Training your team members appropriately and frequently is indeed an investment – and one with a powerful return. When your team members are nurtured with the necessary staples they will make better decisions, their relationships will improve and their opinions will show deeper insight. (more…)
Management and HR
Handing Over The Family Business
According to the Small Business Administration in the USA, only a third of family-run firms make it to the second generation. What are the strategies to ensuring your firm is one of those that survive? The key is succession planning. (more…)
New Job? What To Do With Your 401(k) Plan
Changing jobs can be a stressful event. A new boss, new co-workers, and new benefits to sign up for. These days you might well have one more decision to make — what to do with your 401(k) plan. (more…)
Small Companies Get Additional Time For Reporting Benefits
The IRS has just announced that small companies will get an additional year before being required to report the value of employee health benefits on their employees’ W-2 forms. (more…)
Smoothing Out Cash Flow Could Save Your Business
A sad and oft-repeated truth is that half of all new businesses fail within the first five years. In fact, all too many fail in their first decade.
Although many factors contribute to business failure, a common culprit is poor cash management. Farmers, retailers, and car dealers are especially aware of seasonal fluctuations in cash flows. But to some extent all businesses, large and small, must deal with the uncertainty of fluctuating sales, inventories, and expenses. An owner-manager who engages in wishful thinking about profitability, who becomes lackadaisical about money flowing through the business, is often headed for disaster. By endeavoring to smooth out cash fluctuations, prudent managers keep their companies strong throughout the business cycle. (more…)
Should You Buy Identity Theft Insurance?
For most people in America, identity theft poses a real risk. If you’ve ever been granted a credit line, set up a bank account, or applied for government assistance, your identity is valuable. Identity thieves have used stolen personal information to purchase cars, rent apartments, even blackmail people. By some estimates, identity theft occurs about three times a minute in the United States (though that rate may be declining as public awareness increases). (more…)
Are You In Compliance? NYS Department of Labor Wage Theft Prevention Act
On April 9, 2011, the Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA) took effect to five more protection to workers in NYS. (more…)
How To Get Hold Of Cash Quickly
“Liquidity” was a term little known to the non-financial world until two years ago when the Global Financial Crisis sucked the liquidity out of the world’s money markets. (more…)
What You Need To Know About Private Mortgage Insurance
What you need to know about private mortgage insurance
If you’re in the market for a home, you’ve probably heard of private mortgage insurance or PMI. It’s insurance that protects lenders — not borrowers — if the mortgage goes into default. Lenders generally require PMI if you’re unwilling or unable to make a down payment of at least 20% of the home’s purchase price. Depending on your credit history, your income, the size of your mortgage and other factors, PMI can run from $50 to several hundred dollars a month. After building up equity in your home (in technical terms, when your loan-to-value ratio drops below 80% of the original loan balance), your PMI policy can be cancelled. But building up that much equity, especially with a conventional long-term mortgage, can take a decade or longer. (more…)
