On the one hand, if your business owns the car you’ll have a long-term asset and may qualify for more tax deductions. On the other hand, buying a car is a huge expense and monthly lease payments tend to be lower than car loan payments; they may also be tax deductible.

Learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of buying versus leasing a vehicle for your business:

Why buy a company car?

The major benefit to purchasing a car is that it becomes a company asset that offers a number of perks for business owners:

• You can write off your gas, mileage and maintenance expenses
• Your interest payments on a car loan and depreciation costs may also qualify as eligible business expenses
• You may enjoy lower insurance and liability rates on a vehicle owned by your business

The big con for many business owners is that buying a car is a major expense—one that may require you to finance a depreciating asset. You will, however, maintain the residual value on your investment as you pay it off, and once you own the car you can use it for as long as it can do its job.

If you decide not to buy a vehicle but choose to use a personal vehicle for business, you may also be eligible for itemized deductions come tax time. Be sure to check with your country’s small business tax rules and regulations to confirm which vehicle-related expenses you may be able to write off.

The pros and cons of leasing
For many small business owners, leasing a company car is the more attractive option. Typically, it comes down to cost and cash flow. When you lease a vehicle you won’t have to come up with a down payment or collateral—and monthly lease payments tend to be lower than car payments.

The flip side, however, is that leasing tends to cost more in the end—and those affordable monthly payments won’t add up to an asset for your business. Another point to keep in mind is your insurance requirements may be different and amount to higher fees.

Also be aware of the maximum number of miles stipulated in your lease agreement—if you exceed the limit it can also mean additional fees at the end of your payment term.

If you’ll be putting a lot of miles on a car, leasing allows you to upgrade to a new car on a regular basis – and doing so may allow you to dodge costly repairs on an aging vehicle.

As a final note on the “plus” side, just like business owners who purchase their company vehicle, those who lease can write off some of their business-related car expenses.

Final considerations

Before you commit to buying or leasing a company vehicle, do a cost-benefit analysis. Take note of the car’s total cost over the car loan or lease term including:

• Monthly payments, including interest
• Anticipated mileage
• Maintenance, fuel, insurance, parking and other related costs
• The value of the car at the end of the lease vs. the ownership period.

Talk to your accountant about which expenses you can claim on your income tax, whether you choose to lease or buy.

At the same time you may want to seek advice on how to track your company car costs accurately and efficiently. Keeping good records is a must to make sure you don’t miss any eligible write offs for your company car—and so everything is in order if you are ever called for an audit.

The post Is it better to buy or lease a company vehicle? appeared first on Dudley & Associates, Chartered Professional Accountants.

After all, the young, tech-savvy, socially conscious demographic known as Gen Y are currently the largest living generation, navigating the work force in record numbers. And the boomers may be retirement age, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to stop working. Many baby boomers are choosing to enjoy “encore careers” – jobs that allow them to continue to apply their skills and experience to personally meaningful projects.

Here are a few ways to help these two groups work together, so your business benefits from their unique and complementary skills.

The best of two worlds

Millennials offer incredible potential to the businesses they work for. Young, tech-savvy and interested in making a difference in the world, Gen Y only lack one key trait: experience.

Boomers, on the other hand, know how the business world works, and many enjoy sharing their knowledge with younger colleagues. However, unlike millennials, they may be “stuck” doing things less efficiently, simply because they don’t adapt easily to new technologies.

With their distinctive skill sets, pairing up a young worker with an older employee can be mutually rewarding – and highly beneficial – if you know how to manage the relationship.

Partners – not protégés

Trust is the foundation of every good working relationship. Building trust among your younger and older workers can mean establishing a very different work dynamic than your older employees may be used to.

To avoid tension, avoid creating hierarchies at work. Even in a mentor-mentee relationship, it’s important that each person see themselves as an equal. That way when someone doesn’t know something, there’s no reason to feel embarrassed. No one is the boss; everyone is there to exchange knowledge and experience.

Communication is key

Being digital natives, Gen Y may prefer communicating with tweets, texts and instant messages; boomers, on the other hand, prefer a phone call, email or face time.

