This is increasingly a point of concern, writes Molly Williams at the Wall Street Journal’s Small Business Blog. Business owners can eliminate the possibility legal chaos on this front by ensuring Web accounts are in their business’ name, rather than their own. And it’s probably not a good idea to include account numbers and passwords in wills and trusts because those can become public documents. A few states have passed specific estate laws addressing the issue: As small businesses move more operations online, there’s an unpleasant question they need to ask: What happens if the one person who has…
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Charles Green has posted an interesting thought-piece over at the Trusted Advisor site: When clients don’t buy what a CPA firm is selling, it’s unlikely that they don’t want what you’re selling. More likely it’s that they’re not buying how the service is being sold. For example, a potential client is talking with several accounting firms about a significant assignment. One firm has expertise in that area and understands the client’s issues, and the meeting goes well. The firm bids competitively, recognizing the value of potential future work. The final presentation is a hit, but another firm gets the engagement.…
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U.S. banks are awash with money from depositors, reports David Reilly in Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street, while demand for loans lags behind. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s banking profile shows that net loans amounted to 70% of deposits in the first quarter, the lowest figure since 1984. As far as problems go, this isn’t the worst to have. Deposit money is still washing over U.S. banks even as loan growth continues to prove elusive. The result: Net loans equaled just 70% of total deposits in the first quarter, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s quarterly banking…
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The June issue of Investment Advisor includes a story on practice management that features an interesting graphic:
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Ace Accounting Today reporter Danielle Lee may well have feared decadence, aggressive and overly-medicated groupies, atonal experimentation, psychedelics, and really bad rhyme. But she braved the challenges and took on the story in any case, and it turned out to be pretty cool: An all-CPA band rocked tax day, performing a long set of classic rock during their annual End of Season Tax Bash in a Connecticut restaurant. The Connecticut-based Accounting Crows are: vocalist/bassist Reed Risteen, partner with BlumShapiro in West Hartford.; lead guitarist Alan Friedman, partner of Farmington-based Friedman, Kannenberg & Company; drummer Michael Fortunato, vice president of…
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New private company council includes FASB, but in reduced role, The Journal of Accountancy explains. “This announcement is excellent news for small businesses that have been concerned about the future of US GAAP particularly in relation to an international move toward IFRS,” adds Editor Gail Perry at AccountingWeb. Emily Chasan at the Wall Street Journal reports: The Financial Accounting Foundation’s Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to establish a new Private Company Council that will create exceptions and modifications to U.S. accounting rules as they apply to private companies. The board, which oversees the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, said…
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The recession is over and entrepreneurs are looking for cash, but are banks willing to lend? The answer is a resounding yes, according to reports at OPEN Forum. OPEN Forum’s Katie Morell talks to lending and credit experts to get the tips you need to get that loan application approved. Here’s what she found out: Bankers emphasize that borrowers need to present a solid picture of their business and themselves. Here’s what they’re looking for in potential lendees. Your Posse Come into a lending meeting with your accountant or lawyer in tow to immediately establish a degree of credibility.…
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. . . or at least so opines Edi Osborne, of Mentor Plus, at CPA Trendlines. She throws in a third promise you’ve probably heard but we couldn’t fit on the subject line: “No Surprise Billing. Ever.” More: What do these three tag lines have in common? Predictability. Dominoes and Fed Ex built their entire business model on making (and keeping) an uncomplicated predictability promise to the customer. Dominoes and Fed Ex looked at their marketplace and asked one simple question, “What is your number-one frustration in dealing with pizza and package delivery?” Those frustrations were dissected and turned…
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The U.S. likely will fall back into recession if scheduled spending cuts take effect and Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire this year, the Congressional Budget Office said. If the U.S. falls off this “fiscal cliff,” the economy will probably contract 1.3% in the first half of 2013, the CBO said. CNN Financial Times / Alphaville New York Times NPR Reuters USA Today Wall Street Journal Yahoo! Finance Is there an upside? Depends if you like disco. Styx’s Tommy Shaw: “Around ’75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper…
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Congressional Democrats have proposed financing student-loan legislation by expanding payroll taxes on subchapter S corporations and partnerships. The bill would levy Social Security and Medicare taxes on all business income if the firm is engaged in professional services, such as investment advice, or if 75% or more of the gross income of the firm is attributable to three or fewer shareholders. Investment News’ Mark Schoeff Jr. reports that in Washington parlance, the phrase “pay for” has become a noun, “payfor.” This term trends during the legislative process, as lawmakers seek “payfors” to offset spending or tax cuts contained in bills.…
