New Business Direction LLC
We’ve heard numerous horror stories over the years of business owners falling victim to sophisticated phishing scams that compromise their operations, cost them thousands of dollars, and expose their customers to risk. Hackers are evolving rapidly, making it harder to distinguish between malicious threats and everyday emails.
Our goal here is to empower, not scare you. The good news? Many of these threats are avoidable with vigilance. Hackers are even craftier than before, and phishing schemes have adapted to exploit newer technologies. However, with a few best practices, you and your team can keep your data safe from current phishing trends.
Below, we outline some common phishing threats and offer ways to safeguard against them.
Common Threat 1: Impersonation of Accounting or Financial Software
Phishers continue to target users of popular accounting software, impersonating platforms like QuickBooks with claims such as “Your file is corrupted,” “Your payment method is expiring,” or “Your software needs an urgent upgrade.” The goal is to either convince you to pay for a fake service or grant them access to your system.
How to dodge the threat: Always verify the sender’s email address. Emails from Intuit or QuickBooksⓇ will end with “@intuit.com” or “@quickbooks.com.” If you receive a suspicious email, permanently delete it. Do not provide sensitive information or remote access to anyone unless they are a trusted, verified partner.
Common Threat 2: The Rise of AI-Assisted Phishing
Hackers are now leveraging AI tools to generate phishing emails that mimic legitimate communications. These emails may come from familiar addresses or look nearly identical to a colleague’s typical correspondence, including personalized details that make the email seem even more credible.
How to dodge the threat: Never click on links or download attachments from unexpected emails, even if they appear to come from trusted contacts. Always hover over links to preview the URL and verify its legitimacy. AI tools are being used both by hackers and cybersecurity experts, so staying ahead of phishing trends is more important than ever.
Common Threat 3: “You Have Voicemail,” “Urgent Invoice,” and “Thanks for Your Purchase” Emails
While voicemail and invoice phishing schemes aren’t new, hackers are increasingly using these tactics to create a sense of urgency. You might receive an unexpected email about a voicemail or invoice, often from a service you don’t use. In addition, we’ve seen emails alerting you to free prizes – you’ve won a free trip – with a link to click to claim your prize.
Lastly in this category, there is a new strategy in which phishers send “confirmation” emails suggesting that you’ve made a subscription purchase, going so far as to even include a pdf of a phony receipt.
How to dodge the threat: If something feels off, it probably is. Never download an attachment or follow a link without verifying the source through another channel. Call the service provider directly to check whether they sent the email, and always be wary of “business” emails that end in @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc.
Common Threat 4: The QR Code Swap
QR codes have become a ubiquitous tool, especially in restaurants and retail. However, phishers now use QR codes to disguise malicious URLs. They may overlay fake QR codes in public spaces or send phishing emails with QR codes that link to compromised websites or malware.
How to dodge the threat: Before scanning a QR code, double-check its placement and ensure it hasn’t been tampered with. After scanning, review the web address that appears and make sure it’s legitimate before clicking. If something feels suspicious, don’t scan the code.
Common Threat 5: Social Engineering on Social Media
Phishing attacks are increasingly moving to social platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. Hackers may pose as recruiters, customers, or industry professionals to extract personal information or trick you into downloading malicious files.
How to dodge the threat: Be wary of unsolicited messages from strangers on social media, especially those requesting personal details or sharing links. Always verify the identity of anyone asking for sensitive information and avoid clicking on unknown links shared via direct messages.
Best Practices: Staying Secure in the Age of Evolving Phishing Tactics
While phishing techniques continue to evolve, the core defenses remain the same: vigilance, awareness, and caution. Here are some key best practices to follow:
- Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA): Use MFA wherever possible. This could involve receiving a code via text, email, or through an authenticator app like Google Authenticator. MFA adds an extra barrier for hackers, making it far less likely they’ll succeed even if they gain access to your credentials.
