Posted by Eric Hubbs on Thu, Jun 03, 2010 @ 01:54 PM
By Eric Hubbs
How does the saying go, "Don't count your chickens before they've hatched?" This seems to be the theme of our current economy. Word on the street is it's getting better and that there is a visible growth trend; however, it's crucial for business owners to understand what is generating the momentum and to remain cautious and calculated in our financial decisions - as difficult as it may be.
Beacon Economics presented their 2010 San Luis Obispo County Economic Outlook at the Paso Robles Event Center yesterday. Principal Christopher Thornberg and Director of Regional Research Brad Kemp spoke to a group of Central Coast professionals and delivered their economic forecast. While optimistic about the trends and growth, they remained realistic that we are not out of the woods yet. The primary sources of the spending increase are not sustainable. The equity market is up - good news - but based on the facts, the P/E ratio is overvalued, and it is evident that the market is not consistent. Even with the impact of the government stimulus, of which less than half has been spent, it's just a cushion for the moment, not a solution. And it's not an infinite resource. If we do not make educated decisions right now, we may find ourselves backpedaling.
They cited serious structural problems, a politically motivated band-aid covering the severe financial wound. Rob Garcia of Rob Garcia Wealth Management compares it to a poorly run business thriving in a good economy - the problems don't surface until bad times, and then it becomes that much more difficult to save the struggling business. He said until structural adjustments are created and implemented to improve the business operations, "it's like kicking the can down the street."
That's not to say there is no hope, because the good news is - there is! There is opportunity, and it takes creative actions to recognize and capitalize on them. Although numbers indicate San Luis Obispo County has experienced an extended recession, greater than surrounding counties, they also indicate we have faster recovering markets within arm's reach. Businesses within San Luis Obispo County can target these outer local markets and tap into their potential. Utilizing powerful resources to gain real knowledge and understand the present trends is vital, and can have a tremendous impact on the success of your business.
To help you make more educated decisions, view or download the 2010 San Luis Obispo County Economic Outlook presentation by Beacon Economics at http://www.beaconecon.com/.
We want to hear from you. Please share your thoughts, reactions, and creative solutions by commenting below.
Posted by Beth Fillerup on Thu, Feb 04, 2010 @ 04:56 PM
The Entrepreneurial Couple - these are individuals that are married, significant others, life partners, etc. who have elected not only to spend their lives together but also create a business together. At first it makes sense - two smart people, a great idea, working with someone you trust to take charge of your destiny. But along with these benefits come unique challenges and even additional pressure on the relationship due to poor communication, unresolved conflicts, reliance on the business to financially support both individuals, and no separation between work and home.
While I have seen many couples make this transition successfully, I have seen a greater number fail. The individuals that succeed do so by clearly defining what they expect from one another in both the business and personal relationships, avoiding undue stress and creating a true partnership. The following are seven topics that I have noticed are most important for discussion and agreement.
1. Roles and Responsibilities. Identify clear roles, responsibilities, and expectations - just as you would with any employee. Without clear roles, individual duties get blurred. This can lead to each person thinking the other is handling an item, which can lead to tasks not being completed, which leads to the blame game.
2. Decisions. Determine a process for making decisions from the get-go. Focus particularly on how disagreements will be handled. What happens if one partner wants to go in a direction that the other partner vehemently opposes?
3. Needs and Values. Come to an understanding on what each person's needs and values are in both the personal and business relationships. Often, the personal relationship is about security, connectedness, and equality; this relationship tends to be full of emotion. On the other hand, the business relationship is more about risk, equitability, and competition; this relationship leans more toward rationality. Each person needs to understand how the other views these differences, and then together you can come up with a game plan on how to honor these views.
4. Separation of Work from Home. Create parameters about topics that should stay at the office. Couples working together often see their home and work life blend together to the point where they feel they are always working and have lost aspects of their personal life and relationship. One couple that I've worked with uses the rule that from 6:00 PM until 8:00 AM the next morning they cannot talk about business.
5. Personal Independence. Identify and develop some independent activities, hobbies, or friendships. This allows each of you to maintain a sense of individual identity and to also bring new perspectives and insights into the relationship.
6. Finances. Establish clear budgets for both the business and your household. It is crucial that you manage both budgets well since you rely on one business to support a household of two (or more). Most importantly, business financial decisions that may impact your personal household finances should be made jointly.
7. Assistance. Get an outside advisor or coach. It is imperative to have someone you trust advising you on the dynamics that arise from sharing a business and personal relationship. Having an impartial third party can help prevent differing opinions from becoming major conflicts that can negatively impact your relationship.
Entrepreneurial couples can create an unstoppable team if they have a strong, trusting foundation, but without good communication skills and clear expectations or parameters these relationships may also hinder a business's growth and prosperity.
Bottom Line
If you are an entrepreneurial couple, you probably desire business success, family harmony, and personal well-being. Unfortunately, entrepreneurial partnerships may have a hard time achieving these three things and may under-perform due to unresolved conflicts and ambiguity about roles. Together as partners, I encourage you to take time to evaluate how you are truly performing as a team. Create a game plan, write down your resolutions, and make a contract with one another using the above seven topics as a guideline.
