How to Find a “Soulmate” er… Good Business Partner

If you have read our older blogs, we made a post about how working with your spouse as a business partner can be very effective if you treaded carefully. Now, in case you do not have a spouse, we will talk about how to find a business partner with the right qualities.

If you believe that you as a business person can work better alone, we have an example that may change your mind. Written from lesseverything.com, they had an example of a man named Allan who had been running his own consultant business just fine alone. He had a father who was a successful entrepreneur for decades that told him not get a business partner. Eventually, Allan met Steve during the Summer 2006. Steve could take Allan’s ideas and instantly be able to tell him why it was bad and how to make it better. Allan quickly realized that having Steve around would make him better at what he does. Additionally, he also realized that Steve could also plan and execute business better than Allan could. Allan was ideally the idea factory while Steve improved upon those ideas. Now today, they together have made an even more successful business.

Keep in mind that a business partnership is like a marriage without the sexual part. Every business decision that Allan makes will affect Steve, and every business decision that Steve makes will affect Allan. If Steve needs to spend more for the business, this will put a strain on Allan, which will affect the business entirely. In a way, it is like having your spouse spend tons of money on products that are unnecessary; you would have to keep track of their spending in order to use that budget for other important things.

How do you make a business partnership work out? Well, it’s basically the same thing as a marriage:

Have mutual respect for each other: You must always have respect for the things that both parties do, and they must collaborate and work together without any criticizing or fighting. It is a partnership and marriage, not a war between two partners.

When you have a partnership, you treat each other as if you are equals. There is no such thing as the dominator in the relationship or the captain. When you make decisions, make it together with a compromise if one party does not agree with certain factors. This would be another way to show respect for one another.

Another thing that is considered to be rare, but if you have it, do not lose it. This would be having a partner who has skills that are complementary to your skills. In lesseverything.com’s case, Allan is a designer and Steve is a developer. When you have a person who designs and another who develops those designs while improving them through the process, you can say that it works like “peas and carrots.”

There are times when you and your business partner are best friends, and sometimes you both are not, but one thing for sure us that they are always aware of how the other party is doing, and they are usually willing to help that person out. In many cases, they are trying to understand each other’s stresses and the workload.

Here are two qualities that your partner should have:

–          A real friend, spouse, or partners are willing to point out your flaws and tell you some of things that you are lacking. They are saying this because they want you to grow, they are not looking disrespect you or criticize you. And you are willing to take that in because you value their opinion.

–          They do not judge you. When you need help with a broken car, moving, or if some kind of emergency happens, who would you call? If it is 2:00am and you are unable to drive back home, who is going to drive 50 miles to help you out? If that person is willing to do that for you, consider that person a true friend. This is how your business partner should be.

Inspiring quote: “Allan says…

“I’ve always had plenty of friends, but there’s only a small circle of those that I would call ‘close friends.’ My Grandfather would tell me that before the Great Depression, he had money, a bunch of friends and a Model-T car. When the hard times struck, his family lost everything–including the friends. They only wanted to be around him when he had possessions.”

 

***ARTICLE BASED ON LESSEVERYTHING.COM***

 

How to Avoid Tax Fraud, Advice from Scammers Themselves

As a company who follows the three basic principles of Honesty, Integrity, and Innovation, we do not condone Tax Fraud, and we certainly will never perform such acts for anyone who requests such atrocity. So what is Tax Fraud? According to tax whistleblower, it is a general term, which can trigger many different laws found in Title 26 and Title 18 of the United States Code. It is basically a taxpayer’s intent to defraud the government by not paying taxes that they know are lawfully due.

Krebsonsecurity.com has talked about one of the successful scammers who explained how he was able to file a tax fraud by using prepaid debit cards. This kind of method has been used for several years because it has been a indispensible tool of tax fraudsters. The scammer named Peleus reported that he was able to bypass the IRS Fraud Filters, and was able to find great success at the state level. The important thing was, according to Peleus was having a bogus refund sent to a unique prepaid debit card account for each filing. In March 12, 2015, Utah State Tax Commission Chairman John Valentine has reported to the U.S Senate Finance Committee that suspicions returns has been about the direct deposit information changed from the previous year’s ban account to prepaid debit cards.

