There’s a plethora of blogs out there now. Finding good ones can be a challenge sometimes. Here are a few that are great resources for consultants and small business owners, each offering their own take on topics related to running a business.

1. Women in Consulting—of course this would be number one. But really, you’ll find posts that cover the full range of issues confronting consultants and small business owners.
2. Social Media Examiner—if you follow only one social media blog, make it this one. You’ll see timely, focused posts daily, Monday through Friday, along with a roundup post on Saturdays.
3. Small Business Trends—from organizing your home office and staying on top of accounting to developing leads and communicating effectively to FTC rulings and other regulation changes and what they mean, you’ll find it here.
4. Small Business Brief—this blog focuses on articles that help small business owners take action. Around since 2004, they’ve even made it on Forbes top list of small business blogs.
5. Open Forum—a great, all around site covering a complete range of topics. They even have an area that focuses on women in business.
6. The Global Small Business Blog—if you’re interested in going global, then check out this blog, which focuses on entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to move beyond their local area(s).
7. You’re the Boss by New York Times—Not only do they have relevant articles, they have a great name and tagline. After all, you are the boss, and successfully running a small business is an art.
8. Daily Dose by Entrepreneur—another great blog covering a range of topics relevant to consultants and small business owners, whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not. BTW, if you have your own business, whether you’re a sole proprietor or you have 10+ employees, you are an entrepreneur.
9. Duct Tape Marketing—Duct Tape Marketing consistently appears on top 10 small business blog lists for the marketing ideas and strategies explored, and for good reason. 
10. The Consumerism Commentary—an intriguing blog that covers a gamut of finance topics, some business, some personal. The posts are an interesting, quick read.

By: Avery Horzewski

Time after time, there are rulings from the IRS stating someone lost their deduction due to bad record keeping.

Karen Hough had to pay $100,849 in taxes because she “estimated” the business expenses.  She relied on her testimony to prove the deductions, while the IRS required documentation.  She did not have cancelled checks or receipts.  The IRS could see she spent money, but because she could not prove the items purchased, the deductions were denied.  There were no excuses.

I had someone ask me why they should keep their receipts when they charge all their business expenses on a credit card.  The reason why you keep a legible receipt is that if you are in an audit, the IRS will NOT accept the line on a credit card statement saying you purchased items from Staples.  They need the original receipt or a readable copy.  If you don’t have the receipt, the auditor can say that you purchased school supplies for your kids and not believe you purchased office supplies for your business.  The deduction would be denied.  Do you save all your receipts?  Do you copy the thermal receipts because they will fade after 2-3 years?

To keep your recordkeeping life as simple as possible, have one business checking account.  Run everything through this account.  This way you can track income and expenses in one place.  I pay $1 a month to have my business checks mailed back to me so I don’t have to print copies of checks online.  I know most banks go back months or even a few years, but if you are audited, it can be 3 years later and who wants to print each check online?  Plus, I work with many banks and some don’t go back 3 years.  I have had clients have to pay large bank fees to get copies of checks.  No fun!

The IRS requires that you keep a log of your business miles.  This includes starting and ending odometer, date, business miles driven and business purpose.  Your calendar and your receipts will help indicate where you drove.  Don’t forget to count your deposit runs to the bank!

You need to train yourself (and your staff) NOT to use cash.  Cash is so hard to track.  If you lose the receipt, you probably won’t remember what you purchased…thus missing a deduction you were allowed to take.

For meals and entertainment expenses, you are required to document who, where, when, why and how much.  You have to indicate WHO you were with and why you entertained this person.

So how long do you need to keep your receipts?  You can amend a tax return (or be audited) 3 years back.  However, if you underestimated your income, the IRS can go back 6 years.  If you did not file or filed a fraudulent return, the IRS can go back many years as they want.  Also, if you purchase assets and they are depreciated over a period of years (5, 7, 15 years), you need the original receipt for that period of time.

Bottom line is that you need to PROVE everything you purchase for your business.  Do you have written documentation that if you were audited there would be no change in the taxes due?  I hope so!

By: Renee Daggett

“The finish line.” — When you read those words, what do you think? And what do you feel?

Do you imagine, or recall, experiences of:

• Soaring across a finish line?
• Struggling to cross it?
• Missing a finish line altogether, despite your best intentions and most dedicated preparation?

