by Leif Jensen | Jun 11, 2019 | General |
Thinking outside of the box is not easy. You have to train yourself to do this, and you have to keep exercising these memory muscles to stay sharp. I know because I used to be an idiot unable to think beyond the box. I remember years ago sitting with one of my wife’s...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 10, 2019 | General |
There are times where the imitator becomes the dominant entity in the marketplace. It has happened innumerable times throughout history. I was surprised when I found out about Hydrox and Oreo’s. When I was a kid, I remember a time when my mother was home all day,...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 5, 2019 | General |
In 2009 the Internal Revenue Service created an elite unit of auditors, to go after the Top 0.5% of taxpayers. It was believed that these people under pay the government $50 Billion a year, and the government wants the cash. In what was proclaimed to be “a...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 4, 2019 | General |
It is getting to the point where my wife or I will need to get a new vehicle. I hate this process and the lead-up to the process. When my eldest was small, I remember the dealer taking my car keys for the trade-in inspection and not wanting to return them., believing...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 3, 2019 | General |
My wife and I have been watching Jeopardy for a while now. We have been watching Holzhauer change the way the game is played. Most players typically play the game like I gamble. They play to not lose, not to win. Holzhauer, plays to win and his strategy is...
by Leif Jensen | May 30, 2019 | General |
My kids introduced me to a farcical reality show “Bar Rescue”. We all know that it’s staged. It is too formulaic to be real. But I as always am interested in the financial aspect of business even if it is just illusions. The amusing or sad part of the show is that...
by Leif Jensen | May 29, 2019 | General |
We now have two Presidential candidates talking about forgiving student loans and making college free to all. Am I the only one really annoyed by these ideas? I have paid and am paying tens of thousands of dollars for college for my kids. But once my kids are...
by Leif Jensen | May 28, 2019 | General |
We have all heard the expression “time is money”. Do any of us doubt this expression or disagree with it? All of our jobs are based on what we can do for someone else within a specific time frame for compensation. It does not matter if you are hourly, salaried or an...
by Leif Jensen | May 22, 2019 | General |
I have a client who has a very specialized service and has been successful from the very beginning. He has setup successful partnerships with the likes of Costco, Uber and restrauant.com. In an effort to bring their business to the next level, he made a deal with a...
by Leif Jensen | May 21, 2019 | General |
I have a client whose business has epic cycles of being slow or being swamped. From Thanksgiving to March they are slow, slow slow. But come late March or early April they are running overtime like nobody’s business. We have discussed the need for balance for...
by Leif Jensen | May 20, 2019 | General |
Are you one of those people who carry a credit card balance? I use my line of credit for any long term debt in my business. I never believed in paying credit card rates, so I never carried a balance. I am just too cheap… But I do know individuals and businesses...
by Leif Jensen | May 15, 2019 | General |
In a discussion with a new client, we talked about the necessary skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur. To me the most important requirement for entrepreneurship is to be a self-starter. My client countered that motivation was a greater driver. I argued that...
by Leif Jensen | May 14, 2019 | General |
I was working with a client to migrate their all of their contacts into Constant Contact. I was surprised on how many of the contacts listed that were using generic e-mails (i.e. G-mail, Hotmail, yahoo, etc.). I was cautioned early on when I started my business to...
by Leif Jensen | May 13, 2019 | General |
Somebody was asking me what my worst experience with an IRS audit was. I knew just the story to tell them. My client was a realtor who had an audit where they needed to go downtown to the IRS offices. We had a Monday morning appointment at 8:30. I went to the clients...
by Leif Jensen | May 8, 2019 | General |
As with any relationship there are ups and downs and my relationship with my bank is one of them. I seldom carry my debit card, they are usually shredded upon arrival and I order a new one when I plan on traveling outside the US. But when I carry them I contact the...
by Leif Jensen | May 7, 2019 | General |
One of my clients added an extension to its existing business; they needed to have the ability to open micro e-commerce websites for specific periods of time. This was based on requests of its customers. So they had a decision to make. They could have hired a web...
by Leif Jensen | May 6, 2019 | General |
I was in a networking group with an HVAC guy. Now this guy literally ran his business out of his truck and he was a one man shop. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that the business had a transitory feel to it, I was reluctant to pitch his services...
by Leif Jensen | May 1, 2019 | General |
I am currently working on pulling together the final tax return. The owner has thrown in the towel. Yet he still has time on his original contract with the Franchisor. My client stopped making the required monthly payments a few months ago and has received a form...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 30, 2019 | General |
I have a friend of mine who is starting his second career in his mid-50’s. He thought that he was going to spend the last years of his working life at his last employer. But things obviously did not work out as planned. So he has developed a plan to move on a two...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 29, 2019 | General |
A hundred years ago I was working for a large NFP that was just starting to go through a radical restructuring. As a cocky young accountant, I saw the direction and I was concerned that the decisions being made were wrong. I voiced my opinion on deaf ears and left in...