The problem with transferring funds to prepaid debit cards is that they cannot be traced or recovered, which is a perfect way to commit tax fraud. It seems that prepaid debit cards are most preferable to fraudsters because the identity thief doesn’t have to interact with banks, credit unions or checking cashing stores that may become suspicious when one person starts bringing in multiple tax refund checks to be cashed or deposited.

HOW TO AVOID THIS

–          Try to file your taxes as early as possible. However, if the state taxes have been “filed” already, then immediately report this issue with the state revenue agency.

–          Have a CPA or Accountant do it for you. Accountants are born to study all of the complications of the tax law, and they have to make sure their clients are safe. This is a good opportunity as there are many fraudsters out there who want to file a fake tax return. Accountants usually charge a fair price for their services, especially in Orange County.

–          Consider placing a fraud alert freeze on your file at the major credit companies. If fraudsters have enough personal information to file a fraudulent tax return under your name, then they can use that data to commit other crimes. Placing a fraud alert on your credit file every 90 days is the cheapest way since it is free.

Be sure to make sure your personal information is safe from crooks, and also use this information as a way to help you understand how fraudsters operate so you can use this information to help your sound more legitimate when you report a tax fraud claim.

 

***ARTICLE BASED ON TAX FRAUD ADVICE, STRAIGHT FROM THE SCAMMERS from krebsonsecurity.com ***

 

Professional New Year’s Resolution Ideas

It’s that time of the year again. We are sure 2016 wasn’t that great, or maybe it wasn’t too bad for you, but the most important thing to remember now is to learn from everything you have experienced in 2016 and cherish those moments when you were most happy. One thing to keep in mind however, is that sometimes New Year’s Resolutions are somewhat not going as planned. According to Amanda Zantal-Wiener 45% of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions, however, only 8% are successful in achieving them. Interestingly, University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology stated that the top 10 resolutions of 2015 included losing weight and falling in love. Although those goals are great, the question you should ask yourself is, are they really going to make you better at what you do every day?

Again, Amanda Zantal-Wiener has stated some tips on some professional New Years Resolution Ideas incase you are short on what ideas. The challenge here is to see if you can come up and stick to professional New Year Resolutions. These tips will drive you to become more “creative, productive, and generally more content at work.” Here they are:

–          Assign times throughout the day to make an electronics- free zone.

• Our bodies are trained to respond to light and dark signals. According to National Sleep Foundation, these signals send us important signals, like the time of the day. Once you add phones and electronic screens to your day, our brains recognize the brightness from phones, and other electronic devices. Ever wonder why people usually never get enough sleep? Its because many of us have a hard time to fall asleep when we’re exposed to too much screen time at night.

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : Everyone can relate to this issue, and it is in fact a very hard resolution to achieve. If you like to watch movies, tv shows, or play video games before going to bed, try to lower the amount you do each night. For example, if you watch tv for about 2 hours before you sleep, reduce that amount to 1 hour and 30 minutes and keep going until you finally can finally sleep without it. Replace the lost time of tv by reading a book, journal. Perhaps read an accounting book, learn how to become a cpa, or better yet, read books on how to save money!

 

–          Write about anything everyday! Perhaps a diary

• According to Amanda Zantal-Wiener, the quality of writing in the U.S has been going around the news and headlines for awhile now. Many viewers and consumers are looking for better writers, however, the trouble is that they are having trouble investing the time to do so. According to Neil Patel, he said writing for 30 minutes a day (of course skipping the weekends) will greatly improve your writing skills. Practice makes perfect!

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : Pick a question everyday and write about it. You can get topics by asking friends, a customer, or a topic that has always been floating around your head for awhile. It really helps you bring out your diction levels while increasing your conversation skills. You can even write something that makes no sense, the point is to improve your writing.

 

–          Always ask for help.

