“How should I set up my multi-location restaurant group?” We encounter this question frequently. Or sometimes, it’s the classic, “My brother-in-law absolutely insists I should become an S Corporation.” Now, before we delve into the intricacies of business structures, let’s consider how much wisdom your dear brother-in-law could really have… he did get married to…
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When I started my business, I wasn’t concerned about my retirement plan. I was really only thinking about how I could pay my employees, cover my home mortgage payment, and have food on the table for my family. You know, the basic necessities of life. After a couple of years, was able to hire more…
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You’re a new business owner. It’s thrilling and a bit overwhelming, I imagine. This is my 20th year in business and I still remember those early days like it was yesterday. There was so much I didn’t know, but I was ready to work hard and learn from others in order to be successful. I…
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Understanding how to pay yourself as a business owner can be perplexing. When I started my business in 2003, I faced the same dilemma. Having worked in public accounting, I was accustomed to dealing with large businesses but not being the owner myself. Transitioning from receiving a paycheck to being the one writing the checks…
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Providing a company vehicle to your employee might sound like a funny goal to have — but it’s been with me since the beginning of my career. Back during my internship at a Montgomery, AL-based firm in the 1990s, I was delighted to learn of an amazing perk offered by the company to its managers…
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When I started thinking about opening my own firm, my initial priority was to decide what specific type of work I wanted to do, and what tools I needed available to do the work. Ultimately, I wondered if I could be financially successful enough to pay my bills. I also realized there was a bunch…
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Like a number of our clients, we are a service-based business. Our ability to be profitable is based on our knowledge and technology, but most importantly, is tied to our team or labor costs. Almost all service-based businesses fall into this category. Labor costs are the most critical and highest expenses we incur, and are…
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I have previously written about the need to have a number of checking accounts, including a payroll checking account, when starting or running a small business. An additional suggestion I would make to owners who have more than one location, or legal entity or operate in multiple states is to set up a separate legal…
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In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought significant changes to corporate and individual tax laws, including an Internal Revenue Code Section 168(k) amendment that allowed for a 100% deduction of qualified property placed in service after September 27, 2017. This change was extremely favorable to small businesses because fixed assets qualified for…
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If you are like most businesses you want to grow and hiring employees is usually a necessary step in that process. One of the biggest questions we get when this step starts to take place is ‘can I afford to hire this person or not’, and then ‘if I do hire them what all do…
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