September 2009

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2009.

The State of the Economy

September 30, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

Various Federal Reserve Notes, c.1990. Only t...

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Good news from a new blog post we wrote on the startupstudent.com blog: “The State of the Economy, According to the Federal Reserve Board’s Beige Book.”

Ch.. ch.. ch.. check it.

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA

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We’re on Alltop.com…

September 30, 2009 by thriveal | 1 comment

Image representing Alltop as depicted in Crunc...
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Woot woot.  Our blog is on Alltop.com, a major Blog and News aggregator started by Guy Kawasaki.

See our Alltop badge on the left side of the blog, and check out the Alltop news we’re aggregating here (still a work in progress).

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA

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Tuesday Tax Time: Roth IRA Conversions for High Incomers (Part II)

September 29, 2009 by thriveal | 6 comments

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Ser...
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Last week’s Tuesday Tax Time introduced the fact that taxpayers with $100k or more in income will be able to convert their current traditional IRA into a Roth IRA starting January 1, 2010.  In other words, the income limit to convert disappears.  Woo hoo, exciting.  What does that mean for you in 2009?  Can you do anything NOW to take advantage of that new rule coming into effect next year?  Yep.

First, a little tax law = it’s a good thing if you have nondeductible payins sitting in your regular IRA when you convert to a Roth, because the conversion will only tax (a) earnings on the IRA monies, and (2) deductible IRA contributions upon conversion.  When converting to a Roth, tax is calculated with a percentage = deductible contributions as a percentage of the whole IRA value (…basically).

Solution = make sure you have nondeductible payins sitting in your regular IRA when you convert early in 2010.  Trick = start a regular IRA in 2009.  Make contributions to it that are nondeductible.  Convert this regular IRA to a Roth early in 2010 and you’ll only pay tax on the earnings, but the whole stinkin’ thing can be withdrawn tax free when you retire.  Pretty cool, huh? (just remember, you can’t pull anything out of the Roth for 5 years after starting it or you’ve blown the whole gig)

And if you convert your regular IRA to a Roth in 2010, you can pay the tax on that conversion over two years – half in 2011 (tax due 4/15/2012) and half in 2012 (tax due 4/15/2013).  This sounds better and better, doesn’t it?  Let me know of any questions in the comments.

(here’s an easy chart to follow from the IRS if you’re still confused.)

(Read Part I and Part III too)

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Monday Morning Message

September 28, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.  The human mind is our fundamental resource.”

John F. Kennedy

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Three Part Series on Innovation (from the CISCO CEO, John T. Chambers), Part 3

September 25, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

John Chambers, Cisco
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This is a three part series highlighting an MIT podcast (but you can watch it here), where John Chambers, the CISCO CEO discussed innovation and what’s involved in building the next generation company.

John Chambers makes some serious points around collaborative communities in our future.  That is, we will be a part of many different communities centered around personal and business interests.  Of course, this is already happening, but Chambers says content in the future will find us within our communities instead of us looking for content.  This ability of technology will change advertising models and business processes at lightning speed.

Even at Cisco, their new endeavors are run by collaborative community groups called “councils”.  When they are ready for a new launch of a product or service, they form a “council” around that launch and make it happen.  These collaborative groups are quicker and more effective.  And they ultimately make better decisions than the upper management team at Cisco because the council has the ability to access anyone in the company from around the world, discuss any topic visually and make decisions that immediately impact business processes and customers.  No more running decisions through the management team, and letting red tape kill an innovative product that must get to market quickly.

Facebook and Twitter are the beginnings of our collaborative efforts, but the business efforts will only improve from here forward.  In fact, there is some innovative company somewhere right now developing far-reaching products to assist businesses in making decisions collaboratively in ways we can not now imagine.  Is that your company?  Are you ready to do business collaboratively in these fast-acting communities?  Tell me in the comments.

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Three Part Series on Innovation (from the CISCO CEO, John T. Chambers), Part 2

September 24, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

John Chambers, Cisco
Image by dfarber via Flickr

This is a three part series highlighting an MIT podcast (but you can watch it here), where John Chambers, the CISCO CEO discussed innovation and what’s involved in building the next generation company.

John Chambers makes some great insights into what a company leader should be doing during a recession.  He makes three very important points:

1.  Most importantly, make sure you understand what effect the downturn is having on your own company.  Ask yourself, “did I do something wrong?” or “was my strategy correct, but the country had an effect on my company that was unavoidable?”  Study thy self.

2.  Second, he says that you must ask yourself how long do you think the recession will last and how deep do you think it will be?  A good leader will always consider that the recession will be longer than you expect, and run deeper than you anticipate.  Being conservative here allows for proper preparation internally.

3.  Third, John says to start immediately getting ready for the recovery.  He says to paint the picture of what you company should look like as you come out of the recession, and what your expectations are for your employees to make that happen.  Get everyone refocused as quickly as possible to issues where they have the ability to affect change.

He says these points are 101 on handling economic challenges.  That is, these are the basics you switch to when you see the recession coming.  Have you considered these points in your company yet?  Tell me in the comments.


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Three Part Series on Innovation (from the CISCO CEO, John T. Chambers), Part 1

September 23, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

SAN FRANCISCO - APRIL 22: Cisco Chairman and ...
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This is a three part series highlighting an MIT podcast (but you can watch it here), where John Chambers, the CISCO CEO discussed innovation and what’s involved in building the next generation company.

John Chambers starts the podcast off stating that we are about to see the most fundamental changes in business and government that the world has ever seen.  Big statement.  And this change will be centered around the ability to conduct business and enjoy entertainment with high-scale video collaboration.  He calls this “visual connectivity.”

John Chambers says betting on guessing market transitions, and getting your bet right, means you’ll lead in our visually connected world.  If you see the collaboration of visual connectivity coming, and correctly guess the market shift early in the game, then you’ll be one of the major leaders in your industry because you implemented the coming change early.  Getting these trends right will make or break your company.  So focus on reading, studying and changing your industry early as market shifts appear.  And he assures us that they will happen around visual connectivity, or the use of social networks to do business better and more efficiently (see Part 3 for more).

Visual connectivity is a market shift he sees coming (and is already here).  As an example, Chambers states that you will soon be able to use any device to get any content from anywhere in the world.  Our focus won’t be on syncing our devices, it will be on purchasing licenses from various vendors for any content we want.

As another example, we won’t only use software as a service, but other products and services will follow suit in the “…as a service” model: processing power (which is already available through Amazon), bandwidth, and even service as a service.  You’ll pay for what you want right now and only pay for what you are going to use right now.  And you’ll use a device that will allow you to take all of this in at the exact moment you need and/or want it.  Consider how this could change knowledge-based services like medical services, tax services, marketing services, administrative services, etc.

Are you preparing for the coming market shift in your industry?  Do you even know what it is?  Tell me in the comments.

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Monday Morning Message

September 21, 2009 by thriveal | 2 comments

“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.”

Paul Bryant

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SC New Idea Contest

September 18, 2009 by thriveal | No comments

Saw a LinkedIn message from Amy Love of New Carolina discussing the New Ideas SC Contest Entry.  You’ve only got until September 21st to get your new business idea submitted so you had better hurry.  In conjunction with ThinkTEC, New Carolina,  SC Launch and FastTrac, they want to encourage innovation in SC, and they are giving away a Grand Prize of $5,000 to do it!

You can compete in 5 categories: Engineering, Information Technology, Bio-Science, Environmental Sustainability and Wildcard.

Go to the submission form here to get started!

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer

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