January 2010

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2010.

Client Highlight: Squared Eye, LLC

January 31, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

Here we are ready to prove it again: we have the best clients in the world!  Matthew Smith, Principal of Squared Eye, LLC is a web development extraordinaire!  Working with contractors and clients all over the world, Squared Eye, LLC delivers some of the best the web has to offer:

US Institute for Peace Lighting Africa

Reformed University Fellowship Pattern Tap

Matthew and I spent some time together doing a little strategy on the future of his company.  Squared Eye, LLC relies on our firm for help in business strategy, tax consulting and new software services.  Matthew and his team see value in what we do, and we love to serve them.

Jason M. Blumer, CPA, and Matthew Smith of Squared Eye

Learning How the Change to an S Corp Will Drive you Crazy (...but Save Tax Money!)

Matthew is your typical serial entrepreneur - finding needs in the market place motivates Matthew to build what is not already available.  His Pattern Tap site (“where tasty design is now on tap”) is highly acclaimed as a goto site for designers all over the world.  Matthew built this site as a means to provide great design that could not be found in any one place.

The Squared Eye team has a heart to serve those in the creative industries, and mentoring younger companies in the business of design, collaboration and the business of being creative.  We love to serve those that love to serve!

X - (Y / 9) + Guacamole = 12 to the 4th power (Huh?)

We asked Matthew to answer four questions for the client highlight, and here is what we got:

What have you or your organization done to remain competitive and successful?

We found a niche, and ran headlong into it. Our niche is craftsman level web and interface design with an eye for function and form. We’ve also launched several products that showcase that niche. The first is Pattern Tap (http://patterntap.com), a showcase of inspirational design solutions to help web designers make better choices. The second is Pocket, a tool for creating iPhone-sized portfolios – this will launch in 2nd quarter 2010.

What do you or your organization foresee as the greatest business obstacle in the near future?

Moving from small to medium in size. Our niche is design craftsmanship, not management. How do we build business, instead of letting the business build us? We’re working through that one track at a time. The first step we’re taking to deal with that, is by producing products like Pattern Tap that can sustain growth and need less input than client based projects.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The pleasure I feel in bringing order to chaos. I love conquering a formless thing by giving it a shape and a direction. I’m a visual story teller.

What has the Blumer firm done to assist you in furthering your business and its operations?

Blumer and Associates help Squared Eye strategize about business and tax movements that facilitate a clear path to success. In addition to great tax planning, this year Blumer helped us become an S-Corp which will likely save us over 15k next year. We’re enthusiastic about the future, and we’re glad Blumer is going to be there with us.

Riding Matthew's "virtual" Vespa (it was outside)

Matthew and the whole Squared Eye team are fun to serve and we’re excited to call them clients!

all photos Nill Silver

GoSee: Thriveal’s Three on Thursday

January 28, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

1.  “Ten stocks I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.” John Dorfman on assessing the viability of investing, and how balance sheet debt helps him make his decisions – GoSee

2.  Maybe you can deduct your MBA tuition now… maybe – GoSee

3.  Reminder: 10 obscure tax deductions – GoSee

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer

The Benefits of Great Clients

January 27, 2010 by thriveal | 8 comments

I’m continually amazed at the great clients we have.  I’ve frustrated a few of them recently with some internal system changes we’ve made to our firm services.  I know they are the best changes for the long run, but they are hard for those who don’t like change.  But we have a relationship with our clients, and they know we are doing our best to bring them knowledgeable service.

Keeping and retaining great clients is a lot of work, but it has it’s benefits:

1.  Great clients are more forgiving when you mess things up, because they realize no one is perfect.

2.  Great clients put up with necessary hard changes, because they know you are vested in their success in the long run.

3.  Great clients are thankful for what you do for them, and they often say “thank you” when they are writing you a check.

4.  Great clients are always teaching you, because you admit to them that you don’t know everything there is to know about what you are doing.

5.  Great clients care about YOUR business, because they know that if your business grows their service will ultimately improve too.

6.  Great clients don’t mind hearing the hard truth, because they know our counsel is meant to help, not make anyone necessarily feel good.

Spend time on developing great clients… it will pay off long into the future.

Jason M. Blumer

Tuesday Tax Time: COBRA Subsidy Extended

January 26, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

Indian Spectacled Cobra, Naja Naja Family, Par...

