What you can do to reduce S.O.H.O. stress at income tax time.

What you can do to reduce S.O.H.O. stress at income tax time.

Most Small Office Home Office businesses take their information to a professional for tax return preparation.  If you have not already implemented an organized system for your records here are some tips that will save you time and money.



This year before you see your income tax professional:



    Get organized.  Sort your information into separate file folders that are labelled according to Expense and Revenue types.



    Create a separate folder for your GST, Income Tax, Bank Statements, Bank Loans, Credit Card Statements, Charitable Receipts, Investments (RRSP, GIC, etc.), and Medical Receipts.  (The medical receipts may be used for your personal income tax.)



    Store the folders in alphabetical order in a portable accordion file folder or banker’s box (depending on how much paperwork you have). Label with your name and contact information.



    Make sure that all related documents are accounted for.  E.g.  Utility bills for each business month are in the Utilities folder.  Bank loan information should include interest expense information, etc.



    Be realistic about your expenses and get rid of all receipts that are not business related.  Revenue Canada will not allow the following expenses for most of us:



a)      Hair cuts

b)      Dry cleaning

c)      Holiday excursions

d)      Pet expenses

e)      Clothing and jewellery



    Include your mileage log or the number of kilometres travelled for business.  You will need this to determine how much of your Vehicle Insurance, Vehicle Maintenance, and Gas/Oil can be expensed.



    Make a list of all business equipment purchased and/or discarded this year.



    Make a list of any accounts receivable invoices that might be uncollectible.



    How many rooms are there in your home and how many of those are used for business? This information is required to calculate the percentage of business portion of expenses.



    Invest in an RRSP or increase your contribution total before the February deadline if your budget allows.


For your next business year:



Ø     Start at number one from the above list and keep on top of things to avoid last minute panic.



Ø     Buy a user friendly accounting package like Simply Accounting or hire someone to keep your accounting records up to date, so you can get a better handle of how your business is doing.



Ø     Keep your business and personal transactions separated as much as possible.



Ø     Keep the number of business credit card and bank accounts to a minimum.  With each account that you have, additional time will be required to reconcile information, which in turn will cost you more money.



Ø     Start your RRSP program if you haven’t already done so.



Ø     Apply for a GST number if you have not already got one and your projected sales for this year will be over $30,000.00.

                           

Why Start a Business

Why Start a Business

 

Why would anyone ever want to start a business? The simple answer may be “to make money”. But is that really true? I mean, you can do other things to make  money. Get a job. Any job. If you’re lucky, you might even get to work for companies that provide full benefits for their workers. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s safe and secure. For me, that just sounds so boring! Here are the reasons as to why you should start a business and become an entrepreneur right now:

Be your own boss- When owning a business, you are the boss. You choose who you work with, dictate how you want your company to run, and even set your own hours. There will be obstacles associating with self-employment. Prepare to fail and expect to make mistakes. These experiences will improve yourself and your business in the long run. You certainly won’t have the privilege of growing with such mentality under someone else’s rules. You’ll always be scared of being fired. Being your own boss can set you free.

Take on a challenge- I can’t imagine myself going to the same old job, repeating the same routines, and turning into robots. If I have to work, I’d want something challenging. Wouldn’t you? When you start a business, things don’t always go smoothly. You need to deal with employees, customers, partners, investors, etc. Your leadership and decision-making skills will constantly be tested. You’ll be exposed to failures as well. That is all of the job descriptions. Did you know that about 2 out of 3 of small businesses don’t make it after couple of years? Not everyone can start a business. And certainly, not everyone can maintain a business. You’ll need to take risks. Just thinking about it makes me excited. Starting a business is challenging and mind-stimulating. I feel like I can never be bored. There are always something to do and improve.

Meet new people- Most of the CEOs spend their times in meetings. Business deals are done over meals and social settings. In the business world, you are required to interact with other people. If you don’t like that, perhaps you shouldn’t start a business. People interaction is the beauty of entrepreneurship. You’ll get to meet new people just about everyday. Building your social network and knowing the right people are the two most important keys in reaching your success. You’ll get to travel and learn from different perspectives.

Follow your passion- The difference between businessmen and entrepreneurs is that businessmen follow money. Entrepreneurs go after their passions. When you have your own company, you need to believe that your product or service is the best. If you can’t even do that, how are you going to get other people to believe in you? Starting a business gives you an opportunity to bring your ideas to life. Passion comes first, then money will follow.

Change the world- Okay, maybe you won’t be able to change the world overnight. But most business ideas start off by addressing the current problems that we have. Then businesses get turn into the possible solutions we can offer to the potential customers. Businesses can change people’s lifestyles, improve technology, encourage innovations, embrace creativity, and save lives. You’re helping people and making money at the same time. What is there not to like?

The road of starting your own business and becoming an entrepreneur will not be easy. Are you going to wonder “what if…” forever? If there is an idea you’ve always wanted pursue, now is the time to make it happen.

Reducing overwhelm & stress

Reducing overwhelm & stress






Many people are overwhelmed and stressed.  What can we do to minimize the pressure?  When clients ask me this I address two things:

First, what are the things you want to do every day?  What daily habits do you want to cultivate?  Most people say something like – eat properly, exercise, meditate, get to bed at a reasonable time, floss my teeth, read, listen to music, etc.

