|
|
|
Quick quiz
|
|
Each month I'll give you a new question.
Just reply to this email for the answer.
June 5 was whose famous day off? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Making a Small Business Budget a Relevant Tool |
The task of creating a business budget is much less tedious when you discover how to make the forecast into a useful tool. Greater control of your destiny is possible by adding a dynamic feature to your budget. This simply means having numbers that are easily modified with the passage of time.
All budgets start with a series of assumptions, but business conditions are certain to change constantly. As these new circumstances unfold, you should modify a few budget numbers and quickly see the overall impact. For example, if one category of expense increases above the amount predicted, you can lower budgeted amounts for other categories in upcoming months. This maintains level cash flow. As actual revenue represents an upturn or shortfall in the amounts forecasted, you decide if adding staff or improving equipment is warranted.
Revisions to your budget assure that you don't run out of projected cash. The management process becomes easier so you can focus on productive output. Any number of unexpected events can arise in business. New customers are added, and existing customers may change their spending habits. The dynamic budget shows you the impact and permits easy adjustment without panic. If a new opportunity arises, you can immediately see the impact on cash flow with updated amounts in a dynamic budget.
Referring frequently to your business budget should be at least a monthly routine. Compare the actual results from last month to your budgeted forecast. Amending a few figures for future months keeps you on track for the year. Running your business will become a lot more fun, and you won't fret over whether ongoing expenditures will excessively drain your cash. |
|
|
|
How to Win Big in Today's Economy
|
|
The altered economic landscape presents innovative and nimble businesses
with opportunities to thrive.
Find out how by requesting my free
report "How to Win Big in Today's
Economy."
Just reply to this email and I'll send it right out to you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Four-Day Working Week Is the Future - Here's Why |
Back in March, Spain began a revolutionary trial of the mythical four-day working week. But as the idea steadily gains ground globally, myth is slowly turning into reality for thousands of workers. Touted as a means to increase productivity, fight climate change and support workers' mental health, the proposal has gained new traction following the pandemic, which has brought issues such as burnout, work-life balance and wellbeing into sharp focus.
Contrary to popular belief, the four-day work week suggests that working fewer hours doesn't necessarily mean a reduction in productivity. According to a 2017 trial of a six-hour working day in a nursing home in Sweden, working fewer hours for the same pay led to a 10% reduction in sick leave and improved quality of care for the patients.
The New Economics Foundation, a British think tank, has long supported the concept. For one, it points out that countries with shorter working hours tend to consume less energy and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Moving out of the fast lane and into slow, sustainable living may be a contributing factor.
If implemented properly, the move towards a shorter working week would also positively contribute to social and economic quality, easing dependence on debt-fueled growth. The Netherlands and Germany have shorter working weeks than the UK and the US, yet their economies are stronger. Redistributing working hours equally across an economy would also lower unemployment.
The benefits would be felt inside the home, too. Parents would be better able to balance their time, spend less on childcare and spend more quality time with their children. There'd be more time and care for families, friends and neighbors, strengthening familial and community bonds. |
|
|
|
Worth Reading |
How Gratitude
Can Transform Your
Workplace
By Kira M. Newman
Greater Good Magazine |
|
Gratitude transforms and strengthens organizations from the inside out. By taking a relational approach and embodying an attitude of genuine appreciation for each unique employee, organizations experience a decrease in stress, fewer sick days, better collaboration and higher overall job satisfaction.
Find out more about the four keys to open the door to a culture of gratitude. |
|
|
| |
19 Remote Collaboration
Tools to Empower Your
Team in 2021 (and Beyond!)
By FreshBooks Staff
FreshBooks Blog |
The way we work has changed. Whether your business has shifted into partial or full-time remote work, having the right tools to maximize collaboration in this new environment is critical to team productivity
and success. For anything from brainstorming to project management, here are some collaboration tools to propel your team
forward. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Are You Growing Your Business with Video? |
Online video content has become the keystone of a successful marketing strategy. According to marketing statistics collected by InVideo, in 2020, consumers increased their video viewing by 96%, and 60% of these viewers report preferring to watch curated online content over live television. If you aren't yet harnessing the power of this medium, here's why it's time to take note.
Cost-effectiveness. Most videos can be easily produced with your smartphone and shared across free platforms, making it one of the most cost-effective lead generation tools. In fact, 80% of marketers who use video say that it has directly led to an increase in sales.