If you’re like most people, your experience with finish lines – and goal achievement – covers the full range from exuberance to missing the mark at times.

Goal-setting and goal achievement is, of course, on the minds of many people now, as the year begins.

If you’re setting goals for this year, try these steps:

1. Think back on your greatest achievements.

Recall what helped you see your way through to achieve them. Was it:

• Setting a clear vision of what you wanted to achieve?
• Seeking customer feedback, whoever the customers were for your work at the time, and letting that guide you forward?
• Following a thread of promising results, wherever they led?
• Concentrating on team or individual development so you’d be well-prepared for a future challenge?
• Did you use some other approach or strategy? If so, what was it?

2. Based on what you discover, what does it tell you about what may work best for your goal-setting now?

• Do you need to create a clear vision of your goal, or a strong “felt sense” of achieving what you want now, and next?
• Do you need to seek customer feedback to guide goal-setting?
• Do you need to focus on what’s working well and use that to guide you to what’s best for you in the months ahead?
• Or do you need to concentrate on developing skills or those of a team you lead so that you’re primed for a bigger goal in the future?
• Is there yet another strategy that would guide you best as you prepare to achieve well in 2012?

Speaking for myself, when I do this exercise, I follow several approaches.

• First, I create or refresh the vision that guides my work over several years.
• Then I look at what worked well the prior year, and what I need to improve.
• I use that information to set aggressive, yet grounded goals for the year ahead.
• Next, I create a few annual performance measures to monitor and manage progress.

Finally, when it works best, I convert those annual measures into monthly and weekly measures. I use these to focus and produce steady progress. These more frequent measures provide me almost instant feedback so I know if I’m on pace, and on-track to meet my goals, or if I must adjust my processes, resources, or perhaps the goals, themselves.

By: Jan Richards

Processing 1099’s can be confusing and frustrating.  Admin Books enjoys passing on important information that will help you find your way through the requirements of 1099’s.  Here are some facts you need to know!

General 1099 Rule:

If you pay someone more than $600 in a calendar year for services, not material/product, then you are required to provide a 1099 showing the amount you paid.  One tip is to collect a W-9 at the time of payment so you know if the business is a sole proprietorship, LLC or Corporation.  If it is a corporation, then no 1099 is required.  The 1099 is due January 31^st and the required 1096 is due February 28^th.

Addressing the 1099:

If the person you paid uses their Social Security number as a tax ID number (which I don’t recommend), then the person’s full name must be on the first line of the 1099.  If you list the business name by mistake, then you will receive a letter from the IRS saying that the name and ID do not match.  Then the IRS may require you to withhold money from future checks.

Reimbursed Expenses:

If you pay a subcontractor for expenses incurred, do NOT include that amount in box 7.  If you receive a 1099 from someone with reimbursed expenses, like travel or postage, don’t worry.  Show the full amount of income on your tax return and then show the full amount of expenses and it will net out the same.  If you lower the 1099 amount on your return to “correct” it, that will trigger an audit.

Strict 1099 Classification Rules:

If you hire a subcontractor, be sure that the state won’t deem the person as an employee.  A few indications to strengthen your case are:

• You have a contract agreement between parties.
• The subcontractor invoices the business.
• The subcontractor has a business license.
• The business does not tell the contractor WHEN to perform the work or HOW to do their job.  The subcontractor uses their own equipment and materials.
• The subcontractor is available to be hired by other companies.

Governor Brown signed a bill that starting 01-01-12 if any employer is found to willfully misclassify a worker as an independent contractor, they penalties will increase to $10,000-$25,000 per violation.

Oddball 1099 Clarifications:

If the contractor is NOT a US citizen and lives in another country, have them fill out a W-8 and keep this on file.  Prepare a 1099, but there will be no tax ID number on the form.  If questioned by the IRS, show them a copy of the W-8.

If the 1099 comes back to you undelivered, keep a copy for your records to show the attempt.

If the contractor has already performed their services and you cannot get the contractor to fill out the W-9, keep a log of the attempts to contact them by phone, email or letter.  The IRS has penalties for not sending the 1099 and if you show intent, hopefully there will be grace in the penalties.

