Government Backed Loans: The SBA has been extremely helpful in providing loans to small businesses that have exhausted traditional lending channels. How it works is, the SBA will guarantee a percentage of the loan, which is given by a private lender; the organization will guarantee up to 90% in some cases! Preferred SBA lenders might be willing to extend you an SBA backed loan, even if you were not able to obtain a traditional bank loan.

Business Line Of Credit: If you are a business owner and you have good personal credit, this might be an option for you. You may qualify to take out a BLOC or Business Line of Credit. This option is usually best for smaller sized loans, mainly in the $25,000 to $100,000 range.

Factoring Your Accounts Receivables:  This phrase is used to describe the selling of your accounts receivables. “Factors,” or buyers, who essentially act as lenders, will purchase outstanding invoices of your business to act as collateral against borrowed capital.

Angel Investors: You can try “selling” the success of your business to an angel investor. An angel investor is exactly as the name would imply, and investor in your business. However, they are willing to accept having little to no control in the business, they simply want to profit on their investment. If an angel investor sees value in your business, they are likely to provide funding in exchange for a profit on your return. Funding can vary anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to millions.

Community Banks and Credit Unions: These organizations are better positioned to lend to small businesses then a lot of the larger banks are. As the larger banks’ terms for small business loans continue to get stricter, we have seen credit unions begin lending to small businesses more and more.

Friends and Family: Although you do need to be careful when mixing family and your finances, borrowing money from a family member can be a fantastic option. It allows you to avoid much of the hassle endured when you go through a bank or other financial institution. However, you should still treat it as a real business transaction, just as you would any other type of loan. It is important that you come up with detailed arrangements, as well as a payment plan, and that both parties strictly abide.

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Get Your Message Across: The name of your business is the first step in creating your company’s identity and brand image. Your name should give some sort of clue as to what service you provide or what product you sell. For example, it is obvious that “Buffalo Wild Wings” specializes in Buffalo wings. But you also need to be careful as to not be misleading. Meaning, if you are solely a sit-down restaurant, you might not want to put the words “market” or “grocery” in your name, even though they are related to your service.

Be Creative, But Don’t Go Overboard: Using a play on words or misspelling words on purpose are some creative techniques, but you need to be careful. You still want people to be able to spell your company name and to recognize it. For instance, if someone heard of the website “Flickr” and wanted to check it out, they might attempt to spell it as “Flicker” and get frustrated before they find they actually find the site.

Say It! Over And Over Again: Does it sound good when you recite the name out loud? Is it easy to say? Does it grab your attention? You want your name to stand out when it is recited in a commercial or when people are talking about it.

Do Not Be Deceptive: Often entrepreneurs try to include parts of already established businesses in their name. This is deceiving. People may believe that you are somehow related to that other company, and once they find out you are not, they will distrust your brand. In severe cases you can even find yourself getting into legal trouble with this strategy. Be cautious!

Do Your Research: Make sure that you can trademark the name you have chosen. Once you have decided on a name and have built a successful brand around it, the last thing you want is for someone to be able to benefit off of your hard work, or for you to be accused of doing so to another organization. Check out USPTO.gov to see if the name you decide on can be trademarked.

Test It Out Online: See what kind of search engine recognition your company would get with the name you desire. This will also allow you to see the companies you would be competing with for search ranking status. You can also use the “find keywords” tool in Google AdWords to find statistics on the searches being performed for similar phrases, or phrases that might lead to your company website.

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Don’t Be Afraid To Be Ridiculous: In the world of viral marketing, anything goes; as a matter of fact, the weirder the better in many cases! Some of the most successful viral campaigns have included ridiculous tactics and characters, such as, some of our favorites, the Burger King Subservient Chicken and Marcel the Shell. Something bizarre and out of the ordinary, yet something captivating, is an instant success formula for viral dominance.

Use An Attention Grabbing Title: Label your content something enticing, the first step to people sharing your content is getting them to view it in the first place.

Create An Inforgraphic:  Infographics have recently become extremely popular and tend to spread rather quickly on the internet. People tend to enjoy visually gathering information, as opposed to reading lengthy paragraphs of explanations.

Capitalize on Current Trends and Hot News: People will be excited to share content about things that have been trending or heavily circulating in the media. If you can cash in on this with your own original spin, it will attract an audience who will be ready and willing to share timely, interesting content. This will also give you a better chance of ranking higher in search engines. Many search engines, such as Google, take timeliness into strong consideration.

