by Leif Jensen | Jul 6, 2016 | General |
I was meeting with a straggling individual client and they were amusing me with their tale of woe as to how their employer now has some internal communication issues. It seems that with a couple of new hires the informational flow that has been in place for...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 5, 2016 | General |
I recently had a vendor attempt to charge me for their travel time. I was quite surprised because no one has ever tried that with me before. I have had plumbers and electricians state that there would be minimum charges for them showing up. But when I call them I...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 29, 2016 | General |
I was giving a client a difficult time because they had hired an employee for whom they did not do a background check on. The employee did not work out well, and there were some minor issues. When I asked what their hiring policy was, they stated that they did...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 28, 2016 | General |
The SEC has issued its rules for crowdfunding to make it a bit easier to govern how start-up firms can raise money from many small backers and how investors can take part in such ventures. Consistent with the JOBS Act, the proposed rules would among other things...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 27, 2016 | General |
I was reading an Op-ed piece in the WSJ, about “What’s Killing Jobs and Stalling the Economy”. The May jobs report was bad. The Op-ed piece, referred to an aspect of the nation’s history, and introduced me to the process called “creative destruction”. This...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 22, 2016 | General |
There have been protests at the McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters recently. The protestors are demanding a higher minimum wage. The problem is that most McDonald’s are owned by independent owner operators and not by the corporate offices. I found an old...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 21, 2016 | General |
I have random quotes on all of the pages of my website. They are financial in nature and surprising after years of them being there, finally with the new website I am getting comments on them. Apparently they were surprised by the fact that some of them were...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 20, 2016 | General |
A friend and client of mine passed away last month. He was important to me as well as this blog as one of the major IT people whose knowledge I respected, I quizzed him with regularity on what was new and exciting to him and what was on the horizon for the rest of...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 15, 2016 | General |
When I had my website redone years ago I had asked about the view on phones. The designer didn’t have a clue, IT said not to worry because the phones allowed for resizing. Then a few years later, I was told that I needed to have a website that was mobile...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 14, 2016 | General |
It seems that unicorns do exist and they have been around for a while. A Unicorn is a start-up company valued at over $1 billion, and private investors have put $362 billion over 5 years. Thus pumping up the paper value of unicorns, the largest being Uber,...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 13, 2016 | General |
May 18, 2016, President Obama and Labor Secretary Perez announced the publication of the Department of Labor’s final rule updating the overtime regulations. These changes go into effect in December. The plan is to reduce overwork, which was not a problem most...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 8, 2016 | General |
Do you run your business with a budget? If o how do you develop your budget? Is it based upon a static increase based on an inflationary increase of say 3% or is it developed on real measurable and planned growth based upon client expectations of the coming year....
by Leif Jensen | Jun 7, 2016 | General |
As a small business owner you have limited time to spend on your business. This of course is assuming that you a life to go along with your business. So you have to pick your activities with care. You want to insure that you are being productive and not just busy. I...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 6, 2016 | General |
This past tax season I had to have the conversation with a client that their business had more things in common with hobby than a business. They had consistent loses for a number of years and some of the nine factors were not being met. Those Nine factors are:...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 2, 2016 | General |
I was reading a magazine; yes I am 100 years old and read magazines and newspapers. I also use the internet, but I like to tactile relationship to my reading matter. I prefer to hold a book to a Fire. But, I digress. The Q&A section that I was perusing was...
by Leif Jensen | Jun 1, 2016 | General |
I have clients who have family members working in their business. I have family members working in my business. I have and had all three of my kids working in my business. The eldest has been hired and fired more times than both of us can count, working for me is...
by Leif Jensen | May 31, 2016 | General |
According to an Entrepreneur columnist, no speaking creates the illusion that you are intelligent. When we had an employee that never asked a question we thought it was odd, because we expected lots and lots of questions. When we did not get them, we looked deeper...
by Leif Jensen | May 25, 2016 | General |
The University of Chicago houses an Innovation Exchange. This Business Incubator can provide space, mentorship and support to early stage start-ups. The costs do not seem unreasonable for what is given. There are monthly mentoring sessions, introductions to experts,...
by Leif Jensen | May 24, 2016 | General |
Women taking control over their own destiny is increasing. Women starting businesses grew at a rate of 74% between 1997 and 2015; or at a rate of 1.5 times the national average, according to the “2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report”. Woman currently own 30%...
by Leif Jensen | May 23, 2016 | General |
Illinois Small Business Development Centers- SBDC It seems that Illinois has a resource for people thinking of starting or growing a small business, their Small Business Resource Centers. For the most part they seem to be tied to colleges and Chambers of...