Use strong, unique passwords: Password management apps like LastPass or 1Password can generate complex passwords and securely store them. Avoid reusing passwords across different accounts. - Stay informed on new phishing tactics: Cybercriminals are constantly adapting. Subscribe to trusted cybersecurity news outlets like PCMag, Forbes, or TechCrunch to stay updated on the latest phishing techniques.
- Train your team: Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT responsibility—it’s an organization-wide effort. Conduct regular phishing simulations and training sessions to ensure that your employees recognize suspicious activity and respond appropriately.
- Don’t open doors for strangers: Whether in person or online, never allow someone to access your computer or accounts unless you have verified their identity through an established and trusted channel. If in doubt, don’t engage.
- Verify email senders: Always check email addresses carefully. A small typo or strange domain could indicate a phishing attempt. Cross-check with trusted sources if something feels off.
- Use secure file-sharing methods: When sending or receiving sensitive information, avoid doing so via email. Use encrypted file-sharing services like SmartVault or similar tools.
- Trust your instincts: If something feels off, don’t proceed. Whether it’s a weirdly worded email or a strange request, your gut is often a good first line of defense against phishing attempts.
It’s more important than ever to remain cautious and aware of evolving cybersecurity threats. Phishing is becoming more sophisticated, but by staying alert and following these best practices, you can protect your business and personal data from harm.
If you’re unsure about an email or solicitation, especially related to your accounting software, reach out to us. We’re always here to help!
Time is a precious, valuable, and finite resource. We all have only twenty-four hours in a day and only seven days in a week to get everything done. And for entrepreneurs, that can often seem like barely enough.
So, why does it seem like some of us can get more done in a day than others? The answer could lie in a few possibilities:
- Are you doing what’s important or simply what seems to be the most urgent at the moment?
- Are you wasting time on tasks that should be delegated, automated, or ignored completely?
- Have you ever considered tracking what you spend your time on?
I was curious about how I really used my time, so I tracked my time and activities for one week. I uncovered valuable information regarding inefficiencies in my world and have been able to take steps to eliminate, automate, and delegate better. I encourage you to do the same, and this article should help you get a good start on reclaiming your time and working more productively.
Day 1: Establish the Habit of Time Tracking
- Begin your day by setting up a simple time-tracking system. Whether you prefer digital tools or the classic pen and paper, make a note of every task and its duration.
- Be honest about where you’re spending your time. This is a judgment-free zone, and having more accurate information here will only benefit you in the long run.
- Reflect on what’s driving your activities:
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- Are you stuck in an endless loop of emails?
- Are you using your inbox as a to-do list?
- Are you wasting time on technology issues?
- Are you answering the same questions over and over from team members or customers?
Day 2-6: Document Your Activity, Reflect on Your Data, and Adjust Your Habits Accordingly
- Log your activities throughout each day, including breaks and interruptions.
- At the end of each day, reflect on the activities you tracked. What surprises you? What patterns emerge?
- Identify tasks that took longer than expected or seemed unproductive.
Day 7: Analyze Your Data and Strategize Improvements
- Compile your week’s data. Look for trends, time wasters, and areas (or times of day) where you were most productive.
- Categorize these activities into groups:
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- Critical tasks – those that only you can do
- Enjoyable tasks – Those that you really like to do
- Delegate-able tasks – Things that you could outsource or delegate to your team
- Automatable tasks – recurring activities that could be completed more efficiently with technology
- Useless tasks – activities with minimal impact that could be eliminated; you’re only doing them because you’ve always done them, and practice makes permanent
Next steps: Delegate and Automate
- Pinpoint tasks that could be delegated to your capable team members, or outsourced to a vendor. Empower your team members, entrust them with responsibilities, and create standard operating procedures on how these tasks should be done to your specifications. Even if it feels like training your team will only make the process take longer, in the long-term, delegating tasks to your team will free up your time for strategic decision-making activities.
