Have You Claimed All Your Small Business Tax Deductions?
If you are running a small business, then you need to know all the heads under which you can claim business tax deductions. These could go a long way in drastically reducing the total amount of tax you pay at yearend. According to the Code 162 of the Internal Revenue Service, all ordinary and necessary expenses that are paid or incurred for carrying out any trade or business are claimable as deductions during the taxable year.
Speaking on broad terms, these expenses could include rents, salaries and allowances paid to the employees, traveling expenses, entertainment expenses and such overheads. Though these are all ordinary and necessary expenses, all of them may not be deductible. The IRS has its own parameters to judge what ordinary and necessary expenses are. According to them, the expenses should be fanciful or exorbitantly large. The expenses should be commensurate with the circumstances under which they are made. Also any personal expenses would not count towards business tax deductions. Showing such expenses as business tax deductions could land the taxpayer in a soup.
Contrary to what the tax-saving pundits say, it is not a very good idea to make payments to relatives and show them as business expenses. The tax auditors scrutinize such expenses under a microscope. If you do not have justifiable cause to make the payment to your relative, do not do it.
But, all the expenses that are made directly for conducting the business are claimable. These include the expenses incurred on the transport or on the vehicles themselves in running the business. There are two ways to claim vehicle tax deduction. The first is the standard mileage method I which the sum is deducted by per mile formula which is devised by the IRS itself. The second method is the actual expense method in which the actual costs incurred in operating the vehicle are deducted. Depreciation charges and gas and maintenance bills can be shown here.
If you need to entertain clients on a regular basis, then it can be shown for deductions. About half of the entire expenses incurred in entertaining clients could be claimed. This could include expenses like throwing parties for your clients, taking them to restaurants, concerts, movies or even for inviting them over. Needless to say, there should be some proof that the meeting was for business purposes and not plainly for pleasure. Each bill needs to be shown, and the purpose of the meeting written on each of them.
It is a good business habit to file and keep records of all expenses incurred during the course of the year. These could be claimed as deductions when the assessment time comes. Your everyday expenses to keep the business going like rent, stationery, maintenance and electricity bills could be shown in such expenses.
Make a habit of filing your expenses in different folders so that they are easily accessible at the end of the year. Also keep these records after the tax is paid, because they could be needed for verification at any point of time.
The 11 Keys to Guerrilla Marketing Success
If you own a small business then it shouldn’t come as any surprise to you that one of the main problems facing most small businesses is marketing. How do you get your message out there? How do you make your business stand out from your competitors?
And, possibly most importantly, how do you do it at a price that you can afford?
It’s not easy, unless you toss away the blinders of traditional marketing and embrace what have come to be known as Guerrilla Marketing techniques, as first described in Jay Conrad Levinson’s now-classic 1984 book, Guerrilla Marketing.
Let’s begin your conversion to Guerrilla Marketing by asking 11 key questions about your business.
1. How would you describe your business?
If you cannot adequately describe your business in 25 words or less then you need to begin by focusing your business and its goals.
2. What are the key strengths of your business?
You want a straightforward and very honest assessment of your business’ strong points. If you can’t think of any strong points then that may be an area that needs attention.
3. What are the weaknesses or challenges of your business?
Take a step back from your business and look at it as if you were an outsider being asked to invest in your business. What would be some of your concerns?
4. What is unique about your business? Why would customers buy from you rather than from your competitor?
This is a vital question. If you can’t come up with a good, solid answer, then your customers may not be able to either.
5. Where would you like to see your business in the next 6 months? In one year? In five years?
In other words, do you have any kind of a marketing plan and are you following it?
6. What obstacles could be getting in the way of achieving your 6-month goals?
Don’t settle for obvious answers. Play Devil’s advocate and try to anticipate anything that could derail your efforts, and then try to find solutions.
7. What might be getting in the way of converting more prospects into customers?
Don’t be afraid to ask for the opinions of others when trying to answer this question; and, above all, demand honesty in your own answers as well as the answers of others.
8. What are you most passionate about and are these passions part of your business?
Does your passion come through in everything you do? If not, it will show in everything you do and eventually it will destroy your business. If you’re not passionate about this business, reflect back to why you went into business and rediscover that passion.
9. What marketing strategies are you using right now?
List everything you can think of; once you begin actively using Guerrilla Marketing techniques your list will skyrocket.
10. What is the most profitable part of your business and what is the least profitable?
Here’s where you need to break your business down into its basic components — something you may not have consciously done before — and then you must honestly compare the income and profitability of each component.
