January, 2017

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What Percentage of Small Businesses Fail? (And Other Similar Stats You Need to Know)

Fundera

If you’re a wannabe entrepreneur gearing up to start a business or you’ve just recently opened your doors, there’s a lot of uncertainty ahead of you. You can’t be sure how your product will evolve, who your first employee will be, or if you’ll even make it through the many challenges of entrepreneurship. If you’re wondering what percentage of small businesses fail, we don’t blame you.

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Help business clients use technology to improve cash flow

Abrigo

As anyone advising business owners knows, clients are often so busy with day-to-day operations and management that they find it tough to gain a big-picture view of certain financial aspects, such as cash flow. That’s one way the advisor adds true value to the relationship: By helping the business owner see the forest in spite of the trees and by showing the owner what’s possible with a few minor changes.

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The ideal client: Part 1 - Getting the balance right

GoCardless

Every firm will have good and bad clients - what’s important is getting the balance right. Sometimes there’s more value in focusing on the right client type. We show you how.

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Want Free Money? Check Out This List of 108 Small Business Grants

Fundera

“Free money.” If you’re starting or running a business, nothing sounds better. Sadly, there’s no such thing…. Unless you count small business grants. Unlike business loans , grants don’t need to be repaid, so there’s no worry over term length, interest rates, APR, or refinancing. You just need to qualify, and boom—free money. There are two caveats, though.

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Bookkeeping for Small Business: The Basics to Start You Out

Fundera

In the beginning, bookkeeping for small business was traditionally defined as simply entering your financial transactions. If this is still your definition of bookkeeping for small business, you may just be living in the dark ages. There are very few financial transactions to enter anymore. Where Is Bookkeeping for Small Business Now? When I go to dinner with a client or a prospect, I hand over my debit or credit card.

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Online Bookkeeping: The Absolute Best Option for Keeping Track of Your Finances

Fundera

I’m writing this from the plane—35,000 feet high, on a Delta flight from Detroit to Tampa—and my clients have no idea that I’m going to be gone for 11 days. Why not, you ask? The answer is this: online bookkeeping. This post isn’t about the different options for online accounting software ; I’m going to talk to you about why choosing to do online bookkeeping is the best option for any small business.

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41 Small Business Quotes to Get You Through the Toughest Days

Fundera

Any small business owner knows that entrepreneurship has its highs and lows. One week you’re in control of everything—customers are happy, sales are good, and cash flow is strong. The next week, things go south—your computers crash, your Yelp page gets a bad review, or you take an unexpected hit in sales volume. It’s a mixed bag. And when you hit those low points of entrepreneurship, sometimes you need a little encouragement to keep going.

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Make Your Card Work for You: The Best Business Rewards Credit Cards

Fundera

Choosing a business credit card for your company is an exciting moment. Yes, you’ll have to make a few less-than-thrilling decisions before you sign on the dotted line—like whether you want a business credit card or a business charge card, or whether you can stomach an annual fee. But here’s where the real excitement comes in: choosing the best business rewards credit card for your company.

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The 14 Small Business Trends That Will Define 2017 for Entrepreneurs

Fundera

Watching small business trends year after year shows us just how dynamic the small business space is. When it comes to small business trends, entrepreneurs need to stay on their toes—ready for any new technology or shift in demand that will affect their businesses. Now that we’re in a new year, what can small business owners expect to see in 2017? We reached out to top entrepreneurs, experts, and business advisors to see what small business trends they think will define entrepreneurship and smal

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The 5 Most Profitable Industries for Small Business Owners in 2017

Fundera

Some people are just born to be entrepreneurs. They’ve got a streak of independence that makes them absolutely determined to succeed on their own. But for many wanna-be entrepreneurs, it can difficult to decide exactly what kind of business would be the best choice. It’s tough to find that perfect idea! If you’re determined to start your own business, you probably know at least these two things for sure: you want to be your own boss, and you want to make a profit.