Image via Wikipedia

I know talking smack about the extension of the COBRA subsidy gets you excited.

Wha…  Calm down, and check the facts:

1.  You are eligible if you were involuntarily terminated between Sept. 1, 2008 and Feb. 28, 2010 (so if you are working on being involuntarily terminated, you’ve only got just over 35 days to do it),

2.  You can be on COBRA now for 15 months (used to be 9 months),

3.  If you are on COBRA (and you are eligible), you pay 35% of the premiums, and your former employer pays 65% of the premiums (who are then reimbursed on their employment tax returns),

4.  Employers must notify individuals eligible for COBRA by Feb. 17, 2010,

5.  COBRA has nothing to do with snakes – it stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

Here are some question and answers for employers trying to comply with the reporting requirements of COBRA.

Peace

Jason M. Blumer, CPA

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Monday Morning Message

January 25, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

“The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance.  Remember, the greatest failure is to not try.”

Debbi Fields

Eating Frogs…

January 21, 2010 by thriveal | 1 comment

My daughter... conquering frogs!

Just a few little secrets on dealing with problems and/or conflicts in your business…

1.  If You’ve Got to Eat a Frog, Don’t Spend Too Much Time Looking at it. You are going to encounter problems in your business (and life for that matter).  And if you are the boss, then pushing through those problems and/or conflicts falls on your shoulders.  Figure out what to do, believe in your decision and freakin’ move on.  Once the decision has been made to do whatever it is you need to do, dwelling on the issue becomes paralyzing.  Don’t dwell.  Eat and move on.

2.  If You’ve Got to Eat Two Frogs, Eat the Biggest One First. Similar to #1, you often have two frogs problems and/or conflicts to deal with at any one time (or three, or four, etc.).  Tackle the biggest first.  Tackling big issues takes energy and precious time.  Spend your energy up front knocking out the largest problem before dealing with the small stuff.  Then you’ll have the left over energy you need to deal with smaller issues while continuing to run your business at the same time.

3.  Don’t Eat Frogs if you Don’t Have to. Even better than #1 and #2, preventing problems and/or conflicts is much wiser than wasting time dealing with them when they come around.  This speaks to excellent management and leadership.  Head off the poop before it hits the fan… or pond, in this case.

Jason M. Blumer

Tuesday Tax Time: 2010 Small Business Changes

January 19, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Ser...

Image via Wikipedia

The lawmakers were busy messing with health care late last year and missed adjusting some big small business write offs for 2010.  Maybe they’ll fix it this year and make them retroactive.

1.  The 50% bonus depreciation write off is gone in 2010.  Before 2010, you could write off half of the purchase price of certain equipment purchased in 2009.  Bye bye.

2.  Similar to #1 (but different), the higher write offs of equipment purchases used to be capped at $250k in 2009… now down to $134k.

3.  The lawmakers allowed for estimated tax penalty relief for small business owners by allowing them to pay in either 90% of prior year tax or 90% of current year tax, which ever is lower.  But that was 2009 (that’s so “last year”).  That benefit has now reverted back to pre-stimulus relief.  Now you have to pay in at least 100% of your prior year tax (2009), or 90% of your current year tax (2010) to avoid penalty.

4.  Late filing penalties for partnerships and S Corps go way up!  The IRS will charge you $195 per owner per month now for 12 months if your return is late.

Be careful out there…

Questions?  Leave them in the comments.

Jason M. Blumer, CPA

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Monday Morning Message

January 18, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

“You can stand tall without standing on someone.  You can be a victor without having victims.”

Harriet Woods

My “Word” for the Year

January 12, 2010 by thriveal | 1 comment

185.365 TWENTY TEN!
Image by ashley rose, via Flickr

A couple of years ago, my wife saw an awesome way to start out a new year: choose a “word,” instead of a resolution, to keep your focus on the year ahead.  We spend time thinking about what our focus should be for the year, and we pick an appropriate word.

My word for the year is “Focus.”  I really have trouble reigning in my thoughts on new innovation in our industry, and I want to typically try everything!  My wife, my business coach, my marketing Guild group and my staff constantly keep me in line.  But this year, I want to “focus” on building the foundational business offerings that we have and stop adding new things (this will probably make our staff very happy).  New things cost more money, and that is something I want to save a lot of this year.  Furthermore, I really want this “focus” to last for 4 or 5 years.  The next 4 or 5 years for our firm will probably be BIG, if I can keep my “focus” on our foundational offerings, improve our process on how we serve and move our firm into more national-level service (which is already happening).  Pretty exciting… if I can keep my “focus.”