• You’re probably wondering, doesn’t that make me feel needy and less important? Not at all! Zantal-Wiener states that Care.com took a survey of working mothers and the findings was about the concept of asking for help. Around 30% of respondents felt guilty of doing things without asking. Also, about 79% also felt like they were falling behind at work, and 75% saw an overall reduction in stress when they did ask for help. Obviously, these numbers goes beyond working mothers, but as Zantal-Wiener states, “there’s an epidemic of fear when it comes to asking for help at work.”  So if you need help with anything, for example, taxes or accounting, you can contact a cpa firm and ask any questions when you have any financial problems!

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : This was a very good quote that Zantel-Wiener posted : “The most successful people ask for help when they need it!” Always remember this, this will lead you to success. Don’t ever assume that your questions are dumb, if people say that it is, just get the answer and don’t ask them again, those people are not good people, unless they are joking.

 

–          Read more.

• Remember, the most successful people never stop learning. 70% of adults in the professional or managerial roles continue their education. It is one of the best ways to constantly update yourself with industry trends, learning from experts, and expand the spectrum of creativity. Some of the best ways to learn is to read outside of a classroom setting. Reading accounting blogs, reddit blogs, or some other blogs that are notable really provide useful information that may help you in the future.

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : There is a ton of content out there, however, some content that would be worth reading. If you need some useful information on how to save money or cut tax spending, perhaps reading our older blogs at sonnycpa.com would be helpful. There are many others you can Google, there is so much content out there. If you have any questions about something, simply ask it, or check out our older blog posts.

 

Well that’s all the tips we have for you, we hope you guys have a Happy New Year! Look forward to 2017 and enjoy what we have now! 

Spend More Time With Your Family & Friends while saving money for the Holidays

It’s that time of the year again where many of us celebrate the holidays with cheer, parties, gifts, and many other goods to enjoy before they hit reality again. But guess what, you know what else comes after those parties, gifts, and goods? That’s right! A hefty bill in the New Year!

You’re probably thinking, “Oh thanks a lot Sonny, I definitely needed that reassurance…” Well hold on there, we’re not here to deliver bad news to you! We have some great money saving tips that will help you save money so it’ll at least soften up that bill in January.

According to moneyadviceservice.org, the average Christmas spent per household is around $615, which includes food, presents, travel, and decorations. Based on moneyadviceservice.org, they have compiled a list of steps on how you can save money for the Holidays:

Step 1 – Set a Budget – Making a list of family and friends you will be buying for will help you organize how much you will spend on each person. We recommend using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet so you can calculate how much you have to spend, and include tax rates as well. Additionally, if you are hosting dinner then think about how many people will be coming over and how much you will be spending on what you will be offering in the party to your guests.

Step 2 – Work out how much to save each month –   Make a commitment to save a portion of your income or cash flow every month. If you commit to saving a certain amount every month consistently, you will notice that you have a lot more money than you think without even realizing it. It really feels like you hit a jackpot in a slot machine game!

Step 3 – Start some new Christmas traditions – Perhaps starting some new Christmas traditions where the whole family or friends can join in with while saving along the way will help save money, since they are going to pitch in the expenses. A good tip on saving, instead of writing out gift cards to friends and family, you can send e-gift cards through email. We are living in the digital age, and most people are heavily reliant on digital devices and phones these days. Not only will you save money on buying gift cards, you will also save a lot of time, in which you can use to spend that extra time with those who matter to you most. If you are buying gifts for friends, you can set a limit on how much you spend, or even better, you can use the extra time you have (Assuming you use e-cards) to make a handmade present, nobody loves a handmade present more than a purchased gift.

Step 4 – Decide where to put your Christmas Savings – For those who want to save smaller amounts of money, you can simple place your savings in a coin jar. However, be sure to transfer it into a savings account once it gets full. Setting up a bank account that is used for instant savings would help as well.

Well, that’s it folks! Sonny & Company CPA wishes you Happy Holidays, and we hope you are all able to enjoy the end of the year with your loved ones! We hope these tips will help you.  Save, party, and enjoy like there’s no tomorrow! Happy New Year! 