- Research opportunities to automate repetitive tasks and leverage technology to save time and reduce errors.
- Be open to the possibility that certain tasks may not be adding significant value and consider eliminating or outsourcing them to focus on what activities will have the greatest impact on your business.
Starting 2024 off on the right foot
This exercise may seem simple but its impact can be profound. Its purpose goes beyond increasing efficiency – it’s about creating a business that thrives on your unique strengths.
By gaining insight into how you allocate your time, you’ll be able to identify areas for improvement, empower your team to take on more responsibility, and free up valuable time for more rewarding and impactful activities.
Time is your most valuable asset, and by mastering the art of effective time management, you can unlock doors to unparalleled productivity and success. I look forward to hearing about your time-tracking experience and findings in our next coaching session.
Regards,
Rhonda Rosand, CPA
CEO, New Business Directions
When building a team, classifying your workforce correctly is vital to your business’s success and legal compliance. Employees and independent contractors are not interchangeable terms, and it’s important that you can distinguish between the two in your organization.
While it may seem like a simple solution to classify members of your workforce as independent contractors, there are actually very specific criteria that determine whether a worker can be classified as an independent contractor. Workforce classification is not a grey area – the IRS has an independent contractor test, as do many states, and they do not always follow the same criteria. In this article, we’ll discuss the differences between an employee and an independent contractor so you can ensure you’re operating your business correctly.
When is a worker considered an Employee?
Employees work under your direct control – they follow your schedule, use your company tools, and often receive benefits such as training, healthcare and/or retirement. You withhold taxes from their paychecks and contribute your share of payroll and unemployment taxes, you pay workers’ compensation insurance on the wages, and you file quarterly and annual returns with the IRS, Social Security Administration, and state agencies.
When is a worker considered an Independent Contractor?
Independent contractors maintain autonomy – they work for themselves and have their own company, they set their own schedule, they provide their own tools, they have their own general and/or professional liability insurance, and they handle their own income and/or self-employment taxes and pay their own expenses. They are typically hired for a specific project and under contract and take the risk of whether or not they make a profit.
What can happen if a worker is misclassified as an Independent Contractor?
If the IRS determines that you have been misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor, the penalty can equal 20% of the wages paid; 100% of the employee FICA taxes that should have been withheld; 100% of the employer FICA taxes that should have been paid; 20-75% of the underpayment of taxes; 25% of the late payment of taxes; and a per-worker fine.
In addition, there are Department of Labor and state penalties for misclassifying employees as contractors, which can equal any overtime that should have been paid. Plus, courts can award an additional 100% of unpaid overtime payments.
Penalties can also include severe criminal sanctions, including felony charges.
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to classifying your workforce correctly, and cutting corners here can be a costly decision for your business. Proper classification safeguards your company from legal issues and ensures compliance with labor laws, workers’ compensation laws, and Federal and state laws. If you have questions about the classification of your workforce or need support with payroll in your business, reach out to our team at newbusinessdirections.com/contact.
Your supply chain starts when you acquire materials to create your goods for sale. It includes the production of your products and services. And it doesn’t end until the customer receives the product or service you offer, as well as any help required for them to consume your product.
Whether your business is still being affected by supply chain delays and shortages in 2023 or not, it’s a good idea to take steps to make your supply chain as resilient as possible. In this article, we share a process you can add to your standard operating procedures to evaluate your supply chain and ensure it remains resilient.
Start with an Inventory of Your Suppliers
To evaluate your supply chain, start by making a list of your vendors. An easy way to get this vendor list is from your QuickBooks account. Organize your vendors and their contact information as follows:
- Primary vendors that are crucial to your business. This includes vendors from which you purchase goods for resale, and can also be vendors such as your online shopping cart because if it goes down, you lose sales. These are your mission-critical vendors.
- Secondary vendors that provide support indirectly, such as maintenance to machines you use or vendors that provide human resource benefits. Your business won’t be terribly disrupted if something happens to these vendors.
