A business plan can be an invaluable management tool, if it is well prepared, reviewed, and updated on a regular basis.

It can serve as a map for making the daily decisions with which a growing business contends. Financial backers, venture capitalists, private investors and even bankers seek business plans as the first step toward investment decisions. 

 This past week we continued our business owner’s series of Financial Coaching to Survive & Thrive with session two on credit and your financials.

 As an accountant, countless times I’ve received questions such as:
“What is a CPA?”
“Do you keep the books of your clients?”
“Do you file taxes all year long?”
“What test do you take to become an EA vs. CPA?” 

We recently held our annual 401(k) meeting where our investments administrator came to our firm and gave us a presentation on the state of our 401(k). In addition to that information, he answered questions we had about our account or investing. Our investment administrator, explained the differences between the two types of IRA’s, and what we should consider when choosing which retirement account is right for us. 

When I was an auditor working for the State of California’s Franchise Tax Board (FTB), I saw some very interesting expenses that taxpayers claimed and hoped would qualify as deductible business expenses. I have audited taxpayers who deducted personal vehicles as business expenses, personal costs as consulting expenses, or fines and penalties as dues and subscriptions (yes, parking fines are not considered business expenses). Based on the experience and the knowledge I obtained at the FTB, I would like to identify some expenses which are deductible and some which are not.
 

This past Thursday morning we had a great time hosting session one of our Financial Coaching to Survive and Thrive. In this session, we covered financial statements basics.

Here are two gems of information that we shared in Thursday's training on putting your financial statements to work.

This article is part two of our recap and key takeaways from the 2014 Milestones in Leadership Summit. Click here for part one

At the Milestones summit, our speaker Jeff Hagett from the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center gave a great training on creating a culture of outstanding customer service. For those who attended and those who couldn’t make it, here are our recaps and our key takeaways from the event. Our hope is that this will help you remember some key points if you attended (there was a lot to take in!), and if you were not able to attend, we hope this will help spark discussion and improvement in customer service in your company.

We had a great day last week at the Milestones in Leadership Summit at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Nigel. It was wonderful to see some of our clients and to meet some new people.

People often ask me what is an S corporation, what are the requirements to be an S corporation or whether a certain action will revoke an S election?  So let’s discuss S corporations today.

I love to travel and I love a great deal. When I can put those two together, I am in total bliss. One way I have found to make this happen is through the savvy use of airline miles. Getting the best value out of your airline miles can turn into a lengthy discussion, but in this article I will constrain myself to just share some gems that I have come across.