Visibility and engagement. Gain the edge on your competition with the market visibility video facilitates. With business profiles composing one-third of Instagram's top-watched "stories," video gives a relational face to your brand that helps to keep your customers personally engaged in between transactions.
Sales generation. By 2022, 82% of the average business's website traffic is expected to come from video streaming. With 40% of global shoppers saying that they have purchased products they first discovered on YouTube as well as marketers experiencing a 66% improvement in generating qualified leads, the impact video can have on your sales pipelines is astounding.
Message retention. Visual communication allows you to communicate complex topics in a more high-impact way with the ability to say more with less. As an added bonus, your marketing message will also have a greater impact with viewers better able to retain the overall message, increasing from just 10% message retention when reading text to an incredible 95% retention rate through video. |
|
|
|
Share This Newsletter
|
|
If you find this newsletter helpful or interesting, share it with those you care about.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Links You Can Use - Productivity |
|
Personal productivity is an ever-adapting, lifelong developed skill; explore the productivity playground to see what works best with your brain and lifestyle. |
7 Productivity Hacks
from 7 Successful
Entrepreneurs |
|
From Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, here's how some of the best and brightest stay so productive. |
|
|
| |
|
7 Ways to Enter the Productivity Zone Faster and Focus Better |
|
When the brain fog won't clear,
these tips could be a ray of sunshine
to find your focus. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
21 Productivity
Methods:
Which One Is
Right for You? |
|
Discover how to find
the method and framework that's
best for you. |
|
|
| |
I'm a Successful Entrepreneur with ADD,
and This Is My Go-To
Productivity Technique |
|
For the neurodiverse crowd, here's a twist on today's hottest method, the Pomodoro Technique. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
Properly Administering Small Business Fringe Benefits |
While entrepreneurs are justifiably focused on the large scope of business revenue and profit, they often overlook important operational details. Failure to give sufficient attention to seemingly minor factors can, unfortunately, derail the accomplishment of grand visions. One of the matters exposing a small business to potential problems is administration of employee fringe benefits. This can even trouble a solo operation, where the owner is the only worker. An effective system for addressing reimbursements and advances assures accounting accuracy and capture of all legitimate business expenses.
Reimbursing Expenses
Payments to employees (and owners) that reimburse business expenses are not intended as taxable income to the payees. Rather, the objective of the business organization is to record a reimbursed expenditure as if it had paid the cost directly. To avoid treating these payments as compensation that's taxable to the employee, the company should obtain evidence of the funds spent for the business.
Substantiation of business expenses merely necessitates presenting receipts that show the amounts and purposes of expenses paid by employees with personal cash. Without supporting documentation for an expense reimbursement, the money paid to an employee is the same as taxable wages. This same requirement is imposed on owners of sole proprietorships and partners in partnerships. When the business lacks a record indicating the nature of a reimbursement, the cash given to owners is treated as a withdrawal rather than a deductible expense.
When a business maintains adequate records of reimbursements with business connections, the company deducts the expenses, and the payments are not considered taxable income to the recipients. Business owners should discuss this policy with their tax advisers because several exceptions exist in the tax rules.
Employee Discounts, Awards and Gifts
Employee discounts are not taxable fringe benefits when the sales prices are at least as much as the company's cost. Such discounts may be extended to employee spouses and dependent children too. But different standards apply to cash payments or equivalents, such as gift cards.
Cash awards to employees are generally treated the same as wages. For instance, a year-end bonus is no different than a regular paycheck. Payroll taxes are applicable to bonuses, with a few exceptions. An employee is not taxed on a cash award for length of service, meeting a productivity goal or satisfying a safety measure if the average employee award is less than $400 and the annual total for any single worker does not exceed $1,600. The exception also applies if the company has a written plan governing awards for any purpose, and no employee can receive more than $400 per year.
Small gifts to employees are deductible by the business as fringe benefits and are not taxable income for the recipients. The standard for this situation is that gifts must have such nominal value and occur so infrequently that accounting for them as taxable employee compensation is impractical and unreasonable. But the exclusion for minor gifts only applies to non-cash items. For cash and cash equivalents, the other rules apply. |
|
|
|
|
|
This newsletter and any information contained herein are intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial or medical advice. The publisher takes great efforts to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this newsletter. However, we will not be responsible at any time for any errors or omissions or any damages, howsoever caused, that result from its use. Seek competent professional advice and/or legal counsel with respect to any matter discussed or published in this newsletter. |
|
|