Is there a topic that you would like Michael to discuss? If so, email him at MGunther@collaboration-llc.com or call (805) 541-9040 to let him know.
Michael Gunther is Founder and President of Collaboration LLC, a team of highly skilled business professionals who are dedicated to assisting proactive business owners to build profitable, sustainable businesses through results-oriented education, coaching, and consulting services. Learn more at www.collaboration-llc.com.
Posted by Eric Hubbs on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 @ 09:23 AM
We would like to welcome Certified Public Accountant Laura Krueger of Wong and Krueger as our guest blogger with her advice to business owners for preparing their 2009 taxes.If you have any questions about what she has to say, contact her!
TAX PLANNING 2009
November and December is a great time to meet with your accountant.
Use this meeting to:
- Review your company's performance year to date
- Estimate income for the rest of the year
- Establish projections for 2010.
In 2009 it's especially important to plan your tax strategy. Even so, there are exceptional challenges in doing so. Most of us have been dealing with economic and market challenges for many months now. Usual tax planning strategies of prior years may not work in this environment. In addition, we are unsure of what 2010 will mean for the health of the economy and for new tax legislation.
Inform your accountant of any changes in your business and personal life. Were you married or divorced in 2009? Did you have a child? Did your business structure change or did you have new investors? These types of changes may have a significant effect on your 2009 taxes.
Next, review the deductions you and your business took in the prior year and determine whether they will still apply to your current year situation. Take a look at new tax law and see what effect it will have - are there deductions you no longer qualify for? Are there new deductions you can take advantage of?
Following are some specific strategies to discuss with your accountant:
Net operating loss carryback: In November the president signed into law the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. This legislation will help companies that experience a loss to stabilize their businesses and be in a prime position when the economy enters recovery. The net operating loss carryback provision is expanded to allow companies of every size to carry back losses incurred in either 2008 or 2009 against income earned in any of the five prior years. Offsetting previously paid taxes results in a tax refund from the IRS. This provides companies with much needed cash in the near term. Take advantage of this as early in 2010 as possible.
Bonus depreciation: The stimulus bill extended the first-year 50% depreciation of the cost of new equipment purchased and put into service this year. The "bonus" is in addition to normal depreciation and deductions available under Section 179. It applies to purchases of tangible personal property used in a business. If you are planning to purchase equipment in the near-term you may want to consider completing your purchase in 2009 to take advantage of this provision.
Section 179 Depreciation Deduction: The Section 179 deduction has been increased to $250,000 for qualifying property placed in service in this year. This deduction allows you to depreciate an asset in total in 2009.
Future tax increases: Tax rates are likely to increase when the Bush tax cuts expire. The top two individual income tax rates, currently 33% and 35%, will likely roll back to their 2000 levels of 36% and 39.6%. In addition, the top capital gains rate will likely rise from 15% to 20%. If your income level places you in one of the top brackets you may consider accelerating income into the current year instead of deferring it.
Have a talk now with your accountant to set a course for managing your tax planning for 2009 and beyond.
CPA Laura Krueger can be reached by clicking here.
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Posted by Michael Gunther on Thu, Jul 23, 2009 @ 12:53 PM
By Christine Sommer, Collaboration Certified Consultant
Structure, processes and accountability. Fun? Not always, but they are a necessary evil for the survival of a business. Unfortunately, we often see the artistic and creative entrepreneur struggle with this skill set.
Creative entrepreneurs have such a passion for the masterpieces they create, but the business structure is often lacking. All too often the creative-preneurs come to us with big visions of business concepts with hundreds of possibilities but just can't seem to implement the actions to make it happen. The key ingredients that are usually missing include: structure, processes and accountability. Entrepreneurs who do develop these skills can take their company to a whole new level. So how can you make these happen?
Structure:
Treat yourself like a client. Set up a time to meet with your staff or just yourself each week to plan out what needs to get accomplished. Set up yearly, monthly and weekly goals. Get the ideas out of your head and put them down on paper. You now have a place to go to start prioritizing the ideas you want to implement.
Sign up for a Free Hour Business Consultation that can be done in person or over the phone and let one of our Collaboration Certified Consultants help you determine the right path and structure for your business.
Processes:
Create processes for the work that you do on a repeated basis. Utilize technology to streamline your work. Managing your time is critical in building a business, and when the process gets created, time spent in certain areas can often be cut in half. Not only that, but when you hire and employee to do that job they will thank you for having the system in place.
Our Business Assesment Consulting here at Collaboration-LLCis geared for established organizations that need to fine-tune current business practices. This interactive assessment will evaluate your business in 4 key areas using our proven business model, benchmark your business within your industry and then, provide you with a Game Plan to grow your business and sustain profitability.
Accountability:
How do you hold someone accountable to make sure things get done? Set out an action plan with the task that needs completion. Assign a date it was created, write out the task at hand, who it was assigned to and, most important, the due date. If you are having a hard time holding yourself accountable, join a mentoring group. There are several groups in the business community designed to hold business owners accountable to the goals they create for themselves. Get support from outside of your company and let them help you stay on track.
