Interesting articles & observations
“Certain hard-hit businesses are eligible to receive a second PPP loan under the new COVID relief package.”
PPP loans/grants are back for a second round, but this time they are focused on the businesses most affected by the COVID pandemic. This article does a great job explaining who will be eligible and when to apply.
Please contact FLX Business Services for help applying for PPP funding and any of your other bookkeeping, business planning, and exit planning needs.
Did you pay your mother more than $600 in 2020 to help with your business? Then you need to send her a 1099! Yes, even your mother!! Get her social security number and you should already have her address. How about that dude on Craigslist you paid $1000 to paint the office? If you don’t have his info then you probably shouldn’t be writing off that expense.
You have until January 31st to send out 1099s to all those contractors and service providers that aren’t incorporated. The IRS has pretty strict guidelines to follow and pretty stiff penalties if you don’t.
Here’s an article that provides more detail on the ins and outs of 1099s.
“When it comes to 1099s, many business owners find themselves in a guessing game, wondering what exactly the rules and requirements are. This is a dangerous game to play because the penalties add up quickly when it comes to 1099 mishaps. ”
As always, FLX Business Services is here to help with your 1099s and the rest of your bookkeeping needs.
Well, 2020 was a doozy for pretty much everyone - both businesses and personal. I, for one, am happy to move onto 2021 and have set big goals and for myself and my business. Some goals are obvious like growing revenues and adding employees, while others focus more on personal development and family time. All of them are equally important to me.
So what are your goals and how will you achieve them? Here is a great article to get you started
“The good news is that the strongest, well-managed businesses will continue to pivot and adapt to remain successful and learn new ways to create even more success.”
As always, FLX Business Services is ready and willing to help - just click HERE to set up a free introductory meeting.
“Take Ferriss’ attitude that anything is possible and combine it with his incredible “non-work” ethic, and you could really live the lifestyle of your dreams. The first step is to realize it will take effort to get there.”
Click HERE to read the whole article.
Tim Ferriss’s provocatively titled book, “The 4-Hour Workweek”, promises the impossible until you uncover the underlying premise - if you love your work then it isn’t work. His actual point is to not spend more than four hours per week doing stuff you consider “work”. Ideally, you structure your business so you can focus on the elements you enjoy and find purpose doing, and have business partners, employees, and third parties do the rest.
Believe it or not, FLX Business Services actually enjoys helping clients with bookkeeping, business planning, and exit planning and we’d love to learn about your business and how we can help.
Book a free introductory meeting today!
For most borrowers, it is time to start applying for PPP loan forgiveness if they haven’t done so already. The SBA has an excellent FAQ sheet answering most questions associated with the loan forgiveness application.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been a lifesaver for many, providing much needed funds to keep businesses afloat and employees in jobs. Even better, if you have followed guidelines the entire loan will be forgiven. Those guidelines have changed to extend the covered period (8 to 24 week) and payroll ratio (75% to 60%) as it became obvious COVID would not be quickly going away.
If you have any questions or need help with the application, please don’t hesitate to contact FLX Business Services. Click HERE to make an appointment today - your first consultation is free!
My current read, “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg, offers some interesting perspective on changing behaviors. Fogg breaks behavior change into three components: Motivation, Ability, and Prompt (MAP model), and posits that motivation is the most difficult and fickle to manage. Instead, Fogg says we should focus on Ability (breaking down a project into more manageable tasks) and Prompts (anchors or time blocks) to drive change. This applies to both promoting new positive behaviors and eliminating existing damaging behaviors.
We often beat ourselves up over procrastinating (lack of motivation) on work that seems overwhelming at first glance. Your office is an absolute mess or your bank accounts haven’t been reconciled in months. We think there is some character defect that prevents us from doing this work. The reality is we are relying on a huge amount of motivation to overcome something we really don’t want to do. We blame ourselves when we really should be recognizing our process is broken. So the key is to break it down - identify a small first step and a time to do it.
