10 Essential Online Resources for Preparing Your Small Business Taxes

By Nellie Akalp (Mashable)

With record-keeping and quarterly payments, tax planning is a year-round event for the small business owner.

Tax-related activities, though, inevitably take on a new sense of urgency as April 15 looms near. While tax time can seem overwhelming for the time-pressed small business owner, there are many online tools and forums available to make the process a little easier and stress-free. Here are 10 of our favorites.

Preparing and Filing Your Taxes Online

Sitting down with a professional who specializes in small businesses is always a smart idea, particularly during the first year or two of operations. However, not every business owner wants to shoulder the costs of hiring an expert to help fill out relatively routine fields on their Schedule C.

If you opt to use an online or software-based tax preparation tool, be aware that not all solutions (particularly the free tools) accommodate business tax filers. Before you sign up for any service, download software, or invest time filling out your information, make sure that the service supports the common business forms.

The following is a selection of tools available for small businesses:

• IRS e-file: The IRS offers electronic filing options for Employment Tax Returns, Information Returns, Partnerships, Corporations, Estates & Trusts, plus Exempt Organizations.

• TurboTax: A popular tool for personal income filers, TurboTax from Intuit also offers software to guide small businesses through the filing process. The software helps you make sure you're taking advantage of every business deduction and write-off. A sole proprietor, consultant, 1099 contractor, or single-owner LLC should use the Home & Business version; S Corps, partnerships, C Corps, or multiple-owner LLCs should use the Business version. Free e-filing is included in both versions.

• H&R Block Tax Software: Two versions are available for businesses: Premium & Business (LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps) and Premium (sole proprietors). Even if you decide not to pay for the tax filing software, check out H&R Block's small business tax preparation checklist as a great starting point to get organized and make sure you're thinking about every possible expense and income source.

• Tax Act Business: Tax Act has separate federal and state editions for business tax forms 1065, 1120S, and 1120.

Managing Your Paper Receipts

Whether you're a road warrior or work strictly from the home office, you'll probably find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of receipts accumulated throughout the year. All too often, receipts are stuffed into pockets, end up on the car floor, are run through the washing machine -- every lost or illegible receipt represents a missed opportunity to deduct a well-deserved expense for your business.
 

If manually managing paper receipts in a file system and spreadsheet isn't working out for you, here are two alternative ideas:

• Shoeboxed: This service takes the paper receipts off your hands. You can scan your receipts and upload them to your Shoeboxed account. Or, you can mail in the paper receipts and they'll handle the scanning and data entry for you. There's also an iPhone app (as pictured above), or you can take images of receipts with a digital camera. Online, you can sort your receipts, create charts and graphs, and export data to Quicken, Excel, or PDF. There are different monthly and annual plans, as well as a free trial. There are a number ofexpense report and receipt tracking apps out there, so definitely shop around to find the one that fits your needs.

• NeatReceipts: You can purchase your own portable scanner from NeatReceipts which lets you scan receipts (up to a full-sized document) to your PC or Mac. You're able to export data to PDF, Excel, Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax.

Getting Help Online

Whether it's your first or fifteenth year as a business owner, you're bound to run into tax-related questions from time to time. Does deducting my home office really increase my chance of an audit? How can I deduct my health insurance? When traveling for business, are there limits on the amount I can deduct for my meals? Can I deduct the parking ticket I got while visiting a client?

If you haven't hired a CPA or tax preparer, don't despair -- you can still find answers to your specific questions online. Browse through community forums and post your own questions online. You'll get answers from business owners just like you. Of course, as with any online community, the quality and accuracy of answers may vary. But hopefully, the "wisdom of the crowd" will filter out the incorrect or less than helpful information. Here's a short list of various online forums catering to the small business owner and self-employed individual.

• Small business and self-employed tax center at the IRS: The IRS has been beefing up its online resources -- the small business tax center offers FAQs, tax tips, help videos, and more. Most importantly, it offers highlights of the year's tax law changes -- for example, a new deduction for health insurance costs in computing self-employment taxes for 2010 (part of the Small Business Jobs Act), is outlined. It also includes helpful information on home office deductions.

• H&R Block Get It Right Community: Your questions are answered by certified CPAs and tax advisers.