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The 22 Most Affordable Home Business Ideas

Fundera

Currently in the United States, around 3.7 million self-employed people consider their home to also be their place of business. And you might not find it surprising that 80%-90% of the U.S. workforce admits that they’d like to work remotely at least part-time. Working from home—wherever that means for you—has grown in popularity over the past decade, and it’s not difficult to figure out why.

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19 Entrepreneurs Spill on the Worst Business Advice They’ve Ever Received

Fundera

Whether you’re a first-time entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, you’re never short of small business advice. Both invited and unsolicited, small business wisdom from friends, family, fellow entrepreneurs, or down-right strangers always comes your way. Good small business advice can be a godsend for an entrepreneur—the nugget of wisdom that moves the needle for your business or leads you in a different, more promising direction.

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Your Quick and Dirty Guide to Accurate Cash Flow Projections

Fundera

Believe it or not, you can make a profit and still go out of business. Let me say it again: You can make a profit and still go out of business. Wait, what? How? Why? It makes no sense, right. But this is something all bookkeepers know can be true (and many business owners learn first hand, sadly). What are some cases this can occur? By carrying too much debt on the books, for example.

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Free Google Products Every Business Owner Should Take Advantage Of

Fundera

Maximizing income is top-of-mind for every small business owner, but if you’re paying for software or apps to help run your business, you could be throwing money away. Google offers several products that can help you do more, market better, and attract more customers—all for free. Here are 10 free Google products every business owner should take advantage of. 1.

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The Income Statement: What It Is and How to Prepare One Like a Pro

Fundera

When you’re running a business, your income statement (a.k.a. your profit and loss statement , a.k.a. “How much money did I make?” statement) is the financial statement you’re most familiar with. But how familiar are we really? It’s a really simple statement, right? Profit – Expenses = Net Income. But wait! There are more ways of looking at this!

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How Loyalty Programs Easily Create and Retain Repeat Customers

Fundera

Consider this: You can’t put a price tag on loyalty, but you can figure out how much loyalty is worth. As a small business owner, you probably can think of a few customers who you’d consider VIPs—they come in often, they spend a lot, and you know they choose you over your competitors. But just how big is your loyal following, and how can you maximize their impact while encouraging others to join their ranks?

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3 top tech trends for public accountants to watch in 2017

Abrigo

Kimberley N. Ellison-Taylor, chairman of the AICPA , recently noted that technology tops her list of the most important trends shaping 2017 because it will drive so many of the profession’s opportunities and challenges in the year ahead. But how are accountants supposed to keep up with all of the technological trends ? To be certain, many accountants could make a full-time job out of simply trying to understand the various types of technology that can make their personal lives easier and their p

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Bookkeeper vs. Accountant: Which You Should Hire for Your Small Business?

Fundera

You’re at the point in your business that you know you need help with your accounting. You need advice about recordkeeping, legal structure, funding , and how to minimize your tax liability. Your insurance broker tells you that you need a bookkeeper to help you get organized, but your banker is telling you to hire a CPA. Choosing the right accounting professional will be one of the most important decisions you make for your business, but how do you decide between a bookkeeper vs. accountant, and

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The Ultimate Short List of Awesome Tools to Automate Your Work Day

Fundera

Time is every small business owner’s most precious commodity. Fortunately, there are more solutions than ever to help us make the most of the 24 hours a day we’re given to start, manage, and scale our small businesses. Here are 10 of the best. 1. Toggl. The first step to managing your time is seeing how you’re spending it, and this super-simple time tracking tool can help.

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11 Accounting Tools Every Small Business Needs

Fundera

Every small business could use a great suite of accounting tools to help them out. Let’s face it: Unless you’re a mathlete, accounting can be the most boring part of running your own small business. From meticulously tracking expenses to figuring out personal and business taxes, and everything in between, plenty of entrepreneurs find the financial side of things to be dull or frustrating, compared to the exciting bootstrapping of owning a small business.

