by Leif Jensen | Sep 28, 2015 | General |
With the stagnant wages and the difficulties of finding a starter job in your field unless you were in the top 3% of your class worldwide. Are our children looking at lowered expectations than we were as graduates? I know that starter cars less than $20,000 are rare...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 23, 2015 | General |
I was at the IRS office dropping off some paperwork for a client. While I was there, a business owner showed up and tried to hand in an Illinois tax return. He was obviously confused, which made the IRS personnel a bit confused as well. Now as the IRS rep went to...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 22, 2015 | General |
I was just at a seminar where they polled the audience on where they stored their I-9 forms. Just about everyone stated that they are in the employee’s file. They were informed that they were doing it inappropriately and that they should all be in a single file along...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 21, 2015 | General |
A few weeks ago the Pew Research Center did an analysis regarding Millennials and where they are living. In 2008 most people figured that the poor economy was the main cause for Millennials to be living with their parents. Now that the economy has improved somewhat...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 16, 2015 | General |
At the conclusion of a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, where they examined debt through the generations, they found that 8 in 10 Americans are in debt in some fashion. Wow I could have told them that and they could have saved the money. These roughly match the...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 15, 2015 | General |
It seems that the great(?) state of Illinois is home to nearly 8,500 local governmental units. Are you surprised? I didn’t think so. But what is surprising is that 6,026 are empowered to raise taxes, the highest in the nation. Texas is #2 with about 5,150 local...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 14, 2015 | General |
What do you do that your completion does not do? Most business owners do not have an answer to this question. Insights can remain elusive to those who make the products. How in a given unique situation within a specific time can you make yourself different from your...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2015 | General |
Illinois is an at will state. Which means you can fire someone just to fire someone. Now that will not stop them from suing you. Lord knows that there are attorneys who are just looking for a payday and will take just about any case. What you should have in place...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2015 | General |
I had a client express concern to me about one of their employees that have been out for a week now. The client is concerned on a multitude of levels. Unfortunately this is a larger company working on a razor thin budget. One employee being out for an unplanned...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 7, 2015 | General |
Who handles the HR function in your business? If you are a small company it may be the Office Manager or the bookkeeper. Basically it seems to fall to anyone who handles the bills. I know that I was in charge of the HR function when I worked at a couple of...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 2, 2015 | General |
The news has been reporting on and off for the last few years about the possibility of increasing the minimum wage. Now there are people lining up on both sides of the issue, but the more vocal proponents are those who want the increase. But I also doubt that they...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 1, 2015 | General |
Hundreds of years ago in the dark ages of office productivity, workers toiled before computer terminals. These terminals were connected to a great computer, which required all slaved to be tethered to it for communication. These great computers were special and we...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 31, 2015 | General |
I ran into a client at an event the other week. This gentleman is a sales rep for a software company. He is very successful in his industry. But he had run into a problem with his company. There was a new sales rep that had the potential to make exactly the same as...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 26, 2015 | General |
I was talking to a banker the other week and we got on to the subject of money laundering. Yes, most of my discussions with bankers lead to the discussion of crimes and felonies. What can I say; I am curious on how the real world works and the mysteries I read are...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 25, 2015 | General |
Will the financial planners of the future be machines? Will a machine be able to dispense good investment advice? The answer for the moment seemingly is a yes for plenty of people. “Robo-advisers” are using technology to create investment advice and manage your...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 24, 2015 | General |
I received an e-mail for a colleague who had a referral that they could not handle and was requesting that if possible could I assist them. They were looking for assistance immediately. I was curious and I had an office day scheduled, so I accepted. This couple in...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 19, 2015 | General |
The act when you give something (an item or a favor), the other person naturally feels indebted to you – especially if the gift is unexpected. But also people do not like feeling indebted to others. We are hard-wired to balance the scales again as soon as possible....
by Leif Jensen | Aug 18, 2015 | General |
100 years ago I was working for a Finance Director company that I hated being associated with. I took the job because I had had a relatively long bout of unemployment before I was hired by Waste Management; a job I loved, I was working with a great team and had a...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 17, 2015 | General |
Last week I was meeting with a client, who was struggling a few years ago and is now on the rebound. But that in itself is the problem. When their business was struggling for income, they were forced to use up their reserves and got into debt. Even though the...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 12, 2015 | General |
I was talking to a CPA who I was meeting with the possibility of purchasing his practice. This unfortunately did not work out, but he had an interesting practice. At one point he was explaining that in the 1980’s and 90’s that he a number of “mob bosses” as clients. ...
