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What Business Expenses Are Tax Deductible

May 24, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

When you are running a business, amongst a myriad of other business goals, you are seeking at the end of the day to make the most profit possible. Finding ways to increase your profits can be a challenge, but the two basic strategies are to either make more revenue, or to cut expenses. When cutting expenses, the best way to do so is by taking advantage of all the tax breaks and advantages that business owners get, particularly deductions of business expenses. Here are three tax deductible business expenses that your business should be deducting every tax season.

Office Supplies

The first business expense that is tax deductible is your office supplies. As long as you have a physical office space that you or other employees use, and you supply office supply equipment to yourself and your employees, then those costs can be deducted from your taxes. As a necessary business expense that must be spent to run your business, these office supplies are completely tax deductible. This includes things like heavier machinery like printers or computers and should be used to make sure that the money you spend on operating your business is not taxed.

Travel Expenses

If you travel a lot for business or you pay for your employees travel expenses related to business, then you should be deducting these costs as well from your income. This includes things like flights, ride shares, and hotel expenses, as well as food expenses while traveling, but more than just deducting these travel expenses, there may be other ways for your business to save. A corporate apartment can be cheaper than a hotel for your business. If you travel a lot to a specific destination, then having an apartment there for you and employees to use when traveling can save hundreds of dollars every month, and it is still tax deductible.

Business Rent

The final business expense that is tax deductible is the rent that you use for office space or other property that your business owns and utilizes for business purposes. This is especially huge if you are spending a lot in rent every month for a larger office space, or you work in real estate investment. Make sure that you are discussing with your accountant what specifically is and isn’t deductible when it comes to your rent, as the rules can vary.

Business expenses are no fun, but at least they are tax deductible. While not every expense can be deducted, knowing which ones can be is crucial to keeping your business profitable. Make sure that you are taking advantage of these three deductions at your business.

Check out this article on how to revamp your company benefits!

Filed Under: Business

What Every Business These Days Needs to Stay Organized

May 24, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Staying organized as a business owner today is a lot different than it was twenty years ago. The good news is, it’s a lot less work staying organized than it used to be. However, it can still be tricky to know where to start. Here are just a few things your business can do to stay organized!

Go Paperless

The paperwork involved in running a business is expansive. You need to keep track of employee files, financial statements, tax paperwork, and more. This can cause a lot of clutter and take up a big amount of your office space. Going paperless can save you a lot of space and time, and helps vastly with your organization. Instead of searching through file cabinets, one simple search on your computer can find just the document you’re looking for. You can scan your old files into your organization software for easy access. The good news is, there are thousands of apps you can download on your smartphone that do the scanning for free.

Cloud Software

Once your paperwork is all digitized, storing it in cloud software makes it accessible from any computer. Cloud software stores your data and documents in one easily-accessible place, usually online. This means that no computer crashes or memory loss can delete your important documents. Cloud software is also fairly inexpensive and easy to use. Public clouds like Microsoft Azure are the common choice for businesses. This type of software allows for easy collaboration between anyone within your company. You can give your employees access to specific documents that are relevant to their projects. Cloud software helps you have to do less work, and lets your employees work more quickly and more productively.

Delegate

If you own a business that you are passionate about, it can be difficult to give up control. However, an essential part of staying organized is minimizing the things you need to think about. If you are spread thin, your organization is more likely to suffer. Delegate some of the tasks that are less of a happy project for you. Hire an accountant to be in charge of the finances. Hire a manager to do the scheduling and to handle day-to-day tasks. This allows you to be more focused on your specific tasks, and keeps your business well-organized.

Organization is one of the key components of a well-run business. To stay ahead of things, it’s important to stay organized. The good news is, it’s never too late to start. Take these actions to make your business more organized, and watch it run all the more smoothly.

Read this next: How to Revamp Your Company Benefits

Filed Under: Business

How to Start Your Own Beauty Salon

May 23, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Running and opening your own business is a great way to own your own labor and profit from your skills and organization. Owning a business is one of the best ways to increase your income and your personal and family wealth. Starting a beauty salon is a relatively easy business model to start, and if you have interest in beauty and salon care, then opening your own beauty salon may be the perfect move for you. But starting any business can be confusing for first timers. Here are a few crucial steps that you need to follow to start your own beauty salon.

Find a Space to Lease

The first thing that you are going to need to start your own beauty salon is to find a space to lease. You are going to need a physical location from which to run your salon. The best salon locations are going to be areas that get a lot of foot traffic, and are near other restaurants, shopping, and activities. People tend to go to the salon as an activity before shopping, eating, or going out, so positioning yourself near shopping and dining locations is ideal.