Moreover, older generations may be used to a more formal approach to communicating at work, particularly with management. They may interpret a more casual communication style – common among their Gen Y peers – as a lack of respect.

You can help bridge gaps in communication with weekly staff meetings. You might even consider creating a communication policy: group emails for important matters that affect everyone, and the communicator’s preferred form of communication for other matters.

Final tips

While you can’t necessarily influence how well any two employees work together – after all, there’s more to any working dynamic than generational tendencies – an awareness of how your staff work best and an attitude of flexibility can make a huge difference.

Find ways to support your employees as they nurture each other’s growth. When it comes to problem-solving, encourage your boomer staffers to help younger workers understand their reasons behind their decisions with examples based on their experience. Likewise, millennial staff should think about the best ways to teach their older colleagues, who are less comfortable with technology, how to use a new web tool or software.

With these tips in mind, you’ll be on your way to nurturing the skills and talents of all your workers – and creating a harmonious atmosphere for everyone.

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Scheduling time to attend to these business activities on a regular basis is a great way to get on track for greater success.

Know your numbers

It’s not uncommon for business owners to lose touch with how well their business is performing on a day-to-day basis. But an awareness of your real time income and expenses is the key to making better decisions that will nurture growth.

Implement these changes and see the difference they make in your business:

• Switch to an online accounting solution that offers access to real time data anywhere, anytime
• Monitor your finances on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis; review the data with your accountant often
• Check in on your other numbers, too – your website metrics and software analytics – so you know whether your marketing, lead generation, and sales tactics are working.

Update your business plan

Companies should update their business plan at least once a year—sooner if there’s an upcoming change that requires planning, financing, or re-assigning resources (for instance, a product launch, an opportunity to start importing/exporting, or a new side business).
Many business owners neglect to revise their plans on a regular basis. They end up operating on autopilot, losing sight of their bigger goals and the steps they planned to take their business to the next level.
The start of a new year is an excellent time to set goals, mark milestones, and start implementing your plans. The timing also lines up nicely with closing out the previous year’s books, so you can plan with your latest annual figures in mind.

Hire help

It sounds simple, but the self-sufficient, independent nature of many entrepreneurs can make it difficult to get comfortable delegating responsibility. Finding the right people to relieve the burden of doing everything, all the time, is the only way a business can scale and reach its potential.

Think carefully about how you spend your days. Are you still at the point where you want to – or need to – do it all? The ultimate success of any company is to reach the point where it can run without you, so you can enjoy a holiday, pass the business on to a family member, or sell it.
It can take time to find the right people that you can trust to perform their jobs well and continue to grow your business. A recruitment agency can help you craft an attractive job description and recruit so you can focus on strategies that can bring you greater enjoyment and success.
Developing new business habits takes time and commitment – but the pay off is well worth it! Which of these business habits is most important for you to commit to this year?

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To cover the costs of your business you need to sell enough goods or services to reach your break-even point. Knowing where that point is, and how long it will take you to reach it, can be fundamental to your success. This especially true if you’re thinking about starting or buying a business.

Calculate fixed and variable costs

The first step is to establish your fixed and variable costs.

Fixed Costs

Fixed costs are bills your business always has to pay, regardless of its level of sales. Also known as overheads, they could include:

• Salaries for permanent staff.
• Rent on your premises.
• Insurance.
• Interest on debt.

Variable Costs

These are costs that increase with your levels of sales – materials and production costs are two examples. Others include sales bonuses, part-time wages and freight.

Now work out:

• The total fixed costs bill for the year.
• An average overall variable cost for each product or service sold (the Variable Cost per Unit).

Some bills might be a combination of fixed and variable costs, such as a phone bill split between a line cost and toll call charges. Separate these bills into fixed and variable parts for greater accuracy.

If breaking them up is too time consuming, choose which element is greater in the bills and classify it as that. For example, if you don’t make many calls to mobile phones or outside your local area, you’d classify the phone bill as being fixed.

