Posts by Rick Gossett
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Whenever you start a business, it needs to have something about it that is special, some unique quality. Sometimes, that quality is just bringing an existing product or service into a new market. But other times, the unique quality of your business is a new product or service that you’ve invented. When you’ve taken the…
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4 Essential Elements of a Business Plan
A well thought out business plan is critical to the success of any new venture. The business plan not only identifies the goals of your business, but it also will outline the plans to execute those goals. It tells you both where you want to go as well as how you are planning to get…
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What Business Records Should You Keep?
Knowing what business records to keep is critically important to a small business entrepreneur. These records serve many functions. They help you quantify and monitor the progress of your business, and make decisions accordingly. They give you the information you need to prepare a financial statement. They allow you to identify your various receipts and…
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The Independent Contractor Checklist
Whether a worker is an Independent Contractor or must be put on payroll as an employee is a question of facts and circumstances. The primary issue is whether the employer has the right to “direct and control the exact duties and manner in which a worker carries out those duties.” There is no specific law…
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Make Time for Strategic Planning
Running your business is an exhausting, all-day-every-day enterprise. You have so many things to do—from the central task of finding more customers to the ins and outs of day-to-day operations. And it’s especially true for a small business, where you don’t have a huge staff of people to spread the tasks around. With so much…
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Consultant’s Corner: Establishing a Simplified Employee Pension Plan
Question: What is required when establishing a SEP Plan? A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) Plan, also referred to as a SEP-IRA, is one of the easiest small business retirement plans to set up and maintain. You can make sizable contributions for yourself and any eligible employees. There’s little administration, any employer—including self-employed individuals—can establish a…
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Consultant’s Corner: Should I Use QuickBooks?
Question: It costs over $100 per month for an accountant to do payroll for my business. I could use QuickBooks and do it for under $50. What are the pros and cons of using QuickBooks for small business accounting? With user-friendly software such as QuickBooks available, many business owners feel they should be able to…
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Keep the Organization Simple
Organizations of all kinds have a bad habit of growing more and more complex. But an important feature for an organization focused on growth is keeping things simple. Whenever a big business fails, we often hear about problems with their organizational structure. It’s a similar story almost every time: The organization grew so big, and…
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4 Elements of an Effective Performance Review
As you add employees to your small business, it becomes increasingly important for you to have a way to evaluate their work and keep your workers on the right track. Having the framework in place for effective performance reviews will give you the opportunity to identify the goals and objectives for your company and determine…
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Understanding a Financial Statement: 3 Key Metrics
Your accounting will ultimately produce financial statements for your business. They are there to help you run the business, and effectively represent each decision you’ve made in the past to help you make decisions for the future. The financial statements accomplish this by translating everything into dollars and cents. But there are other benefits to…
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