Successful Blog

3 Keys to Running a Sounder Business

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How good of a job would you say you are doing when it comes to running your business?

No matter the length of time you have been a business owner, it is important to be doing all you can for your business. If you are not, you could be on the outside looking in before you know it.

So, what steps do you need to take to run a sounder business?

Protect Yourself So You Can Remain in Business

In looking at the keys to keeping your business plugging along, remember these things:

  1. Protect yourself – You will not be much good to consumers if you are not taking care of you. This means not only physically but also financially. That said make sure you have protection in place should something happen to you. As an example, if you run a medical practice, keep in mind all the people depending on you for medical needs. As such, you can’t afford to miss a large amount of work. If you were to suffer a serious medical issue or injury, how would you support yourself and your practice? By having the best disability insurance for physicians, you are in a better position. That coverage allows you to protect all you have invested in. This becomes especially important when a notable illness or injury impacts your world. The last thing you want is to watch all you have worked for go by the wayside. Shop around for the right protection and get it today.
  2. Take care of customers – It goes without saying that taking care of customers goes a long way. That is in determining how long you will remain in business. With that in mind, are you doing enough to show customers you care? No matter the type of business you have, it is important for customers to know they can count on you. Not only is service key, but also rewarding those loyal customers who have been by your side for a while now. Do all you can to show them that you are there for them. From discounts to answering questions they have, taking care of them is a priority.
  3. Stay up on technology – Last, how good of a job are you doing when it comes to staying on top of technology? As technology grows and improves, it is important for you to grow along with it. Some businesses are more focused on the tech world than others are. If technology plays a big role in your business world, be sure you are staying on top of it. If you are not technologically sound, hire one or more individuals who are. Their experience can play a key role in helping you provide customers with the tech they expect from you. You can also attend some tech events during the year. That is to gain more insight in the role technology is playing in the business world.

When it comes right down to it, you have to do all you can to run a sound business.

If you are not doing so, chances are good your competitors will reap the rewards.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

 

What All Businesses Should Know About 2020 Taxes

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By Kayla Matthews

 

tax form with pen

Knowing what’s new with tax specifics this year helps you feel well-equipped when filing your returns. Here are some crucial things to keep in mind as you prepare your 2020 taxes.

The Federal Tax Deadline Is Now July 15 for U.S. Filers

Perhaps the most important thing to know for planning purposes is that you have a little more time to get your returns filed. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it moved the 2020 filing deadline forward three months. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, It’s now July 15, rather than April 15. You do not need to request an extension to avail of the extra time.

Moreover, this new deadline also applies to estimated taxes that some self-employed professionals would have paid on April 15, 2020. Bear in mind, though, that you still need to get the second quarter’s payment in by June 15, 2020. States have taken a variety of different approaches with their tax deadlines. Some opted not to change them, while others permitted extensions. Check for the details associated with your state to avoid late payment penalties.

You May Qualify for COVID-19-Related Assistance

The coronavirus government stimulus package is a much-discussed topic these days. It will see a large percentage of taxpayers getting $1,200 deposited into their bank accounts. There is also an assortment of other forms of assistance that may apply to you. The IRS set up a dedicated page to inform people of what’s available and how to apply for it.

Employers should keep in mind that their businesses may be eligible for the Employee Retention Credit. It provides a tax credit for up to 50% of the qualifying wages paid to employees. Moreover, there are refundable tax credits given to small and medium-sized businesses to cover the costs of paid sick and family leave associated with COVID-19.

The IRS spells out the details of each assistance program on its website. Instead of assuming you qualify for something, take the time to read the information to check.

Deducting Expenses Is Not Always Straightforward

One of the most time-intensive tax tasks for many people involves deducting their expenses. That’s because tight parameters dictate what you can or cannot deduct. The lack of clarity may also exist regarding whether something is a tax or not.

One recent instance involved the Rhode Island Department of Transportation tried to collect toll fees exclusively from commercial trucks to fund roadways improvements. A court ruled that the word “tax,” as found in the Tax Injunction Act (TIA), does not include tolls.

However, the IRS has standard mileage rates you can deduct for business-related driving. In that case, the permitted deductions include tolls, as well as parking fees. The standard rate for business travel is 57.5 cents per mile this year — down from the 58 cents allowed in 2019.

