November, 2017

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11 Ways to Support Veteran-Owned Businesses

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November is the newly anointed National Veterans and Military Families Month. It’s an opportunity to celebrate and commemorate the people who have sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms. But what often goes unacknowledged is how veterans continue to serve our society once they return home from their military service—including contributing to our growing economy by starting businesses and employing other veterans.

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Scale up your fitness business in 6 easy steps

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We examine some of the challenges faced by small fitness businesses as they aim to scale and provide helpful tips to get your fitness business started on its journey to growth.

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Why Your Small Business Needs a Certified Public Accountant (Emphasis on the Certified)

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One of the most important parts of running a business is keeping your finances in order. If you’re making major mistakes on your tax returns or regularly going over budget, it doesn’t matter how wonderful your product or service is or how qualified your employees are. You and your business are in trouble. Hiring a person or a team of people to work with you on keeping diligent financial records, filing taxes, applying for loans, and planning for the long term is one of the best decisions you ca

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7 Ways to Improve Your Business Credit Score, Fast

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Business credit scores are vital to a business’s health and success. If you own a business and have any sort of open credit, then you certainly have a corresponding credit score. What’s a Business Credit Score? A business credit score is similar to a personal credit score. Credit reporting agencies use various methods to calculate creditworthiness—including your number of trade experiences, outstanding balances, payment history, and more—and that number ranges from zero to 100.

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12 Ways to Support Small Businesses This Holiday Season

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The upcoming holidays are always a major boost for businesses—last year, holiday spending exceeded $1 trillion, up 8% from the year prior, and is always a healthy percentage of consumer spending for the whole year. As the holiday season begins to ramp up, have you thought about where you’ll be spending your money? While e-commerce is becoming more and more of a driving force for economic growth—due to convenience of shipping and e-commerce advertising efforts—it’s worthwhile to consider how you

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How to Keep an A+ Rating With the Better Business Bureau

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The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is one of the largest and most respected independent business review organizations in North America, and their A+ rating is a fantastic testament to a business’s success and longevity. It boosts consumer confidence that your business has ethical and fair practices, and when things go wrong, you can rely on them to fix them.

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What the Heck is Accounts Receivable Turnover?

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Accounts receivable turnover sounds like one of those complex accounting concepts that can make your head spin, but understanding and using the concept to improve your business isn’t really that hard. We’ll uncover what you need to know about accounts receivable turnover below. Accounts Receivable Turnover: The Basics. First, let’s start with what it is: Accounts receivable turnover is a ratio used to measure how effectively a company uses customer credit and collects payment on the result

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Disaster Preparedness Plan: How to Keep Your Business Safe in an Emergency

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California wild fires. Hurricanes devastating the coasts of Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Cyber security threats that hit every level of our local and national governments, corporations, and, yes, even small businesses. When those breaking news headlines hit our television screens—what seems to be an almost daily occurrence—we think and talk about the people who are affected, the homes, the schools, often the hospitals.

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5 Free Small Business Budget Templates

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A business budget template is one of the most important tools you can use to run your small business. Unfortunately, many small business owners skip this vital business management step. There are a lot of misconceptions about budgeting. It seems difficult and time consuming. But with the business budget template, the process can be much less daunting.

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1099 Vs. W2 Employee: Which Is Better for Your Business?

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Managing human resources is one of the most challenging aspects of small business ownership, and staffing costs usually comprise the largest percentage of a small business’ expenses. Because of this, many small business owners choose to utilize the services of independent contractors rather than hiring employees outright, but is this always the best choice?

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7 Retailers Share Their Tips for Preparing for the Holiday Season

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According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) holiday sales can represent 20%-30% of a retailer’s annual sales. The NRF also reports that consumers plan on spending over 3% more this year than they did last year for the holidays. With a string of celebrations around like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, consumerism makes the holidays all the more important for U.S. businesses.

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5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Promote a Positive Company Culture

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Having a positive company culture sets the tone for a productive, engaging work environment that ultimately affects your bottom line as a business. Company culture is the engine that should boost performance while highlighting company values and philosophies. This company modus operandi (MO), good or bad, governs operations and charts the course of an organization’s future.

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Downsize Your Office Space to Save Money and Boost Productivity

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There was a time when having a big, luxurious office meant your company was winning. But leasing large amounts of commercial space, like using paper, is increasingly becoming a thing of the past for many successful businesses, particularly small businesses. For one, office space costs money. Depending on where your business is based, you could be paying as much as $14,800 a year per employee in office space (assuming 200 square feet of space per employee, according to The Square Foot in 2015—and

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12 Ways to Take Advantage of Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday

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Two of the biggest days in retail are looming on the horizon: Small Business Saturday (November 25th) and Cyber Monday (November 27th). What makes these days such a big deal for small businesses, and how can you take advantage of these holidays to boost your sales? First, some background on the two events: Small Business Saturday was started in 2010 by American Express as a day to support the nation’s small, independently owned local businesses.

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How Will Your Business Respond to a Ransomware Attack?

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The worldwide ransomware epidemic is getting worse all the time. Companies that fail to protect themselves risk losing important business data, including customer files, product designs, supplier contracts, and more. You can take some specific steps to quickly recover digital business files following a ransomware attack—and it can be done without paying the ransom or dealing with cybercriminals.