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Here’s Everything You Need to Understand About Your Statement of Cash Flows

Fundera

When you run a small business, you wear many hats—including finance manager. But although you may manage your business’s finances, you might not be an expert. Our new weekly series will break down the most popular financial terms, documents, methods, and more that your business needs to know. To kick things off, let’s get to know more about your statement of cash flows.

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Help clients boost enterprise value by building collaborative decision-making

Abrigo

By Rich Greene, CEO - Director, Clarus Advisors How a company interacts internally to overcome obstacles is a key to building and expanding the enterprise value of the organization. Is there an inclusive process to review, anticipate and plan for changes and disruptions in the business and marketplace? Or a process to evaluate results? Is the process defined and routine, or ad hoc?

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Pay or Delay? What to Do With Your Small Business Taxes in 2017

Fundera

Small business owners, how much do you know about taxes ? You know that your tax return is due April 15th, right? Of course, if you need more time, you or your accountant could file for an extension for October 15th. But what about paying your small business taxes? Have you paid Uncle Sam on time throughout the year? Or have you delayed payment? If it’s the latter, you might want to make a New Year’s resolution to pay your taxes on time.

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Get These 3 Incredible Business Credit Card Offers Before They’re Gone

Fundera

Business credit card offers made quite a splash in 2016, and some of the best credit card offers are set to expire in the coming days. Which of the business credit card offers should you snag before they’re up? Check out these 3 incredible offers you don’t want to miss. 1. The Enhanced Business Platinum Card from American Express: 100,000 Point Bonus.

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Choosing a Payroll System: 8 Factors to Help You Decide

Fundera

If you’ve decided you want to use software to run your business’s payroll, you might worry about the difficulty of choosing a payroll system. To weed through the many services out there, you need to know what to look for. Choosing a payroll system can be easier than you think if you pay attention to key factors. Take a look at these tips to help you pick the best payroll system for your small business.

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Small Business Licenses: A Checklist of Everything You Need to Know

Fundera

When you’re gearing up to start your own small business, a lot of exciting tasks need to get done: locking down your perfect business idea , choosing your business’s name, getting the word out, financing startup costs , and so on. With all the exciting to-dos on your starting-a-business checklist , it’s easy to push aside the more tedious tasks that need to get done before your opening day.

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Here’s How These Restaurants Survived Their First Year in Business

Fundera

Small businesses endure notoriously small margins of error. The lack of a distinctive product, a failure to effectively communicate with their customer base, and ineffective leadership with half-cooked business models result in a 25% failure rate within the first year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor. Still, those figures are the envy of the restaurant industry , where saturated markets and profit margins that hover around 10% often spell doom for even the most refined providers of haute c

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The SBA’s 2017 InnovateHER Challenge: How to Get in on the $70,000 Prize

Fundera

The Small Business Administration has always been a champion of women entrepreneurship. With its Women Business Centers, specific small business loans for women , the Office of Women’s Business Ownership , and countless other SBA resources for women , the government agency continues to empower female small business owners year after year. Forging ahead on their mission, the SBA just launched the 2017 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge earlier this week.

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6 Tricks to Get to Profitability Faster

Fundera

“Hopefully, my business will be profitable one day.”. Most business owners think of profitability as an event that will happen “someday.” They are hopeful that one day, if things go just right, their business will support them and they will be able to live the coveted entrepreneurial lifestyle. This sort of thinking makes profitability seem unattainable and mysterious, when in fact profitability can be attained by implementing a series of tricks and positive habits.

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How to Stay Out of Trouble With the IRS

Fundera

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again … tax season. If you’ve already begun the filing process, good for you! Most Americans wait until the first week of April to even begin thinking about filing, so you’re saving yourself a lot of panic down the road. And because you’re already ahead of the game, there’s no reason to stop the momentum now.