Once you’ve organized your vendor information, it’s best to focus on your primary vendors first. If this list is large, you may want to further prioritize your vendors by sorting them by most dependable.
Contingency Planning
For each vendor on your primary list, do some research to find alternatives. You want to develop a deep bench of suppliers who can support your business. If one supplier has trouble meeting your orders, you will be more prepared and can consider switching. It’s a good idea to develop relationships with these alternate vendors, and perhaps even use them a time or two to test the relationship before your supply chain strains demand it.
Many factors can go into selecting alternate vendors: price, quality, service, delivery time, shipping costs and methods, country of origin, location of warehouses, troubleshooting effectiveness, and much more. You know your industry and business’s needs best, so you can develop a table of criteria to evaluate potential new vendors. The ultimate goal is to have backup plans all along your supply chain.
Once you’ve gone through your primary list, you can move on to completing this process for your secondary vendors.
Purchasing Department
Large companies have entire purchasing departments to do this kind of work. Even if your business is small, you may be still able to delegate portions of the list to trusted and well-trained employees. Know that this type of work can take a long time. It will also evolve over time, as new vendors spring up and older vendors retire or go out of business.
Internal Operations Including Selling and Distribution
Now that you’ve taken care of your suppliers, the next big step in supply chain efficiency is to standardize your operations. Take a look at your internal operational processes to ensure they are as efficient as possible. Create policies and procedures to ensure quality and customer satisfaction.
This includes reviewing the production process as well as selling and distribution, all the way to customer service. You may have covered this while you assessed your vendor list, but if not, you can do it now.
One example is how you get your product or service to your customers. Be sure there is an alternate method in case your primary distribution method breaks down.
Again, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time to do this project right, and it will benefit you for years to come.
Risk versus Reward
In some cases, it may not be cost-effective to have a fully developed contingency solution; instead, there may be times when taking a loss is the more cost-effective solution. You’ll want to evaluate the circumstances and determine the right solution for your business.
Taking the time to improve your supply chain resilience now, rather than in a moment of crisis, will create a more resilient, valuable, and profitable business.
Most small businesses own at least some type of fixed asset, which could include items like land, buildings, equipment, and automobiles. The investments of adding, replacing, or improving upon fixed assets are called capital expenditures (or “capex” for short).
It seems like there is never enough money for all the capital expenditures that are on a business’s wish list. To make the best spending decisions, it’s a good idea to establish a process for capex activities in your organization. There should be three phases of your process:
- Initiation, estimating, and evaluating return on investment for each capex project.
- Prioritization of projects based on ROI
- Managing and monitoring the projects once they have started.
Step 1: Initiate, Estimate, and Evaluate the capex initiatives you’re considering
The first step is to list all the capital projects you’re considering. Here are some examples:
- Buy an additional truck for deliveries.
- Expand the warehouse space.
- Purchase a piece of equipment for the manufacturing line.
- Redo the dock area to improve loading efficiency.
Once you’ve made your list, you can begin to formalize your capital expenditure process. Each project should be detailed and estimated, with bids from vendors, so you have a realistic idea of the cost.
Step 2: Prioritize your capex initiatives
The next step is the most important. What are the estimated savings for each project? In other words, what will your return on investment (ROI) be? In capital expenditure spending, this answer is crucial. For each project, estimate the expected savings in time, money, and intangible benefits, and determine the break-even point.
This step can be challenging because the savings might be more qualitative than quantitative. For example, the benefit could be an improved customer experience, which should result in future sales. In this case, you’ll still want to estimate how you think future sales will be impacted. In many cases, it can take years for an item of capital expenditure to start paying off from a cash flow standpoint.
Next, it’s time to visualize the data you’ve accumulated into something like this:
| Project | Cost | Anticipated Savings | Benefit | Notes |
| Truck | $40,000 |
|
First year: $9,000 savings.