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Over at OPENForum, Mike Periu, a Principal at EcoFin media writes: Using counterintuitive strategies in your business can be risky, but when they work the rewards can be enormous. Trying these methods can help you improve sales and profits: Preventing Theft Warehouse stores like Costco, BJ’s and Sam’s Club are very careful with their inventory management and go to great lengths to avoid shrinkage, which is a fancy way to refer to theft. One of the strategies they use is to have an employee cross check customers’ receipts with the items in their cart before they are permitted to leave the…
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At TLNT: The Business of HR, John Hollon reports on a new nationwide survey of 174 employers by OI Partners, an organization that describes itself as “a global talent management company, renowned for its highly personalized services … (specializing) in mid-level, executive and group outplacement; executive coaching; leadership development and workforce solutions.” Being a team player (selected by 71 percent of surveyed companies): “Being part of a team has taken on a higher priority since many companies are still operating with leaner work forces and there is a greater need to accomplish goals through others” said Ford. Fully focused on satisfying customers (chosen by 68…
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The company culture you build has a major impact on how successful the business will be as it grows, writes Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert, at American Express OPENForum, a small business media hub. One of the biggest trends in the past few years is workplace flexibility. A new study by the Families and Work Institute shows that more than 75 percent of employers now offer some form of flex time. This number is up from two thirds in 2005. In addition, 63 percent of companies allow employees to work from home at least sometimes, which is up from 34 percent. Schawbel…
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The Wall Street Journal’s Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property. It’s probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses. Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with “intellectual property,” or IP. And for good reason: In the information economy, the core assets of a new venture are likely to be talented people, the IP they create, and little else. To maximize future value, founders should…
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In an article titled “Regulation ‘Pushing Up Financial Firms’ Costs” The Financial Times‘ chief regulation correspondent Brooke Masters reports that extraterritorial regulations, rules that affect businesses outside the country that enacts them, are pushing up costs and driving banks, insurers and asset managers away from particular markets, a survey of global financial firms has found. More than half the groups that participated in a survey that the Protiviti regulatory consultancy will unveil on Monday said they had decided not to enter – or had exited – specific countries because of concerns about their laws and regulations. Nearly that many,…
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GigaOm M&A Advisor: “Sales Don’t Create Value. What You Do Creates Value.” GigaOm M&A Advisor Marty Wolf explains how, especially in the tech field, five great ways to destroy your company include: 1. Opportunistic acquisitions 2. Growth for the sake of growth 3. Weak balance sheet 4. Convoluted ownership structures 5. Missing the window on a liquidity event How does this play out in the real world? Just look at Cisco, writes Wolf. Over the span of 10 years, Cisco’s sales rose nearly 94 percent while its enterprise value actually declined 29 percent. Read the whole thing.
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Good Grasp on Value Enables Better Tax & Retirement Planning, Reduces Conflicts The Washington Post’s On Small Business blog cites data from a variety of sources that indicate most small business owners don’t have a good grasp on the value of their business. Written by Gerald Radican, the piece on the Post blog cites these findings from Spardata, a Maryland-based valuation firm: A typical business owner misjudges the value of his or her company by 59 percent. That’s because business owners often choose to estimate the value based on what other businesses in the same industry are valued. Such rationale assumes…
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There’s No Accounting for the Subscription Economy It’s taken over 10 years to get the idea of the subscription economy into our noggins, but we’ve barely started internalizing what it takes to support it and report on it as a business, reports Dennis Pombriant at CRM Buyer. Add “Accounting” for 32 Points and a Triple Score “Wall Street types are very accustomed to companies selling products rather than subscriptions,” he reports. But “subscriptions have a mixed bag of revenue recognition ideas that challenge the status quo”: . . . Subscriptions as a way of doing business are just about everywhere;…
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The Unjustly Neglected “Margin Call” Ross Douthat at the New York Times thinks the Oscars missed crediting an important film this year: Speaking of Noah Millman, reading his Oscar post reminds me that my own comments on the year in movies neglected to mention what was perhaps the most striking injustice of the Best Picture nominations: The lack of any love for “Margin Call,” which was, as Millman writes, “not only extremely well-written and well-acted … but an extremely rare effort to accurately depict the culture of Wall Street.” (Be sure to check out his perceptive take on the movie’s moral and professional dilemmas.) The movie did…
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Three Practice Management Trends for 2012 For the third year, the MGMA has published the State of Medical Practice in MGMA Connexion. It’s an overview of issues and industry perspectives that will shape medical practice this year. The Association collected information from healthcare professionals about the ways in which EHRs increase revenue, as well as what affects your compensation and practice collections, among others. Here are three of the 12 practice management trends: 1. Collections vs. compensation: Setting matters Your practice’s ownership may directly affect your physicians’ pay. Collections for professional charges (i.e., patient visits, procedures) are higher in physician-owned…