• About.com Business Taxes: While not a community forum, this About.com site compiles some useful information, definitions, and articles for small businesses.

Of course, trying to get your head around all the deductions and forms is not easy, particularly when you're just starting out. The IRS estimates that filing your own business taxes will take approximately 52 hours. Keeping your finances in order throughout the whole year can help immensely come tax time. If this is your first year filing business taxes, be sure to learn from the experience. For example, if gathering the details and documentation for a section (like your mileage deductions) is particularly time-consuming, take some time to think about what you could do throughout the year to improve the situation when it's tax time next year. And then, of course, you can turn to the Web for guidance when the time has come.

 

Source:   http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/10-essential-online-resources-for-preparing-your-small-business-taxes-nellie-akalp

Image credit: Pgiam 

Groundhog Day: 10 Mistakes that Small Businesses Make Over and Over

Feb 02, 2011 - 

By Barry Moltz

In the movie, Groundhog Day, Phil, played by actor Bill Murray, is forced to live the same day over and over again until he learns where he is making lifelong mistakes.

Many small business owners are also doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Here are the top 10 mistakes that are repeated by small businesses and how they can be solved.

1. They focus on profit not cash. 

We learned during the great recession that company financial statements can be pure fiction. Profit at the bottom of the income statement is meaningless if your business does not have the cash to pay its obligations. Your profit could be “stuck” in your accounts receivables, inventory, or work in process. Understand the cash flow statement to learn how "profitable” your business really is and how much cash it has to invest, save, or distribute.

2. They don’t diligently collect the money that is owed by customers.

Customers that do not pay aren’t really customers; they are collection problems. Have a strict process on how your business operates in this area. This includes setting mutually-agreed-to prices and payment terms, checking with the customer when your invoice arrives, and asking when it will be paid. If it is not paid on time, call to find out where it is. Remember, the squeaky wheel always gets paid first.

3. Lack of focus on what your business does. 

Many entrepreneurs early in starting their company want to be all things to all people. They believe they should not turn away any type of business from any customer. However, the successful company focuses on solving one pain first profitably for customers. They don’t expand too quickly to solving other related problems. To build a strong company, get boring and narrow real fast.

4. Expanding too quickly by increasing fixed and overhead costs. 

Many entrepreneurs hear that bigger is always better. After some initial success, they want to have more office space. This is only a way to “grow yourself broke." In order to grow profitably, keep as many expenses variable and available as possible. This will ensure that expenses only increase when sales grow at the same time.

5. Hiring the wrong people. 

Many small business owners have big egos. They routinely hire the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. This includes employees that are friends, relatives, or just not as good as themselves. This comes out of a basic fear that they will be overshadowed in their business. It is critical to hire people that are complementary to your skills. The only way to build a profitable sustainable business is to find leverage with people and processes.

6. Not firing employees quickly enough. 

Every business owner’s mantra needs to be “slow to hire and quick to fire." If a mistake was made in the hiring process, this will be evident in the first 30 days of employment. People have a hard time changing within a company. What is worse is that everyone knows who the non-performers are in the company and this holds the business back. Fire your non-performing employees today.

7. Knowing when to quit. 

The most successful entrepreneurs know “when to hold them and fold them." Will Rogers said that “if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do, is stop digging.” It is time to shut down your company if you run out of your passion and cash. In this case, there truly is not a way or a reason to turn the business around.

8. Not focusing on marketing and distribution. 

The biggest error in thinking for many entrepreneurs is that “if you build it, they will come." The reasoning goes that if “I build a better mousetrap," customers will automatically buy it. There could be nothing further from the truth. The most successful businesses execute a superior marketing and distribution strategy that finds the customers that have the money to buy the product that solves their pain. Unfortunately, the best products don't always sell the most.

9. Failure to systematically do marketing even while they have “too much work." 

We actually can’t sell anything to anyone; we just need to be there when people are ready to buy. This is why having a systematic and constant method to building relationships with customers, prospectors, influencers, and connectors is critical. Trust is built over a long period of time. Build relationships by consistently giving value freely. As a result, when a prospect or their friend has a problem your company can solve, they will call you.

