Working all by your lonesome in your home office can often leave you feeling isolated. It’s important that you recognize there are countless resources designed to provide you with useful information, connect you with other professionals, help you solve common business problems and make you more profitable. And they’re all only a keypad away. Where can you find them? Right here.

Sites for the small business owner

These sites are designed specifically with the small business owner in mind. Here you can find helpful small business resources and access valuable guidelines and tips.

The Small Business Association. Their motto is “programs and services to help you start, grow and succeed.” The SBA is an independent agency of the federal government designed to promote the small business. With district offices across the nation, the SBA can help you access training, counseling, and other small business specialists. Their site also provides other valuable links.

The National Association for the Self-Employed. The NASE provides special member services to help you become a successful entrepreneur. They can provide you with the tools and resources that can save you time and money in your personal and professional life.

Accountants Who Blog. Blogging is a great way for professionals to share information and connect. This site provides you with a list of well-known blogging accountants.

Financial/Credit

Maintaining or building good credit is important for the small business owner. These resources are designed to do just that.

As a small business owner it’s important that you maintain good credit. There are three main credit reporting agencies that will help you check your standing and ensure that your identity isn’t violated by someone you do or don’t know. Visit Transunion, Experian, and Equifax to get your credit report or track your credit rating.

Better Business Bureau. Their mission is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. Dedicated to fostering fair and honest relationships between businesses and consumers, the BBB is supported by more than 300,000 local business members nationwide.

Medical/Insurance

We don’t have to tell you that medical insurance can be a grave concern for the small business owner. Here are a few resources that can help:

A.M. Best. A worldwide insurance-rating and information agency, A.M. Best provides users with valuable information about insurance companies in which they might be interested.

Med Advantage. One example of discount healthcare services.

YOURx PLAN. One example of discount prescription services.

Products/Services

If you’re like most accountants you depend on one or more software package to help you serve your clients. Here are a few product websites you might find useful:

QuickBooks Users. Go here to solve QuickBooks problems, connect with other users, and give and receive QuickBooks advice.

PeachTree Users. Go here to solve PeachTree problems, connect with other users, and give and receive PeachTree advice.

Universal Accounting Center Provides These and Many More Helpful Resources

These are just a few examples of helpful resources you’ll find at Universal Accounting Center. For more information like this, visit our Free Accounting and Tax Resources screen. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find even more links, including articles for your home-based accounting business as well as real estate, travel, and employment sites. We pride ourselves on helping accounting professionals like you succeed. This is just another way UAC is trying to make your job as a freelance accountant a little easier.

Have You Watched the Game Films?

Like a Football Coach Getting Ready for the Big Game - You Better Know Your Competition

Even if they don’t know you. You have to know your competition.

During the week, as the players on the field practice, the coach sits in the office, watching film from his next opponent’s previous game. He wants to know as much as he can about their strengths and weaknesses, when he can rush the quarterback and how good their defensive is. The coach needs to prepare for the “big game” as much as the players do.

The preparation the coach and the team do before the game often allows the underdog to win the big game. You’ll find the same holds true in your professional tax preparation business.

How to Learn More About Your Competition?

There are a lot of ways to find out more about your competitors. Let me share with you a few of them.

• Become one of their customers: Get a first-hand look at how they treat their customers and the types of services they offer. By becoming a customer, you’ll actually see how well they keep their promises and follow through. As you interact with your own clients, this becomes valuable information that is difficult to obtain any other way.
• Call and request information: If you don’t want to become a customer, you can call and request information as a potential customer. Find out how professional or amateurish they seem. If they produce any literature about their service or willingly offer pricing information over the phone or through the mail, this is great information to have. It helps you get a handle on how to position yourself as you prepare your pricing and literature. (But remember, many companies have caller-ID, so you might not want to call from your business phone.)
  
