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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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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.
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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