Ingredients of a Successful Business Partnership

Ingredients of a Successful Business Partnership

Like a bundle of sticks, good business partners support each other and are less likely to crack under strain together than on their own. In fact, companies with multiple owners have a stronger chance of surviving their first five years than sole proprietorships, according to U.S. Small Business Administration data.

Yet sole proprietorships are more common than partnerships, making up more than 70 percent of all businesses. That’s because while good partnerships are strong, they can be a challenge to successfully get off the ground. Here are some of the ingredients that good business partnerships require:

  • A shared vision. Business partnerships need a shared vision. If there are differences in vision, make an honest effort to find common ground. If you want to start a restaurant, and your partner envisions a fine dining experience with French cuisine while you want an American bistro, you’re going to be disagreeing over everything from pricing and marketing to hiring and décor.
  • Compatible strengths. Different people bring different skills and personalities to a business. There is no stronger glue to hold a business partnership together than when partners need and rely on each other’s abilities. Suppose one person is great at accounting and inventory management, and another is a natural at sales and marketing. Each is free to focus on what they are good at and can appreciate that their partner will pick up the slack in the areas where they are weak.
  • Defined roles and limitations. Before going into business, outline who will have what responsibilities. Agree on which things need consensus and which do not. Having this understanding up front will help resolve future disagreements. Outlining the limits of each person’s role not only avoids conflict, it also identifies where you need to hire outside expertise to fill a skill gap in your partnership.
  • A conflict resolution strategy. Conflict is bound to arise even if the fundamentals of your partnership are strong. Set up a routine for resolving conflicts. Start with a schedule for frequent communication between partners. Allow each person to discuss issues without judgment. If compromise is still difficult after a discussion, it helps to have someone who can be a neutral arbiter, such as a trusted employee or consultant.
  • A goal-setting system. Create a system to set individual goals as well as business goals. Regularly meet together and set your goals, the steps needed to achieve them, who needs to take the next action step, and the expected date of completion.
  • An exit strategy. It’s often easier to get into business with a partner than to exit when it isn’t working out. Create a buy-sell agreement at the start of your business relationship that outlines how you’ll exit the business and create a fair valuation system to pay the exiting owner. Neither the selling partner nor the buying partner want to feel taken advantage of during an ownership transition.
How swapping products and services could benefit your business

How swapping products and services could benefit your business

Bartering, the act of trading goods or services with other goods or services instead of money, is more popular than ever. And with many businesses dealing with constrained cash flow, bartering may be a good way to create value for your business.

The new world of bartering

Bartering traditionally worked something like this: You know someone who has something you need and you have something they need. You talk, figure out comparable value and make the swap. Everybody’s happy. But other than blind luck, finding a match to barter with was very difficult.

But with online platforms, bartering is now easier than ever with the creation of posting sites and exchanges. Posting sites provide a platform where businesses can skim for or post items they are looking to acquire or trade. These are usually free and unmonitored, so surf at your own risk. Bartering exchanges offer a marketplace and bartering credits that act as a middleman. You can trade goods and services and receive credit that you can use towards acquiring a different good or service. These tend to be actively managed and typically charge a monthly membership fee.

Remember, most bartering can create a taxable event. If you receive something of greater value or trade a deductible expense for a non-deductible expense, the difference is taxable income and needs to be reported on your tax return — so careful record keeping is very important.

When bartering can help

  • You have a unique need with no available resources. Identify what you do well and look at your income statement to identify services you typically must pay for yourself. For example, consider a photographer who is paying a monthly tech support bill to administer their website. That photographer could reach out to the web development company to see if they need photos for their website services or other marketing material. They then barter their photography for coding expertise. It saves each party the necessary cash to purchase these services.
  • You need to offload aging inventory. As inventory ages, decisions need to be made. Letting it sit can take up valuable space and paying to dispose of it is usually not the most efficient practice. There might be a business that has the same issue, but with something you can use. Take some time to think about the type of businesses that might find your old inventory useful.
  • You have customers who can’t pay. Use bartering as a method for collecting from customers who can’t pay your invoice. Instead of sending an account to collections, consider whether your customer has something of value your business could use. Even if your customer doesn’t have anything of direct value for your business, you might be able to accept an asset and then sell it online to settle your outstanding bill.

Finding bartering partners can often have long-term benefits without having to dip into cash reserves. And if structured correctly, the service provided can offset the expense of the service received.