  
• Search their Web site: If they have a presence on the web, become familiar with what they say to their customers. You need to know their sales message as well as you know your own. If they offer a newsletter or other e-mail correspondence, sign-up. It’s a great way to find out what they are saying.
• Study the Yellow Pages: You may not find specific information about your competitors there, but you can get a handle on who your competitors are. It might surprise you to find that there aren’t as many as you think. Don’t overlook the Yellow Pages.
• Talk to current customers: Conduct a survey or send out a questionnaire to learn more about your competition. Most people welcome the opportunity to express what they like and don’t like. It’s human nature to want to offer help. Ask for it… and you’ll find people willing to offer advice and information all over the place.

“Knowledge Is the Fountain From Which Creativity Springs”
-Jay Conrad Levinson

Knowledge gives you power. With it, you get power to compete with other small businesses like your tax practice (and the big franchises too). By promoting your strengths and exploiting their weaknesses, your practice grows and generates the income and lifestyle you and your family deserve.

Demonstrate Your Expertise with QuickBooks

Become the expert. Mastery of the most popular accounting software used by small business owners makes you a valuable asset. Universal Accounting Center’s Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide to QuickBooks will train you how to use the tools provided by QuickBooks to work more efficiently and effectively.

Most small business owners lack a critical component to their financial success: a background in accounting. In fact, as they try to utilize the tools in QuickBooks, they are unable to take advantage of the complete functionality of their software, because they lack an understanding of the accounting process.

The QuickBooks Specialist Designation - A Universal Accounting Exclusive

Learning QuickBooks from the “Small Business Accounting Experts” just makes sense. Universal Accounting has taught small business bookkeeping and accounting for over 25 years. Who better to teach you the intricacies of how QuickBooks addresses the accounting process?

Don’t simply learn the software… learn accounting. You will not only learn how to enter data, you will learn to make sense of it all. With an understanding of what the financial data means, you can offer sound business advice that will positively affect any company’s bottom-line. Becoming a QuickBooks Specialist enables you to add QuickBooks setup, consultation, and help services to your menu, increasing your appeal and your bottom line.

With the Right Instruction, QuickBooks Mastery is Easy

As an accountant/bookkeeper, you already have the skills to master QuickBooks software quickly and easily. And the good news is that your current understanding of accounting basics will make your QuickBooks mastery more powerful. Its simple menus and screens make it a snap to get any business books into the computer right away. Of course, the more you understand the reports the software generates, the more valuable the data becomes as business owners make decisions that will affect their profitability.

The Right Tool to Ramp-Up Business Profits

QuickBooks’ easy-to-run reports make the most important financial facts about your business just a click or two away, such as:

• Cash on Hand.
• Accounts Payable.
• Accounts Receivable.
• Inventory Levels.
• Sales Reports.

Reports mean nothing without the expertise to interpret them. As a QuickBooks Specialist (QS), you’ll know how to use that information to make business decisions based upon sound accounting principles, principles that will make any business more profitable.

Becoming a QuickBooks Specialist is Essential

Anyone who wants to maximize their value as a small business profit expert will want complete mastery of QuickBooks. It’s the accounting tool used by more small business owners than any other and will make your bookkeeping and accounting business even more profitable.

If you order now, you’ll also get The Professional Bookkeepers Guild to Quickbooks, complementary program: QuickBooks Made Profitable. Don’t wait; order now and get these two amazing programs for one amazingly low price!

Universal Accounting Center is pleased to announce that the Accounting and Bookkeeping Tips Accounting Forum, is now open and available to everyone on the internet 24 hours a day. For those of you that are not familiar with this FREE service, it gives you the opportunity to share ideas, ask and answer questions, and communicate with other professionals in the accounting field. The Forum also offers you a place to comment, and share your knowledge with others. You may access the Forum at the Accounting and Bookkeeping Tips web site.

We are thrilled to offer this FREE service to you. We hope you will visit our Small Business Forum often. We know you benefit from it.