You may also wonder if it’s possible to deduct expenses associated with working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The surprising answer is that you cannot deduct the item as an employee, but your company can.

Some companies pass the benefits onto workers. Section 139 of the federal tax code allows tax-free reimbursements of “reasonable expenses” to employees due to disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sustainability Credits Remain in Effect

The tax incentives for energy-efficient commercial and residential buildings will stay in place through December 31, 2020. Additionally, if you buy qualifying energy-efficiency equipment (such as solar water heaters and geothermal heat pumps) for your home, the credits for those are available through December 31, 2021. However, the percent of the cost eligible for a tax break takes a step-down approach.

If you begin using the equipment after 12/31/2019 and before 1/1/2021, the tax credit is 26%. However, it drops by four percentage points if you put the purchases in service from 12/31/2020 to 1/1/2022. The credits apply to existing and newly constructed homes that you own. Rental properties do not qualify.

Some People Can Dip Into Their Retirement Savings Without the Usual Penalty

Another recent development associated with COVID-19 tax relief allows qualifying parties to access their retirement savings early without the 10% penalty usually incurred. Affected individuals, such as those diagnosed with COVID-19 or caring for a spouse who has it, can withdraw up to $100,000 in savings under that arrangement.

Also, if you have a 401(k), the new stipulation allows six months of taking loans from an account equaling $100,000 or 100% of the account balance, whichever is lower.

Numerous New Tax Developments

This overview shows why it’s crucial to learn about this year’s tax changes before starting to file. Getting informed is a practical way to ensure you know about all the breaks and incentives applying to you or your enterprise.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Photo by Leon Dewiwje on Unsplash

Are You Growing Your Business for Better Things?

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Business person hand, keyboard

Being a business owner means a lot of different things to different people.

With that in mind, you may get to a point where you decide you have had enough of the business world. You may well want to go in a different direction.

So, what are you growing your business for?

Preparing to Sell One Day is Important

Even though your goal as an owner is to make your brand the best it can be, there will likely come a time where you will sell.

In looking at selling one day, you want to be sure your business is in position to proceed with a quick and easy sale.

For you to sell your business one day, look at the following to make sure you can check these items off your list:

  1. What your business is worth – Above all else, make sure you know what your business is worth. That is before considering pulling the trigger on selling. The last thing you want to do is get taken for a ride. Given you have worked hard to grow your business over time; don’t let someone else enjoy the profits. If you sell and do not get the real value of your business, you have wasted some time and dollars.
  2. What your industry is doing – It is also important that you know what your industry is up to. This means is it doing quite well or struggling right now. Go online and do some research to get the pulse of your industry. That research will include seeing if many companies in your line of work are up for sale. You also want to see how many are being acquired. If you are in the software industry, you can go online and see how many software company acquisitions have taken place in recent times. This will give you a better gauge to how your industry is doing. A lot of sales can mean people are looking to buy what you have to offer. Too few sales may lead you to hold off selling until a little further down the road. Either way, be on top of what your industry is doing.
  3. What it means to employees – Unless you work on your own, you have people under you. As a result, selling your business at some point can have a profound impact on these individuals. As such, you want to consider what may happen to them. One buying your brand may decide to incorporate some or all your employees into the new business. When this happens, you will probably feel better about things. If the prospective buyer will not do so, it may give you pause to sell right now. While you have to do what is in your best interests, caring about the people who’ve given you so much of their time is key too.

If growing a business for better things down the road sounds like you, do your best to position for success.

Remember, you got into business in the first place to make a profit and be your own boss.

With that in mind, keep growing until it is time for something different.

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes on business topics online.

Avoid Having Money Shortfalls with Your Business

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One of the worst fears a business owner will have is if his or her company is in the red for an extended period of time. Being so can lead to even going out of business for some companies.

That said are you at a point where you need to put some serious time and effort into getting your finances in order? If so, where best to begin this process?

So, now may well be the time for you to focus on company money matters.

Check Out Business Lenders

In your efforts to get back on track with company finances, a good start is the Internet.

You can go online and research business loan lenders.

In turning to such lenders, you are able to often avoid roadblocks that other types of loans can present.

Of most importance, you want to be sure you have all your paperwork ready to go. If you fail in this aspect, it can make it more difficult and even impossible to get the funding you need.

