Choosing how often to pay your employees can be just as important for your business as choosing how much to pay them. While at first it seems like a simple decision, there are a number of factors that can impact employee morale, payroll processing costs and compliance with state and federal regulations. As you prepare for 2015 let’s take a closer look at your different options for paying your people. Standard payroll periods There are four standard options for choosing pay periods: weekly, … [Read more...]
Should you lend money to your employees?
Nearly 38 million families make just enough money to cover their day-to-day expenses. When something unexpected happens that requires additional cash, they don’t have it and need to borrow it. Many of them turn to their employers for help especially if the money is needed immediately. What should you do? Do you make the loan or turn them down? Why lending money to your workers is a risky proposition While many small business owners are sympathetic to workers with a financial problem, an … [Read more...]
How to get the most yield on your business cash
One of the most painful experiences a business owner can go through right now is examining the interest they are earning on their cash. For the past six years interest rates have been at historic lows. A successful business owner with $1 million in a savings account would earn around $100 to $150 per month at current interest rates. The interest on $10 million wouldn’t even cover rent for a studio apartment in most cities! It’s extremely frustrating. Despite recent indications and measures … [Read more...]
How much equity should you give your employees?
Life is very expensive these days. A few decades ago earning a $100,000 salary provided for a very comfortable lifestyle with plenty left over for savings. Today, a $200,000 income in San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Miami provides at best a middle class lifestyle. The average sale price for an apartment in Manhattan is now nearly $1.7 million. The average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment in San Francisco is nearly $3,900. The average car insurance premium in Miami is $264 per … [Read more...]
What to do when you disagree with your investors
Having a disagreement with your company’s investors is one of the most difficult challenges that any small business owner can face. It’s stressful, time-consuming and the stakes can be very high. It’s quite common to see the founders of successful businesses kicked out of their own companies due to disagreements with their funders. Like any challenge you face, it’s important to understand your options and take a careful, gradual approach to resolving the conflict as amicably and as quickly as … [Read more...]
Tax inversion: How incorporating abroad can lower your tax bill
The United States has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world. Multiple studies confirm that even if you take into account credits and deductions, the effective rate (what companies actually pay) continues to be among the highest. Corporate profits between $100,000 and $335,000 are taxed at a 39 percent rate, with higher profit levels taxed between 34 and 38 percent. Add state and local income taxes to the mix and a corporation could pay half of its profits in income taxes. … [Read more...]
How Warren Buffett Can Help You Protect Your Investments
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite Index, S&P 500 Index and the Russell 2000 Index are at record or near-record highs. Fast-growing startups are running as fast as they can to IPO. Mergers and acquisitions are on the rise. Anyone caught up in these trends could easily assume that the worst economic times are behind us and that “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” are all that lay ahead. But some people – like the third richest man in the world Warren Buffet – know … [Read more...]
Are you ready to put the family in family business?
Tim Horton was a Canadian national hero and hockey player with a career that spanned 24 seasons, 4 Stanley Cups and millions of fans. When he wasn’t on the ice, he was an entrepreneur. In 1964 at the age of 34 he started the Tim Hortons Doughnut Shop. By 1967, he had grown it to over 40 locations with partner Ron Joyce. Using franchising as a growth strategy, the company expanded aggressively, becoming a multimillion-dollar business in a few short years. That’s when things got … [Read more...]
Get ready to throw out your old POS system
Credit card fraud is a massive problem. More than a quarter of all credit card holders in the world have been the victim of fraud during the last 5 years. 42 percent of U.S. credit card holders have been victims, the second-highest rate in the world (Mexico is first). Credit card fraud is easy to perpetrate for several reasons but it’s mainly due to a card’s underlying technology – the magnetic stripe. Using magnetism to record information was first invented during World War II and IBM developed … [Read more...]
Where will the economy be this fall?
As the summer starts winding down, it’s a perfect time to evaluate the health of the economy. Chances are that your business will perform better if the economy improves. Knowing what will happen over the remainder of 2014 and 2015 will help you make better decisions related to pricing, sales, hiring and borrowing. You don’t need to be an economist or get bogged down in reams of data. Just focus on these 5 key signals: Interest rates Since the financial crisis of 2008 the Federal Reserve has … [Read more...]
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