You're self-employed, you just don't know it yet
This is a great post by Casey Lewis that came out this morning on how working 40-hours a week is dead. Thanks Casey!
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
You're not as dumb as you think you are
Seriously, who actually stops learning? Even those who just stumbled out of college with a foam hat still askew about their ears knows that education goes on. Learning continues with your first round of interviews for your career. The first things you learn are what NOT to say in interviews. I would argue that most education happens on an experiential level. I defer to psychologists more on this vein, but it seems that humans are pretty good about running up against something, bouncing a few times, and trying something different the next time.
That's exactly what it takes to be an entrepreneur. You try something, you "fail", then you try something else. You figure out what works.
Ironically, entrepreneurship is a lot like life.
What does an Entrepreneur's education look like?
When I was in community college, I worked full-time. Why? Because I wanted to learn how a business ran. I was also starting up a small business at the same time. Yikes! And a girlfriend on top of all that! But, the lessons I learned about balance, keeping all the plates spinning, how business works (especially the retail world), helped me immensely in my endeavors.
I also learned that taking Accounting 1 and 2 concurrently is not for the faint of heart, but I digress.
Steve Jobs did much the same thing. He dipped into a few college classes after dropping out, most notably a calligraphy class that inspired his idea to make the Macintosh's text graphics look appealing.
Free college? Why yes, I will take a slice.
Saylor.org and (my alma mater), Thomas Edison State College (TESC) have teamed up to open free course content to prepare students for TESC's Associate in Science in Business Administration. TESC's credits can be actually earned in a variety of ways, from the CLEP, DANTES, and their own TECEP tests. Also, they have Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) for those who have life experience (perhaps what you've done for a career for the past decade) that they can translate into college credit. Most of Saylor's program falls into test prep for TECEP tests and PLA.
Pretty awesome, right? If nothing else, perhaps just spending some time listening to online content (even educational content) can be extremely helpful in running your business.
Some of the other business educational resources that I've found (though I haven't tried them all), are:
Friday, May 2, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
How to Prepare for your Tax Bills
Here's an article I wrote for KASA practice solutions, a support system for private practitioners, but the concepts are for any small business owner, enjoy!
http://www.kasa-solutions.com/blog/prepare-tax-bills/?fb_action_ids=10100616627441153&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=below-post
Thursday, January 16, 2014
It’s the most wonderful time (of an accountant’s) year!
January
31st, is quickly approaching! The significance of that date is that
that is the deadline from the IRS for filing end of year tax forms such as W-2’s
and 1099’s.
W-2 to-do
Check with your payroll provider to make sure you have
everything ready to send out W-2’s to your employees. The deadline to file and
mail them is January 31st. Also, your employees could be itching to
get their taxes done so they can get their refunds. Happy employees generally
make happy customers, just sayin’.
1099’s, almost the bane of the small business existence
This
honestly could be a lot worse. For every vendor that you purchase goods and
services from in a year and pay more than $600 for those goods and services, if
they are a sole-proprietor, partnership, LLC filing as a partnership, or
something else exotic non-corporate entity, then you must file form 1096 with
the IRS and mail a form 1099 to the vendor. A couple of years ago, the IRS was
on the cusp of forcing companies to file 1099’s with EVERY vendor that was paid
more than $600. Yikes! The politicians quickly realized that this was a
bone-headed move, and reversed course. But don’t think that that sentiment will
go away permanently. But for now, you only have to worry about non-corporate
entities. Hopefully, you have a form W-9 from all vendors, so you’ll have their
tax ID number (Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number), so
you’ll be able to quickly process and get those bad boys into the mail. Most
accounting software can print 1099 forms directly, and you can get forms from
an office supply store.
Help needed?
If you need help and are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, drop
us a line at Ledger & Pen, at acrawford@ledgerandpen.com
Monday, January 6, 2014
Clean up your file drawers
Happy new year! My New Year's Day tradition, (besides eating leftovers and catching up on sleep), is to clean out our desk file drawer. I do this, because sometime around late November, it becomes too stuffed to add more to it. So there I was, on the floor, having the kids help me separate papers into piles: one each for the years that I wanted to keep, and one big pile for the stuff that needed to be shredded.
Most utility bills, bank statements, medical bills, and things of that nature I hold on to three year's worth. That way, in case something did come up, or I needed them for some unknown reason, I've got them on hand. A lot of things are electronic, and I'm working on migrating as many things to an electronic format that I can so I don't have the clutter to clean. I keep all of my IRS documents, I figure by the time I kick the bucket, there probably won't be but 50-60 of them. That sounds like maybe two boxes, I can live with that.
Here's a good Entrepreneur.com article on business documentation and how long to keep them. http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225511
Hope everyone's new year goes well!
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