Determine your break-even point

Let’s assume you manufacture shoes with the following details:

• Budgeted fixed costs of $60,000.
• Average cost to make a pair of shoes is $110.
• Average sale price per pair of shoes is $250.

Calculating your break-even point requires the use of a few formulas:

1. Sales Price per Unit ($250) minus Variable Costs per Unit ($110) = Contribution Margin per Unit ($140).
2. Contribution Margin per Unit ($140) divided by Sales Price per Unit ($250) = Contribution Margin Ratio (0.56).
3. Fixed Costs ($60,000) divided by Contribution Margin Ratio (0.56) = Break-even Sales Volume ($107,142).

Based on these calculations, if you sell more than $107,142 of shoes you’ll make a profit. That equates to 429 pairs.

Using your break-even point

Once you’ve worked out your break-even point, the next step is to work out whether the sales volume you’ll need to break even is realistic and achievable.

You can also use your break-even calculation to see the effect of changes in costs on your business. If you were able to source cheaper materials and reduce the variable cost per pair of shoes, you’d need to sell fewer pairs to break even.

If your sales remained the same, you’d make more profit.

To be of real value to you, your fixed and variable costs calculations need to be accurate. Putting inaccurate figures into your break-even calculations will give you an inaccurate result. It’s worth investing time to work out your figures accurately.

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Whether you’re preparing an employee work agreement, finalizing a new client contract, or submitting an invoice, digital signing can prove beneficial in a number of ways.

Here are just three reasons businesses, organizations, and even governments choose digital signing over paper.

1. Save time and courier costs

Ensuring all parties sign off on paper documents typically entails a number of time-consuming and potentially expensive steps.

First, you must prepare the document, courier it to each recipient, and then wait for them to receive, review, and sign it.  One of your recipients may be out of town, or home with the flu, which furthers lengthens your wait time.  Finally, after review, a recipient may request some changes, which means re-working and re-delivering the document. The resulting delays can be both costly and frustrating.

With digital signing, documents are swiftly delivered, revised and authenticated online. Transit time is minimal, so business owners can direct their energies toward earning new customers, rather than handling more paperwork.  And of course, adopting a paperless solution immediately reduces your environmental impact – an important benefit for entrepreneurs seeking more sustainable business practices – not to mention, lowers your office supply costs.

2. Safeguard your documents with digital encryption

In addition to improved efficiency, digital signing beats paper when it comes to security.  The digital signing software you use to create the signature will ensure it is encrypted, which protects your entire document from tampering.

According to the experts at Tech-Target, digital signature encryption will let you know if a single character of your document is changed or deleted.  Plus, since encryption leaves a data trail which makes it possible to trace and expose any forgeries.  By the same token, if a signee denies having authenticated your document, the signature can be analyzed to confirm its origin.

3. Track the status of your document in real time

Wondering whether the contract you sent to a new client has been opened and reviewed, or signed and sent back? Digital signing makes answering these questions far easier than the paper alternative.

From creation and distribution, to editing, validation, and storage – the entire document lifecycle is digitized and transparent.  Using cloud-based digital signing, business owners can track the status of their documents in real time, including:

• when the document was opened;
• how close the signee is to completing their validation of the document; and
• the moment the validation is complete, or if a party opts out of the process.

Some service providers also include options to send out automatic reminders to ensure the timely completion of your agreements.

From saving time, money, and trees, to improving collaboration with team members and clients, it’s no wonder digital signing is fast becoming the new business normal.

The post 3 Advantages of Digital Signing for Businesses appeared first on Dudley & Associates, Chartered Professional Accountants.

Sales forecasting may well be the most difficult and complicated of all areas covered in a strategic business plan. To predict sales, a business has to consider numerous economic, demographic, and social variables.  Because sales has a major impact on income stream, a business plan should include a continuity strategy for dealing with poor sales performance. But what happens if a business does better than expected?

Can Customer Service Handle Additional Requests?

A lot of small businesses fail to appreciate the impact sales have on customer service resources. Even quality products and services have mishaps, and when this happens customer service will be expected to resolve any issues. The more sales a business makes, the greater the number of product-related issues it will receive.

