by Leif Jensen | Jun 10, 2024 | Rant |
After the Judge denied the merger between Penguin Publishing and Simon and Shuster. Penguin went through a massive round of layoffs and Simon & Schuster was sold to a private equity company instead. Private equity tends to have one game plan strategy: buy a...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 5, 2024 | Rant |
Every second book in America, ballpark, is being sold via e-commerce…Amazon.com has 50 million books available. A bookstore, a good independent bookstore, has around 50,000 different books available… an algorithm decides what is being presented and made visible and...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 3, 2024 | Rant |
My son sent me a story/article the other day which shared the stats from a DOJ case regarding Penguin wanting to buy Simon and Shuster. The deal was killed because of monopoly issues. Penguin has 37% of the market and Shuster has 11%, a merger would dominate the...
by Leif Jensen | May 29, 2024 | Taxes |
The IRS has this pesky thing about taxes, they expect them to be paid. I have a couple of clients who are independent contractors and they should be. But they tend to not gross a lot of money and never plan for the inevitability of income taxes. They believe that they...
by Leif Jensen | May 27, 2024 | Investing |
A couple of years ago crypto was all over the news and the IRS was seeming addressing the issue constantly. That is not the case at the moment. That may be because of Crypto and it’s many losses – I am seeing client dumping crypto in multiple forms and taking heavy...
by Leif Jensen | May 22, 2024 | Taxes |
A surprising number of clients are currently going through a divorce this tax season. Both sides have been asking all sorts of questions. Usually about the others income, probably at the behest of their attorney. All of these clients are still filing joint returns,...
by Leif Jensen | May 20, 2024 | Taxes |
2023 was the year on the unexpected escalating income and under withholding. Interest rates jumped up in 2023, along with dividends. Mutual fund companies, followed the great adage of buying low and selling high. Capital gains were up significantly for a number of...
by Leif Jensen | May 15, 2024 | Money Management |
I have a couple of clients who have taken EIDL funds to weather the tide and are now regretting those choices. One needs to close; it has been hemorrhaging cash since I started working with them. They have thrown their EIDL Funds and all of their savings into the...
by Leif Jensen | May 13, 2024 | Advertising |
Uncle Ben’s Rice is a combination of fact and fiction. The company started in 1943, the company was originally called “Rice Products, Inc.”. The company was renamed in 1946 to “Uncle Ben’s Incorporated”. The farmer’s name was Ben; hence the name, Uncle Ben’s rice....
by Leif Jensen | May 8, 2024 | Running a Business |
As I was reading a biography om Hershey and Mars, I learned that three chocolate companies that were started in the late 19th century are still in existence. I was flabbergasted. Since the book was written in the 1990’s, I thought I needed to verify that they do...
by Leif Jensen | May 6, 2024 | Running a Business |
Most true entrepreneurs will crash and burn several times before they find the correct course for themselves. In fact, I feel that I cheated a bit, I slowly moved into my own business, it started as a side gig. Then, I had a worked as fractional CFO for a couple of...
by Leif Jensen | May 1, 2024 | Rant |
You own your own business and make a decent living. Could you sell your business if you wanted to? Of do you actually own a job with client(s) who would leave if you thought about selling? I know a number of franchises are really built around owning a job and...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 29, 2024 | Money Management |
I have been working with clients this tax season, who are well into the top 10% of US taxpayers, none of them consider themselves wealthy. Even those whom I know are the truly wealthy. During a recent webinar, they defined real wealth by having passive income...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 24, 2024 | Employees, Rant |
Have you ever run into a friend or colleague or employee who was under the belief that they were so integral to the business that no one could ever replace them? I have known many over the years. All of them are wrong. Everyone is replaceable, no one is that...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 22, 2024 | Investing |
Years ago, I met a gentleman who wanted to learn the fundamentals of options trading. He was aware of the nightmare that options trading can have to an individual’s tax return. Basically, needing to hire a tax professional to prepare the return. Being a thrifty...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 17, 2024 | Taxes |
This tax season we are having more and more clients having a significant tax liability; some federal, some state or both. Some clients who have been having liabilities are planning to adjust their withholding. I hope they follow through. For most we give them...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 15, 2024 | Running a Business |
One of my clients recently had to let go of an employee who had some unpleasant business in their background. Their hiring process are lax and they had no reviews are ever done on any of the employees. I hope that they step up their process. For my lemonade stand,...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 10, 2024 | Investing, Money Management |
What passive income streams have you set up for yourself? If you haven’t done any yet, are you planning on doing any? I have some old insurance dogs and financial advisors, who wake up January 1, knowing that they will be making six to seven figures without really...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 8, 2024 | Running a Business |
I am reading a biography of the Mars and Hershey companies and their namesakes who ran the businesses. In both cases they were seeming always looking to the future of their businesses. In contrast, I have a client who is aware of a problem approaching in their...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 3, 2024 | Employees |
The Dept. of Labor has finalized its new independent contractor rule. It will take effect March 11 and largely hews to the draft regs the agency proposed in Oct. 2022. The rule includes six nonexhaustive factors officials will use to determine whether a worker should...
