27 January 2013

There are two ways to look at the new tax law changes.



A time to forfeit from fright or forge ahead with fight.  


 The American Tax Payer Relief Act (ATPRA) was passed and there remain many unanswered questions. One answer we all know for sure is most everyone’s taxes will increase.  Small business are not exempted from the revenue taxing arm of Congress. We will scramble to get into tax compliance, with what seems to be a retroactive tax increase. Good, bad, right or wrong there is enough blame to pass around.
 This is not a discussion on the specific tax hikes or employees taxes vs. the business taxes. This is not a discussion of which side is correct. Those topics plus many others have been discussed at nauseum and they're circumstances we cannot control. It would be in our best interest (and the interest of our businesses) to discuss the one thing we do have control of and that is how we react to the American Tax Payer Relief Act (ATPRA)

Neither Congress nor the IRS cares how we feel about the subject (if any of us  disagree with their decision). The decision was made based on what seemed to be in the best interest of “we the people”.  
How we choose to respond to ATPRA can have a major impact on everything we do from now on in our businesses. 
We are fortunate enough to have choices (no matter how limited they may seem). Below are some possible reactions:

  • Not start a business because it appears to be a waste of time.
  • Shutdown existing business for fear of audits and complain about how the IRS put us out of business.
  • Run our business according to the IRS regulations and complain, not focusing on growing our business.
  • Run our business according to the IRS regulations and realize the opportunity and excel in business.


Not start a business.......
It is understandable to see how business ownership would be looked at as a waste of time with all the rules, regulations and apparent obstacles to keep us from reaching the prize if you will. I have heard my mentor say this many times. “you are going to work anyway, it might as well be towards your dream” and I agree.

Shutdown existing business for fear of audits........ 
fear is a natural reaction to the unknown or being removed from ones comfort zone. Fear can be instrumental in saving one’s life and fear may also be detrimental to ones future. The acronym I associate with fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. 

Run our business according to the IRS regulations and complain….
In many respects this one is worse than quitting. It’s like going through the motions but not really working toward a goal. The focus is in the wrong place. The focus should be on the growth of the business and not the road blocks. A divided focus creates fragmented results at best.

Run our business according to the IRS regulations (realize the opportunity and excel in business).
Yes there is an opportunity for massive success. It is all in the way we look at it.

  • Stumbling block or Stepping stone
  • Crisis or Challenge
  • Roadblock or Raised pedestal
  • Obstacle or Opportunity


The ATPRA could play a role in reducing our competition to half the numbers. There are many business owners choosing alternative points of view other than seeing and seizing the opportunity, creating room to expand our businesses. These are the times where business owners over come the perceived obstacles and persevere, offering more proof that even during difficult times entrepreneurs rise to the occasion and defy odds. We can look at this as a time to make and be a part of history, or we can look at is a time to be victimized by events in history, either way we have a choice. 
The goal is not to create a false reality but to offer a alternative perspective. There are not many things that we may know for certain concerning the ATPRA until the damage is done, however we can be certain that our reaction of choice will determine if we forfeit from fright or forge ahead with fight. Can you think of any additional advantages for us as business owners with the passing of the (ATPRA)? 

18 January 2013

Are life’s challenges hindering your business success?


How working quietly through adversity can make you an overnight success.


 
I am sure we have heard the term overnight success?  Before I reached understanding I thought an overnight success was someone that reached star status just by rolling out of bed without any effort. I reached the conclusion because I never heard any of the successful people discussing hardships, disappointments or challenges. Since I never heard them discussing their problems, I did not think they had any. It just seemed everything came easy for them.

Upon reading numerous success principle books (Slide 68 is a great book) I realized over 60 % of the content was over coming hardship failure and disappointment. Successful people realize focusing on negative situations magnifies and attracts more negative situations.

Whatever we focus on we accelerate and attract to us. Reminds me of a quote:
“ …fear and courage are fighting for control, the one we feed will win”
Whichever emotion we constantly tie into will manifest with abundance.
The more we feed the negative outcome or circumstance with our attention the more we will bring those negative situations to our doorstep.
We should not allow challenges affect the way we operate while running our business. Emotions are energy and that negative energy should not be near our clients, vendors or partners. People can sense when we allow a negative situation to dominate our thoughts.
 So how do we handle negative situations and events?