10. Not consistently seeking help. 

Small business owners are a stubborn group. We want to do it alone and not ask for help, until it’s too late. Get one or more mentors for your business early on. This can come from hired professionals like bankers, lawyers, or accountants, or organizations such as SCORE or SBDCs. Better yet, join a mentor group and talk to other business people who have been where you are right now. You will be surprised how many will volunteer their help.

What other mistakes do you think small business owners make over and over again?

Barry Moltz

Small Business Speaker, Consultant, and Author Barry Moltz gets business owners growing again by unlocking their long forgotten potential. With decades of entrepreneurial experience in his own businesses ventures as well as consulting countless other entrepreneurs, Barry has discovered the formula to get stuck business owners out of their funk and marching forward. Barry applies simple, strategic steps to facilitate change for entrepreneurs, and get’s them growing their business once again.

5 Steps to Start a Business and Make it Work

Jan 10, 2011 -

I am often asked if I have found a secret -- or at least a consistent answer -- to successfully building businesses over my career. I've spent some time thinking about what characterizes so many of Virgin's successful ventures and, importantly, what went wrong when we did not get it right.


Reflecting across 40 years I have come up with five "secrets."


1. Enjoy what you're doing.

Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work and requires a great deal of time, you better enjoy what you're doing. When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills.


There was no great plan or strategy. The name itself was thought up on the hoof. One night some friends and I were chatting over a few drinks and decided to call our group Virgin, as we were all new to business. The name stuck and had a certain ring to it.


For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that's going to make a real difference to other people's lives.


A businesswoman or a businessman is not unlike an artist. What you have when you start a company is a blank canvas; you have to fill it. Just as a good artist has to get every single detail right on that canvas, a businessman or businesswoman has to get every single little thing right when first setting up in business in order to succeed. However, unlike a work of art, the business is never finished. It constantly evolves.


If a businessperson sets out to make a real difference to other people's lives, and achieves that, he or she will be able to pay the bills and have a successful business to boot.


2. Create something that stands out.

Whether you have a product, service or a brand, it is not easy to start a company and survive and thrive in the modern world. In fact, you've got to do something radically different to make a mark today.


Look at the most successful businesses of the past 20 years. Microsoft, Google and Apple, for example, shook up a sector by doing something that had never been done and continually innovating. They are now among the dominant forces.


3. Create something that your employees can be proud of.

The people on your team are your biggest assets.


4. Be a good leader.

As a leader, you have to be a really good listener. You need to know your own mind but there is no point in imposing your views on others without some debate. No one has a monopoly on good ideas or advice.


Get out there, listen, draw people out and learn from them. As a leader you've also got to be extremely good at praising people. Never openly criticize people or lose your temper, and always lavish praise on your colleagues for a job well done.


People flourish if they're praised. Usually they don't need to be told when they've done wrong because most of the time they know it. If somebody is not working out, don't automatically throw him or her out of the company. A company should genuinely be a family. So see if there's another job within the company that suits them better. On most occasions you'll find something for every single kind of personality.


5. Be visible.

A good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I've never worked in an office -- I've always worked from home -- but I get out and about and meet people. It seems like I'm always traveling, but I always have a notebook in my back pocket to jot down questions, concerns or good ideas that occur along the way.


If I'm on a Virgin Atlantic plane, I make sure to get out and meet all the staff and many of the passengers. If you meet a group of Virgin Atlantic crew members, you are going to have at least 10 suggestions or ideas. If I don't write them down, I may remember only one the next day. Get out and shake hands with all the passengers on the plane, and again, see if anyone has a problem or suggestion. Write it down, make sure that you get their names, get their e-mail addresses, and make sure the next day that you respond to them.


Of course, I try to make sure that we appoint managing directors who have the same philosophy. That way we can run a large group of companies in the same way a small business owner runs a family business -- keeping it responsive and friendly.


When you're building a business from scratch, the key word for many years is "survival." It's tough to survive. In the beginning you haven't got the time or energy to worry about saving the world. You've just got to fight to make sure you can look after your bank manager and be able to pay the bills. Literally, your full concentration has to be on surviving.


Obviously, if you don't survive, just remember that most businesses fail and the best lessons are usually learned from failure. You must not get too dispirited. Just get back up and try again!




Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He maintains a blog at www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/richardbranson. To learn more about the Virgin Group www.virgin.com.

Source:  http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/managing/article/5-steps-to-start-a-business-and-make-it-work-richard-branson