Business Strategies

The New Deduction for Qualified Business Income
One of the most complex and impactful provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill of 2017 (TCJB) is the new deduction for Qualified Business Income (QBI) (Internal Revenue § 199A). In general, for tax years beginning after 2017, a deduction is allowed for 20 percent of the taxpayer’s income from pass-through entities (partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations) and sole proprietorships. This deduction applies to taxable years 2018-2025. The QBI deduction is not a deduction for Adjusted Gross Income (page 1 of Form 1040) not an itemized deduction. Rather, the QBI deduction is deducted FRM adjusted gross income, but is not an itemized deduction.

What is a Qualified Business?
QBI must be derived from a qualified business, which includes businesses conducted as a sole proprietor and flow through income from partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations. It does not include performance of services by an employee. A qualified trade or business does not include specified services trades or businesses. These are defined as performance in the services of health, law, accounting, actuarial sciences, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services or any business where the principal asset is the reputation of an employee or owner. Note that income earned by architects and engineers is from a qualified trade or business.
This exclusion does not apply to specified service trades or businesses if taxable income of the taxpayer does not exceed $315,000 (married filing joint) or $157,000 (others). These amounts will be indexed for inflation in future years. The exclusion is phased out above these limits on a prorate basis over a $100,000 (joint) or $50,000 (others) range.

What is Not Qualified Business Income? 
QBI does not include investment income, guaranteed payments to partners or payments paid to a partner in a capacity other than serving as a partner. It also does not include reasonable compensation paid to an owner and income earned in foreign countries.

For an extended review of the New Tax Law, read the full article HERE in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

The Urban Dictionary defines a “workation” as anytime you bring work material, laptops, paperwork or keep meetings in an attempt to “keep up” during personal or vacation time. The secondary definition is when you have to take a trip for work and you escape your home and family life for a few days and it feels like a vacation. The Online Slang Dictionary defines it as a paid work trip that can be combined with aspects of taking a vacation.

Never heard of the term before? See how the popularity of a workation can work for you or your employees.

Planning To Work Remotely
There is a big difference between taking your work on vacation to finish up something before a deadline and planning to take your work on vacation. Having to take your work on vacation only ruins your vacation and often you don’t get paid for the time you are working. A workation is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than sitting in your office surrounded by four walls and mountains of distractions, a workation allows you to go to a vacation destination and take your work with you. You can still attend meetings remotely, make video calls and finish projects. You pay for your trip while getting paid to work at a new location. Sometimes a change of view is all you need to improve productivity, mindset and work product.
In another type of workation, some larger companies may send their employees to a vacation destination and offer seminars, trainings, conferences and other events in other cities or countries. Usually these companies see to it that the employees work during office hours, leaving evenings and weekends free for the employee to enjoy and explore the destination. Here the company pays for the trip as well as for the work the employee does while there.
But why would you want to take a workation instead of a regular vacation? And how would this work for you as a small business owner?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Workations
Like every work option, workations have their pros and cons. Let’s take a look at each of those before delving into how your small business can make this work for yourself or your employees.

Pros:

• A workation allows you to step out of your normal work/life routine and enjoy work and leisure at a distant location.
• It gives you flexibility and helps you maintain a good work/life balance, allowing you to spend quality time with family members during your off hours.
• You gain an experience of international communication and experience if you desire.
• Personal enjoyment along with work improves efficiency.
• A workation gives you a change of scenery without using precious vacation days.
• You get to enjoy a fun new place or spend time with far-off loved ones during your lunches, nights and weekends.
• You don’t have to deal with the stress of preparing for, missing and recovering from a week off work.

To see the disadvantages of a workcation and what it can mean for your small business, read the full story HERE in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Consumers aren’t the only victims of fraud. As long as there have been businesses, there have been a number of scams that have affected them, from directory and invoice scams to the bigger threat of data breaches today due to technology advancements. Everyone has heard about the large data breaches that recently affected large retailers such as Target, Home Depot and Neiman Marcus. But many small business owners don’t understand how fraud and scams could end up hurting their bottom line and don’t take necessary measures in order to protect themselves. In addition, new businesses may not have the resources they need in order to protect themselves.