Relax and ask the question “what am I to learn from this”
Have a lessons learned session. Go over what could have led to the circumstance or situation. Develop procedures and processes that will lead to action to minimize the chance of re-occurrence.
 
Write a list containing 20 ways to resolve the problem. 
 Coming up with solutions will become more difficult towards the end but, don’t quit. It may feel like those things are not possible to accomplish, but keep writing. The exercise is a great tool to sharpen problem solving skills.
 With your lists in hand seek council.
Your mentor adviser or some you trust that has your best interest at heart. You are not in this alone someone has been through this before. Success leaves clues; if you don’t have a mentor or an adviser, look for one.
 
Don’t share the problem or resolution with anyone other than your council. 
Not everyone we know have our best interest at heart. Sometimes well intended advice from people that have not had success getting through what you are going through could lead us in the wrong direction.
Not everyone on our side is cheering for us.
 
Do not make the issues portable.
Leave the issue challenge or difficulty in room or office discussed with mentor or confidant. Remember our clients and customers do not need to be exposed to that type of negative energy, they deserve our best service and attention. We do want them to come back don’t we?

We attract and magnify what we focus on. If we focus on the problem and not our clients and customers, we will lose them and appear to be complaining grumpy business owners. We would serve our clients and customer’s best, conducting ourselves like the duck. On the surface appear to glide across the water while all the work and struggle happens under the water. Should we conduct ourselves in this manner we will likely find ourselves explaining how we were not an overnight success.

11 January 2013

Are we choosing to over spend for services?

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How services we pay for are robbing us of our money and our time.


  I read a quote from Mr. Robert Kiyosaki , author of Rich Dad Poor Dad,  “there are two types of people, the people you owe and the people that owe you.”To me the quote meant the following:


  • We are both customers and service providers.
  • We are both clients and consultants.
  • We pay to have our needs met and we get paid to meet needs.
  • We are both consumers and suppliers
  • We are both buyers and sellers


We value our time and many of us make great attempts to control our spending.
While there is no single recipe for business success, I think we can agree that changing the way we think and conduct business can positively impact our outcome in business. What do I mean?
The statement “there are two types of people, people you owe and the people that owe you” is a different way to look at how we conduct business. From my perspective a simple business objective is to have more money coming in (people that owe us) than money going out (people we owe). How can that be done?
We have a level of control over the services we pay for and the services we are paid to render.  Time management plays an important role in our level of control.
We pay for services to free up our time and we perform services ourselves to save money. 
If there were a way to not overpay for services and give us more time to earn income, I am sure we would jump on it, wouldn’t we?
Surprisingly the answer is no. Why, because we are more focused on saving money than saving time to earn more money. Generally, services we over spend on are the services that we perform ourselves to save money.
I observed this fact as I was rushing to press my clothes in order to finish working on a blog.  I thought to myself if only I had more time, then I would not have to rush. At that moment it dawned on me. Just take the clothes to the cleaners. 
After I pressed my outfit I was very curious to see how much I was currently overpaying to press my clothes. I discovered a cleaners would charge me $60.00 to press a week’s worth of clothing (pressed not dry cleaned, $240.00 per month for both Shirts and suits).  It took me an hour per night to press my outfit.
The cleaner’s hourly wage for my shirts would be $12.00.
Let’s say my hourly wage is $60.00 including built in profit. ( (Hourly Salary + Direct Expenses/Hour + Indirect Expenses/Hour) / Profit % = Hourly Rate

Performing the same service at my hourly rate would cost me $300.00 per week……. $1200.00 for the month.
After looking at the numbers I discovered that I would gain 5 hours per week (20 hours per month) and have the potential to eventually increase my income by $960.00 Per month. ($1200 – $260).

Obviously this does not work for everyone in every situation; however I am certain there are services we are performing ourselves that are stealing our time which we can afford to allow someone else to handle at a lesser hourly rate. The difference in income to savings may not be as large, but over time it can make a huge difference and with due diligence in determining the hourly rate I believe we can find areas to save time, make money and not over pay for services. I am eager to know of discoveries made by others. I am hoping further light may be shed on other task we can afford to allow someone else to service at a lower rate.