Mitigating Business Risk with Cross-Training

Mitigating Business Risk with Cross-Training

Cross-training to ensure more than one person knows key functional areas can be a win-win situation for you and your employees. Large companies often use it to prepare managers for future promotions. But in small companies, cross-training can be a great way to mitigate risk.

How you implement cross-training will depend on the size and nature of your business. Consider prioritizing the departments that need and/or want cross-training the most. These departments may be understaffed or have many new employees. Look for important functions that are currently dependent on a single person’s knowledge. These areas should be a focus of your cross-training program.

As you implement a cross-training program, here are a few tips to help you along the way:

  • Document your key processes. You cannot cross-train if you don’t know the process. These written processes will turn into training documents as you implement your program. So your first step is identifying key processes and procedures and having your current people that are doing these functions to get them down on paper or documented through short videos.
  • Communicate to your team. Get everyone in step before starting a cross-training program. Help your team understand why the company is cross-training your team. Reasons may be to prepare for organizational growth or new industry standards, to cover functions when someone is on vacation, or to adjust to a changing structure that’s focused around roles and responsibilities. Then continue to communicate with your team throughout the process with status updates and next steps.
  • Present cross-training as an opportunity. Your employees may be more resistant to cross-training if it feels like it’s an obligation or a threat to their roles. You can help them feel motivated by highlighting the benefits, like developing different skill sets and having a better understanding of how their contributions positively impact other parts of the business.
  • Start with a small pilot program. Test the waters with a select group of employees to get a better understanding of what works and what needs to be tweaked. You can then expand the program later as you gain insight and experience.
  • Determine cross-training hours. Figure out how much time can be dedicated to cross-training for each team to still run efficiently. This may include setting aside a few hours each day, or setting aside full days for a certain period of time to focus on cross-training. If your business is seasonal, ramp up cross-training during your low seasonal period.
  • Listen to feedback. You may learn that some employees have already started cross-training on their own. You can use this kind of valuable feedback to fine-tune your official cross-training program.

Keep in mind that some employees may resist having to train others, and productivity may suffer in the short-term. But remember the cost of not cross-training – if you lose a key employee and no one else knows how to do their tasks, your business may have trouble finding a replacement.

Year-End Tax Planning Tips for Your Business

Year-End Tax Planning Tips for Your Business

As 2023 winds down, here are some ideas to help you prepare for filing your upcoming tax return:

  • Informational returns. Identify all vendors who require a 1099-MISC and a 1099-NEC. Obtain tax identification numbers (TINs) for each of these vendors if you have not already done so.
  • Shifting income and expenses. Consider accelerating income, or deferring earnings, based on profit projections.
  • Be prepared to receive a Form 1099-K. You may receive a Form 1099-K from each payment processor from whom you receive $600 or more in payments. In addition to credit card companies and banks, payment processors can include Amazon, Etsy, PayPal, Venmo and Apple Pay. You’ll need to include the 1099-K on your tax return.
  • Categorize income and expenses. The best way to prepare for receiving a 1099-K is to organize your records by major categories of income, expenses and fixed asset purchases. If your accounting records are accurate, then any tax form, including a 1099-K, should be easy to tie out to your books.
  • Separation of expenses. Review business accounts to ensure personal expenses are not present. Reimburse the business for any expenses discovered during this review.
  • Create expense reports. Having expense reports with supporting invoices and business credit card statements with corresponding invoices will help substantiate your deductions in the event of an audit.
  • Fixed asset planning. Section 179 or bonus depreciation expensing versus traditional depreciation is a great planning tool. If using Section 179, the qualified assets must be placed in service prior to year-end.
  • Leveraging business meals. Business meals with clients or customers are 50% deductible. Retain the necessary receipts and documentation that note when the meal took place, who attended and the business purpose on each receipt.
  • Charitable opportunities. Consider any last-minute deductible charitable giving including long-term capital gain stocks.
  • Cell phone record review. Review your telephone records for qualified business use. While expensing a single landline out of a home office can be difficult to deduct, cell phone use can be documented and deducted for business purposes.
  • Inventory review. Review your inventory for proper counts and remove obsolete or worthless products. Keep track of the obsolete and worthless amounts for a potential deduction.
  • Review your receivables. Focus on collection activities and review your uncollectible accounts for possible write-offs.
  • Review your estimated tax payments. Recap your year-to-date estimated tax payments and compare them to your forecast of full year earnings. Then make your 2023 4th quarter estimated tax payment by January 16, 2024.
The Trouble With 0% Financing

The Trouble With 0% Financing

Companies want to make it easy to buy their big ticket items, especially at times of economic uncertainty. A popular technique is to offer 0% financing when you buy furniture, electronics and other household items. You can also take matters into your own hands with a credit card that offers 0% APR on purchases, balances transferred to the card, or both.