Public Speaking: How to Make an Impact

(Part Two of a Two-Part Series)

Last week we talked about how you can use public speaking as a powerful marketing tool. Unfortunately many people are terrified of public speaking. In fact, a large number are more afraid of public speaking than they are of death. Jerry Seinfeld once joked that when attending a funeral most would choose to be in the coffin rather than giving the eulogy. While it can definitely be a little intimidating to speak in front of a large group of people, it’s worth the free publicity. And sometimes just knowing how to prepare for a public event can put your mind at ease and make the task more approachable. Here are seven things to consider when preparing for your speech:

1. Know your audience
Regardless of the topic you choose, you should know a bit about your audience in order to cater the message to their interests and needs. When you discuss something that applies to their current situation and is useful, they’ll see that as a representation of your expertise and professional value; they will remember that when looking for an accountant.

2. Practice your delivery
Practice makes perfect, right? It can also calm your nerves to know you’ve practiced the speech before going public. And going through your speech will help you recognize problem spots that either don’t make sense or are difficult to say aloud. If possible, practice in front of a safe audience of family and/or friends who can give you feedback on your delivery.

3. Manage your nerves
First you must determine what you’re really afraid of. When it comes to public speaking most people are more afraid of the public than they are of the speaking. There are some who equate public speaking with performing while it’s really just a form of communication; if you find yourself experiencing performance-anxiety, changing your perspective may be all it takes. Again, practicing can help calm your nerves, as can visiting the event locale, getting enough rest before the event, and doing some deep breathing exercises before you deliver your speech.

4. Win ‘em over
Studies show that you generally have three minutes to win over your audience. It takes that much time for them to size you up and determine whether or not you’re worth listening to. That’s why you must pay special attention to those first few minutes of your speech. Are they engaging? Applicable? Humorous? Or perhaps, poignant?

5. Involve the audience
Some are afraid to ask the audience questions because they expect no response. The truth is, people like to talk. They appreciate the opportunity to contribute and share their two-cents. And the more you involve them, the more invested they’ll be in your presentation.

6. Make eye-contact
Whatever you do, don’t read from a stack of note cards without looking up to connect with your audience. If possible, it’s also good to move around a little bit, although avoid pacing back and forth; that will make everyone nervous.

7. Be Yourself
The most important thing is for you to be yourself. Relax, be personable and don’t do anything that feels uncomfortable or unnatural. You’ll find that this one tip, in and of itself, will help the audience warm up to you more than any other.

Once you give a speech or two you’ll find that it’s not as frightening as it once was. In fact, you may surprise yourself and discover that you actually like it. Either way, you’ll promote your business by leaving a powerful impression. And all this for free!

What are the Benefits?

Many large CPA firms are going paperless, using document management software to scan and store business documents. But going paperless provides benefits that many small businesses don’t currently appreciate. How much time and money could your business save by going paperless? It’s probably more than you realize.

The Benefits

Here are a few ways document management software can make your business more manageable and, perhaps, more productive and profitable.

A more intuitive system for accessing files
Many firms go paperless by scanning business documents and filing them using the Windows system that was included in their computer package. Unfortunately, that’s like shoving all your files into one filing cabinet (i.e. the C drive). It doesn’t enable you to find what you need with grace and ease. A document management system allows you to pull the files you want with one simple command, saving you a significant amount of time.

Workflow automation
This isn’t a big payoff for small businesses, especially those that are one-accountant practices. But for larger firms that involve more than two or three individuals in the accounting process, document management software enables them to handoff documents in a timely manner, seamlessly passing them from one responsible party to the next.

Annotation capabilities
Many are weary of going paperless simply because they like the tangible nature of paper and are in the habit of annotating their documents. Document management software allows you to make notes on the electronic file with checkmarks and stamps. In an article called “Paperless Payoffs,” published in this year’s June issue of Accounting Technology, John Higgins, cofounder of CPA Crossings, explained, “When you go paperless, you also go pencil-less. That’s where people run into challenges. They’re accustomed to making notes on files. You’ve got to make those notes electronically.”