Second year savings: $49,000. (Break-even comes in second year.) |
Increases sales capacity and reduces delivery times. |
| Redo the dock area | $20,000 | Time saved – payroll costs decrease by 1/2 headcount. Savings of $27,000. If attrition is used, defer savings. | First year savings: -$7,000.
Second year savings: $27,000. (Break-even comes at end of second year.) |
Employee happiness, reduced turnover are intangibles. |
When deciding which project to choose, return on investment is only one factor to consider. You must also consider employee satisfaction and turnover issues, customer service, capacity management, tax breaks, break-even time, cash flow, lending limits and financial ratios, and other factors specific to your industry.
The key is to have a process that makes sense for your organization. If you don’t have a process, choosing the cheapest project first could seem like the best decision, but it may not have the highest return on investment. This missing link in insight today could lead to cashflow and profitability issues tomorrow.
Tax implications also need to be considered, and we want to point out that these have been left off of the above example since every business’s tax planning circumstance is unique. Always consult with your tax accountant before making a capex decision and as you approach year-end. They can provide valuable feedback about how certain purchases will affect your tax liability. For example, making a capex investment before year-end when you’ve had high profits could be a strategic way to offset your tax obligations.
Another factor to consider is whether you’ll need a loan to complete these capital improvement(s). Interest rates have been rising in 2023, and these costs, plus your cash flow impact, need to be evaluated. As your debt increases, your financial ratios also need to be assessed. You have to be careful not to go into too much debt overall.
After documenting all considerations, you’ll be poised to make a well-informed decision on which capex project to prioritize next. You might even consider creating a capex committee to help you decide. Be sure to include your accounting advisor on the committee!
Step 3: Manage your capex initiative
You’ve decided on the capex project you want to take on now. Great! You’ll want to appoint a project manager to oversee the project’s progress and take action for any necessary course corrections. Once the project is complete, set milestones so that you can see how accurate your estimates of costs and benefits were. You might need to set milestones every year for several years in order to accurately measure the actual ROI, and taking these measures will make you a more accurate estimator in the future.
Spending at the right time on capex projects is as much an art as a science. However, putting formal processes into place will improve your chances for a better return, smoother cash flow, and improved profits.
For taxpayers collecting payments through a third-party payment platform such as PayPal, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (which we’ll refer to as “the Act” in this article) established a significant change to tax reporting rules to prevent businesses and contractors from hiding income through the receipt of electronic payments. Form 1099-K is the tax form issued by credit card companies and third-party payment processors to report payments made via debit card, credit card, stored value cards (like gift cards), and payment apps (like Stripe, PayPal, or Venmo). As part of the Act, the reporting threshold for issuing the form was lowered significantly. Although this change was set to take effect starting with the 2022 tax year, the IRS delayed implementation of the new rule – however, it is expected to be required for 2023.
What Changed?
Existing rules (which are still currently in place for 2022 due to the IRS postponement) require credit card companies and payment processors to file Form 1099-K with the IRS and issue it to payees when:
- gross earnings are more than $20,000, and
- the number of transactions exceeds 200 for the year
Many lawmakers argued that this “two-step” threshold created a situation where contractors/sellers could easily omit income from their tax returns. As a result, the single “$600 or more” threshold was created, meaning that any recipient with receipts of $600 or more for the year through a particular payment platform will be issued a 1099-K form, regardless of the number of transactions or other factors. Barring any additional action from Congress, this new reporting threshold will be enforced starting with 2023 forms, meaning that a substantially higher number of 1099-K forms will be sent out in early 2024 for the 2023 tax year.