I use ten-minute time blocks where I close my door, email, social media sites, and do something. It can be anything! My first action might be just picking up one piece of paper, register where it might go, and putting it back down. Maybe put on some music to lift my spirits. Triumph, celebrate the action!
And then do it again and again. The momentum builds naturally. When my ten minutes is up, I recognize the achievement, set aside another block of time at some point in the not-so-distant future, and move onto something else.
Think tiny steps and keep on taking those tiny steps because they add up. This idea can be applied anywhere and everywhere in your life and is extremely effective in building up positive habits and eliminating negative habits.
And if you’re really having trouble getting your accounts reconciled, customers billed, bills paid, etc., that’s an easy one. Simply click on HERE or call FLX Business Services and we’ll take care of the rest!!
You can’t manage what you don’t measure, or so the saying goes. And the corollary is you can’t manage anything if you’re measuring everything. So what’s the balance? What metrics should you be considering on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis in order to most effectively and efficiently manage YOUR business?
In addition to monitoring the usual suspects like revenue and revenue growth, cash flow and margins, you should also be looking at customer service, sales, operations and employee performance indicators. Profitability by customer, location, product, channel, etc. is all also very important in understanding where your business is succeeding and struggling. And beyond these standard metrics, every business has unique characteristics that need to be measured and managed.
The excellent book “Moneyball” illustrates how relying on traditional and outdated metrics can be detrimental to your success, especially if you’re competing against larger and better-funded opponents. In Major League baseball it turned out that on-base and slugging percentage was much more important than batting average, home runs, and RBIs. Billy Beane was able to use this and similar insights to assemble a team that competed against the best teams in the league at a fraction of the price.
So what are key metrics that you should focus on that will allow your business to compete against any competitor, big or small? What are the overlooked and undermanaged metrics in your business/industry?
FLX Business Services can help you develop a metrics dashboard that will give you deeper visibility into your business and help form strategy to take your business to the next level. When combined with our bookkeeping services, you will always know how your business is performing and be able to anticipate issues before they become big problems.
Click HERE to book a free consultation.
And click HERE for an article that might help you get creative about possible metrics for your business.
“To succeed, organizations need to do what
Beane did: jettison the conventional “wisdom”
and introduce the right metrics”
It’s a short week, so here’s a short message reminding everyone that giving thanks is a daily activity - recognize, be sincere, rinse, repeat! Click here for a great article about building a grateful business!
“Giving thanks shouldn’t be reserved for the holiday season. Find reasons to say ‘thank you’ for all of the little things in life, and in business, no matter what time of year it happens to be.”
Click here for an interesting article that considers the pros and cons of organically growing a company through internal efforts versus growth through acquisition. It leans toward making acquisitions but is fairly balanced in its approach.
“There’s an interesting conversation to be had around this topic for every unique business situation, and there’s truly no “right” answer that fits every circumstance.”
However, it does leave out another option - growth through partnerships, whether with a complementary business or investors or both. These partnerships can provide benefits (expertise, customer access, technology, financing, etc.) that usually must be balanced with adjustments in control over business decisions.
FLX Business Services helps businesses sort through these decisions and move forward with a strategic plan that plays to the strengths of the business and market opportunities.
Click here to book a free initial consultation.
Whether you're just thinking about starting a new business or are running a family business that’s been around for a 100 years, a solid business plan will increase your odds of success.
Click here for an article that does a great job of explaining why a business plan is important and how to write the “Perfect Business Plan”.
“Does a business plan make startup success inevitable? Absolutely not. But great planning often means the difference between success and failure. Where your entrepreneurial dreams are concerned, you should do everything possible to set the stage for success.”
FLX Business Services has experience writing business plans for startups, non-profits, small businesses, and corporate clients. We’d be happy to help you write yours!! Visit flxbizserv.com for more information on our business services and sign up for a free initial consultation.