Retention policies
It can be a headache to manage all those files you are required to keep for a certain number of years. Document management software will manage those files for you, keeping them long enough to comply with regulations and then deleting them once that time has expired.

Training and security features
Obviously you want a system that will protect all those valuable files. Document management software can do that while allowing clients to view their information in an independent and secure manner, saving you the time required to send email updates.

An economical and convenient solution
Not only will document management software save you in office supply costs, but consider all those tasks that it can streamline for you, saving you time and money.

And a good example of how convenient it can be is illustrated in the paperless Law Office of Adam Spence as reported by the Baltimore Business Journal. Spence believes his paperless office edges out the competition. He said, “Opposing counsel usually walks in with big boxes and files full of paper; I walk in with my laptop. Clients see the difference and they experience the difference.” Imagine what it would be like to take your filing cabinet with you wherever you go: to meet with a client, out of town on business, or waiting to pick your child up from soccer practice.

Hopefully you see the countless benefits your business can experience by going paperless. But how do you do it? Join us next week when we present part two of this series on the Paperless Office and discuss the paperless process.

References
DeFelice, Alexandra. “Paperless Payoffs: Rewards from Document Management Systems.” Accounting Technology. June, 2007: 19-26.

Graham, Scott. “A Small Firm’s Approach to Competition - Go Paperless.” Baltimore Business Journal. 24 Feb. 2006.

Public Speaking: One Pathway to a More Profitable Business

(Part One of a Two-Part Series)

Wouldn’t you love to demonstrate your knowledge and skill before a captive audience of potential clients? Doing so can build your client roster, get you lots of free publicity, and, possibly, score you some pocket change.

Public speaking, while intimidating to some, can be another pathway to a more profitable business. But there are some things you should remember in order to make your speaking engagements compelling enough to secure new clients. Here are four of them.

1. Picking a Speaking Venue
You’d be surprised at how many speaking opportunities exist in your area. You’ll want to pick local venues where you can capture your target market. Promote yourself on your website and/or blog, making people aware of this new “service” you offer. Many organizations are looking for individuals to speak during lunch or dinner meetings, for trade associations, professional societies, or civic, community, and business groups. Look for events intended for the small business owner. You’ll find that once you give a few speeches, your name will become familiar and you’ll get invited to speak more and more. And at each event you’ll have a captive audience becoming familiar with your name and the services you offer.

2. Picking a Topic
The topic must be related to the services you provide. This is a great opportunity to provide the audience with useful information while demonstrating your accounting expertise. As you prepare your speech, do a little research on your audience. What information would they appreciate? How could you appeal to them and perhaps relate to their common concerns? And lastly, it’s important to realize that you’re not being asked to perform an infomercial, so avoid droning on and on about your business.

3. Delivering Your Speech
For many of us, this is the tricky part. Some are deathly afraid of public speaking, but there are ways you can remedy that and next week we’ll discuss some important tips on managing your nerves and delivering an outstanding speech. For now it’s important to note that no one scheduled you expecting a standup comedian, so don’t feel obligated to keep your audience rolling in the aisles. Focus on relaxing and being yourself. The best thing you could do is project a friendly, approachable demeanor that will resonate with your audience and help them remember your name and the services you offer.

4. Selling Your Business
Remember how we told you that your speech is not an infomercial? While you should mention your name and specialty within your speech, you should avoid turning it into your own personal marketing platform. But bring plenty of business cards and stick around long enough to chat with members of the audience. Be gracious, answer their questions, and request their business cards in return. All those in attendance are potential clients or may refer potential clients your way. Another good way to be remembered is in giving everyone a handout that includes the main points from your speech as well as your contact information.

While public speaking can be a little intimidating, after your first few appearances you’ll find yourself become more comfortable with the attention; the practice will help you improve your delivery and in the end you’ll find that the number of people you’re contacting is well worth a bad case of nerves.

Come back next week when we’ll be discussing “Public Speaking: How to Make an Impact.”