By making sure you have your documentation in order, you are one step closer to getting what you need.

Speaking of lenders, how do you know which one is best suited to help you?

It is wise to do some online research on the different providers out there. As you compare them, you should gain knowledge into which one has your best interests and options in mind.

Along with doing Internet research, also talk to other business owners you are on good terms with. Getting their feedback from when they sought similar loans and who they turned to can help you out.

At the end of the day, you know that a healthy financial outlook can mean good things for your business.

In getting to a healthier place, don’t be afraid to reach out for some financial help along the way.

Do You Need to Promote More?

One of the reasons you may be having money shortfalls is due to not enough consumers knowing about you.

If this does seem to be an issue, you should spend more time and effort on business promotions.

As an example, how much money and time do you put towards advertising and marketing? Given you are not as well-known as Coke or Amazon and others, it may be not enough consumers know what you have to offer.

One of the ways to make a dent in the brand recognition issue is to put more emphasis on promotions.

Among the ways to go about this if not already doing so:

  • Traditional email marketing
  • Billboards
  • Social Media
  • Sponsoring local groups and organizations
  • Customer testimonials

No matter what it takes to get your business in front of consumers’ eyes and ears, be sure to do it. If you fail at this, you could end up out of business before you know it.

When money shortfalls are an issue for your business, where will you start to get ahead of the situation?

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics online.

3 Elements to Sky Rocket Your Customer Experience Mapping Success

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customer experience mapping successCEM (short for customer experience mapping) has been a popular topic for well over 6 years for big companies interested in understanding a customer’s “relationship” with their services and products. However, small to medium companies have just started to notice the importance of having this incorporated into your business process.

According to Zeemo,

An engaging user experience is ultimately the most important aspect of your website, as your customers can and will leave your site if it doesn’t meet their standards.

This is why mapping your customer experience is so important.

Not to mention startups in the “app zone”, whose breakthrough relies mostly on how early-stage users interact and feel about the product/service they are testing or using. Today, we’re going to take note on 3 elements that can be added to the mix when creating a customer experience map.

The Must Have Elements

An experience map is a detailed visualization of your customer’s journey, the opportunities that rise for both your business and products/services to meet customer needs not only on the spot, but also in the long run, and the guiding principles behind actions and behaviors. Questions that can help you understand the processes behind a user’s action, include:

  • What are the top reasons why my customers would need my product or service?
  • What are the top benefits for using my product/service?
  • How does my product/service integrate in the moment, i.e. offering my customers an improved experience online/offline/both ways?
  • Does my product/service integrate in the bigger picture, long-term? Why/Why not? If Yes, then How?
  • What are customer behavior or mindset patterns which my product/service can cover or respond to?
  • Is my customer acting based on pre-defined principles? What are those? Can these be addressed or integrated in my product/service?
  • Is my product/service sustainable? Does it allow a connection/bridge between customer experience and customer satisfaction?

You can find more about the anatomy of a customer experience map here, along with clear examples such as Rail Europe’s CEM process. Now, if you follow the best practices of CEM, you can only get so far. Here’s how to take the entire process one step forward.

#1. Monitoring Customer Satisfaction Across All Channels

Customer satisfaction is a key player in designing products or services that solve problems, create a space for customers to enjoy and use, and trigger customer loyalty in the long run. Nowadays, your social media staff and community managers play a bigger role than in the past. Here’s why: customers are humans and there is a certain emotional link between your service or product and their needs. Sometimes, as providers, we fail to completely deliver and meet expectations. And this is human, as well. That is why as businesses, we need processes and human force to handle the failure.

An angry customer will be more understanding if, for example, someone from your staff will patiently listen to his/her worries, complaints, and offer a win-win solution, in a timely manner. Knowing the key principles behind proper damage control can save your company’s future. These are: responsiveness (speed and time), reaction, damage control, patience, protocols and explanations at hand, problem solving procedures, standard and customized processes, call to action, open door policies.

And learn from other brands’ mistakes (such as Pokemon Go’s fiasco, although they managed to recover, to some extent, according to this article).

#2. Monitoring Feedback

Nothing new here, however many businesses ignore customer feedback. Just having a good survey form on your website and a competent community manager that gathers all feedback from customers isn’t enough to gain valuable insights about your products, features, and services, and the way they impact your customers’ lives. Another idea is to use a VoIP call center solution that provides robust report allowing you to see your customers’ feedback after they called your customer support team.

