Estate Planning And The Importance Of Making Decisions Your Own
By The importance of having an up-to-date estate plan in place cannot be overstated. Unfortunately for many, the decision to put an estate plan in place often never materializes until the experience of a life altering event, such as marriage or the birth of a child. All too often, people fail to put an estate plan in place leaving extremely important and personal decisions about the distribution of estate assets, guardianship for minor children and decisions affecting life sustaining medical treatment to others who may have little or no knowledge about the personal affairs. The decisions mentioned above could certainly be …
Jumpstart Your Web Site To Increase Profits
Every Web site has the potential to bring in customers that you may not otherwise see.
There are two common questions I receive when first speaking with business owners about creating or improving their Web sites. The first question is: “There are already numerous Web sites regarding my product or service; therefore, how will anyone even find mine online?” The second question is: “My competition is receiving millions of hits to their Web sites—how can my site receive that many hits?”
The first question has many answers. Your Web site can be found via search engines, word-of-mouth, links on other …
Irrationally Rational
If we are going to turn these economic times into an opportunity, maybe we need to be irrationally…rational.
As a business owner, you currently find yourself in trying times. As such, do you bury your head in the sand and hope the storm will blow over, or do you take action and try to turn it into an advantage? If you plan to turn these economic times into an opportunity, then you must be willing to take a sober look at the playing field you find yourself on and how you have been conducting your operations. You must be willing …
Because I’ve Always Done It That Way
Approximately 90% of 3rd and 4th generation businesses fail. Why?
“I’ve always done it that way” is a phrase commonly used by many owners of both small and large businesses. I’m sure you have uttered those same words in response to being questioned as to why you do something a certain way. “I’ve always done it that way” is a great response for when you don’t have the answer and, when spoken firmly enough, the person asking the question accepts this response. Use the phrase often enough and you will begin to believe it yourself.
The reality of that particular …
The ABC’s Of The AMT
Why have an alternative minimum tax?
It is difficult to imagine a time when wealthy families did not pay any federal income tax. Instead of paying the U.S. Treasury like the rest of us, these families paid for high-priced legal advice, as well as the services of big accounting firms and other financial advisors, to develop slick strategies that hid money and income where the IRS could neither find nor tax the assets and earnings.
By the late 1960s, the U.S. Congress peeked out from under its see-no-evil blindfold and stopped all the winking and nodding, enacting laws to create …
Leave It To An Expert
As the economy tightens and oil prices rise…most business owners are looking in every crack to try and find money that may be wasted.
Similar to many Americans, they are always trying to find “the deal.” Big savings, whether found on the Internet or through the “little guy,” usually seem too good to pass up. But when it comes to insurance, what appears to be too good to be true usually is! Today, the Internet offers increasing amounts of information on everything from workers’ compensation to health insurance. However, be careful when searching for insurance coverage on the Internet, as …
Maximize Charitable Donations
Choosing a reputable, non-profit organization helps guarantee the gift will be used wisely.
Once contractors reach a certain level of success, they often consider contributing to charitable organizations. Owners may wish to give back to their communities, support a cause they feel strongly about or improve their company’s image.
Whatever the motivation, it’s important to select both the charity and the donation with care. Choosing a reputable, non-profit organization helps guarantee the gift will be used wisely. Planning the type of donation and how it’s made will help your company maximize its tax advantages, improve its bottom line and allow …
Coming Into A Windfall
As the “Boomers” are coming of age, the possibilities of financial windfalls have never been greater. Coming into money can be a life-altering event regardless of the circumstances surrounding the situation.
Whether your windfall is thousands or millions of dollars, wise planning can make those dollars work to improve your family’s financial future for this generation and for generations to come.
Take a moment to ask yourself a few important questions:
- “What does wealth mean to me?”
- “Am I a saver or a spender?”
- “Do I live above or below my means?”
- “What is my opinion regarding debt?”
The receipt …
Protect Your Legacy
Procrastination – it is characterized as the deferment or avoidance of an action or task to a later time. If you procrastinate on your duty to clean out the garage, the result is a cluttered and dirty space. If you procrastinate on the reviewing and updating of your tax plan, you are costing yourself money. Writing checks to the IRS becomes a painful reminder of that procrastination. If those quarterly checks don’t motivate you, what will?
Would you like to split up to half of your accumulated wealth with the government, jeopardize the future viability of the family business, …
EBITDA
By 
EBITDA – Frankenstein math for the naive and uninformed.
EBITDA is not the “be-all and end-all” it’s purported to be. In fact, when applied as a single measure of financial performance or value, EBITDA has many inadequacies. Naive and uninformed individuals indiscriminately use EBITDA for whatever purpose they desire, and worse yet, they use deceptive accounting techniques to create mathematical monstrosities as a substitute for sound financial analysis. These individuals do not understand EBITDA’s two basic deficiencies: 1) EBITDA does not equal cash flow; and 2) EBITDA is not a standalone multiple of valuation analysis.
What is EBITDA?
EBITDA is …