Small business owners should be aware of the different types of fraud so they can better protect themselves, their employees and their bottom lines. The threat to your business data and your customer information should put your business on high alert for protecting what is your most valuable resource-your information. Protecting business information itself-corporate secrets, banking information, accounts receivable/payable, customer information-is imperative. The Federal Trade Commission has stated it is a business’s responsibility to provide security for their systems that will protect their consumer information. It’s critical to spend the time and the dollars to hire a forensics IT person to go through your computer system and check it for every possible way a hacker could use to get through it and providing a block and firewall to stop them. Continually review your security measures as hackers revise their methods. Here are some of the most common deceptive business practices.

Phony Invoices
For years, Better Business Bureau has head from businesses who receive fake invoices demanding payments for products or services that they never ordered or received. Sometimes it’s passed along to accounts payable because the amount is low enough that it doesn’t initially raise a red flag. It’s important to have a system in place to match your purchase orders to your invoices and then make sure you are paying the right people. Sometimes, phony invoices are disguised as solicitations. The business will receive an invoice that looks like you are renewing an online directory listing or an ad in the Yellow Pages, even when you don’t have any of those listings. When you look at the “invoice” closer, there is fine print at the bottom which is actually a solicitation for your to participate in one of these activities. Look carefully at bills because a fake invoice can look legitimate and you might accidentally pay for it.

Directory Scams
A problem that has plagued businesses for decades involves deceptive sales for directories. Commonly, the scammer will call the business claiming they want to update the company’s information for an online directory or the business owner will receive an “online directory” renewal notice. Scammers are counting on the fact that business owners are busy and will make these notices appear legitimate, local or industry-targeted. Keep a list of the directories you are published in and evaluate the values of those directories on an annual basis.

Stolen Identity
Here, scammers pretend to be a legitimate company for the purposes of ripping off consumers. When it comes to stolen identity, the company doesn’t necessarily lose money, but their reputation is potentially tarnished as angry customers who were ripped of by the scammers think the real company is responsible. They may set up a fake website and “hijack” your company address.

The scams don’t stop here! Read about the many scams that can affect your business HERE in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

David Smitherman has been the President and CEO of Better Business Bureau serving Central and South Alabama since 2006. He leads the state’s largest business ethics organization, providing education and information to businesses and consumers statewide.

Publishing a book used to be an accomplishment strictly reserved for career writers or the intellectually elite. However, with the digital age making the process of writing and publishing a book more attainable, this goal is finding its way onto more and more bucket lists.

In the business world, publishing a book can bring credibility to your expertise in a given area and open many doors of opportunity. If you are passionate about a topic and enjoy putting pen to paper, publishing a book could be well within your reach.

Do You Have An Audience?
It doesn’t matter how great a book is if no one reads it. Before you invest your heart and soul into writing a book, consider who is going to read it. Are you someone that people will be excited to hear from? Do you have a blog following? It takes time to build an audience. As you start your book, also think of ways to put yourself out there such as starting a blog and social media. You’ll thank me later.

What Are Your Objectives?
While it’s nice to say you’re a published author, that alone might not be enough incentive to get your through the arduous task of writing a book. Will a book provide leads for your business? Will it help give you credibility as a speaker? Is it about creating another revenue stream? Knowing your true objectives will help you stay focused on reaching your goal. \

Self-Publishing Vs. Traditional Publishing
Once you have a manuscript in hand, you will need to decide the best way to publish your book. Consider the pros and cons.

Learn more ideas about how to turn your idea into a book by reading the full story HERE in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Bethany Meadows is the owner of Vertical Solutions Media Inc., a full service marketing agency specializing in brand storytelling, content marketing and creative growth strategies. She recently published her first book Getting A Grip:Build a custom parenting plan that actually works (www.GettingaGripParenting.com) based on her experiences as a mom to seven children.

It’s a task that is usually put off as long as possible and universally disliked by owners, managers and employees alike—the dreaded expense report. But despite the negative feelings toward expense reporting, it’s a necessary task. Being organized can help you manage and track your expense reports, but having tools in hand that can simplify this task will help you and your employees compile and complete them in a timely manner.

Why You Need A Written Travel Expense Policy Establish the rules. Let’s start at the very beginning. The first thing you need to do is have a written policy for how to submit expense reports, what is allowable under the expense report and how reimbursement will occur. Will you provide your employee with a corporate credit card or will they have to use their own funds to be reimbursed? What is the per diem for lodging and food? This should be comprehensive and cover everything from travel to timelines for submission.