10 Valuable Tips and Techniques

Last week we talked about the four elements you must attend to when managing a project: resources, timeline, scope, and budget. While you don’t necessarily have to manage each project as rigorously as many corporate teams do, you can benefit from some of the tips and techniques project managers use. Here are ten things they do to ensure successful completion of a project:

1. Return to the mission statement and objectives often
Every major project has a mission statement and coordinating objectives. These are to help remind you of the project’s importance, enabling you to focus your efforts as the team moves through critical tasks. You should return to these often and remind yourself (and your team) of what you’re trying to accomplish.

2. Don’t schedule tasks longer than six weeks
Tasks that long will be difficult to manage and will most likely slow the team down. Tasks longer than six weeks can generally be broken into smaller tasks.

3. Closely monitor critical tasks
Critical tasks are those that absolutely must be completed in order for the project to be successful. You must continually monitor these tasks in order to ensure that the project will be completed according to your timeline.

4. Ensure team members start tasks as quickly as possible
Because you assign start dates to tasks you’ll often have team members who wait until those dates arrive before they start working on tasks. However, starting tasks as soon as possible is the best way to buy extra time and complete a project early. Closely manage your team members to remind them to start their tasks as quickly as possible.

5. Pad your deadlines
It’s important to give yourself amble time to complete tasks. Assigning unrealistic deadlines will only cause unnecessary stress and tension among team members. When possible, pad your deadlines with extra time.

6. Hold regular team meetings
To maintain team morale and keep everyone focused on the project’s importance, you should hold regular team meetings. This is where you talk about questions and concerns team members may have.

7. Watch for obstacles
If you’re not careful your project may run into an obstacle you haven’t planned for. You need to be on the lookout and prepare for obstacles with contingency plans.

8. Determine milestones
Determining milestones can help you mark your progress as you move through the project. They will enable you to assess your success.

9. Have deliverables for every milestone
A good way to determine your milestones is to find points within the project that have deliverables, or tangible pieces to the project. For example, if you’re setting up the books for a new client, one deliverable may be the payroll.

10. Meet to evaluate the project after it’s been completed
The best way to learn from a project is to meet at the completion to determine how successful the experience was. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t take the time to acknowledge them. And you also can’t note the accomplishments if you don’t take the time to celebrate them. You’ll find that projects become easier the more you follow this process.

You don’t have to apply the principles of project management perfectly in order to enjoy the benefits. Pick and choose which tips and techniques feel comfortable to you, and see how they improve your internal processes. Your newfound efficiency and productivity may surprise you.

Resources, Timeline, Scope, and Budget

While you may not have been trained in project management, and you may not have long-standing projects that need rigorous attending, every small business owner can benefit from a basic understanding of project management. You have certain tasks that must be completed every month in order for your clients to get the information they need. And to do that you must juggle a handful of priorities and know what needs to accomplished and in what order. Project management can help you better tackle those tasks in a more timely and efficient way.

There are four elements you must consider when managing projects: resources, time, scope, and budget. In this article we will describe each in detail.

Resources
These are the things you can use to help you accomplish the project. Your resources can come in the form of employees, equipment and materials. If you’re a one-person show, this aspect may be fairly easy to manage. If not, you need to attend to your employees’ schedules to ensure they understand which projects they should be working on and when. This requires a fair amount of training and communication. Your employees should know their deadlines and report to you (or an appointed manager) when then they have completed their tasks. Otherwise, you may have expectations that your employees are unable to fulfill simply because they are unaware of them.

Scope
To determine the scope of a project you must look at all that is required to complete it. Underestimating the scope is one of the biggest deterrents to completing a project on time and on budget. It’s important to break a project down into critical tasks. Once you look at all those crucial tasks you can determine scope, and more adequately map out a timeline.

