by Leif Jensen | Apr 24, 2019 | General |
I was at a Board of Directors meeting for a client recently and the lack of urgency was brought up. The BOD has deferred certain decisions and that course of action has been uncovered as a problem for certain growth and funding plans. The decisions had been deferred...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 23, 2019 | General |
I was reading a cautionary tale against relying on Social Media exclusively to market you company. I admit that I do not work with a company that is doing such a thing. I am having difficulty getting some of them to embrace Social Media as a marketing tool to begin...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 22, 2019 | General |
I was reading an article on cost savings for businesses and one idea struck me as odd if not obsolete. The item that they hyped was going paperless, stressing the cost of ink. I don’t believe that I have a client who still uses inkjet printers. Laser jet printers...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 17, 2019 | General |
I have a client that has stalled sales and has stalled their rebranding. I have encouraged them to follow their Board’s recommendation and rebrand the company, it has been a few decades since the last rebranding, or was it the creation of the company? When the company...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 16, 2019 | General |
Plan for the worst and hope for the best. I have explained this business strategy to clients for years. People are surprised that in many circumstances that I have Plans B and C. In some circumstances, I have Plans C, D, E and F ready to implement. This is one of...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 15, 2019 | General |
My guess is that you have thought about being rich; with dreams of having enough wealth to allow relief from all of your financial burdens. You may even play the lottery, if the pot is big enough. The road to wealth is fairly simple one; start early and save, save...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 10, 2019 | General |
Sometimes a client will approach us wanting to discuss taking on a partner/shareholder for the extra cash they can bring in. First I point out that if they are selling a portion of the business, they may have a capital gain issue on their hands. And two if the money...
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://leifjensenassoc.com/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...
