New Business Direction LLCLearn How Revenues Are Transactional with Rhonda Rosand, CPA and QuickBooks® Pro Advisor of New Business Directions, LLC. If you want to create more revenues within your business you just need to create more transactions! New Business Directions, LLC specializes in QuickBooks® set up, clean up, consulting and training services, coaching small…
There are a lot of deadlines that come with running a business. Missing some deadlines can have serious financial implications to the health of your business. Let’s take a look at how much you’ll save by being on time with the following deadlines.
Payroll
One of the toughest deadlines of all, making payroll, is essential to keeping employees happy. Making payroll tax deposits on time is even more crucial. You’ll save the following in penalties by staying on time with payroll deadlines:
- If you’re 1-5 days late with payroll tax deposits, the penalty is two percent of the payroll.
- If you’re 6-15 days late, you’ll pay five percent in penalties.
- If you’re more than 15 days late, the penalty goes up to 10 percent.
And that’s just the federal penalties, not your state penalties.
Income Taxes
Everyone knows about the April 15th deadline to file your taxes. Some people file an extension and have until October 15th. However, we need to remember that the best estimate of your tax liability needs to be paid by April 15th even if an extension of time is granted. Failure to correctly estimate and pay income taxes leads to a penalty that is calculated by multiplying the number of days the tax is late by the effective interest rate.
Paying Vendors
If we’re slow to make our accounts payable payments, our vendors may tack on a penalty, but the larger consequence is the effect on our credit score. Plus, you will get better pricing from your suppliers if you pay on time and within terms.
Business Goals
It’s so easy to let internal deadlines slide, but they may be the most important of them all. To move your business forward, set goals with deadlines so that you can measure your results.
Mastering Deadlines
Here are a couple of tips to master your deadlines so you can avoid the above consequences:
- Keep a list of deadlines, or hire someone to help you with them.
- Make a mental commitment to yourself that the deadline is important to your business.
- Set aside the time you need to prepare for the deadline. Block time on your calendar and stick to it.
- Remind yourself of the consequences of missing the deadline.
- Try not to overcommit. Delegate other tasks when possible.
- If possible, automate or systematize the processes around the deadline so that it’s met automatically.
- Stay up late if you have to in order to meet your deadline.
- Celebrate when you meet your deadline!
Attracting and retaining talent in your small business can be a giant step toward growing into a mid-sized business. Beyond attracting new employees with salary and benefits, here are several perks, policies, and benefits to consider when recruiting women, and employees in general, to your workforce.
1. Flex work hours.
Everyone likes regaining control over their workday, and offering flex hours can be one of the lowest cost policies to implement. Flex hours support work-life balance and are especially important for employees who have school-age children who can plan work around their children’s day.
2. Wellness initiatives.
Large companies are able to offer a wellness program, but small companies can take small steps to reach the same result. Find a local gym to partner with for a membership discount. Bring in the occasional yoga teacher. Or hire a nutritionist to speak once a quarter to your employees. All of these small initiatives demonstrate to your employees that you honor a culture of wellness.
3. Maternity and adoptive leave.
Do you have a policy about time off for new parents? And more importantly, you’ll need a process to re-integrate the employees into the business when they return.
4. Child care support.
Even if you can’t afford to provide onsite child care, you might be able to partner with a local child care facility to provide reduced or subsidized rates.
5. Gender hiring goals and metrics.
Do you have an equal number of men and women in your workplace? If not, do you have goals in place to adjust the ratios when possible? If you have a disproportionate number of one gender making all of the hiring decisions, you may want to consider the effects of implicit bias on your hiring processes.
6. Mentoring.
One way to speed the growth of employees is to provide mentoring. All employees will benefit from strong role models.
7. Opportunities for promotion.
Both men and women will perform better when there is a clear path to promotion as well as leaders in current positions who demonstrate leadership.
8. Dress for your day.
One of employees’ favorite perks is to be able to dress casually when no customer meetings are scheduled.
9. Paid time off.
Paid time off, which used to be called sick pay, is a favorite. But now, with most employers, you don’t necessarily have to be sick or explain your reason for wanting to take a personal day from work.
10. Gender-neutral company events.
Many companies create events for employees and sometimes customers to enjoy and mingle. This can include the company Christmas party, lunches, and happy hours. It can also include sports events such as golfing and attending baseball games. For every traditionally male event, be sure to plan a traditionally female event to keep the options gender equal. Spa day, anyone?
These benefits are a great start to attracting top talent, boosting employee morale, and maintaining a happier workforce in your business.
Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Why the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks is the Most Important List!
Every business has a gold mine in its current customer base. But not all business owners remember to mine this gold because they are too busy trying to attract new customers or developing new products or services. This is the perfect time of year to step back and remember the three easiest ways to grow your business revenue using your existing customer base.
1. Offer More
Offer steady customers a product or service with more features than they usually purchase. Examples include moving a client from coach to first class, from a budget vacation to a luxury one, from a standard model car to a luxury version, from an off-the-rack suit to a designer suit, from the standard service to an all-you-can-eat version, and from a regular meal to a super-sized one.
Some customers simply need to be given permission to splurge on themselves, so why not by you? Others have outgrown the standard package but find it hard to break the routine. With a gentle nudge from you, a percentage of your clients will purchase the upgrade, therefore boosting your sales with little effort on your part.
2. Additional Services
Restaurants practice this the most, asking us if we want appetizers, dessert, or fries with our entrée, and you can apply this to your business too. If you offer two services and a client is only participating in one service, make sure they know about the other service you offer and find out if they have a need for it.
This is called cross-selling, where you offer a current customer a service or product that they don’t already purchase from you. For example, an attorney that does trademark work for clients might also let clients know that they do wills, too. A pool builder who also offers maintenance service will want to follow up with the new pool owner once the pool is built. A real estate agent who also manages properties will want to let rental property investors know about this service.
3. Review Your Pricing
In the retail business, if your costs have gone up but your prices have remained the same, you’ve accidentally given yourself a pay cut. No one wants that, so raising prices is an option that will restore your profit margin to the way it was before costs went up.
If you’re in the services business and you are better, faster, and prettier than you were last year you’ve also given yourself a pay cut. If it takes you less time to do something because you spend the money and the time learning a new skill, you need to be compensated for this.
If it’s been a while since you’ve raised prices, it might be time to make an adjustment. Review your price list for your services and products and determine what you need to do to bring the numbers back in balance. Let us know if we can help with some profit margin or breakeven calculations to help you make this decision.
Raising prices requires careful consideration and timing. Customers do expect periodic price adjustments, so don’t let procrastination or fear hold you back from making a good solid business decision here.
All three of these strategies will help to raise your average revenue per customer and boost your overall revenue without a lot of additional work on your part. Try these strategies so you can enjoy a more prosperous 2018.
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