If you had to choose, what would your word be for the year?

In an effort to keep my “focus,” I want to combine this “focus” post with an explanation of the four words found in the THRIVEal header above:

THINK.     RESPOND.     GROW.     THRIVE.

These four words in sequence describe the upward process we often see in successful businesses.  There are many processes that can be seen and documented in many aspects of life, but these four words are our attempt to explain a process we have noticed over time.  And in an effort to better organizer our blog, the writer who is helping create a summary of our 2009 blog posts (an exciting new book that is soon to be released!), suggested that we organize all posts according to our belief in the THINK, RESPOND, GROW, THRIVE process.  Each post will be tagged under one of these four categories.  Some are easy in my opinion, while I don’t believe many posts are that straight forward.  Some posts call you to action (RESPOND) while others simply provide valuable business information (THINK).  And I don’t anticipate many posts will be tagged under the THRIVE category.  We’ll see how the process goes throughout the year.  Any thoughts on this process?

Here is our attempt to segregate which post goes in which category…

THINK – All processes start with deep thought.  Sometimes that thought entails a little questioning of your industry, dispelling myths as to why you do what you do, or simply reading the latest thought on topics close to your business model.  Great things don’t happen without great thought.  For example, we challenge our clients to THINK with Monday Morning Messages.

RESPOND – A response is required after deep thought.  We don’t preach thinking without pushing the response.  And this doesn’t always go very well.  It can actually lead our firm and a potential new client NOT to do business together.  That’s okay.  Everyone is ultimately benefited from proper responses to solid teaching and consulting, even if it challenges them beyond their comfort zone.

GROW – This is the third part of the process, after deep thought and a proper response.  Growing is not really something our clients do, but rather experience after going through the first two stages in the THRIVEal process.  Growth happens.  Maybe that growth is in their family, their business, their church or their relationships.  Or maybe a business owner will close their business, and start a new business (which is a different kind of growth)… but only after they think through that process and respond to what they have learned.

THRIVE – Growth is movement, while Thriving is arriving.  You are getting there once growth begins to happen.  I can’t say it will always be easy to distinguish between growth and thriving, but there comes a time when a person, a process, a relationship, and a business matures.  This is thriving and it is gained through the process of thinking, responding to that thought and ultimately growing into maturation.  What an awesome thing to see happen.  That state is THRIVEal.

I hope that at the end of my 4 or 5 year focus on my business, that I can say we are thriving…  coming to a state of THRIVEal.

Thanks for reading,

Jason M. Blumer

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tuesday Tax Time: Tax Planning for 2010

January 12, 2010 by thriveal | No comments

Now is the time to begin preparing for next year’s tax time.  Here are some things you can do now so that your CPA won’t fuss at you on April 15, 2011:

1.  If you claim mileage, begin keeping a log now.  The tax return actually asks if the mileage claimed was “written.”  You want to answer “yes,” so begin keeping a log now (and you shouldn’t lie).  Keep a log that lists your mileage by client served, where you went, the date, and the beginning and ending odometer reading for each trip.  By the way, the mileage deduction is 50 cents per mile beginning January 1, 2010.

2.  If you claim the home office deduction, your CPA will need all of your insurance, utilities, phone, etc. that you spent in your household.  Begin tracking them now (maybe use a personal financial tracking system to do this!).

3.  Think about switching your traditional IRA over to a Roth IRA in this new year.  You can pay the taxes later (in 2011 and 2012), and you’ll have free money when you retire.  But before you do, read this three part series I did on the things to think about before doing so.

4.  If you have a business, begin keeping track of your profit now.  Your profit is what drives your year-end tax bill.  When you start making a lot of money, the first person to call should be your CPA (well, maybe your spouse should be first).  There are things we can do during the year to eliminate the taxes to be paid by April 15, 2011.  And if you don’t have an innovative online solution for your business accounting software – call us.  We do that.

5.  You’ve got time to start working on a new baby = new tax credit and personal exemption for 2010!

Make it a happy new tax year!

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

« Older entries