If you find you made a mistake on the amount or tax ID number, you can always correct the form and re-send it by checking the “Corrected” box.

Corporations do NOT get 1099’s, but some people are confused if they should send a 1099 to LLC’s.  Send a 1099 to single-member LLC’s and multi-member LLC’s (partnerships.)

1099’s are required to ALL attorneys regardless of their entity!

If you have any clarifications, please contact our office.  If you would like to delegate this project, we would be honored to help.  Call our office at 408-782-9640 for 1099 pricing.

By: Renee Daggett

The jungle is dark, humid and dense. Birds of all kinds sing and call, while other animals rustle through the underbrush. The adventurers hack through the plants with their machetes to blaze a passable trail. It’s hard work, and it had to be done so they have a clear path to get where they’re going.

Is your website like that jungle?

Recently, I met someone at a conference and wanted to learn more about them while following up. So, I carved out a few minutes to check out their website.

I was totally and completely unprepared for what I found there. 87 pages of information about their services. Not 10, not 20… 87.

This is a common mistake that small businesses make – they put all the information they possibly can about their businesses on their website, and make a mega-huge website!

They think that if they just make the information available, then maybe someone… anyone… will stumble upon it and hire them. That they have to put everything they have out there in order to get attention.

And then they’re surprised when their mega-website doesn’t bring them a flood of clients. But here’s what happens: their site becomes dense and thick, and people who come to the site get overwhelmed by all of the information available.

They take one look at your menu – with all the pages and sub-pages (and sometimes even sub-pages) and then they have to make a decision. Will they start to hack their way through the jungle of your website, or will they click away from your site?

You don’t want your client to have to make that decision.

Like those adventurers in the jungle that we talked about earlier, your website visitors need a passable trail through your website. They need that clear path to get them into conversation with you.

When your visitors come to your site, they need to make the transition from finding you, to learning the information they need to know, to contacting you and connecting further. And you want to do this simply and quickly as possible… while keeping their desire and need to talk to you high.

Here are a few quick tips to clear a path through your website that will make it easier for people to go deeper with you:

• Create your website with your ideal clients’ questions and needs in mind – what do they most want to know when they arrive?
• Dedicate some time at least every 6 months to review and prune your site as needed – and to identify areas where you could improve what’s there.
• Remove old offerings that don’t apply to your current genius or your clients’ needs.
• Strive for relevance – don’t treat your website as a trophy case for all you’ve done and developed.
• Keep page counts low, and navigation simple.
• Test shorter-form sales pages against long ones and see what works better for your audience (short is working well these days).
• Swap long ebooks and dense copy for short and snappy video.
• Choose a first step that you’d like people to take in your business and direct the bulk of your website’s energy towards making that happen.
• Be discerning with your copy – if it’s not impactful and interesting, then ditch it (if you don’t want to delete it forever, you can switch the page to a “draft” in WordPress).
• Put only your best work in your blog and/or portfolio. Weed out the rest.
• Focus your efforts on getting visitors to sign up for your mailing list so you can take your conversations further there.

Which of these tips will you start using today to create more connection with your website visitors, and to clear their path to working with you?

By: Erin Ferree

We’re human. All of us. (You, too).

Why do people have a hard time asking for help?

By: Jan Richards

I hope you have enjoyed the past days gathering with family and friends.  It is good to change up our schedules and pause to ring in the New Year.

I wanted to remind you of a few things…not my favorite thing to do, but important so that you will have less stress in your business and in getting ready for your tax return.

1. Write down the odometer reading on the vehicles you use for business.  It is important to know what percent you are using the vehicle for business and the amount for personal.  You should have a mileage log, but even if you just write down your odometer once a year, you’ll know how many total miles you drove for the year.
2. If you carry inventory, you are required to do a count once a year showing the value.
3. Collect any W-9’s from vendors.  Verify if you paid anyone over $600 that will require a 1099.  You will also need to send out a 1096. Call the IRS to get FREE forms: 1-800-829-3676 (will take 2 weeks).
4. Back up data from the computer.  Double check the back ups are copying correctly.
5. If you have payroll, verify if your EDD employment rate has changed for the upcoming year.  You should have received a letter with the percentage early December.
6. Copy thermal receipts.  Many receipts that you get from office supply stores, gas, etc, are on thermal paper.  The image will fade over time.  Make a copy of the receipt because if you are audited, the IRS will want to see the details, not the credit card statement.
7. Verify when corporate minutes will be due for the coming year and mark the calendar.
8. Review your business plan and make any necessary changes.  What to you project your gross revenue to be for 2012?  How will that compare with 2011?  What will you do to increase your profits for the upcoming year?
9. Set closing date and password on QuickBooks file.