No business will ever complain about booming sales but it should be prepared for increased customer service issues.  If a business finds itself unprepared, the following problems may result:

1. Customer service overload: The sheer volume of customer contact is too much for current resource to handle and calls and emails from customers go unanswered.
2. Reduction in service quality: In a rush to answer all customer issues, staff don’t take the time to fully deal with a problem or assure the customers the issue will be resolved. This leads to customer dissatisfaction and can have a negative impact on future sales.
3. Delayed resolutions: Greater pressure on customer service resources affects the time taken to resolve consumer issues. Delayed resolution will lead to increased refund requests and decreased business reputation.
4. Reduced production and sales: A business uses all available staff resources to deal with customer queries, in order to maintain a quality level of service, but this results in a slowdown of production and sales.

Customers Don’t Get What They Order

There are other key business processes affected by increased demand:

1. Production/stock
2. Packaging/delivery

Let’s look at the problem associated with each process one at a time. Starting with production and stock:

Production and stock

If goods are made to order: Increased demand instantly places pressure on production. Employees will have to work overtime or the business may have to employ additional staff to complete orders on time.

Product stock levels: Increased orders will eat away at stock levels. A business with pre-existing stock is initially in a better position to cope with increased demand. However, if demand remain high there will be increased pressure on production to fufill orders and replenish stock levels.

In either situation, a business has to have plans in place to deal with a sudden rise in sales. If a business is unable to increase production to cope with demand, there will be a delay in order processing. This is damaging to both reputation and profitability.

Packaging and delivery

More sales means more packaging material is required and a there will be a larger volume of orders to deliver. If a business handles packaging and delivery in-house, then the onus falls on the business to have adequate packaging materials and logistics to cope with a sudden spike in demand.

For the businesses that package goods in house and use a postal service or courier to ship, the responsibility for delivery can still fall on the business. Customers don’t care about high demand excuses and expect a business to have sourced a delivery solution that can process and deliver orders on time, regardless of order volume.

Prosperity Favours the Prepared

The focus has been on material products. However, all the examples given so far are transferable to digital products or services. Digital products also require production and delivery. A digital product can be affected by limited human resources. The effect of additional demand on supply can impact any product or service.

Businesses often make plans for less-than-perfect situations. Disaster recovery and continuation processes are a pessimistic, but necessary, business fail-safe. A start-up business always hopes its sales will achieve best-case forecasts, but is unlikely to forecast a sales boom. The outcome of this is that not many small businesses factor in adverse effects of high-sales into short-term strategy.

There is nothing foolhardy or unrealistic about planning potential solutions for increased demand. It’s better to have a plan and never need it, than to have no plan and fail to meet demand. Making a plan will only cost some forethought and time. Failing to meet demand will wreak havoc on business reputation and prosperity.

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Crowdfunding offers an exciting funding alternative for businesses. Originally the domain of filmmakers, musicians and artists, crowdfunding is now used by start ups and business owners to raise capital, based on a simple notion: large amounts of money can be raised in small amounts from numerous donors via the Internet.

Here’s what you need to know about launching a successful crowdfunding campaign, including information on three platforms designed to raise business capital.

How crowdfunding works

Crowdfunding allows businesses the freedom to raise capital from investors, customers, colleagues, peers, family, friends – even strangers. Like anyone in search of funding, successful campaigns rely on a solid idea and a detailed business plan – including financial forecasts and cash flow statements – to convince potential donors it’s worthwhile to support your venture.

Typically, an established crowdfunding platform, like Kickstarter or peerbackers, is used to promote a campaign page, with incentives for donors in the form of rewards or equity. A reward might be pre-order of a new product, or services offered in exchange for funding support; equity would be a share of stock offered in exchange for capital.

Tips for launching a campaign

Crowdfunding campaigns don’t tend to go viral; they gain traction because they appeal to the people you already know – your network – as well as investors who are searching for an opportunity.