Learn How to do Treatments

Another crucial step that you will need to take to start your own beauty along is to learn how to do treatments. You need to get results right if you want to compete with other salons. While things like location and ambiance play a role in your success, it is the quality of your beauty treatments that will be the major draw. You can get licensing and training from many beauties tech schools and programs, or through certifications and training elsewhere. Make sure you invest heavily in the skills of yourself and the other salon beauticians to offer the best quality services to your clients.

Market Yourself

The final step to starting your own beauty salon is to market your salon to the world. Nobody can come to your salon if they don’t know that you exist! Starting out with a beauty salon can be difficult, as most people have a salon that they frequent. This means that in order to grow your clientele, you will have to attract them from other salons. Start marketing your new salon early and offer deals to get new clients in the door.

Running a business is a difficult endeavor. But with the right tools under your belt, you can start a successful salon business. Just follow these three steps and you are on the way to owning your own successful beauty salon.

Check out this article on productivity tools every small business needs!

Filed Under: Business

Skills That an Operations Manager Should Have

May 6, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Running a business smoothly and successfully is far from easy, you dedicate time and thought to your business from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, and occasionally your sleeping hours too. After a certain point, it may seem like you could benefit from hiring an operations manager to take some of the day-to-day responsibilities of running your business off of your shoulders. But you can’t hire just anyone to be an operations manager. If you are looking for an operations manager, here are the three skills they absolutely must have.

Good Organization

The first essential skill that any operations manager that you hire should have been stellar organizational skills. There are countless things to stay on top of to keep organized when running your business. While everyone has their own organizational style, you have to make sure that your hiring manager candidates have a good organizational system and can keep your business under control. Organization is the first step to effective management, and poor organization at your business can quickly turn into lost profits and revenue or potentially worse issues like legal trouble. Organizational skills are a must of operations manager hires.

Interview Skills

Another crucial skill that any operations manager that you hire at your business needs to have is top notch interview skills. Your operations manager will take over the task of interviewing and hiring other employees at your business. You want to make sure that they have the skills required to make good hiring decisions. Asking the right questions is a skill and there are certain questions you can’t legally ask. You should ask about their previous experiences interviewing and hiring candidates, their process, or even doing a mock interview so that you are able to discern their interview skills.

Delegation Skills

The final skill that any operations manager you hire should have been great delegation skills. Delegating work to other coworkers can be difficult for many people, particularly entrepreneurs and upper management who may worry others won’t do the work to as high a standard as needed. Make sure that you are hiring an operations manager who understands the importance of delegation and how to delegate without compromising results and end product.

Running a business can be overwhelming for any business owner, which is why hiring an operations manager is almost always a great idea. But before hiring any operations manager, they need to have the proper skills. If your operations manager candidate is organized, has good interview skills, and knows how to delegate, you have found the ideal hire.

Check out this article on productivity tools that every small business needs!

Filed Under: Business

How to Avoid Trouble With Taxes at Your Business

April 28, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Tax season is tough on everyone, but especially for business owners. A lot of financial data has to be compiled and dealt with in order to pay taxes. In order to avoid any mistakes or extra stress, make sure your business is prepared with what it needs.

Meet Your Deadlines

If you run a business, meeting tax deadlines is essential. Missing these deadlines can lead to expensive fees, penalties, and other legal action. Mark these deadlines far ahead of time so you can consistently look ahead. It’s not just income tax that you need to keep track of, however. If your business has employees you also need to keep track of the tax you withhold from their paychecks. The IRS provides businesses with a free tax calendar so business owners can keep track of important dates. There are also professional services you can hire to help you keep track of your taxes as a business owner.

Keep Things Simple

As far as tax purposes go, it makes it easier if you keep your business structure simple. Different types of business structures pay taxes in different ways. It’s important, when starting a business, to take these differences into consideration. An LLC is among the most simple of business structures. If you register your business as an LLC, you can elect to pay taxes as a corporation, a partnership, or as a disregarded entity on your own personal taxes. This business structure is a good idea if you’re starting a business or if you’re a sole proprietor. Do some more research on different business structures to decide which one works best for you.

Keep Track of Finances

If you’re a business owner, especially of a small business, it’s absolutely essential for you to keep track of your finances. As a general rule, this is a good idea because it can help you keep track of what is and isn’t working within your business. For tax purposes, it’s necessary to save you a lot of headache when it’s time to file. A year’s worth of expenses and earnings is a lot of data to compile all at once. If you wait until tax season, you run the risk of making a mistake on your taxes, which could be incredibly damaging to your finances. Instead, make it a priority to keep record of all your business’ finances throughout the year.

Filing taxes as a business owner is stressful. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and mistakes can be detrimental to your business. Taking the time to set your finances up successfully can save you from making these mistakes, and make tax season a lot less stressful.

Check out this article on how to save on taxes for your small business!

Filed Under: Business