11. Do you have a strategy for following-up with prospects?
Follow-up is one of the cornerstones of making almost any small business really profitable. If you don’t have a workable strategy for follow-up, then you’re potentially leaving a lot of profit lying on the table.
How did you do?
If you answered all 11 questions about your business honestly and feel good about each answer, your business is probably setting on a strong foundation.
If you have concerns about any of these 11 vital points, it’s time for to seek the help and advice of experts who can help you put your business house in order. Your business success depends on it.
Six Step Checklist to Deliver Teleseminars
Chances are that you’ve attended a teleseminar lately. Why not create your own?
Teleseminar events are very easy to produce because all you have to do is send an email to your list and invite them to participate. These seminars by phone are easy to do and can be very profitable.
Wouldn’t it be great to offer your clients a teleseminar where they can learn your latest ideas, strategies, and expert information? I regularly do teleseminars for free so that I can build rapport, offer value, and maintain good relationships with my clients.
Here’s a simple checklist of what you need to have in place to get started delivering teleseminars:
1. In-demand topics.
Your information must meet a need in the marketplace for a specific group of people or a business. A compelling topic that provides solutions to a challenge or frustration that people are searching for answers to is a great place to start. That way, you can experience instant demand for your topic.
2. A format.
There are many formats for your teleseminars. They can be interviews, information delivery, Q&A calls, research based calls based on a survey or report, or some combination of these. Interactive teleseminars work well where people can either ask you a question or submit their question via email. That way, you can maintain their attention because they know their question will be answered.
3. A bridge line.
There are several good services, many of them free. My favorite right now is Free Conferencing Live Office. It’s the one I use and I do recommend it. It has a 250 person capacity, free audio recordings, and other great perks. You can record, publish and podcast your content and conference calls at no cost. Great Teleseminars provides production and administrative services for teleseminars. If you want operator assistance, Black and White Communications is a good choice.
4. An automated registration system.
I use Practice Pay Solutions, which is the 1Shopping Cart system, to automate my teleseminar registrations. I highly recommend it. It allows your participants to sign up either online at your website or by email, and then provides you with a list of people who have signed up. You can set up an autoresponder that goes out automatically when they sign up with the date and time of the call. It will also automatically send out reminders for you.
5. A way to record.
If you record your teleseminar, you’ll have an instant product. Post the audio file online at your website or with a company like Audio Acrobat or Hipcast. Then have the audio transcribed as a value-add to participants.
6. An effective way to follow up.
This is the strategy many people delivering teleseminars overlook. Once you have had the chance to share your expertise with new prospects, it’s a perfect time to send a follow up communication. Email them after the call with a summary of the notes, a link to the recording, and/or an invitation to your next event or program. Always have something else to invite them to. If you have automated your registration process, it will be easy for you to send a follow up email out after the call.
Now that you know how to offer and record teleseminars, conference calls, and telephone interviews, what are you waiting for? Good luck and enjoy!
Speak To Me! Educating Customers With Articles
For a small business owner trying to market online, it’s important to remember that the Internet is essentially a vast, multimedia learning tool. It’s like countless libraries, movie theaters, record stores, classifieds sections, and art museums all rolled into a single, dynamic entity, instantly accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Think about it — why do you surf the Internet? Sure, entertainment and commerce are major reasons, but even these are closely associated with learning. People who access the Internet for entertainment generally don’t seek out the same material they viewed the day before; no, they look for new material — that is, they want to learn something.
Meanwhile, most people who access the Internet to purchase products or to do business are not, at the outset, certain how they’re going to spend their money.
For example, a customer who wants to purchase a good novel uses the Internet to inform her decision; before making a purchase, she’ll surf through a variety of book-related websites, reading reviews, author biographies, and interviews. Only after comparing a variety of choices, and then comparing prices, will she decide what to buy. So, if you’re a contemporary novelist or publisher, it’s essential to use the Internet to spread the word about your work.
Whatever your business, the same principles apply. To succeed in online business, you must spread the word about your goods and services. You can’t rely upon search engines to bring customers to you — you’ve probably already noticed that search engines tend to favor larger companies in their results — and most customers are repelled by the usual forms of Web advertising.
In the above example, the customer choosing a novel doesn’t make her decision based on advertisements or sales pitches. Instead, she educates herself, and then makes a decision from a position of knowledge.