Partner Up With a Bigger Name: Endorsements from a brand or company with a more established audience and reputation then yourself can help you gain more exposure.

Get in People’s Heads: A memorable phrase, or a catchy jingle or song, will get inside people’s heads. When people have one of the above on their minds, they tend to repeat it, or sing it. This is a good way for word of your message to catch on and spread.

Post Everywhere! Post your content on every outlet you possibly can. Social media sites, blogs, comment on other blogs and social media pages as your company name, etc.

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What seems to be a minor issue can actually have a significant impact on your wallet. According to Vertex, Inc., local sales tax rates are now averaging 9.6% nationwide. So if your purchase “$25 for $50 worth of food and drink,” you can see how being taxed this rate on $50, as opposed to $25, can be substantial. Many states have already enacted decisions regarding the taxation of daily deals. New York told its residents in September, that they should collect sales tax on the full face value of items purchase by daily deal coupons, being that the coupons actually have a specified dollar amount. If they do not, for example a deal for a 30 minute massage, the consumer must pay sales tax on the amount they paid out of pocket. California however, decided to go the opposite route. They announced, in September as well, that sales tax will only be applied to the amount the consumer paid for the coupon.

The Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board is an organization which consists of 24 states that state their mission is “to assist states as they administer a simpler and more uniform sales and use tax system,” are in the process of forming a uniform policy for the taxation of daily deals vouchers, which we may see put into use as early as the end of May 2012.

Another question posed is this; should sales tax be charged when the daily deal is purchased over the internet, or when it is redeemed. Luckily for the daily deal space, it seems to be the consensus that sales tax should be applied when the coupons are actually used at local merchants. This is similar to the way tax is applied to gift cards; the items are not taxed when they are sold, reason being that sales tax is normally applied to only tangible goods. Gift cards, as well as daily deal vouchers, are not considered tangible goods; they are considered items that are redeemable for tangible goods.

What do you guys think? How and when do you think sales tax should be paid on daily deal coupons? Give us your opinions via our Facebook, Twitter, and Google + pages! We love hearing from you!

Starting a business? One of the first steps you will take towards establishing a solid business plan and foundation will be legally incorporating your business entity. Determining which legal structure is right for you and your startup is crucial, and will play a significant and consistent role throughout the duration of your company’s lifetime, especially when it comes to how your business will be taxed. The three most popular forms for small businesses are C corporations, S corporations, and Limited Liability Companies, more commonly known as LLCs. Every entity type has their advantages as well as disadvantages. It is important that you are knowledgeable on how each type will affect your company structure, as well as your bottom line.  Give us a call today if you would like for one of our accountants to walk you through this process!

C Corporations: When a small business incorporates, it automatically becomes a C corporation, also known as a regular corporation. A C corporation is legally viewed as an individual entity, meaning an entity separate and apart from its owners, who are referred to as shareholders. Since a C corporation is legally viewed this way, the IRS views  it this way as well, making this corporation type eligible for double taxation; once as a corporation, and then again as a shareholder when dividends are distributed.

When entrepreneurs are faced with the decision of which entity type to incorporate under, many view this as a huge downfall of choosing a C corporation.  However, if you do choose a C corporation, double taxation is not an inevitable fate. If owners who are working for the business are taking reasonable salaries for themselves, the corporation can deduct these salaries, allowing for the owners to pay taxes on the money they receive. The passing of the Jobs and Growth Relief Reconciliation Act in 2003 allowed for lower tax rates on dividends and has eased the impact of double taxation.  Also, there is limited liability offered under the C corporation option. Shareholders are only personally liable to the extent of their holdings in the corporation. As opposed to business forms such as partnerships or sole-proprietorships, their personal assets are not on the line. Another upside to a C corporation is that there are more incentives to attract investors, due to the fact that they have available stock to sell and there is an opportunity for dividends. Other advantages include the ability to deduct fringe benefits, and the continuance of existence, which means that transfer of stock or death of an owner, will not affect the corporation.

However, if you still feel as though the C corporation is not the right fit for you and/or your small business, if your business qualifies, you can choose S corporation status upon incorporation.

S Corporations:  S corporations, whose name is derived from electing Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code, is popular among many business owners because it allows a corporation to avoid double taxation. Generally an S corporation does not pay federal corporate taxes; selecting subchapter S allows a business to pass all income, losses, deductions, etc., directly to shareholders, whom will then be liable for claiming tax responsibility on their personal tax returns. This allows the corporation to bypass being taxed as a separate entity.