Considerations and Concerns
Even though tax law has always required taxpayers to report ALL income earned/received, regardless of whether associated tax forms are received, this law change has raised concerns about several logistical challenges, including:
- What about personal transactions? For example, will taxpayers who use platforms like Venmo to receive personal payments, such as a birthday gift from a relative or a rent deposit from a roommate, be taxed on those payments? According to IRS, 1099-K forms will only be issued for accounts listed as business or merchant accounts, or for personal accounts where transactions are tagged as “goods and services.” Despite these reassurances, there are still questions about how this will play out as the change is implemented, especially for those who use the same account for business and personal transactions, or casual sellers who are selling used goods for less than what they paid/are not in the business of selling such goods for a profit.
- What if the 1099-K and 1099-NEC forms report the same payment? Although this should not happen per IRS due to the fact that payment processors are responsible for issuing 1099-K forms and individual clients are responsible for sending 1099-NEC forms, it’s still possible, particularly if clients misunderstand the rules and don’t realize they shouldn’t be issuing 1099s for payments made through credit card or payment apps. This raises concerns about the double-reporting of income and how to account for such errors on a tax return so that the recipient is only taxed once on income.
- How will IRS handle the resulting influx of paperwork they’ll have to sort through? IRS has already been dealing with understaffing and, as a result, processing backlogs and inadequate phone support over the last few years. Many believe this compliance change will increase the burden on the IRS, lead to widespread confusion in the tax system, and produce a rise in IRS correspondence.
For freelancers, contractors, or anyone receiving payments through a third-party platform, make sure to save any 1099-K forms received, which you will need to refer to when you file your tax returns. Consult with your tax professional about any actions you may need to take as a result of these rule changes and if/how your tax situation may be impacted.
One of the most challenging aspects of running a business is figuring out how to pay yourself. It’s not always clear what the rules are, and many entrepreneurs struggle to strike a balance between reinvesting profits into their company and taking home a fair salary.
Entrepreneurs typically have a couple options available when it comes to paying themselves, which are dependent on the structure of a business. One option is to take a draw, which is a withdrawal of funds from the business’s profits. This is used by sole proprietorships and partnerships. The other option is to receive a paycheck, which must be used by incorporated businesses. Paychecks are compensation based on a predetermined salary and are subject to taxes and other deductions.
It’s important for entrepreneurs to understand the differences between these two methods and choose the one that is required for their specific business structure and meets their financial goals. If you have any questions about the best option for you, discuss the matter with your accountant. In this article, however, we’ll focus on some key considerations to keep in mind as you determine how much to compensate yourself for your hard work.
1. Reasonable Compensation
What would your pay be if you were doing the same work for a company that hired you? Are you making at least market equivalent or better? Many times, entrepreneurs remain focused on ONLY this aspect of their compensation, when doing so is actually a big mistake. There are tax implications of paying yourself too little (to avoid payroll taxes if you take a paycheck, for example) or too much.
2. Retirement plan
When you work for yourself, no one is going to fund your retirement for you. Although the Social Security program helps, it’s up to you to set aside additional money for a livable future when you can’t or don’t want to work anymore. Talk to your accountant and retirement advisor about how much you should be setting aside for your retirement and how you can factor that into your own pay.
3. Benefits
Employees get paid time off, health insurance, and bonuses–and you should too! These benefits should be part of your compensation package as an entrepreneur, and there are many tax advantages as well
4. Taxes
You need to cover taxes that will be incurred on your pay and your business profits, including:
- Normal withholding for federal income taxes, state and local income taxes, Medicare, and social security. If you receive a paycheck, these will be deducted; however, those deductions may not be sufficient to cover your entire tax obligation since they don’t account for taxes on your profits. If you take a draw, you may not have withholding, but you will need to factor in self-employment taxes at 15.3%
- Taxes on your profits. For sole proprietors, partnerships, LLCs, and S Corps, your taxes will be figured on your business’s profits when you complete your federal income taxes. They will “pass-through” from your business to your personal return. Don’t let this part surprise you!
- State business taxes. If your business does business in multiple states, you must file a tax return for each state. Many states collect taxes based on flat corporate fees, the revenue you earned in that state, state payrolls, and/or the value of property owned in that state.