In this light, the small business owner who finds ways to actively contribute to the vast structure of online educational content will be at an advantage. By writing educational articles about topics in your field, you’ll not only teach your potential customers things they need to know, but you’ll also earn their respect, and thus lead them to your business.
It’s easy to distribute your original content throughout the Web. You simply need to sign up for an online article marketing service — which you can locate through Google — and submit articles. Then, the service will make your voice available to thousands of Web publishers in your field.
If your content is unique and educational, you’ll instantly earn the respect of your readers, who will then want to do business with you. In the “About the Author” section attached to your articles, they’ll find a description of what you do, and a link to your website. Soon after your article marketing service begins to work for you, you’ll find that you’re dramatically building site traffic.
For more information on how best to write, format, and structure your content, you’ll find resources on your article marketing service’s website. What’s important to remember is that your articles are only to be advertisements insofar as they draw customers to your website. Beyond that, you should tone down your marketing voice, and refrain from mentioning the name of your business. Instead, focus on making your articles as educational as possible. Forget the old advertising paradigms. Today, it’s simple: If you educate, customers will come.
As a side note, there is one more important benefit of this type of article marketing. As your articles are distributed throughout the Web, you’ll find your website rising in search engine results. This is because search engines rely upon “backlinking,” which is what happens when a website is accessed through an external link. So, thanks to article marketing, search engines will finally become relevant to your small business online marketing strategy.
Learning The Basics of Business Incorporation
Business incorporation is essential for developing and expanding your business. Incorporation saves you from many hassles. Business Corporation Act has made the incorporation process simpler and faster. You have to incorporate your business irrespective of it being a new or old business, profit, or nonprofit organization. Such incorporation accrues many benefits to you and your business too. Corporations formed could be for religious purposes, governmental or even function as quasi-governmental organizations.
Basics of Business Incorporation:
Incorporation gives a separate distinct identity to your business, completely different from the shareholders or owners. The assets and liabilities of your business and owners or shareholders are distinct. The company has a separate legal existence albeit it does not have a separate body or mind of its own.
The personal property of the shareholders is safe even in cases of settlement of dues of creditors or any other form of lawsuits. You are liable only to the extent of your investment in the business. Similarly, the company property is safe if you are into any personal lawsuits.
Business incorporation allows you to transfer your ownership easily, sometimes without any paperwork too. The credit ratings of the company are separate from that of the different shareholders of the company. Your personal poor credit rating does not affect your business in any way.
Applicable tax rate for your company is much lower than personal tax rates. Your company can carry forward any amount of losses into the next financial year.
The existence of your incorporated business does not suffer due to the death or incapacity of any partner, owner, or shareholder. Your business continues its existence as usual. This offers greater stability to the company and helps in extensive capital accumulation. Such accumulation is useful in investing in bigger projects and for longer time too.
Your company has to follow the incorporation laws and regulations of the respective province. Different provinces have their own sets of rules and regulations.
An incorporated company can own property, pay taxes, sign contracts, and function almost like a separate entity. However, a corporation cannot vote like a citizen. Besides, although the company has such basic incorporated rights, yet, it can function through a person only. Such authorized signatories and functionaries act and sign on behalf of the company.
A board of directors governs and manages all the activities of an incorporated business. These directors function on behalf of all the shareholders. Shareholders elect or in some cases select the directors.
Business incorporation offer easy solutions for retirement plans, insurance plans and premiums, and many other deductibles in your tax benefits.
Business incorporation necessitates formation of essential bylaws for functioning and working of the company. Shareholders decide on such laws though their voting powers at regular shareholder meetings.
If because of any reason, the incorporated company is to end its existence, it has to repay the dues of all creditors initially. It also has to settle all other liabilities before repaying any dues of the members or shareholders. A member is liable only to the extent of the amount of his contribution.
What’s In Your Marketing Plan? A Small Business Guide To Online Marketing
Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking, “If we make a website using a few keywords, search engine algorithms will guide customers to us.” But these days, everyone has a website, every website uses keywords, and it’s not difficult to hire web designers to create good-looking, perfectly functioning websites. Online marketing is becoming more difficult and more competitive, particularly for small business owners who seemingly can’t compete with huge companies in search engine results.
How does a small business generate hits to its website? Is it possible to use the Internet to increase your market size? If search engines persistently bury your website on page 12 of their search results, there are solutions.
Think about it — what are your potential customers looking for? Whatever your field, it’s likely that they’re looking for expertise, intelligence, and creativity. And your customers are discerning — they can tell when a marketing technique is phony — and the only reason they so often go with the bigger companies is a perceived lack of alternatives. Many small businesses, in an effort to attract customers, try to emulate the marketing practices of larger companies, thus neglecting to show their own, knowledgeable perspective.
