60-90 days after the sale) the owner should call and
   1. Make sure the customer really felt they received value. If not, the owner should try to fix the problem. This may be your last chance to save a customer.
   2. Ask them for payment.
   3. If they can’t pay the owner should say, “You are a valued customer and I would like to help you by offering a payment schedule.”
   4. As a last resort – offer a reduced payment if the invoice is paid by a certain date.
5. If all else fails – write off the balance and forget about the customer. Don’t waste any additional time and money suing them.  Your time would be much better used learning what went wrong in your sales and collection process and getting better customers who value what you are providing and are willing and able to pay.

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

Business Startup Tips: Concentrate On The Customer – Not The Product!

Most startup business owners start their business by thinking about the product or service they are offering. They fail to answer the most important question that every business owner must answer – Why should I, the customer, buy your product or use your service rather than all of the other options that are available to me?

To answer this question you really must have a vision of your ideal customer in your head. Better yet – write it down. Think about your ten best customers and answer the following questions about them (if you don’t have customers than you better do some research so you can answer these questions):

• What niche are they in?
• What industry are they in?
• What is their age?
• What is their gender?
• Where do they live?
• What is their education level?
• What do they read?
• What groups do they belong to?
• How did they first hear about you?
• Why do they continue to buy from you?
• And most importantly – What are their problems? Better yet, what are their pains that they wish they could solve?
• Why do they buy?
• What is the trigger that prompts your customers to buy?
• How are my competitors solving my customer’s (or potential customer’s) problems?
• Who else influences the customer’s buying decision?

Now think about your product or service and answer these questions:

• What can I do better, faster, different, than my competitors in meeting my customers’ needs?
• How does my product or service solve a problem the customer is having?
• How is your solution different than the solution my competitor is offering the customer?
• What guarantee or promise can I give that my competitor isn’t offering?
• How can I communicate this advantage to the customer in one sentence or less?

Answering these questions almost guarantees that you focus on your customer and how your product/service is such a “smart” decision that the customer really has no option but to buy from you.

Thank you for your continued support and let's make this year our most profitable year ever!

Lessons Learned – Six Ways Smart Business Owners Cut Their Income Taxes

The myth most business owners believe: Hiring a good tax preparer is the secret to paying lower taxes.

Why this myth causes a problem: The normal business owner believe that their work is done once they hire a tax preparer. They don’t do anything to control tax costs. This leads to them being surprised when they get their tax return and paying a much higher tax liability than smart business owners.

So, they blame their tax preparer and find a new one. Of course, this doesn’t change anything since they took the source of the problem with them to the new tax preparer.

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! Uncle Sam is your partner. And, he is a bad partner! He does little work in the business and demands a third or more of the profits. Smart business owners also understand that income tax is an expense like any other. Thus, it can be planned for and managed.

Smart business owners cut their income taxes in the following six ways:

1. Smart business owners take year-end tax planning seriously. After the first of the year there is very little that can be done to reduce taxes. Before year-end is the only time where a business owner can effectively reduce their tax liability.
2. Smart business owners call their tax advisor before doing any major transactions. They call before selling assets, opening a business or taking money out of retirement accounts. Since they know in advance the tax consequences of their actions they don’t “Shoot-the-messenger” when they get their tax return and discover how much they owe.
3. Smart business owners keep good accounting records. They don’t drop off shoe boxes full of receipts to their tax preparer and they understand that good accounting records ensure that they deduct everything they spend in their business. With the current technology there is no good reason not to have good records in order to prepare your tax return.
4. Smart business owners get their records to their tax preparer early. I prepared close to fifty returns in the last two weeks. There is no way that they received the same amount of attention to helping them reduce their taxes that I was able to spend with clients earlier in the year. Smart business owners understand this and make time to meet with their tax preparer as early as possible.
5. Smart business owners save for taxes as they earn the income. Uncle Sam’s motto – pay me now or pay me more later. Smart business owners make their estimate payments. The smartest business owners put an amount into a savings account weekly that represents how much they will owe. (Hint: divide your total tax liability last year by your total sales from last year. Put this percentage amount in a savings account weekly.)
6. Smart business owners get a basic understanding of the income tax law. They don’t become experts. But, they do learn how the system works and how to use it to their advantage.

