Q: How much should I budget for my marketing costs? General Marketing Expense Ratios For established businesses, the general guideline for a marketing budget is a percentage of sales. However, for a startup business with no sales history, the considerations are: What marketing methods are identified in a business plan? What marketing methods will be…

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Q: How does a person go about getting considered to serve on a corporate board, or as an advisor to other corporate boards? The approach, qualifications, and other considerations for getting a board of directors, or advisory committee, seat vary somewhat based on the type of corporation—nonprofit, privately-owned, or publicly owned. Having contacts and relationships…

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Q: I’m looking to start a new mobile auto detailing business. My biggest concern is protecting my business, particularly from employee theft. What can I do in my hiring procedures? Effective hiring procedures are important for every employer; however, since you will have employees taking company assets off premise, handling customer cash payments, working on…

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Why_You_Need_An_Employee_Handbook

Question: I run a small business and have less than 10 employees. Why should I have an employee handbook? An effective employee handbook that lays out all company policies can be a great benefit to your small business. Although there’s no kind of legal requirement forcing you to develop a handbook, experts have found that…

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Q: How do the new federal tax rules impact the taxation of my LLC business? The recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) took effect January 1st, 2018 and will have a significant impact on the federal income tax treatment of business pass-through entities, which for the TCJA are defined as sole…

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Finding_Corporate_Sponsorship

Question: How should I approach potential sponsors for an event that seats about 550 people per month and reaches thousands through online marketing? Is there such thing as a sponsorship proposal form? If so, what type of information should be in there that would be intriguing to a sponsor? Each sponsorship opportunity will be different…

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