So, how does a small business show that it’s not only more personalized and trustworthy than larger companies, but also smarter and more dynamic? You have to speak to your potential customers. You must show them that you have the brains, the ability, and the creativity to suit their unique needs, far better than larger companies can.
In the age of the Internet, there are few things that people respect more than a well-written, informative article. If you’re a small business owner, then there’s clearly at least one area in which you are more knowledgeable than anyone else. This is what makes you good at running your business — yet why not also use this knowledge to increase the size of your market?
If you search the Internet for “how article marketing works” you’ll find some very good article distribution services that can help you link your website in all corners of the Internet. There are thousands of websites that are always looking for fresh, informative content, and that would be pleased to publish your work.
First, though, you must write your article. Write it carefully, and make it informative; people love to learn new things. But remember, both publishers and readers can recognize a sales pitch, so don’t mention the name of your business unless it is truly integral to the content of your article.
The important thing is that each time an article of yours is published, it will come with an “About the Author” box, which will contain a link to your website. Everyone who learns something from your article will want to click on the link. Your article will be like a tease; they will seek more of what you have to offer on your website.
So start writing as soon as you can. And remember, after you sign up for an article marketing website, you’ll be asked to categorize the articles that you’ve written. Don’t do this hastily; think hard about the categories customers would associate with the services you offer.
If the service suggests revisions to your work, try not to be offended. They are experts, and to make the changes they suggest is in your own best interest. Your goal is to increase your market size. They want to help you do it. Trust them.
Few businesses are aware of this marketing tactic, so it’s best to take advantage of it while you can. With the millions of businesses now marketing on the web, it’s important for the small business owner to realize that to simply include a few keywords on your website is not enough anymore.
Plus, through article marketing, you can generate thousands of clicks to your website, which moves your website higher up in the rankings of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. By writing informative articles, and having them distributed throughout the Internet, you can work your way up to page 1 in the search results.
Small Business Assistant Services
As a small business owner it is understandable to sometimes feel as if you cannot compete with those larger conglomerates that also have larger financial resources available to them. But you can edge your profit margin ever closer to theirs and give them a good showing with sound business choices.
You may have to track your money a little harder than they do, but trust that they too have to track the flow of money in and out at some point. You can make a lesser budget work just as hard for you as if it were millions, if you do it right.
Keeping your employee ratio as low as possible so that you can avoid having to pay out large sums of what could be your businesses profits is one of those right moves. Such a suggestion may scare you. How will a number of office obligations be met if you do not have the employees to see that they are done? The budget savvy answer to that is to hire a small business assistant for the office services you would normally have to pay an employee to perform.
A small business assistant typically works off site in their own office, using telephone and internet connected computer to communicate with you and to contract assisting services to you. In some cases however, if your business is located near the business assistant, on site assisting is often possible. Do not confuse a business assistant who is able to provide you with on site assisting with one of your employees. These highly skilled business assistants contract for work you outsource to them even if they perform some or all of them inside your business, but they are not employees of your small business. On the other hand, do not assume that just because a professional business assistant is an independent vendor that they will not maintain a professional image and conduct while on your company site. They are professionals like you and know the importance of being professional at all times.
We would need another article to name all of the services provided by a business assistant to help the small business owner save money and get ahead. But we will mention as many of the service you could outsource to a business assistant as possible.
There are a plethora of marketing services that a business assistant can provide. From the creation of brochures, business cards, flyers, newsletters, and content articles for you to place on your business site. Online marketing, direct mailings, Geo farming, translation, lead follow up, website customization and SEO, and blog development are a few more of the services you can elect to outsource to a business assistant to meet your business marketing goals.
Management and office support services often include software customization, research, word processing, database and client care management, scheduling of appointments, data entry, merge mailing, and calendar updating, An on site business assistant can provide you with many office organization and management services.
You can get many of the services that those big execs pay heavily for at substantially lower rates from a professional business assistant, and that is what doing it right is all about. Event, meeting, and travel planning and if you are within the service area, personal shopping and errand services are made available. These services offer you the executive treatment without an executive price tag attached.
Use your resources wisely and they will work as hard for you as if you were a large conglomerate with unlimited capitol to play with. Give those big guys a good showing of what you can do by making sound business choices such as outsourcing for your business assisting needs and making other sound business choices.