Here is more information on our Management Training Program that will help you strengthen your management team and increase productivity in your business.
The Bottom Line:
Developing these skills when they are not your natural talent will enhance your leadership skills and help you become a profitable and sustainable business.
If you have any questions or would like to receive more information please feel free to Contact Us!
Posted by Michael Gunther on Tue, Jun 09, 2009 @ 05:11 PM
By Michael Gunther, President of Collaboration, Business Growth
Specialists
Over the last 14 years of consulting small businesses, I have had the privilege of working with many partnerships. In fact, over 60% of our consulting clients have been partnerships - whether they were family partnerships, married partners or friends. Almost 100% of the time the company has come to us because the partnership was now hindering the growth and the success of the business.
These partnerships could have prevented the pain, lost opportunity and profit if they would have defined some clear partnership parameters at the beginning of their working relationship. Often these partners who were once good friends or had strong family bonds, are now operating their business without speaking to one another, or working with a veil of suspicion and with no clear direction or purpose other than to protect themselves.
Here are some key areas that typically are missing from these organizations:
No Clear Communication Structures
What is required for partners in terms of meetings and types of communications that need to be shared with partners?
What are the steps to resolve conflicts?
No Methodology for Business Decisions
How compensation is determined for each partner's role verses their level of ownership?
How are financial decisions made within the organization?
Are roles & responsibilities clearly defined for partners? What are the consequences for non-performance?
No Clear Legal/Financial Documents
What legal documents exist to support the partnership?
What is the financial commitment of each partner?
What happens if one partner does not want to participant in a financial outlay?
No Exit Strategies Clearly Identified
How can the termination of the partnership happen?
What behaviors or actions constitute a mandatory leave or termination?
What does each partner want from this business besides a financial gain?
Partnerships can be highly successful. They can also be a huge impediment to the success of the company if the partners have different agendas and are headed in different directions.
By sitting down with your potential partner or current partner and answering the questions above, you will begin the necessary communication process and structures to build a solid partnership and thus, a solid business. To download an expanded version of these tips, please click here.
Posted by Eric Hubbs on Wed, May 20, 2009 @ 11:38 AM
By Michael Gunther
As originally published in The Tolosa Press on May 7th, 2009. 
In an economic downturn, customer service is more important than ever. It would seem that with less workload, businesses would focus almost entirely on maintaining customer relationships-but that is just not the case. Have you noticed service suffering at your favorite restaurant or retail store? I know I have.
Having to minimize expenses, companies make layoffs, so employees are stretched thin; yet so are consumers' wallets. This creates a vicious cycle: companies' cutbacks affect areas of their customer service; while the consumer expects extraordinary service and appreciation for any business they give during these tight times. And if a company does not provide great service, they risk losing the customer; the cycle continues.
It's easy to see how we got here. Business was booming. Most businesses didn't have to concentrate on customer service because customers literally walked in the door. Now we're experiencing the fallout -the Boom Hangover.
Recently, I took my team out for a celebratory event at a well-known local restaurant. With consumers eating out less often and restaurants feeling the hurt of empty tables, you would think we'd have received memorable service, right? Unfortunately, this is one of those businesses suffering from the Boom Hangover. Our server was indifferent, the food came out late, and the dessert menu we requested was never delivered. As we walked out of our private room, we noticed the restaurant was empty; the vicious cycle reveals itself.
It's easy to fall into the trap of allowing the quality of your products or services to diminish. Business owners and managers today are under more pressure, are making harder decisions, and in many cases (as verified by unemployment growing at the fastest rate in decades) are making layoffs. Though you may not have the clients and cash flow that you did a few months ago, allowing the quality of your product or service to suffer is not a strategy to build business.
We business owners must take action. We need to ask ourselves,"How can I improve service to my clientele with limited resources?" Let's get back to giving customers what they want. We should be listening, learning, and making changes - today.
First, contact your customers. Start with your best customers - current and past. The only way to make the change your clients desire is to know how they feel about you and your overall customer service, and to truly understand what works for them. Perform formal face to face discussions, if at all possible.
One of my clients increased his clientele by creating a focus group of his best customers - the type of customers he wanted more of. He asked them structured questions that related to his service: What do you like and dislike? How can we find other customers like you? Why did you choose to work with us? Their feedback helped him improve his customer relationships and understand how to gain more clientele.
Second, get back to focusing on the end user. Treat every customer that calls, enters your place of business, or is interested in your product or service with the utmost attention. Let them know that you truly appreciate their business.
Recently, some friends and I were at a local pub and were impressed by changes they had made. We mentioned it to the owner, who told us that he had talked to his clients and implemented change based on the feedback. His whole attitude was that his business was better because he listened - and we agreed. When we left, he made sure that we knew he appreciated our business; he appreciated us coming in and supporting a local company. It was an experience I'd like to have again.
Perhaps you feel you don't have time to talk to customers. You just cut staff and are busier than ever. Make the time to work on service. Take one hour per week to focus on what you could be doing differently with customer service. Remember the cyclical nature of business, and that a client who sees you mean business today may be your most loyal client tomorrow.