Check with your tax advisor so that there are no surprises in your tax bill for your business or your personal returns.
5. Profit
As an entrepreneur, you take on additional risk in owning your own company and should be compensated accordingly. Your capital is tied up in your business and should be earning a good return in addition to your regular salary or draw.
Complete Compensation
It’s normal to take a smaller paycheck in the first few years as your business grows, and you might even feel like you can’t afford to pay yourself an amount that reflects all the above components. In that case, it might be a good idea to evaluate your pricing, your volume of work, or your business model.
Remember to review your salary regularly and adjust as necessary to ensure that you’re meeting your financial goals and building a sustainable business. Determining the right amount to pay yourself as a business owner can be a complex process, but it is a key component of achieving long-term personal and professional success. By following the steps outlined in this article and seeking guidance from trusted financial experts, you can ensure you’re compensating yourself fairly and sustainably.
We’re just a few days away from the first day of summer and a few weeks from the year’s midpoint. So now is a great time to evaluate the effectiveness of your business strategy for the first half of 2023, plan something enjoyable, and think about what you want to accomplish in the remainder of the year.
Here are five business strategies to help you regroup, reassess, and rejuvenate your business for the second half of 2023.
1. Celebrate Your Accomplishments
Take a moment to acknowledge your accomplishments and congratulate your team on the goals you’ve reached together. The extent of your progress may surprise you! Maybe a recent hire has made your team the largest it’s ever been, you’ve reached record revenue goals, or you solved a complex supply chain problem. Celebrating your wins is one of the best parts of running a business, and it also affords you the opportunity to hop off the hamster wheel and enjoy life.
2. Take a Vacation
Any rest is beneficial, and stepping away from your business, whether for a day or an entire month, gives your mind space to unwind and recalibrate. So plan to take time off when your business is the least busy–or when your customers are the quietest.
Anxious about being away from your business? You’re not alone. Take the time that seems feasible for you. It could be half a day every Friday for the month of August; it could be a remote-work vacation in a location with a better climate. Remember: there is life beyond your business, and you will be a better business owner when you take regular breaks away.
3. Schedule a Mid-Year Review
How has your business fared for the first half of 2023 compared to your goals at the beginning of the year? Are you on track to reach them? Or should you design a course correction? Where do you need to go next?
Set aside time to dive into these questions and think deeply about your answers. You can make this process as formal or informal as you want. For example, some businesses hold retreats, or you may decide you simply need some quiet time on a weekend.
4. Be Selective About the Projects You Start
Are you busy with the things that will take your business to the next level? Or the same old stuff? What are you afraid to say “yes” to? If you’re putting off a project that you know will pay back handsomely, consider how to shelve some other projects and focus your energy on the efforts that will reap the most rewards.
Taking the time to regroup and refresh your business greatly enhances your chances of success in the second part of the year. Use these five tips to create a summer worth dreaming about and use its momentum to reach your business goals.
We’re six days away from the first day of summer, and a few weeks away from the midpoint of the year. It’s the perfect time for taking a strategy check in your business to see how you’re doing for the first half of 2023 as well as to plan something fun and productive for summertime.
Here are five business strategies to help you regroup, reassess, and rejuvenate your business halfway through 2023.
- Celebrate Your Accomplishments
Take time to pat yourself on the back and congratulate the people around you for the goals you’ve reached and the efforts your team has made on your behalf. You might be shocked when you think about how far you’ve come. Maybe you’ve hired another team member and your team is the largest it’s ever been; perhaps you’ve reached record revenue goals; possibly you’ve solved a complex supply chain problem.
We all could use more praise and more celebrations in our lives. Perhaps you can organize a party, or if you are not the partying type, a quiet word individually with your team can go a long way, maybe more than you know.
- Take a Vacation
If you’re feeling quite burned out, the best thing you can do is stop and take a breather. There’s nothing better to rekindle your creative juices than to get away from the business for a while. Summertime is when most people take a vacation, so if your business is not having its busy season, this might be a good time to go away, even if for a little while.