Make the process simple. Many companies fail by not creating an easy-to-understand travel and expense policy. The more straightforward your expense process is, the fewer mistakes there will be in its implementation. If the process is overly complex and time-consuming, there is a greater chance for error.

Involve employees. Employees are always more willing to do something when they have a buy-in to the policy. You’ll find that employees who are affected by the policies can use their firsthand knowledge to help identify potential problems and suggest solutions.

Use a per diem. This is a common allowance that every company gives their employees to cover basic needs like food, accommodations and travel expenses.

Learn more about how to take your expense reports to the next level! Read the full story HERE in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Ann Marie Harvey is Vice President of Communications at Vertical Solutions Media. She specializes in creating dynamic copy that is both genuine and compelling. Editing the written word is her passion.

We’ve all been there. You’ve been called into a meeting which does not involved your projects or is just a rehash of a previous meeting. Or maybe it’s that weekly conference call that literally is a rundown of the last week’s conference call. Are unproductive meetings weighing you down? The truth is that companies waste billions of dollars a year with unproductive meetings. Here are some ways to identify whether or not your meetings are costing your business time and money and what you can do to streamline your efforts.

Meetings with No Purpose

Meetings are necessary for communication and done right, they are invaluable. It’s common for companies to hold meetings for status updates and team bonding. Granted, these things are necessary for deadlines to be met and for a team to work well together. But what happens when meetings are held just for the sake of having a meeting?

* Meetings with no purpose drain employees of energy and lead to low morale and bad ideas.

* Fifty percent of high-level manager time is spent in meetings. Your most valuable and most expensive team members are wasting the most time.

* The money that is lost each year in an unproductive meeting could be spent furthering a company’s vision.

* People put off having inconvenient discussions by scheduling a meeting instead.

* Limit the number of meetings. Train your team to treat meetings as a time-intensive endeavor.

How to Avoid Death by Meeting

Obtain a written agenda in advance. Start with a list of topics to be discussed and make sure that material is provided to attendees at least one day before the meeting. For better results, provide background information on the agenda so that everyone attending has the same information. If you are invited to attend a meeting where an agenda has not been provided ahead of time, ask for one so that you may be better prepared.

For frequently held meetings such as a weekly status meeting on a project, save time by creating a meeting template. Once you have that in place, preparing an agenda becomes a matter of filling in the blanks.

Running a successful meeting is common sense and it begins with a facilitator setting a clear, pre-meeting purpose. Leave boring, unproductive meetings behind and use your everyone’s time in the best manner possible.

For even more tips on how to make the most of your meetings, read the full story HERE in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Ann Marie Harvey is Vice President of Communications at Vertical Solutions Media. She specializes in creating dynamic copy that is both genuine and compelling. Editing the written word is her passion.

Human Resource and hiring experts agree on one thing—employers need to up their game when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent. In today’s economy, job seekers have many options to choose from and it takes a strategic approach to not only hire them but to retain them. Below are best practices to ensure your small business is proactive about future growth.

1. Build talent communities.
A talent community is a group of skilled employees engaged by relevant content appropriately peppered with the company’s brand that resonates with candidates. Waiting to recruit until the time of need is a foolish proposition. Within the high demand skill areas, such as Information Technology, this strategy fails to produce a high volume of readily available, high quality recruits.

2. Put a career site in place on your website.
Career sites are super easy and relatively inexpensive to put into place. Most Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) allow you to create custom landing pages to highlight careers on your website. Many of these systems syndicate to multiple job boards for free—increasing your exposure to qualified candidates.

3. Referral bonuses.
A referral bonus is used to incentivize employees to identify new talent by referring friends or peers within the industry to join your team. Who knows the qualifications of the job better than those who are currently in it? If a current employee refers a new employee to you that is subsequently hired (because let’s be honest, we all want to work with our friends), then provide them with a referral bonus.

4. Make sure you are spreading a consistent message.
From LinkedIn to Facebook to Instagram, every post you make should be telling the story of your brand. From employees volunteering in the community to team-building outings, everything you post is a subtle recruitment story and is the image of your environment and culture.