A Smart Business Decision Maker = A Successful Entrepreneur

Many successful business leaders all share a common skill that most people do not posses. Although this skill comes in all forms and is dependent on the amount of opportunities given to them, they all still have to undergo a process whether it takes a long time to process or a very short amount of time. That skill, my fellow entrepreneurs is: Smart Business Decision-making. Every day people from all over the world make decisions. You may not realize it but you, the reader, just made the decision to read this article (Thanks by the way!). However, let’s take it to a business perspective; business leaders, (including yourself) “make dozen of decisions a day” that creates an impact to the success of their company while creating an influence factor to employees as well. “Developing such a skill requires a combination of education, experience, and intuition.”

Marci Martin, author of Business News Daily who wrote the article “How to Make Effective Business Decisions” has stated a great quote: “There are many things that influence how an individual makes decisions. They include emotions, perceived personal and professional risks and rewards, preparation through experience or education, deadlines, stress and a host of others. It is important to mitigate the irrational and embrace the rational.”

Many decisions always comes with a process, as mentioned above, there are many factors that come into play before coming up with a conclusion. Some of those decisions usually come from a “gut feeling” while others come from undergoing a long process of asking others, and a more common form would be the opportunity cost (Is it more beneficial to me than the cost?). As Martin mentioned, the “bottom line is that being an effective decision-maker requires practice.”

Gayle Abott, President of Strategic Alignment Partners, a human consulting firm, has implemented a four- point strategy to deploy whenever you must act:

–          Identify the problem.

–          Analyze the possible solutions

–          Evaluate the possibilities that are likely to bring you closer to your goal.

–          Make the decision.

However, as easy as this 4 point system sounds, this type of strategy does not come easily for any beginner. As Abott has said in Business News Daily, it takes years of practice to master this skill. Many people who have become masters did not simply start off as talented decision makers, they made many mistakes in the past, learned from them, and simply moved on. The most crucial part in any decision making in a business, is the ability to learn from them. It is not easy as you think it is because people still make the same mistake, whether it’d be motivated by an emotion, by influence, or by stubbornness. The reality is that, it will not be easy to become a smart business decision maker until you have made enough decisions to consider yourself a smart business decision maker. 

This Skill is What Determines the Success of Your Business

Just recently, there was an article written by Matt Fore who talked about an important skill that would subsequently determine the success of your business. In his article, he provided an example from his experience about one of his business friends and talked about this important skill that he was lacking, and how it failed to bring him to the path of financial success.

 

The story unfolds to talk about a man named Earl who was a business man and a magician who performed amazingly for audiences such as adults and families. In fact, his talent was so good, that he was comparable to Houdin Thurstonfield, however, given his talents, he could not generate enough viewers to come to his magic show. Although his talents were astonishing and jaw-dropping, he lacked this important skill needed to get a business of his magic show going.

 

Do you know what skill he is lacking?

 

If you guessed Communications, you are certainly correct!

 

The most important skill that determines the life of a business is communication. Many Orange County CPA Firms and Entrepreneurs including Matt Fore will tell you that “An effective marketing campaign should stir a response; it should stir a conversation. It should give a compelling reason for the client to reach out and receive a benefit.” (Fore)  

 

Communication is very important in business because it plays a fundamental role in all the factors of business. The internal part of your business, which is yourself and the partner/employees are crucial because communicating effectively within your business organization will efficiently complete short term goals and possibly long term goals. Additionally, you want to make sure that your external communication is also well trained, for example your consumers. How are they receiving the messages that you send out to them? Compare what you see and what they see in your advertisements, are you both in the same page?

 

Another thing to note too is that communication builds and maintains relationships, communication is very important because you want all your business partners to understand your situation, your goals, and any other factor that your partners may want to know. A CPA firm typically asks for effective communication. In fact, it is practically required that you have effective communication skills, otherwise, your CPA will not be able to get the job done correctly if you don’t!