If you’re anxious about being away from your business, you’re not alone. In your annual planning process, plan for and block out your vacation way ahead of time. Book the reservations with no refunds several months in advance so that you won’t chicken out at the last minute. There is life beyond your business, and you will be a better business owner when you take regular breaks away.
- Schedule a Mid-Year Review
How has your business fared for the first half of 2023 compared to the goals you set at the beginning of the year? Are you on track to reach your goals? Should you design a course correction or are you on track? Maybe you’re even ahead of plan!
You can make this process as informal or formal as you want. Some businesses hold retreats; you may simply need some quiet time on a weekend when all your family is busy doing something else.
- Be Selective About the Projects You Start
Is your plate too full? Entrepreneurs that wear many hats would probably say “yes” to that question, so the next question is do you have to do it all at once? Ask yourself what you can afford to stop doing that doesn’t make sense. Is there a project or two that can wait? If so, decide to stop stressing about not getting it done and give yourself permission to put it on the back burner for now.
- Play Big
Maybe you’re not playing big enough. You might be busy, but are you busy with the things that will take your business to the next level? Do the thing you’re afraid to say “yes” to; the thing that you know will transform your business and get you closer to your dreams.
If you’re putting off a project that you know will pay back handsomely, then shelve everything you’re working on and start on the one that will reap the most rewards. It could be a new product or service line, a new ad campaign, a new hire, a new joint venture, new financing, or even a new partner, which is very big indeed. You likely know what it is you need to do; your gut has been telling you for a while now. Just get it started, and it will then become easier.
Summertime is a great time to regroup, re-energize, and refresh your business. Try one of these five tips to spice up your summer as well as your business success.
Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene at the end of 2022, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated everything from business conferences to news articles to conversations with friends and colleagues. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It’s a program that can write like a human and interact conversationally. In just a few short months, it’s already transformed how people plan vacations, draft contracts, and write social media content. Essentially, you can type in a nuanced, complicated question, and ChatGPT will give you an amazingly lifelike, frequently correct answer.
ChatGPT was launched in November 2022 and developed by OpenAI, an AI research lab tasked with developing a friendly AI. OpenAI has both a non-profit and for-profit component in its organizational structure. ChatGPT is free as of this writing, but you must open an account and verify your email address and phone number to access it. Once you do, the prompt is simple; just ask it a question. You can get access here: https://chat.openai.com/chat
While it’s a powerful advancement that will continue to change how the world does business, the tech comes with its limitations. There is a disclaimer in place, as ChatGPT will occasionally generate wrong answers. It did generate a misleading response when asked a complex tax question about the Employee Retention Credit and greater than 50 percent owner wage eligibility; Samsung suffered a breach of sensitive data after discovering staff uploaded sensitive code; users have noticed a bias against women; and legal professionals have noted that it will reference completely bogus cases in great detail when crafting an argument.
With that in mind, how can you use ChatGPT in business safely and to your benefit? Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Read OpenAI’s FAQ page about ChatGPT here.
- Verify any answers it offers you.
- Remember that it has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021.
- Don’t share sensitive information in your queries.
- Be as specific as possible with your instructions, and give ChatGPT any relevant parameters and context (Whose POV should it be written from? What will the copy be used for? How long should the text be? What specific points should it address?)
- Ask it for bites of copy instead of lengthy text. For example, you’ll get better results asking for a closing paragraph than asking for an entire blog post.
- Instruct it to write something 3-5 different ways.
- Ask it to rewrite something for clarity.
ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for many workplaces. Its ability to assist in automating copywriting and provide quick answers to common questions can save time and improve your team’s productivity. However, exercising caution and staying abreast of developments and news around this emerging technology is essential. And as with any tech, proper training and implementation are vital to maximizing its benefits while mitigating potential risks.