Reducing your overwhelm & stress begins with deciding what you need to do (or not do!) to sustain you each day.  Make a list of those things you want and need to do each day to sustain you.  Looking after ourselves properly – body, speech, and mind – is the first essential for business success.  True, you can get away with not looking after yourself, for a while, but sooner or later you get sick, or bad things begin to happen.

Second, what do you need to accomplish this week?   Sit down on a Sunday (or Monday morning), review all that is on your plate, and decide what must be done, then schedule it in your planner or schedule – and guard this time fiercely!  If you make the time to accomplish some of the things that must be done, and you look after yourself well, stress and overwhelm usually decline.  Work on it for a few weeks and you will have greatly improved your life!

As Stephen Covey says – “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

Business Benefits to use Smart Debit

Business Benefits to use Smart Debit

Every business organization is willing to explore the business possibilities so that they are willing to capture the business markets by promoting their products and services and towards this end, they are adopting several successful strategies. In order to survive in the market on the one hand, the business entities are in a position to improve their profitability, on the other hand, they are in a position to reduce their expenditure. By reduction in expenditure, the margin increases thereby profitability gets increased.

What do you know about Smart Debit?

In fact organizations derive their income by selling their products and services and unless they are able to recover their money in full from their clients, they may not be in a position to derive the results. Probably they may be losing some portion of the money due on account of non receipt of the money from their debtors. Nowadays Smart Debit serves as a helping hand for organizations who are in a position to collect money due from their clients.

Of course when it comes to the services offered by them , it is akin to the services availed through debit cards and credit cards issued by various banks. In the case of debit cards made available to the clients by the banks, the customers can use the cards in automated teller machines for withdrawing cash; transferring the funds from their accounts to accounts of others and many more. In the case of credit cards, on account of restrictions in regard to utilization of money, the clients may not be in a position to utilize the card for more amount than what they deserve.



Why Smart Debit is different from Credit Card?

When it comes to organizations who have been issuing credit cards, they may not be in a position to recover the amount from their clients on account of several reasons. Nowadays organizations who are finding out difficult to collect money due from their clients and others need not worry much and they can very well depend upon Smart Debit who are in a position to offer their services in collecting the funds for them. There is no need for the organizations to engage huge employee force towards collecting the funds due from their clients and they can very well reduce their expenditure incurred in those unremunerative activities. Their cash flow definitely increases on account of usage of services available from Smart Debit.

Salient features:

The following are the salient features of Smart Debit services:

The new players can very well complete the signing procedure within three weeks and there is no waiting time for them;

    The clients are provided with in depth service;
    At the time of completion of forms, they are properly assisted;
    Whereas in the case of there is a necessity to purchase the unique software, in the case of Smart Debit, there is no such necessity;
    The limited service facility is only available from banks and in the case of Smart Debit there are no such restrictions;
    Whereas in the case of services provided by banks through credit cards and others, ongoing maintenance is required and in the case of Smart Debit there is no such necessity;
    The automated processing facility is available through Smart Debit;
    Online direct debit facilities are available through Smart Debit and
    The services of Personal Direct Debt Manager are available.

Twitter to Earn

Social networking sites have evolved into being much more than just that. Almost all these sites give you an option of monetizing them and Twitter too is no different. So how can you earn money using Twitter? Well for starters you will have to create an account on Twitter. The next step will be to create a RevTwt account. This program offers you a CPC or a cost per click platform. You will be required to share your twitter information for this. You can earn revenue for the tweets that you make. Ads will be placed on your site and anyone who clicks on them will earn you revenue.

The best way to make money using Twitter is to make sure that you have a good following on Twitter. Try and make sure that you use Twitter as much for socializing purposes as you would to earn revenue. That is the only way you can guarantee yourself a sustained income.

Some of the ways in which you can earn yourself some revenue on Twitter is to make use of the large following you have. You can take on direct advertising and target it at your followers. You could also try recommending a product or more, and have links to these products to their website. Thus you can start up an affiliate marketing program. Another way in which you can help a prospective advertiser is by offering the services of your Twitter account to promote a specific or new product.

Another way in which you can monetize Twitter is to offer products that you may have for sale. You can actually initiate an affiliate program of your own. For example, if you have a food blog and somebody asks you for a recommendation. Instead of leading them directly to that site you can arrange from reservations through your affiliate program and earn yourself the revenue.

If you have some great writing skills, you can think of doing reviews and getting paid for it. The reviews can range from promoting a product of one of your advertisers to writing on the services that the advertiser would like to promote and even promoting the skills of friends to prospective headhunters who may frequent your site.

Another great way to monetize Twitter is to have a famous user name, for example the NBA. Since several people are fanatics of the game, you are bound to get several followers. Use this user name to automatically Tweet game updates. Once you have a desired number of followers you can start opting for one-line advertising that can appear after a fixed number of tweets.

Make your Tweets on some information that is valuable and not really accessible to all. You can publicize this to only a few select people. All those who would like to gain access to your Tweeter account will have to pay for it. Thus you could build up a subscription base of sorts.

Making money on Twitter is all about using your smarts. It is also about how different you can make your Tweet account.