Is Healthcare Reform in 2019 Healthy for You & Your Business?

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy Blue Diamond Gallery

It’s been said that the only things in life that are guaranteed are death and taxes.  Well, I’d like to add another codicil to that tenet called Healthcare Reform.  I say this because ever since the so-called Affordable Care Act was signed into law back in 2010, it has been kicked around like the mother of all political footballs.  Even as 2019 had barely begun, US District Court Judge Reed O’Conner declared the ACA unlawful.  He ruled the mandate requiring the American public to buy health insurance was unconstitutional.  Back in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the law fell under the Senate’s taxation powers, rendering it constitutional.  As the football and the buck is being passed back and forth while the issue is being decided by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. I thought I’d take the time to write about what’s in store for businesses in the coming year.

Are Business Meals Feeding Your Face or Eating Your Lunch?

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy of flickr

One of the perks of being a business owner is being able to write off meals when you travel for business or take a client out for lunch.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the IRS rules for deducting meals are complicated.  Get them right and you can enjoy that free lunch you’ve always heard about.  Get it wrong and you can wind up running afoul of those same regulations, which could cost you deductions or even give the IRS cause to begin an audit that could well eat your lunch.  Below is some food for thought regarding meals.

10 Ways to Improve Cash-flow

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy Picpedia

Now that everybody is up to their necks preparing their yearly taxes, I thought I’d take the time to help you take the steps to improve your business cash-flow in 2019.  Cash-flow is like the old Mark Twain ditty that goes, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”  By that I mean, most business owners are always asking CPA’s like me to give them tips on how to improve their cash-flow.  Then they rail at the advice, since it usually requires them to take the time to assess their policies and procedures, as well as changing some of the ways that they do business.  Below is a list of 10 ways to improve your business’ cash-flow:

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Businesses

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy of flickr

With January less than a week away, I thought I’d take the time to remind you that not only individuals should consider making resolutions for the new year.  So should every business owner.  That’s because if you start off the new year with the right goals in mind, it will only make it easier to help you keep your cash-flow positive and make the bumps in the road smaller.

How Far Will You Go When You Need to Grow?

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy of flickr

Being in business is a lot like being a dinosaur.  If you don’t evolve, you’re doomed to become extinct.  If you believe Fortune Magazine, they stated that 9 out of 10 startup businesses are doomed to fail.  While that statistic is shocking, what’s even worse is that the top three reasons startups fail is because there is either little or no demand for their product, they run out of funds, or they don’t have the right team.  It isn’t until numbers four, five and six that Fortune points out that some businesses fail because they are outgunned, overpriced or they ignore their customer’s needs.

Are Your Customers Ruining Your Business?

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy of Max Pixel

When it comes to owning a business, most owners and managers are looking to find one thing above all else: More customers.  More customers mean more revenue. That’s got to be good if you hope to build your business, right?  Not necessarily so, as you’ll find out shortly.  Just as with many things in life, quantity doesn’t always trump quality.  In fact, too many clients can be a death knell for a business if you aren’t careful.  Don’t believe it?  Read on and learn.

So, You Want to Sell Your Business

By Ben Kinsey, CPA

Image courtesy of flickr

One of the reasons to own a business is to eventually sell it.  Whether the motivation to sell is to retire or simply to start another business is immaterial.  The most salient thing you need to consider if you hope to consummate a sale is to make the sale appealing to the buyer.  To accomplish that, you need to understand the process involved, the mistakes to be avoided and the time it takes to create a sellable business.