 

So there you have it, communication. Remember to always have a good mindset and make sure to always answer any questions if needed from your fellow business partners or consumers.

 

***ARTICLE BASED OFF OF MATT FORE OF ENTREPRENEUR.COM***

How Hard is it to Invest in Real Estate?

There was an interesting article written by Scott Trench who recently wrote an article about how easy it is to invest in Real Estate. In the beginning he talks about how some of the most successful entrepreneurs started off with nothing. That’s a very typical story of how entrepreneur’s become millionaires. Many of us has read many stories about these successful people, but what about working class or middle class people?

In this article, he personally talks about how he was able to achieve his financial freedom through gradual investment of real estate while working his full time job that he personally loves, while making medium to medium high income. It is true that most people would love to live that kind of lifestyle of being able to make additional money on the side while making money from their jobs that they love. That is the dream! However, later in the article he talks in detail about how every single investment always has a risk, which is true! Any investment always comes with risk, no matter how big or small. Additionally, there is some commitment involved, which is one of the reasons most people could not leave their jobs to pursue an investment journey to reach financial freedom.

At the end of the article, Trench states that real estate investing does not have to be so hard. Although there are some instances where it is easy if you make it to be. There are a few considerations to think about before you get into investing property.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Real Estate Investments states that knowing your market well would be beneficial. Looking for deals that are underpriced for one reason or another would be a good idea, because you won’t know which deals are underpriced unless you have a good sense of how properties are priced.

And another problem that you may have to consider is who the tenants are. There are some stories where tenants would bring in stolen merchandise into the property and store them in there. Another instance would be, party goers, they may wreck your property which will incur many costs and repairs, which will cost more than what you are earning from them for rental payment. And another is when tenants treat your property like its theirs, painting the homes, adding unnecessary items to the home that stays in the home etc. Lesson here is to make sure to check your tenants on a frequent basis.

Overall, investing can be easy, but always remember to consider some of these facts as they can be very helpful in your future obstacles that you may face when you invest in real estate. 

**Article Based on Biggerpockets.com**

Tips on How Small Businesses Can Become a Firm of the Future

How can a business become a firm of the future?

 
Well let’s take a step back, what does it mean to become a firm of the future?

 
Let’s look at this example, a firm of the future has been “in business for decades, achieving success using a tried-and-true formula of providing high quality work and or providing great service and product.”

 
Every year as we all witness the everlasting change of businesses, markets, and demands, we; as business owners sometimes worry about our methodology and business practices in our company.We begin to question if our practices are obsolete now, or are they still working for our business? Then the next question arises, how would we grow the practice while maintaining the winning factors that made the firm what it is? And because of this, many business owners worry too much about these changes and will then take up too much time and money.

 

Thus, begs the question: How can do we become firms of the future? Well worry no more! As an Orange County CPA, it is our sole duty to provide fresh tips on how you can become a survivalist in the battlefield of business. We have tips here that will help you achieve that!

 
Do not ever assume that and changes in the market and business world do not apply to you. As George Forsythe states, “even successful and happy firms may not be working as effectively as possible.” Always have a strategic review and assess your plan to measure out the pros and cons to your strategy. If they are working, try to find something that will cause the plan to fail, always assume that there will be change in the future.

 
Figure out where you stand. Create a transitional step tool that a firm can take in its culture, talent, and clients. Use informal brainstorming to identify steps that can help you move your firm forward.

 
Set your own priorities. When you start reviewing your firm’s status, be sure to look out for employees who show a lot of promise in their work. Prepare them for the next generation of leaders, this will ensure the security of your company when you are training new leaders.

 
Do not reinvent the “wheel.” Do not try to create a completely new plan to face the changes your company is facing. Take some of your strategies and create a new way to make them better. Focus on the aspects of creating a simpler, more effective method of that strategy and execute it. Reinventing a new strategy not only makes your employees and partner learn a new method, which takes time, but also, the strategy may not work in this changing marketing and business world.

 

**ARTICLE BASED ON AICPA.ORG***