The above is an excerpt. To read more tips about how to retain and attract top talent, click HERE to read the full article in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Ashley and Bo Ryals are the owners of DecisiveIntel, a concierge recruitment marketing firm that targets cyber security, information technology and engineering firms in the Huntsville, Ala., area. They provide customized talent sourcing, career coaching and compliance consulting.

10 Questions You Should Ask Before Branding Or Re-branding

There are dozens of questions that Ad4! Group asks when doing a brand development project. We ask questions of the brand owners, employees and the brand’s customers and vendors.

We design these questions to give us a strong understanding of key information that’s necessary before even starting the branding or re-branding process. As every company is unique, our questionnaires vary according to the client; however, we regularly use the following 10 questions because the responses help us build a foundation of understanding where the branding process should lead.

1. What value does your brand provide the market?

This question comes in lots of different flavors, but it boils down to “What is your Unique Sales Proposition (USP)? In other words, what do you provide the market that no other brand provides in quite the same way, with the same quality, timeliness or whatever variable you think is important.

If we had to pick between your business and another business down the street that appears to me to be the same, why would we pick yours?

 2.Why should the market believe you?

What evidence can you provide for question 1 above? You SAY you’re the best at something, so how can you prove to the market that your story is true?

3. Do you understand the market’s perception of your brand?

What does the market think of your brand? Not what you want, hope or desire, but what do the individuals in the market really think about your company? It’s easy to get yourself turned around on this question because you want the market to love your brand. You want to be like Nike or Apple, but you’re not. Understanding where you stand can be a sobering proposition. But if you want to develop a remarkable brand, you need to understand the truth. You need to know how the market views your brand so you can begin to improve.

The above is an excerpt. To learn the 10 Questions You Should Ask Before Branding Or Re-branding, click HERE to read the full article in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Author: Felica Sparks is the founder of Ad4! Group, Communications that Counts! Her focus is on assisting companies with all their growth strategies, beginning with their brand.

The Commitment Of Focus

Positive constraints are crucial to development. A positive constraint is essentially a scheduling commitment that forces focus. The act of discipline brings freedom. You can’t climb a hill by dreaming about the top, you climb the hill by the discipline of walking up the hill.

We all like to imagine the artist waits for inspiration to strike and then creates a masterpiece or the entrepreneur sits and stews until a good idea suddenly appears and they start a business. The reality is things don’t happen like that. Artists wake up and force themselves to do their art. Entrepreneurs wake up and force themselves to brainstorm.

Think about where you want to be professionally, personally and relationally — then work backwards. For instance. if you want to open a bakery, you need to be able to bake, so a positive constraint could be forcing yourself to bake something everyday. Not only would you perfect your desired taste, texture and consistency, but you’d also have very happy neighbors.

Freedom isn’t the ability to do whatever you want, it’s the discipline to do what you should.

Author: Ben Tanksley is the Vice President, Visual & Digital Assets for Vertical Solutions Media. Over the past decade, Ben has worked in video production, web design, graphic design and photography and has spent three years living and working in China. Learn more at www.verticalsolutionsmedia.com.

Fighting Goliath

How local small businesses can compete against industry giants.

As David walked into battle to fight the giant, Goliath, he was outsized and out-armed. However, he was bold, innovative and agile and he used his advantages to successfully take down the giant. If your business is in an industry that is populated by rising giants, you might be concerned whether you are equipped for the battle ahead. However, with the right team and strategies, you can develop a powerful and effective battle plan to attract and convert customers.

FIRST, HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON.

Business owners often get so distracted by the day-to-day of business operations that they don’t take the time to plan. Every military strategist knows that you must have a plan before you get to the battlefield. If you don’t have a business and/or marketing plan that outlines the challenges you are facing, take a pause to develop them. Before he faced the giant, David stopped at a creek and carefully selected just the right stones. Although he ended up only using one, he had quite a few more in his pocket, just in case. Likewise, you will need some carefully selected strategies in your plan.

The above is an excerpt. To learn the Seven Strategies for Fighting a Business Giant, click HERE to read the full article in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.

Author: Bethany Meadows is the owner of Vertical Solutions Media, a full-service marketing agency specializing in brand storytelling, content marketing and creative growth strategies. Learn more at www.verticalsolutionsmedia.com, or email bethany@verticalsolutionsmedia.com.