While paying for goods and services with 0% interest may sound appealing, there are risks you’ll face that you should be aware of before you take this step.

What’s hiding behind 0% financing

Here are some of the potential problems hiding behind these 0% financing offers:

  • Special financing offers make it easier to overspend. Psychology Today reported that credit card use can easily result in overspending, and the same is true for loans. The key is to understand the monthly payments you are committing to, and ensuring you can handle them. At the same time, try to assess your purchase decision. Would you buy this item if the 0% offer was not available?
  • Some 0% APR offers come with deferred interest. Hidden in the fine print of some 0% interest offers may lurk deferred interest charges. This means that while you’re enjoying monthly payments with no interest, the interest charge accrues over time. If you miss a payment, have a late payment or haven’t paid off the loan by the end of the 0% offer period, the accrued interest gets added to your unpaid balance. The key is to precisely understand what happens if you miss a payment or don’t follow the 0% offer exactly as written…before you take the 0% offer.
  • The 0% offer may be impacting the price. Remember, money has value and someone is paying the interest cost of the 0% financing. Usually the merchant is hiding the cost inside the price you are paying for the item.

What you can do

Before considering a 0% interest financing offer on your next purchase, do this:

  • Save up for large ticket purchases. Instead of financing items and ensuring you have even more bills to pay each month, start saving for pricier purchases on a regular basis. Even better, leverage the value of your savings within higher interest savings account options that are now in excess of 4 percent.
  • Turn on your negotiating switch. Whenever you see a 0% offer, there should be a discount available to you for paying upfront. Someone is paying the interest and it is probably going to be you if the financing cost is built into the price you are paying.
  • Pay on time! Finally, if you do think the 0% option is a deal for you… set up auto payments. Most of these deals are unforgiving and punitive if you miss a payment, so automate them to avoid this possibility.
6 Tips for Lower Car Insurance Rates

6 Tips for Lower Car Insurance Rates

If you’ve been feeling the pinch of higher auto insurance rates along with other rising costs, you should know some factors that impact these rates are well within your control. Consider these tips to pay less this year and beyond.

  • Improve your credit score. Many insurance companies consider your credit score and overall creditworthiness when assigning rates, mostly because their research shows credit scores directly correlate with how much risk you pose as a driver. This means that if you want to pay less for auto insurance coverage, you should strive to increase your credit score or move your policy to an insurer that does not use this factor in determining rates. Some easy ways to increase your credit score include using less than 20% of your credit line on your credit cards and by paying all your bills on time.
  • Ask about discounts. Some auto insurance companies have discounts that are not actively promoted. These are often missed by long-time policy holders that do not specifically ask for them. Examples of discounts include lower rates for being a good student, driving fewer miles, purchasing a car with a lower claim history, or discounts for having air bags, anti-lock brakes, and theft detection devices. There are even discounts for federal employees, military members and for being accident-free for a certain number of years.
  • Pay premiums in advance. Some auto insurance companies also offer pay-in-full discounts that let you save when you pay for six months or a full year of premiums upfront. This discount can result in 10% to 20% lower premiums right off the bat.
  • Bundle multiple policies. You may be able to score a discount for having multiple types of coverage with a single insurance company, just as you may get a multi-vehicle discount for having more than one car insured. Typical bundled policies include life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance and umbrella coverage.
  • Tweak your deductible. Your auto insurance deductible — or the amount you pay for certain claims before coverage kicks in — also plays a role in the cost you pay for auto coverage, and higher deductibles can lead to savings. With that in mind, check how your premiums change if you increase your deductible from $500 to $1,000, from $1,000 to $2,500, and so on.
  • Take a safe driving course. Finally, taking a safe driving course can help lock in lower auto insurance premiums no matter your age or driving history. The amount of savings you’ll get with this discount can vary, so ask your insurer.

Auto insurance rates may not be going down any time soon, but the steps you take now can help you pay lower rates from this point forward. By improving your credit, checking for discounts and tweaking your policy details, you can get the coverage you need for a price you can afford.

Verified by ExactMetrics