However, not all corporations are eligible to become an S corporation. The company must have no more than 75 investors, who all must unanimously agree to the decision and sign the necessary paperwork, and all investors must be US residents or citizens. Also, certain types of companies are restricted to filing Subchapter S tax election by the IRS.

The major benefit of forming an S corporation is avoiding the double taxation impact experienced under C corporation status. However, S corporations have their downfalls as well; paying taxes on “absent” income, eligibility to be taxed on fringe benefits, and liability for state, as well as, local taxes.   Another thing for S corporations to watch out for is ensuring that the salaries paid out to those stockholders who are working for the corporation are “deemed reasonable” by industry standards. If they are not, the IRS can require stockholders to pay payroll taxes on total income received from the corporation.

Limited Liability Company (LLCs):  The Limited Liability Company is looked at as somewhat of a mix between a partnership and a corporation. The main difference between corporations and an LLC is that LLCs are usually taxed the way that partnerships are. Owners of an LLC are referred to as members; members may be individuals, corporations, or other LLCs or entities. Similar to an S corporation, an LLC provides limited liability and allows for all income, losses, deductions and credits to be passed on to the owners, allowing LLCs to avoid double taxation as well.  Members may allocate these items any which way they like, providing much more tax flexibility then corporations. The structure of an LLC is not as restrictive as that of an S corporation, making Limited Liability Companies a very popular option for startup companies. Seeing as they are similar to partnerships, they allow much more management flexibility as well.

Before deciding if an LLC is the right choice for you and your small business, be sure to remember that rules and regulations regarding LLCs differentiate in every state. Make sure your state regulations are a right fit for you as well. It is also important to keep up with the laws regarding Limited Liability Companies, being that they are a fairly new practice in the US; legal standards are still being perfected. Also keep in mind, there are some businesses that do not qualify to for LLC status, such as banks, insurance companies, and nonprofits.

Each type of business structure has their advantages and disadvantages. It is important to find which structure will be the right fit for you and your small business. Understanding the tax code and laws applicable to each can be a challenging task. Be sure to thoroughly discuss all of your options with your CPA before moving forward with incorporating your business. If you need a CPA, tax advice, or help incorporating,  give The Tax Club a call at 888-773-7176! Or you can contact us through our Facebook, Twitter , and Google+ page! Also, be sure to follow us!

Split Testing: First and foremost, you want people who visit your website to subscribe to your company emails. This will, hassle free, add more recipients to your database, leading to more potential clients as well as website traffic. Split testing allows a marketer to test different combinations in campaigns as well as a company’s website, in order to see which combination might lead to the most subscriptions. For example, you can try different colors, different placements of the opt-in button, etc. You can also split test by broadcasting messages. This allows you to try different combinations of variables such as your call to action, or the subject line of the email. Since it is a broadcasted message, this can give you a lot of useful feedback when attempting to optimize your campaigns.

Ask, And You Shall Receive: If you are beginning an email campaign, that means you must have a database of customer contact information. Take advantage of this, it is a great tool! This gives you a way to mass communicate with your customers and ask them questions. Set up an email survey, get their feedback, see what they believe will work best.

Get Permission! Do not send emails to anyone who does not wish to receive them. Make sure everyone on your contact lists have willingly opted in to your subscription. Sending emails without permission can result in numerous negative consequences. For one, your company reputation is at stake; you risk being blacklisted by ISPs, coming off as spam, and losing respect from your customers or potential customers. Also, why waste your time and money sending your emails to people who do not wish to receive them, therefore, most likely will not open them?

Stand Out From The Crowd: When most people login to their email account, they are bombarded with numerous unread messages in their inbox. When presented with this situation, most of us tend to skim the subject lines, hence why it is so vital. During this “skimming session” is where you need to shine. Experts say a subject line should be no more than 50 characters, and should aim to answer the question “what’s in it for me?” Having an original, catchy, yet concise subject line, will increase the chances of your email being opened.

Have A Blatantly Obvious Call To Action: You want the call to action to scream from the body of the email. Maybe use a graphic, or oversized, dramatic, font. You should regularly experiment with your call to action and test the results to see which works best for your goals.

Link Your Social Media Accounts: This provides more paths for the recipient of the email to end up at your company website. Not to mention, it will increase your social media followings as well.