You shouldn’t collect customer feedback at a superficial level.

Many customers tend to forget, or do not have the time, or simply are not used to leaving feedback and stating their mind. That is why you must always pair up with a third-party service to collect more insights, and put them to better use.

Delighted, a feedback monitoring tool, has become very popular among startups, mid-sized companies and Fortune500 brands. Among these, Uber, PeoplePerHour, Tedx, Slack, and others use it to collect instant feedback and rate their products and services. The tool sends out a message to the users, asking them to rate the brand/product/service on a scale from 1 to 10, in the email body. And then opens an additional web page where the user can explain their pick. Feedback is collected and delivered in real time to the brand’s board. Delightful!

#3. Crunching User Website Data to Understand Online Patterns

The customer experience map is strongly related to your website’s functionality and the user’s activity patterns, not just to the human, personal journey aspect. Ideally, you would want to get to know and understand your audience at a deeper level. Besides having a solid website or channel that runs on usability and responsiveness across all devices/environments, you also need access to data related to the user’s online activity prior or post usage of your product or service. It’s way easier in the case of apps, for e.g., to collect user data right from the app itself, analyze it and report findings strictly related to your product. Google offers the option to export data and stats if your app is in the Google App store.

If your products/services do not come in the form of apps, then your website becomes the first environment to facilitate the contact and interaction between them and the customer. They don’t say a website is a company’s business card, for nothing!

While data extracted from your website may fail to directly address all customer experience segments, it will help in predicting certain behaviors or trends in close relation to your service or product. Pivot tables provide a simplified way to gain first hand access to customer patterns and do not require super advanced knowledge of data analysis. If you are not familiar with PowerPivot there are plenty of online articles like this one.

Takeaways

Come what may, we live in a time where businesses need to walk the extra mile to achieve success. In the business world, there is such thing as “competition”, and the only way to win a top spot is to provide something different, better, more functional, more accurate to your customers.

This means gathering data from the inside (starting with your website user data), analyzing it, finding patterns, building your product based on those patterns to meet customers’ expectations.

Remember that feedback isn’t just “active listening”, as everyone talks about, but also input collection and implementation to meet customer satisfaction. Happy customer experience mapping!

Image source: Pixabay

3 Signs Your Company Needs Financial Assistance

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The warning signs can be easy to spot or a bit murky.

That said do you know when things are pointing towards your business needing help?

While many go through some challenges at times, being in a money drought for too long can be problematic. If things are not rectified before too long, one’s business can be left hanging in the balance.

With this in mind, is it time your company got some financial help?

What Are Your Options?

Signs of issues can range from a notable slowdown in sales to higher costs for supplies. Over time, these issues can present you with quite a problem.

If you feel your business has reached a point where finances are in trouble, consider these:

  1. Business line of credit – Have you toyed with the idea of seeking a business line of credit? Such a line can help you put funds towards one or more important needs with your business. From new equipment to hiring more help, the possibilities are endless. If you decide to go down this route, look into what the business line of credit requirements are. This will make it easier for you to see if you are apt to qualify in the first place.
  2. Paying less for supplies – No matter the supplies you need, you can’t afford to be overpaying for them all the time. With this in mind, are you getting deals for the things you need or are you being taken to the cleaners all too often? Even if you have some vendors you’ve been with for years, don’t be afraid to shop around. Remember, you have the right to find the best deal for your wallet. It may come down to severing ties with some to go elsewhere for a better deal.
  3. Customers not paying up – Last, depending on the business, you may or may not require customers to pay up front. That said you want to be sure you get the payment sooner than later. If some customers lag too far behind in paying you, do you have concerns they will never pay at any point and time? If this happens, you may have to end up seeking collections. Keep in mind that doing so will cost your company time and money. This is why you want to try and work with customers to pay what they owe you to avoid collections. Do all you can to give them reasonable time to pay their bills. If it seems like they are unwilling to, then you may be left with no other choice than to seek help.

Given all you have on your plate in running a business, the last thing you want to do is always be worrying about money.

That said you won’t be in business for too long if money is always an issue.

When your company finances can be better, do all you can to right the ship before it is too late.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.