The Top 10 Risks for Family Business

And what should CPAs be doing about them?
Sound Off: Take the poll. See the answers.

by Rick Telberg/At Large

Accountants are all too familiar with the succession issues faced by accounting firms. But accounting firms aren’t the only ones with succession issues.

In fact, closely-held and family-owned businesses across the nation are facing a succession crisis of their own. CPAs are well aware of the problems their business clients face and are devising strategies to help. Read more

Posted on June 9, 2008
Filed Under BSG BUSINESS BUILDER, BSG ENTREPRENEUR, BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

How to Get More Done by Doing Less

Manage your distractions, interruptions. How often do CPAs check email? Join the survey. Get the answers.

by Rick Telberg

Several times every day, CPAs across the nation ask themselves the same questions: “Should I finish what I’m doing? Or should I take a quick peek at my email inbox?”

According to the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, email may be the worst thing for productivity since… Hmmm, just a minute. I’m trying to remember…

Oh yeah! The researchers found that checking your email can be more damaging to office productivity than getting stoned. The experiment actually had subjects take an IQ test while undistracted; while distracted by emails, phone calls and other digital temptations; or while under the influence of the evil weed. While the undistracted came away with the highest IQ scores, the online digitized multitaskers performed less intelligently than their ad hoc stoner cohorts.
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Posted on August 5, 2007
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If You Think You Work Hard…

…don’t tell your clients. They may work as much or more. How hard do most CPAs work? Join the study. Get the answers.

by Rick Telberg

If you think balancing work and life is hard on CPAs, think again.

While accountants and finance managers may log long hours during busy season, many small-business owners are logging those hours all year.

To be sure, overworking isn’t good for anyone. But it may be more the rule for Americans rather than the exception.

Indeed, about half of the nation’s small business managers find themselves doing work-related tasks at times they’ve reserved for their families. The same number say they make business calls and check e-mail while driving.

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Posted on July 22, 2007
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Ride the Small Biz Surge

We are in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge this country has ever seen, Fortune Small Business reports.

According to Small Business Administration projections, nearly 672,000 new companies with employees were created in 2005 — the biggest business birthrate in U.S. history, 30,000 more startups than in 2004, and 12 percent more than at the height of dot-com hysteria in 1996. “And the trend shows no sign of abating,” Fortune says. Sixty-six percent of respondents in a 2006 Yahoo Small Business and Harris Interactive survey said they wanted to start a company someday; 37 percent of those said they hoped to do so within the next five years.
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Posted on February 15, 2007
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SBA Study: Home-Based Biz Excels in Return-on-Revenue

Does it seem sometimes that everyone’s an entrepreneur in the U.S.? Maybe here’s why…

“The findings of the study suggest that individuals choosing to enjoy a preferred lifestyle, can operate an unincorporated home-based business knowing that their return on revenues will be greater than if they rent business space. As a home-based business owner, with few or no employees, they can work the hours and seasons necessary to reach the needed level of revenues and net income. Those wanting to maximize income can hire employees, work more hours, and operate outside the home. Home-based sole proprietors who take the home business deduction contribute a total of $102 billion in revenue to the economy. The 10 million “all other” firms, which appear to be largely home-based, contribute an additional $431 billion. Self-employment trends may rise due to demographic, technology and life-style factors.”

Get the full study:
“The Impact of Location on Net Income: A Comparison of Homebased and Non-Homebased Sole Proprietors.”
(Registration requested.)
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Posted on August 9, 2006
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Tax Tips from the Rolling Stones

Mick, Keith and Charlie

How do you pay just 1.6% on your earnings?

If you’re the Rolling Stones, you run the money through offshore trusts in Holland and the Caribbean.

Over the past 20 years, London’s Daily Mail reports, have paid 3.9 million pounds Sterling on 242 million pounds in earnings. [1 British Pound = US $1.90]

Here’s how: Their funds have been invested in Holland, where there’s no tax on royalties.

The news only came out after Keith Richards’ fall from a Fiji coconut tree got the group thinking about estate planning. So they set up a couple foundations in Holland, which requires some limited disclosures.

U2 has now hired the same Dutch financial adviser.

Well, I guess Mick’s time spent at the London School of Economic didn’t go to waste!

Hat tip to Phyllis Bernstein at www.pbconsults.com for the item. Read more

Posted on August 9, 2006
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What 3 Percent of CPAs Know That You Don’t

Would your clients recommend you to a friend? Finance managers and accountants compare notes in new study.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

It has been widely established that new clients are most often found not through direct mail or Web sites, but through the recommendations of friends, or at least friendly clients. With that in mind, we’ve been exploring the territory shared by CPAs and their clients.

We weren’t too surprised to find that 43 percent expected “nearly every client, or over 80 percent” to recommend them. Another 38 percent said “most” (60% to 80%) would do the same, and 15 percent figured that at least half their clients loved them.

That’s not bad. In fact, it sounds pretty good.
Read more

Posted on May 14, 2006
Filed Under BSG ENTREPRENEUR | 1 Comment

Do You Have What It Takes?