This is NOT a Sales Pitch: If your emails come off too pushy or sound too much like a sales pitch, people will view them as annoying and spammy. Your recipients will most likely unsubscribe, stop opening them, or send them directly to their junk mail. Yes, it is true that in the end, the main goal of email marketing is to obtain more business, but that is something you should focus on later. Your emails should focus on strengthening customer relationships and showing them the value of opting in. Give them information that they will be interested in and want to read; therefore they continue to want to open your emails when they appear in their inboxes.

Custom Tailor Your Messages: In your database, you should be able to separate your contacts into different lists. The more specific you can categorize your contacts, the more custom you can make your messages. Say your company sells a few different products; most likely, each product will have a different targeted niche, with different interests, and different needs. Take this into consideration when formulating the body and content of your email.

Don’t Waste Your Time and Money: There are programs that will allow you to see the people who are not opening your emails. Get rid of them! “Spring clean” your contact lists every so often.

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Send Traffic To Your Website: By doing as little as creating an account and pinning photos from your site, if just one person clicks on that photo, it is linked to and sends that user directly to your company website or landing page.

New Design/ Product Approval: Are you launching a new tangible product? Maybe you are a magazine and have multiple cover ideas for your next issue, or maybe you own a production company and have a few options for the DVR cover of your new movie. Uploading these images to Pinterest will instantly give you feedback on the visual appeal of your products. People “repin” what they like; see how many repins your images get and that will be feedback in itself. Not to mention, Pinterest has a commenting and “like” feature, which will also add value for your company. Being that the site is not as main stream as Twitter or Facebook, not yet at least, you will be able to filter the results more easily.

Start a “Best Board” Contest: Many brands have been initiating “Best Board” contests. For example, if you are an online clothing retailer, you can propose that contestants create a “look-book board” using images from your site. Maybe the task is to create the best board of “Working Girl” looks using items you sell from your site, and the winner receives a$100 gift card. Each image pinned during the contest will create a back link to your webpage.

Is Your Brand Image What You Thought? See what categories people are pinning your products into. This will tell you how people are viewing and categorizing your brand, services, and products. You might be surprised!

Connect and Relate: Pinterest gives companies a great opportunity to connect on a more personal level. For example, let’s say it is Thanksgiving and you are a recipe site. You can challenge visitors to your site to create a “Thanksgiving Dinner Board” and give a prize to the best one. It also can give companies a chance to connect to the cities they are located in. For example, The Washington Post has a board dedicated to the city of DC.

Showoff! Pinterest is a great way for you to show people out there what you are doing! Time Magazine began posting its legendary covers on the site, and the Wall Street Journal has a board specifically for its striking signature hedcut drawings! Check them out  and check out other examples of how brands are showing off on and utilizing pinterest!

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From candy shops, to restaurants, to jewelers, Valentine’s Day provides a lucrative boost of sales during the somewhat slower winter months. Central Michigan Life Magazine interviewed Mark Ellis, owner of Four Season Floral. Ellis stated that his shop sells more than 2,000 roses the week of Valentine’s Day! Wow, that’s a lot of roses for a small town, especially when compared to their average sales volume of 200 roses per week! This trend is a common one in towns and cities all across the United States, and now, the Valentine’s Day spirit seems to be catching on internationally as well!

V-day has received wide recognition from China’s younger generation, even though it is not a traditional Chinese holiday, and Chinese small business owners are ecstatic about the benefits! Florists in China reported receiving a heavy volume of orders up to two weeks before the holiday, and chocolate shops have had to increase their supplies in order to keep up! As the Valentine’s Day trend seems to be more of a staple in the country, business owners there are learning how to capitalize. For example, many restaurants in Shanghai have begun to offer discounts to those who come in “hand in hand.” Even in countries like Iran, where Western practices are strongly rejected, Valentine’s Day perseveres. Shopkeepers reported a significant increase in demand for roses, cards, and teddy bears this season.

Although candy, flowers, and fancy jewelry tend to dominate the Valentine gift-giving market, there is still opportunity for various other industries to profit. Look at your products and markets; see how you can position yourself for the Valentine’s Day consumer. For example, the pizza industry learned how cash in with no other than….the heart shaped pizza! They have actually started quite the trend; according to Google, Google searches for “heart-shaped pizzas” have increased 230% since January! Google’s report also stated that last year Papa John’s sold more than 60,000 heart shaped pizzas and expects to sell 75,000 this year!

Is your small business feeling the love? What are you offering for Valentine’s Day? Send us feedback and pictures via our Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ pages! And last but not least, The Tax Club wishes everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day!

