by Leif Jensen | Apr 9, 2019 | General |
Since my background is not in marketing and marketing is important to any small business owner, I try to read as much as possible on the topic. I have no problem learning for others, both good and bad. One outlet has always been Terry O’Reilly’s CBC broadcasts. The...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 8, 2019 | General |
I was reading an article on the internet that was encouraging its readers to supplement their income by generating a passive income stream. They were trying to make it easy for the reader. They even listed examples to assist. Create an online course. Invest in...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 3, 2019 | General |
I have been observing the progress for two radically different Not-For-Profits. For the first one, I am on the BOD and they have been a bootstrap start-up with little to no start-up money. The second has had a fortune poured into it, starting with a building. The...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 2, 2019 | General |
Inc. has a posting, listing of “These Are the 50 Best Places in America for Starting a Business”. In that list Chicago is number 36, after other Midwestern cities Minneapolis, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Milwaukee. Most of these are behind the obvious cities on both...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 1, 2019 | General |
Jumpstarting a start-up, if you are going to start a business, you need to commit. Over the years I have had clients, or would be clients who are interested in starting a business. The have the idea and the belief. But seem to talk themselves out of it. Believing that...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 27, 2019 | General |
With the progression of the 2019 tax season, I continue to run into the frustration of home owners who have been paying thousands of dollars in property taxes and Illinois Income Taxes, but now can only write off a mere $10,000. When taxpayers are paying $9,000 to...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 26, 2019 | General |
This tax season has been interesting from a planning aspect. I have had multiple clients expressing the desire to “get out of Dodge”. They are seriously looking into fleeing Illinois. I have to admit that I don’t blame them, but I am stuck here because my...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 25, 2019 | General |
Did you know that you are required to keep your payroll tax returns for 7 years? We have a record retention policy on our website for your convenience: https://x19ee8.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Record-Retention-Policy-Tabled.pdf We had a client who...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 20, 2019 | General |
I was at a seminar for the Elk Grove Business Leaders Forum awhile back, under the old management and they had these three business owners presenting. It was a great presentation. But one owner’s story keeps popping into my mind, how would I handle their...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 19, 2019 | General |
In the E-tail arena, two options come to my mind. The first is Amazon and the second is EBay. Yes, there are other options for very small vendors like Etsy or a sole site. There may be 10,000 more sites but none come easily. Because of its...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 18, 2019 | General |
As a reader, I have utilized Amazon as a primary source for books over the years. But now that Amazon has decimated the publishing and retail market for books, the deals have dissipated. So I have had to start looking at other options, Walmart, Target, Barnes...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 13, 2019 | General |
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today included tax return preparer fraud on its “Dirty Dozen” list of common tax scams for 2019 and offered tips to help taxpayers avoid unscrupulous tax preparers. With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the most sweeping...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 12, 2019 | General |
When was the last time you reviewed any of your insurance policies? That is except for the cost? When I was handling compliance and financial planning for a group of financial advisors I decided to learn from other people’s mistakes. Have proper insurance...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 11, 2019 | General |
Do you have any employees? Can I see you HR Manual? The first question is one that I often ask prospective clients. The second question is asked if the answer to the first question was an affirmative. Then I am usually told that they do not have one in place. If they...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 6, 2019 | General |
One of the most important roles for a company’s Board of Directors is to set policy under which management takes action to manage the affairs of an organization. Yes, even for small start-up businesses. Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices and...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 5, 2019 | General |
I am a believer in Boards whether it is a Board of Advisors or Directors. Business owners, especially those running small businesses should not be making all of their own decisions. They should be getting input and advice from knowledgeable and trusted advisors,...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 4, 2019 | General |
There has been much written about financial dashboards for several years, and when I discuss them with clients they nod their heads stating that QuickBooks has one all set-up for them. So why should they care? QuickBooks does not have a dashboard per se it has a...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 27, 2019 | General |
What are you annual or long term goals? This is assuming that you have made them. Do you want to: Ramp up productivity in your business? Reduce ongoing business expenses?Hire your first employee?Create a new customer service process?Increase traffic on your...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 26, 2019 | General |
Annual reports, those are the annoying forms that you have to fill out by hand and send in to the IL Secretary of State with a check a month or so before your corporate anniversary. Most people don’t give them much though and jot down either a copy of the prior...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 25, 2019 | General |
What are your businesses Key Performance Indicators (KPI)? What do you use to measure your business? Financial KPI is a measurable value that indicates how well a company is doing regarding generating revenue and profits. Monitoring KPIs comparisons shows...