Time
In order to complete projects in a timely manner you must assign each critical task a timeline. Often this is where project managers experience the most difficulty. People are often too optimistic when determining how long it will take them to complete tasks. Often this is because they misunderstand the project’s scope and don’t allow enough time to account the critical tasks. It’s important to be realistic as you determine a timeline for your project. Provide yourself and your employees with a time buffer when completing especially difficult or complicated tasks. When dealing with time you must remember the following:

Tasks. We already talked about the importance of breaking a project down into individual tasks. Ask yourself how long it will take to complete them, who will be responsible for them, and what needs to happen before you or an employee can even begin a particular task.

Schedule. In order to create a timeline you must associate tasks with individual deadlines. As you do so you must determine how to order all these tasks chronologically.

Critical Path. As you order your tasks you’ll recognize those that are critical to the completion of a project, also called critical tasks. When creating a critical path you must determine how long each of these critical tasks will take; this can help you determine how quickly you can actually complete the overall project. Any extra time you include will prolong your timeline.

Budget
Obviously the budget determines how much it will cost to complete the project. As you account for the time employees will spend on individual tasks and any other resources that will be used (including your billable hours), you can determine how much it will cost you to complete the project. In this respect you can estimate how much you should charge your client for these services.

While it may sound as if project management will require a lot of time and energy on your part, you can determine how rigorously you want to manage your projects. Whatever you decide, taking the time to analyze each of these elements as they apply to your workload will help you better manage your day-to-day activities, and may, in the end, make you more productive. Come back next week when we will discuss important project management tips.

The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get. -Anonymous

As a working professional you recognize the importance of power-dressing in order to make a positive impression on clients, colleagues, and/or superiors. Consider the importance of creating a power-office-one that emits a powerful impression that both impresses visitors and inspires staff.

James Ball, president and CEO of The Goals Institute, wrote an article entitled “How to Nurture a Professional Work Environment” published on SmartPros website. In it he said, “When we tolerate unacceptable behavior and do not say or do anything to correct it, we inadvertently establish a new, lower standard of acceptability. . . . It extends to every aspect of our work and lives. When we accept mediocre or sub-standard work or results and do not require that they be brought up to acceptable levels, we inadvertently lower our standards of acceptable quality and performance. Because we took no action, it must be acceptable, right?” In other words, he explains, you get what you expect.

There are ways you can establish high expectations and communicate them effectively to your staff. Last week we discussed three ways this can be accomplished:

1. Establish rules
2. Practice professionalism and provide teaching moments
3. Model respect

This week we will cover three final tips on fostering a professional work environment.

4. Provide positive reinforcement and subtle reminders
Now that you’ve established some rules it should be your priority to enforce them. The best way to do so is to give positive reinforcement and subtle reminders. If you tolerate noncompliance what you’re really communicating to your employees is that these rules aren’t that important to you. The best way to encourage professionalism is to compliment specific instances exhibited by employees. Positive reinforcement, especially when offered publically, can be very effective. And taking the opportunity to remind employees of your expectations is another good way to enforce those rules of professionalism. Using the terms professional and professionalism are subtle reminders as is sharing examples of office professionalism when you see them.

5. Invest in a comfortable and professional work environment
If your office decor consists of neon shag carpet and overstuffed beanbags, you’re certain to get a reaction from your clients; it just won’t be a good one. The furniture you invest in can enhance the level of professionalism in your work environment. When your employees recognize your dedication to providing them and clients with a comfortable and professional space they will be more likely to act accordingly. And when you go to lengths to provide a pleasant work environment for employees they will better appreciate your concern and respect for them.

6. Create opportunities for growth and advancement
A professional business offers employees opportunities for growth and advancement. Whether that comes through offering personal development opportunities, employee benefits or other incentives, you employees will be more inclined to act professionally when they realize they will be rewarded for it.

A professional work environment can go a long way in elevating your reputation. The more polished your office the better it reflects on your services. And the higher your expectations for your employees the more likely they will be to meet and exceed them. And everyone benefits from that.

References
Ball, James R. “How to Nurture a Professional Culture in Your Organization in Three Steps.” July 2007 Accounting.SmartPros.com