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SAM Alert August 2022

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SAM, BSC small and mighty watchdog
SAM, the small and mighty, alerts small business owners

SAM, BSC’s Small and Mighty LEGISLATIVE WATCHDOG points to:

Pass-through businesses should pay attention to the BIG bill going through the Senate!

BUILD BACK BETTER bill is not just about climate change. It also includes the potential of a new higher tax rate coming your way if you are a sole proprietor, Partnership, S Corp, or LLC, i.e. a pass-through business.

Read about both sides of the issue, then decide your POV and take action (including making sure your tax advisor is following this):

• Benefits to business: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/what-are-the-benefits-of-pass-through-taxation
• WSJ commentary on Shumer-Manchin Bill and the IRS: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-irs-is-about-to-go-beast-mode-chuck-schumer-joe-manchin-audit-taxes-middle-class-joe-biden-11659477320?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
• Disadvantages: https://taxfoundation.org/house-democrats-pass-through-business-tax/
• Implications of the change to your pass-through business: https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/repealing-flawed-pass-through-deduction-should-be-part-of-recovery-legislation

Pass-through income is only subject to a single layer of income tax and is generally taxed as ordinary income up to the maximum 37 percent rate. However, certain pass-through income is eligible for a 20 percent deduction, which reduces the top tax rate to a maximum of 29.6 percent. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) created a new 20 percent deduction for certain pass-through income through 2025, after which the measure is scheduled to expire.
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-are-pass-through-businesses-taxed

22+ Reasons Your Small Business Is Keeping You Up at Night

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Owners are often insomniac. Photo by Olivia Townsend.

Owners are often insomniac. Photo by Olivia Townsend.

News 8 reporter Harlan Schmidt interviewed me about why Austin is a good place to start a business in 2010. I told him it was Austin’s “can do & it’s ok to fail” culture. And it is also about the fact that we have a highly educated population which means we can learn from our mistakes. I would still say that.

Then he asked me what needs to be done to improve our ability to sustain businesses. After all, it is not about starting — anyone can start one. It is about keeping it going — although not necessarily growing as large as, say Dell. [Read more…]

Upgrading Your Providers for your benefit and theirs — BSC Wisdom Webinar recording

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The February BSC Wisdom Webinar and Work Session focused on Providers — how to choose, evaluate, and manage them better for both of you. Attendees added some great ideas from their own experiences. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/WisdomWebinar-UpgradeProviders-2-17-22.

Networking 2022: Trends and Tips

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If you weren’t able to attend this BSC Wisdom webinar, you missed a great discussion and work session led by Jan Triplett, Austin’s Mother of Networking and author of The Networker’s Guide to Success and co-author Thinking Big, Staying Small with input and examples from attendees.

Here’s what this webinar/work session was all about:
• What’s the difference between Networking, Mentoring, and Prospecting?
• Your three types of networks and how to improve them in 2022
• Making better quality choices of how, where and with whom to network
• New networking roles and responsibilities
• When and how to say “No” plus “red flag” warnings
• Why your networking efforts don’t pay off

Here’s a link to the recording and transcript. https://bit.ly/WisdomWebinar-Networking-1-20-22

101+ Ways to “fund” your business

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PPP and EIDL are options to get things done in your business but there are plenty more if you look further than those related to debt or equity. These slides from a presentation to a local chamber of commerce will give you some ideas of what is out there. If you find more, let me know!

http://ownersview.com/wp-content/uploads/101-Ways-to-Fund-Texas-HUB-Expo-2019.pdf

6 Ways to Improve Your Sales Projections

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Measure sales carefully to be profitable.

Measure sales carefully to be profitable.

Your sales projection formula is key to more accurate financial projections and to the success of your business.

Sales projection formulas are always wrong. Here are six ways to improve them.

Sales projections are wrong because…

  1. Sales projections are not supposed to be right. They need to be relevant.
    They’re a snapshot. They are a specific point in time, based on relevant data and criteria and are defensible within limits. They give you an idea of what to expect each week or month or year. Improve your sales projections by making sure you don’t accept the projected sales numbers without question — including your own numbers. The answers you get from salespeople in terms of what they think will close have to be reasonable and with some sort of basis not just hype and hope. [Read more…]

The Right Stuff: Success Traits That Encourage Funding & Sales

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Do you have the right stuff to attract money, customers, and employees? It’s more than just having a good product or service. It’s about who you are and how you think.

Take this little 50 question self assessment and see.

Business Owner’s Success Traits Assessment

Don’t second guess yourself. Choose the answer that you most agree with.

The questions are based on the traits we have found are invaluable to building a successful business along with thoughts of experts E.M. Prince, author of 3 Financial Styles of Highly Successful Leaders, and Bernstein and Rozen, authors of Neanderthals at Work.

This is not meant to be statistically significant, just to get you thinking about your style of small business management from the 40,000 foot view.

Prospects will buy if they complete the 7-Step Buy- In Continuum™

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The hard road to success

The buy-in continuum™ is a hard road for any prospect — especially business prospects who have a lot to think about besides what you sell.

Before anyone buys anything, they have to complete their own buying or Buy-In Continuum™, process. This is true whether they are from the government, a non-profit, a consumer, or another business. From your point of view, you want them to accomplish this process and in a specific order. If they do, your sales cycle will shorten. It will result in a win-win for you both or you will be able to cull them as a prospect with a clear conscience that this was NOT the sale for you. [Read more…]

Stakeholders Gone Wild

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Stakeholders can be useful to you but can go wild as well. Photo by cone_dnm

Stakeholders can be useful to you but can go wild as well. Photo by cone_dnm

Stakeholders: can’t live without them and sometimes can’t live with them.

They are customers, providers, allies, employees, colleagues, the government, the media, competitors, influencers and many, many others. After reviewing a stakeholder map example that had 105 entries, I came up with at least 50 more. [Read more…]

What’s better for growth: a partner or a strategic alliance?

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Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino.

Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino.

Get a partner or set up a strategic alliance — which is better for your business growth? Many business owners want a “partner” to  share the load. Partners exert a lot of control no matter how little of the business they own. Use a strategic alliance instead to grow your business and  keep more control.

What is a Strategic Alliance?

“If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” Winston Churchill

The most accepted definition of a strategic alliance is that it’s “a formal or informal agreement between two or more individuals or entities to achieve a common goal”.

In 2005, companies reported that 18% of their revenue was generated through strategic alliances. The economy has changed but there are still thousands of alliances formed each year and are critical as we re-think business post COVID-19.

According to Ard-Pieter de Man and Dave Luvison, authors of Collaborative Business Models: Aligning and Operationalizing Alliances (from Business Horizons Volume 62, Issue 4, July–August 2019, Pages 473-482), “the big challenge is to align company interests with alliance interests”. This peer-reviewed article is definitely worth reading and thinking about especially for larger organizations.

It pays to know more and think more before deciding that a strategic alliance is right for you.

[Read more…]