A new report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 83% of American employees in 2011 were satisfied with their jobs, but far less — only a little more than half — were actually focused and enthusiastic about their work. (Read the rest of this article at www.businessinsider.com)

The article also quotes “Since one of the most important things to employees was the opportunity to use their skills and abilities, the report suggests that employers can improve job satisfaction and engagement by tapping the talent within the organization instead of hiring from outside.”

So, how can you do this? As a small business owner, how can you motivate your employees? Here are what we at The Tax Club believe to be some of the best ways to motivate employees.

People Want More Than Just Money: Employees do not want to feel like they are simply slaving away at a 9-5pm just to make a paycheck. You need to create a solid company vision. You need to make your employees feel like they are a part of a team, a community, something bigger than simply their task at hand. You want to spread a sense of pride and enthusiasm when it comes to working at your company. What you do not want are zombie-like employees, going though the same mundane routine to simply secure their finances. Make sure everyone knows that they are playing a key role in the organization, and are vital to its success.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T: Whether it is your business partner or the janitor, everyone should be treated with the same amount of respect. We all know the Golden Rule “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” If you treat everyone who works for you with  the same respect you would want yourself, they will not only will they return the action, but they will be more likely to want to perform better for yourself as well as your organization.

Having an Effective Recognition and Reward System: All employees want to be appreciated and be reassured that they are doing a good job, which is why effective recognition is extremely important. Whether it is verbally, via email, or through some sort of tangible reward, whatever fits best for your organization, when someone does something great, they should be recognized and/or rewarded for it.

Encourage Employee Input and Feedback: Employees want to feel like they are involved and like their opinion matters. You should constantly be asking for feedback from them. Do they have any suggestions on how to improve business operations? What do they think can be done in order to make their role more efficient and effective? You should also be giving your employees regular performance feedback; consistently reviewing performance and giving praise when appropriate, as well as constructive criticism on what they can be doing better. When you take interest in helping your employees improve, it shows that you genuinely and reinforces a sense of job security.

Set An Example: As the owner, CEO, manager, etc., you need to be consistently engaged yourself, and be obvious about it. You need to constantly demonstrate your passion for the company, and your motivation, work ethic, and drive; these qualities are contagious and will spread like wildfire.

Loosen the Reigns: Delegate some of the control. People want to be able to have control of their work; to an extent at least. Employees should if not have the complete ability, have strong input, in setting their own goals and defining their task.

Locate the Passion: Nothing gold can stay. People lose their lust, their passion for a job they maybe once loved. If it is a good employee worth keeping, help them find it again! Identify what they are passionate about and see how that can be included in their day to day activities. Maybe there is another position at the company they would be a better fit for.

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In the past two years, we have seen an increase in manufacturing jobs returning home to the states, with companies, especially the aerospace, chemical, and furniture industries, all expanding their factory operations in the US.  President Obama declared that we have begun to see a new trend, which he uses the term “in-sourcing,” referring to bringing jobs that were once outsourced, back to the United States.  Obama is said to offer new proposals in the upcoming weeks, which will provide tax incentives and rewards to those companies that either bring back jobs or invest in new opportunities in the US. Also, $12 million of the proposed 2013 budget, which has not yet been released, will be dedicated to enhance a federal program aimed at bringing new business to the US.

Countries that once had a significant advantage over us, in regards to manufacturing, have recently experienced increases in labor costs which are slowly minimizing that once strong competitive edge. As for companies that, despite this statistic, continue to move jobs overseas, they will no longer receive the same tax breaks which were applicable to them. Obama has tried to do away with these breaks before, but it was not able to pass through Congress. This idea, allowing for companies to bring large profits back from abroad without taxing them on all or any of it, is referred to as tax repatriation, and has been a topic of debate for years. It is strongly favored by Republicans and many Democrats as well.

Will this work? Or a better question, would new tax proposals of this caliber even pass? The effect our tax code has on job growth and creation has been an argument between Democrats and Republicans for ages. Democrats believe it is our tax policy which drives companies to move factories overseas, while Republicans tend to believe that this globalization has actually helped job creation and growth in the US. Although details regarding the specifics of these tax proposals and incentives have not been released, experts say that a small change in tax policy would most likely only be a minimal factor when deciding on the location of manufacturing facilities. “There’s been a little bit of momentum on ‘in-sourcing’ because a lot of firms overdid it,” said Jared Bernstein, the former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “So it could help a bit at the margin.”

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