Successful business crowdfunding campaigns have these things in common:

• They tell a compelling story and convey passion for an idea, connecting like-minded people who share your vision and enthusiasm;
• They offer backers high level, time-limited rewards that include the product – and require fewer sales to achieve the fundraising goal;
• They use every means available to sell a great pitch, including detailed business plans, product images and video.

Choose the right platform

Here are three options for creating a winning business crowdfunding campaign:

• Fundable allows rewards-based and equity crowdfunding to attract backers. It costs $179 to host a campaign, which will put your venture in front of more than 23,000 registered investors.
• Indiegogo is open to anyone who wants to launch a crowdfunding campaign, small businesses included. It’s free to sign up but the company charges 5 percent platform fees on all funds raised and payment processing fees average between 3-5 percent.
• Endurance Lending Network is a little bit different than other crowdfunding platforms as its mission is to help small businesses seeking up to $500,000 of debt capital. Businesses benefit from easy access to loans at attractive rates, and investors earn good returns with secured term business loans.

Crowdfunding can be a smart, cost-effective way to get your business off the ground. It can also offer an incredible, unadvertised side-benefit: priceless feedback from your backers that can help tweak your idea before you move into production, allowing you to launch an even more successful product.

The post How Crowdfunding Can Help your Business appeared first on Dudley & Associates, Chartered Professional Accountants.

For example, you might bundle offers into a monthly subscription, or launch a points system that incentivizes loyalty with free gifts or special discounts. Recurring revenue comes in many forms and is considered the gold standard of business models.

Jim Schleckser, a growth specialist with Inc. CEO Project, maintains that every business should have “recurring revenue woven into its core [and] if you’re not thinking along these lines, you’re putting the future of your business in jeopardy.”

Strong words! Still need a bit more convincing? Here are the top three reasons it’s a good idea to build recurring revenue into your business model.

1. Frees up more time to grow your business

Consider this: if your business generates $1 million in revenue, and 75% of that total is recurring revenue, you’ll start each year knowing you can count on at least $750, 000. This immediately frees up time and energy for new product development, expanded marketing, and attracting new customers. Plus, the added financial certainty can help alleviate stress, which goes a long way to improving productivity and your overall wellbeing.

2. Helps maintain positive cash flow

Recurring revenue also helps business owners develop and stick to a reasonable budget. Knowing you can expect to earn a certain amount each month makes it easier to cover both routine and unexpected costs – like accounts payable, employee salaries, last-minute repairs, loan payments, etc.

Ultimately, this predictability yields greater financial visibility. You’ll be better positioned to ramp up or lower expenses relative to revenue, and stay cash flow positive

It’s also worth noting that potential investors, private equity, and loan providers tend to regard businesses with recurring revenue as “safer bets” because they’re less prone to insolvency. If you’re hoping to attract a partner or secure a loan to expand your company, showing recurring revenue streams can help strengthen your position.

 3. Opens the door to valuable customer insights

Generating recurring revenue streams requires looking closely at the particular wants, needs, and behaviors of your target audience.

In order to build the long-term relationships necessary for repeat business, you must understand what matters most to your customers and how to meet those needs (in ways your competitors do not).

As you research your market and talk with your clients, deeper insights will emerge about their particular preferences and pain-points – knowledge that will directly inform your marketing and further refine your product or service offers. Enhanced customization leads to more competitive offers, which in turn supports recurring revenue.

The bottom line? Business owners should focus on building long-term customer relationships, rather than focussing exclusively on one-off transactions. While lucrative one-time deals are definitely a bonus, recurring contracts are the gifts that keeps on giving!

The post 3 Reasons Recurring Revenue is a Good Idea appeared first on Dudley & Associates, Chartered Professional Accountants.

Unfortunately, cyber attackers increasingly target small businesses because they are less likely to have security protection in place. Accidental loss or loss due to a natural disaster can be just as harmful to a business, with recovery efforts and delays grinding productivity to a halt.

Follow these tips to improve security and protect your small business from data loss.

Educate your staff

When you think of data loss, you may immediately think cyber attack. But the reality is, nearly half of data loss happens when employees don’t know how to protect company data or are guilty of being careless.

