No seed. No harvest. Period.

You have to make a move. Level up! 

3 seeds that produce a bountiful business harvest:

1. A budget is a seed.

If you don’t take the time to plan and understand the income and expenses of your business, you are dead in the water. Yeah, you can survive by the seat of your pants, but why would you do that? You have to put the work, time and effort into understanding your financial limitations. Get that harvest!!

2. A marketing plan is a seed

I see businesses spend a ton of money on social media ads, flyers, you name it. However, they have not taken the time to identify their target market, ensure they are communicating directly to that market and presenting cohesive branding and messaging. They employ all tactics, no strategy. No harvest!

3. Patience is a seed.

Microwave mentality does not work in business. You have to put the time in, maybe encounter some bumpy roads and continually improve your processes. Your harvest will take some...

What steps will you take today to reach your business’ potential?

3 steps you can take today to reach the full potential of your business

1. Stop operating in fear

 fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of not making payroll. Use people who criticize you as motivation. Failure is not fatal and payroll should not catch you off guard. If you didn't know you had payroll this week, we need to have a different conversation.

2. Stop doing and start planning

If you don’t have a plan, failure and not making payroll are more likely.

3. Get your financial house in order

Make sure that you have clean financial statements. Not something your cousin put together for you because she was always good in math. Understand your financial position at all times. You will miss game changing opportunities if you don't.

Well done is better than well said.

Stop talking about the changes you should make in your business and make it happen. 

3 changes you can make right now to improve your business.

1. Stop trying to do everything!

You cannot do everything and you should not try! Delegate. Identify tasks that you can delegate to an employee or contractor.

2. Have a planning weekend!

Spend a weekend outside of your business. While away, take a fresh look at your financials, determine if your marketing is working, measure how profitable you are. The things you can learn while outside of your business are priceless.

3. Create an execution plan

Make a list of 5 things you want or need to do in your business and write specifically how you will get these things done by what date and who needs to be involved.

Everything in your past is preparation for something in your future.

Your past business failure is the best currency to use to fund your new business. 

3 mistakes in your past that you will not make again:

1. You had no budget, but knew what you had in the bank

In business, a budget is everything. It tells you what and when you can or cannot spend in order to stay on track.

2. You thought likes on social media was enough marketing

You now know that you have to have a thoughtful and comprehensive marketing plan. Likes don't translate into dollars.

3. You thought you would save money by not hiring any staff.

You can't do everything and you shouldn't try. Know your role. You are the CEO.

Are you one step away from bankruptcy or breakthrough?

3 ways to ensure that your business is moving toward breakthrough and not bankruptcy:

Get your business in order.

    1. Prepare financial statements

Your accountant should prepare a profit and loss statement and balance sheet for you at least quarterly.

2. Read your financial statements regularly

When you receive your financial statements, take some time to review them. Review more detail if something doesn’t look right. Financial statements are good for measuring profitability, but also a good way to uncover theft.

3. Understand your financial statements

What are you looking at? Do you know? Understanding what you should be looking for, making sure that you have enough money in the bank, confirming that you are making enough money and not losing money are all key to avoiding bankruptcy.

The IRS philosophy is when you get paid, they get paid. If that does not happen, interest and penalties are assessed. You absolutely need to pay most of your tax bill during the year or as income is received. This is really an issue for self employed individuals, business owners and investors.

Many times, the reason these taxpayers don’t make estimated tax payments is because they don’t know how much to pay, when to pay or how to pay. The income from one year, may not be a fair representation of income of the following year, which makes it difficult to calculate how much tax to pay in. Another issue is that many taxpayers believe that estimated tax payments must be made Quarterly. This means that a realtor with sporadic commissions, is expected to hold a tax payment for an entire quarter and then make their estimated tax payment. By this time, they have paid current and past due bills from periods when they did not have the cash to make those payments.

Investors...

The IRS revoked your passport. To reverse IRS certification, you must fully pay your balance or make a payment arrangement.

You will receive notice CP508C to advise you that your tax debt is considered seriously delinquent and the IRS has provided that information to the State Department. At this point, the State Department will not renew your passport or will refuse to issue a new passport. They can remove or place limitations on your current passport. Prior to certification, a debt can be paid down. After certification, you cannot partially pay.

Before denying a passport, the State department will hold application for 90 days to allow you to either resolve any errors, fully pay the debt or enter into a payment arrangement.

Now, if you receive Letter 6152, the IRS is asking the State Department to revoke your passport. This is generally reserved as encouragement for Taxpayers who conduct offshore activities or interests or if they believe a revocation will facilitate payment of the...

First of all, fire them!

So many business owners come to me in an absolute panic because on the advice of their Accountant, they have not had the cash to pay their payroll taxes, so they have only been paying net payroll. This means that quarter over quarter their tax bill has been growing and growing. The penalties and interest alone get out of hand.

Payroll taxes are very special and very complex. Unlike income tax, which is maintained in the entity in which it is assessed, payroll tax includes a trust fund, which means that you are holding money that belongs to your employees in trust. They gave you the money in the form of federal withholding, state with holding, social security and medicare tax, which was deducted from their paycheck and they trust you to pay their money to the proper government agency.

The IRS goes crazy when you do not pay payroll taxes. They are like HOLD UP! You are not paying the payroll tax that you owe, but then you took money from your employees that...

The IRS only has 10 years to collect from you.

So why are we still talking about 2010???

I have helped so many Taxpayers resolve their IRS debt simply by reviewing their account transcripts. The IRS does not have forever to collect what you owe them. They have 10 years from the date of assessment. This is commonly referred to as the collection statute expiration date, or CSED. The clock starts with the date the tax has been assessed. This means that it is beneficial for you to file your tax returns on time.

I have taken a cursory look at intake forms and wondered why Taxpayers were still trying to resolve debts from tax years 15-20 years ago. While there can be many reasons why those old years may still be in play, one of them is that the 2008 tax return was not filed until 2012…..WHY…WHY…..WHY….. The debt from that year could have been off of the table for good, but NOOOOOOOOO…… You want to give the IRS an extra 4 years to collect…...

Owing the IRS and dealing with their collection tactics can be very stressful. It can be the source of anxiety, illness and depression.

Even after the controversy is resolved, the trauma remains. I have seen clients continue to exhibit certain behaviors indicative of continued fear of the IRS enforced collection action. Many taxpayers who have experienced bank levies, who no longer owe the IRS and are not in jeopardy of a levy, continue to be uncomfortable putting money in their bank accounts. This is sad because they are unable to enjoy the convenience of modern day banking.

I have seen Taxpayers have full blown anxiety attacks if they receive a letter from the IRS in the mail. They have not opened it. It could be a $1,000,000 check, it could be an address change confirmation. All they know is that it is from the IRS and that alone causes acute anxiety.

One of the strategies that helps these tax payers recover from. Their IRS post traumatic stress is education.  We fear what...