By: Renee Daggett

The holidays are a time of giving. As you get organized this holiday season, keep these organizations in mind to donate the items you no longer need:

• Donate new or gently used household items, clothing, toiletries or toys to your local shelter. www.innvision.organd www.ehclifebuilders.org
• Donate overflow of office supplies or craft materials to Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), an organization assisting educators with low cost materials for “hands on” education. www.raft.net
• Donate old childhood DVD’s to Kid Flicks, an organization whose goal is to create a library of family friendly movies in every children’s hospital in the country. www.kidflicks.org
• Donate your gently used children’s books to The Children’s Book Project, an organization whose goal is to help disadvantaged children read.www.childrensbookproject.org

Happy & Organized Holiday Season from Feeling Organized!

By: Melissa Stacey

As year-end looms and you work to meet the year’s final goals, here are two of many possible scenarios.

Here are a few ways to tighten your focus and increase your chances of success:

By: Jan Richards

Do you ever feel like your brand’s a little bit chilly? Like it’s too professional or boring? Or you’re distant… not as cozied up and close with your clients as you’d like to be?

Why not warm it up a bit? Warmth in your brand can make it seem more alive, open, passionate, and even both interesting and interested. The warmth is a sign that your small business is run by a real person and that you care about your clients.

A warm brand also does a lot for your client relationships. Warmth will create a better connection with your clients, make nervous, shy or hesitant clients feel welcome and at home buying from you, encourage engagement and conversation around your brand, foster goodwill and up your likeability factor. It can also increase your client attraction significantly, because people are attracted to warmth and openness – instead of feeling shut out in the cold.

In this season of open houses, holiday parties and rekindling relationships… you can learn a lot about warming up your brand from the parties you go to. The best holiday parties create a natural, easy “warm and fuzzy” feeling in everyone’s hearts.

Here are a few ways that you can create that feeling in your brand for your clients:

• Focus on how you want your clients to feel. Parties create an emotional experience – they create happiness, celebration, closeness or even reflection. Instead of trying to tell your clients just what’s happening, or how it happens… use words and images in your brand to evoke a specific feeling.
• Design your brand to create conversation. Whether or not there’s great conversation at your party depends on a few factors: lighting, music, whether you have games or dancing, and how comfortable your guests are talking to each other. If you want to create conversation in your brand, design opportunities to start and encourage conversation. To make this happen: ask questions. Create open-line teleconferences. Hold a “fireside chat” where the focus is more on talking and less on teaching. Introduce and connect your clients to each other to create community.
• Bite-sized nibbles (of information) are the way to go. Unless you’re at a sit-down dinner party, maneuvering with a plate full of food can be tough – and it’s even harder to enjoy what you’re eating. In your business, how are you filling your clients up with information instead of breaking things down for people so that they can enjoy it one bite at a time? It’s tempting to show off all of your expertise and information, but that can make it harder for your clients to learn. One of the greatest ways you can serve your clients is by breaking things down and making it easy for them to learn, understand and use.
• Be upfront about what you expect your clients to do. When you’re invited to a party, it’s natural to ask, “what can I bring?” Clients want to know what they need to bring, too. For example, when I design a website, I let the client know what they’re expected to bring to the table – like website copy, website hosting, their headshot. I even provide a handy checklist so they can work through it and make sure they’re organized. How can you do the same in your business?
• Welcome a new client warmly in their first moments with you, and let them know what to expect. When you show up at a party, the host says hello, tells you where to put your coat, shows you around and makes sure you’ve got your first drink in-hand. How are you settling your clients – and even your subscribers – in? And how can you make that part of the experience better?

These are just a few of the lessons you can learn from a holiday party about warming your brand up. As you go to parties this season or reflect on those you’ve been to, what lessons do you see that you can implement now in your brand?

By: Erin Ferree