Lesson learned: Income taxes can be reduced like any other expense with proper management and planning. This allows the smart business owner to use the savings to grow their business, or support their family, plan for retirement, take a vacation, etc.  

Tax Tip of the Week: Year-end tax planning time is here!

Yes, I survived the 10/17/11 personal extension deadline. Barely! I, like most CPA’s, hate this deadline. We are dealing with the clients who have bad records, don’t plan, are surprised that they owe taxes and complain about how we must have missed something. (Obviously, I'm not talking about any of my clients!)

I tell them all the same thing, “After the first of the year we write history not fiction.”

Now we are entering a time most CPA’s enjoy - Tax planning season!

This is the time that smart business owners work to reduce their taxes for 2012. No surprise that the business owners who hire me to help them reduce their taxes are the same business owners who are expanding even during this economic downturn. They try not to be surprised by anything in their business and they understand that income tax is an expense that can be controlled just like any other cost.

I just recently finished initial tax planning for two of my clients. Together, we identified legal ways to cut their taxes by over 60% (Savings of $108,000 for one and $124,749 for the other). If you are in business you should be tax planning. Yeah, you might only cut your bill by a few thousand dollars. But, if you are like me, you can think of a few things your business or your family could use the savings for.

Tax planning starts by projecting your income to the end of the year and then exploring different tax strategies, loopholes and opportunities that are available to you. This can be intense and time consuming if you have a large business. So call your tax preparer for help.

I will be sending out a year-end tax savings tip each day from now to the end of the year. Signup for these daily tax planning emails by going to www.wjb-cpa.com and entering your email address in the box in the upper right hand corner. I will also be posting these to my FaceBook business page, Linked In account and Twitter account. So search for me there.

Finally, I have only a few tax planning spots available. Email or call so I can discuss with you if this is something that will help you and your business cut your taxes.

Like any good CPA, I need to add a disclaimer: unfortunately, it is impossible to offer comprehensive tax info over the internet, no matter how well researched or written. And remember, I love my readers but having me bookmarked on your computer doesn’t make you a client: before relying on any information given on this site, contact a tax professional to discuss your particular situation.

Lessons Learned - How to Increase Sales Without Spending a Fortune on Advertising.

The myth most business owners believe: The best way to increase sales is by increasing my advertising.

Why this myth causes a problem: In this economy just about every business is experiencing a decrease in sales. Their business customers are cutting costs or closing down. And high unemployment, shorter work weeks and increased costs in almost everything is forcing the consumer to cut or eliminate almost all non-essential items.

Most small business owners don’t have the budget needed to launch an effective advertising campaign in order to replace lost customers. So, they do the worst thing possible – nothing! (Complaining doesn’t count as doing something).

The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! The easiest and cheapest way to increase sales is to concentrate on increasing sales to current customers. These people already know you, trust you and like you! This is a much easier sale than a cold call or advertising to non-customers.

Experienced business owners have a plan to:

1. Get their current customers to come back more often.
2. Get their current customers to buy more each time they are there.
3. Get their current customers to refer their friends.

The smart business owner focuses on these three things and has a written plan on how they are going to accomplish each of the three steps. And it almost always results in a big payoff for the owner. Even in this economy (I would argue – especially in this economy). I have personally helped business owners double their sales in a year just by focusing on these three things.

Lesson learned: New customers are required to keep a business growing. But, the road to quick sales and profit increase leads to selling more to your current customers.

Marketing & Selling Tip of the Week – Have Your Marketing Work Together!

Having all of their marketing work together is one trick that marketers use is to make a lasting impression with audiences.

To give some examples Nike and Just Do It, Frosted Flake and Tony the Tiger, Target with their bulls eye logo and heavy use of the color red in their ads. All of these companies’ marketing consistently use the same messages, theme and mascots to create a recall trigger with their audience. These triggers help the consumer remember the company and automatically creating a long lasting impression in the consumer’s memory.

To do this, you just have to work on your marketing to get your right message, theme, logo and/or spokesperson in place and plan out how you want to use it consistently in your marketing. You want to make it easy your current and prospective customers to recognize and remember you, so give them a hand.