Let your staff know how important data security is to your business. Discuss potential security risks and restrictions on employee access to HR, customer and financial data. Go over specific strategies for keeping paper and computer files secure – such as keeping personnel files locked in filing cabinets, restricting access to sensitive data with security passwords and taking care not to download apps that might carry malware.

Make a security plan

Every company, big or small, should have a customized plan in place to outline their information assets, identify security risks and the specific steps your organization will take to mitigate those risks.

Think of your data security plan as a living document; it will need to be updated regularly to keep up with shifts in technology as well as changes in personnel. A key aspect of your security plan will be to outline how you’ll ensure employee access to data terminates when they leave your company.

You’ll also want to conduct regular audits to test the effectiveness of your security plan, by monitoring how well your staff follow protocol. Following an audit, you’ll be able to revamp or fine tune your strategies to keep your business safe and your data secure.

Include a device policy

It’s hard to imagine small businesses functioning these days without mobile devices. The reality is, many small business employees work from home or remotely, staying in contact via a tablet, laptop computer or mobile phone.

Unfortunately, the risk of a mobile device being lost, stolen or damaged is high. You can protect your company data by requiring staff to keep company data off their personal devices – and set up work devices to be wiped remotely in the case of theft or loss.

Other key security measures are data encryption, up to date anti-virus protection and tracking software – as well as a system of regularly scheduled, automatic back-ups.

Final tips

Your data security plan is only as good as how well you and your staff follow it. Take time out to meet as a group, discuss security planning and address any questions about protocol. Be clear on the consequences of a data security breach should it be discovered the cause was due to employee negligence or outright theft. Think about how you can reward your staff for the efforts they make to protect your business by strictly following security protocols.

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New business owners have a lot on their plate, and can easily lose track of an approaching tax deadline or financial data needed to submit their return.

Organization is key when preparing for tax time. As is taking advantage of the many tools and resources out there to support new entrepreneurs.

Set yourself up for success by following these four pillars of painless tax prep.

1. Commit to clean bookkeeping from day one

Year-round, effective bookkeeping is the best way new business owners can minimize tax season stress. With the wide range of accounting software out there, there’s no reason to rely on time consuming manual methods that leave room for error.

All-in-one options like Xero, KashFlow and QuickBooks automate your most important bookkeeping processes, including:

• Tracking expenses;
• Tracking sales and income;
• Creating and sending invoices and
• Managing inventory.

With your financial records all in one place and up-to-date, you’re better positioned to maximize your refund, while avoiding penalties associated with incorrect or incomplete tax returns.

2. Capture every business expense

Each year, 21% of small business owners claim less than half of their business expenses, largely because they don’t have a reliable system for documenting expenditures while on the go.

Without carefully logged receipts, entrepreneurs must forfeit valuable tax deductions, sacrificing cash they could be funneling back into their business.

Cash in on claimable expenses by using a mobile app to record receipt data, track mileage and generate expense reports. As an added bonus, many of these tools sync with your all-in-one accounting software.

3. Separate business from personal

Right from day one, small business owners should clearly divide their personal and business expenses. Differentiating between the two will make it much easier to claim deductions on your tax return – and support those claims in case of an audit.

Recommended steps to separate your business and personal finances include:

• Create a separate bank account for your business, and designate a credit card solely for business purposes (this will help you track expenditures while building up your credit and borrowing power);
• Never combine business and personal expenses (for example, if you buy printer ink for your home and your business at the same time, ask for two separate receipts);
• Pay yourself a set salary from your business checking account each month (this will help you determine how your income, as well as the business, will be taxed).

4. Always consult with an accountant

Not sure exactly what you can claim as a business expense? Wondering which accounting software to use or how to interpret local tax regulations?

Consult with an accounting professional to put your mind at ease – well before the filing deadline! In addition to managing the nuts and bolts of tax preparation, regular meetings with an accountant will help you continuously improve bookkeeping practices and better understand the financial workings of your small business.

Those organizational strategies you commit to now will promote positive relations with your local tax authorities – and the long-term financial health of your company.

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