Global report shows entrepreneurial ambition. Vision knows no boundaries.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has just issued its seventh annual survey of entrepreneurship in 35 countries. The report looks at some of the characteristics of entrepreneurs and what seems to be contributing to their success. Blended together and averaged out, the characteristics give us a composite portrait of a certain type of person who’s found all over the world.

One purpose of the report was to compare entrepreneurialism in high-income countries (with Norway at the top of the GDP per capita list and Greece at the bottom) and middle-income countries (with Slovenia at the top and China at the bottom). Enterprises in low-income countries did not participate in the study.

The report found that middle-income countries tend to start more businesses than high-income countries. Entrepreneurs are six times more likely to pop up in Venezuela than they are in Belgium, and in Thailand, bootstrap business people outpace their peers in Japan by a factor of 10. Read more

Posted on May 7, 2006
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CPAs: The Start-Up’s Best Friend

Calling all finance pros: You have a duty to foster economic democracy.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

The seventh annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report has pulled together research from 35 countries and come up with data that could prove a useful to entrepreneurs from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo.

One finding could go without saying: the entrepreneur in North America is more likely to succeed than the budding business person in a nation with a struggling economy. The reasons are several, and the solutions apply to entrepreneurs everywhere. CPAs who advise entrepreneurs would be wise to look at the factors that support or suppress new businesses.

Financial support was seen as a very significant factor in success the report said. In high-income and middle-income countries, entrepreneurs with ample income were more likely to start their own business. It’s safe to say that someone setting out in a new venture would be wise to hang on to independent income until the business is firmly on its feet. Read more

Posted on April 8, 2006
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Paper vs efile chart v2

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Posted on April 8, 2006
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GAO on US Savings Deficit

GAOonUSSavingsDeficit.pdf Read more

Posted on April 8, 2006
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High Starting Salaries Show Competition Heating Up for New College Graduates

ACCOUNTING MAJORS HAVE SIXTH HIGHEST AVERAGE STARTING SALARY OFFERS Engineering majors, garnering the four highest spots and five of the Top 10, can expect to see the highest offers, on average, according to a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
Accounting came in just outside the top five in sixth place. The following majors have the highest salaries paid to 2005-06 graduates - with average salary offers:

1. Chemical engineering - $55,900
2. Computer engineering - $54,877
3. Electrical/electronics and communications engineering - $52,899
4. Mechanical engineering - $50,672
5. Computer science - $50,046
6. Accounting - $45,723
7. Economics/finance, including banking - $45,191
8. Civil engineering - $44,999
9. Business administration/management - $39,850
10. Marketing/marketing management (and marketing research) -$36,260

BETHLEHEM, PA?Increased competition for new college graduates is translating into higher starting salaries, according to a new salary report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

The Spring 2006 Salary Survey report shows that many disciplines at the bachelor’s degree level are getting salary offers that outstrip those offered just a year ago.

The increases, says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director, are not unexpected and “track with what employers told us earlier this year-that they expected more competition for this year’s college graduates. That increased competition often results in higher starting salaries.”

In the business disciplines, accounting degree graduates saw their average starting salary offer increase 5.4 percent over last spring to $46,188. Business administration/management majors also fared well, posting a 3.9 percent increase for an average starting salary of $40,976. The news is also good for economics/finance graduates; their average offer rose 5.3 percent to bring their average starting salary offer to $45,058.

However, not all disciplines saw salary increases. Marketing graduates saw their average offer dip 1 percent to $37,446. Similarly, the average offer to computer science graduates fell 0.8 percent to $50,892. The decrease is small, but is the second this year for computer science graduates; in the Winter 2006 Salary Survey report, their average offer fell 2 percent.

Nearly all engineering disciplines posted solid increases. The average salary offer to chemical engineering graduates rose 4.2 percent to $56,549, and the average salary offer to civil engineering graduates rose 4.8 percent to $45,544. Computer engineering graduates saw their average starting salary offer rise a healthy 5.3 percent to $54,200. The average offer to electrical engineers rose 3.9 percent to $54,053. Interestingly, although employers responding to a NACE survey earlier in the year cited mechanical engineers as among the disciplines they expected to target, mechanical engineering graduates haven’t seen that interest bubble up into their salary offers; their average offer rose just 1.4 percent to $51,761.

Data on the various liberal arts disciplines are limited at this time of year, but looking at liberal arts as a group shows that these graduates are also doing better this year than they did last year. As a group, the average starting salary to liberal arts graduates stands at $30,958, up 2 percent from last year at this time.

“Overall, we believe that this year’s graduates will fare well in the job market,” says Mackes. “At the same time, the good job market shouldn’t be an excuse for students to sit back and wait for employers to come to them. Students need to be proactive in the job search; they can start by going to their campus career center for guidance and resources.”

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Posted on April 7, 2006
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Why Are You Here?

Gallup has a clue: Email, news, weather, and, importantly, business…

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Posted on February 5, 2006
Filed Under BSG ENTREPRENEUR | 1 Comment

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