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11 Tips on Managing Cash Flow for Seasonal Businesses

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Keeping cash flow in check is a challenge for every business owner. In fact, cash flow challenges represent the number one reason that small businesses fail—including businesses that are on track for long-term profitability. No matter how successful your business is on paper, if you don’t have the necessary cash on hand when rent or payroll is due or when you need to make your next inventory order, your business can’t survive.

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Retail’s Not Dead — But It Has Changed (INFOGRAPHIC)

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It’s been a grim couple of years for the retail industry, as many big-box retailers have shuttered their storefronts and announced sweeping closures across the nation. And while there has been plenty of speculation in the news about an oncoming ‘retail apocalypse,’ many financial analysts are still optimistic about the future of main street. [Jump ahead to view the infographic].

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Review of Bank of America’s Secured Credit Card, Plus Alternatives

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On your search for a business credit card, you’ll quickly learn something slightly counterintuitive—your personal credit score is one of the most important factors that will decide if you qualify for business credit card offers. It makes sense, if you think about it. Your personal credit score indicates what kind of spender you are. Since you—as the business owner—are the one doing the spending on your business credit card , issuers will look to your personal credit score to decide if you qualif

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The 11 Most Frequently Asked Quickbooks Questions, Answered

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In addition to running Kildal Services , I also do quite a bit of QuickBooks Online training on behalf of Intuit. Over the last few months, I’ve been collecting a list of questions from webinars and in-person events. Turns out, a lot of you have the same questions! So, I’ve narrowed them down to answer the most frequently asked questions that I encounter.

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How to Find the “Best-Fit” QuickBooks ProAdvisor for Your Business

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Your QuickBooks Soulmate is Out There. . Since launching your business, you’ve been keeping track of your accounting with a spreadsheet (yay you!) and business is booming. (Who doesn’t like laundry detergent with glitter in it?). Got this one here. . But things are starting to really take off – you’re not just selling this stuff to your 14-year-old sister and her friends now.

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10 Ways for Businesses to Support International Day for Tolerance

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While political disagreements continue to rage on social media and in real life, one thing all Americans can agree on is that our country has rarely been so divided—or so intolerant of others’ opinions. How can small business owners take a stand against intolerance? One way is by supporting International Day for Tolerance. International Day for Tolerance (sometimes called Tolerance Day) got its start when the United Nations proclaimed 1995 the Year for Tolerance.

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Explore Your Capital One Business Checking Account Options

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You’ve probably heard of Capital One’s business suite—Spark for Business—as one of the most small-business-friendly business suites in the industry. From Spark Cards to Capital One Lines of Credit , the Spark for Business offers a variety of small business financing solutions. You likely have a general idea of what Capital One can offer your small business in the form of financing , but did you know that Capital One business checking accounts could prove to be the perfect home base for your smal

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How To Choose A Typeface For Your Brand [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Having a website is essential for any small business. And thanks to easy-to-use website builders and templates, it’s not always necessary to hire a costly designer. But a word of caution: if you’re planning on designing your own branding, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basic tenets and principles of design. Choosing the right typeface is a major branding decision, that could influence anything from how your potential customers perceive your brand — to whether anyone can read the

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The Top 22 QuickBooks Terms You Need to Know

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If you’re a new user, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all of the QuickBooks terms that you will encounter throughout the platform. Especially if you’re also new to the world of accounting. But don’t worry. Below is a list of the most frequently used QuickBooks terms that every user should know. It’s worth being familiar with these terms when talking to your accountant or QuickBooks tech support, and at parties.

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Unpaid Invoices Hold U.S. Small Business Back

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Fundbox is in the business of helping small business grow by offering short term business financing solutions that are fast, reliable, and transparent. Fundbox technology is based on machine learning that studies the overall business relationships of businesses in the Fundbox Small Business Graph. Fundbox Small Business Graph is essentially an exclusive network of small business in various growth stages.

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Chase Business Checking Accounts: Compare 3 Options

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Advertiser Disclosure: Fundera receives compensation from our partners. This compensation may impact how and where their products appear on this site. Being a small business owner comes with a lot of important financial decisions. And, o ne especially crucial juncture in your small business decision-making is d eciding where you’ll put your business’s money.

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On-demand webinar: How to scale up your fitness business

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So you've got your fitness business up and running and now you want to take it to the next level? Watch our webinar for top tips from industry experts on how to grow your fitness business without compromising performance.

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The Internet’s Best Guide on Setting Up Payroll for Small Business

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Your business has grown to the point where you’re ready to hire your first employee. Or maybe your tax advisor has encouraged you to form an S corp and pay yourself a salary so you can maximize tax savings. Either way, congratulations! Your business is growing and thriving. Now it’s time to set up payroll for your small business. Setting up payroll for small business seems easy, but there are a number of steps involved.

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Line of Credit vs. Merchant Cash Advance: Which Is Better for Your Business?

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Most businesses will encounter a situation where they’ll need fast access to working capital. And while there are a variety of options for financing—from long-term and short-term loans to invoice financing—when you need quick access to cash there are two popular options you might want to consider: a business line of credit or a merchant cash advance (commonly referred to as an MCA).

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5 Tips for Beating End-Of-Year Customer Churn

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It’s the end of the year, and your customers are busier than ever. They might not even remember signing up for your service—and if they do, it’s possible they don’t have the patience to figure out the system if they’re new, or your product very well may slip from their minds entirely if it’s not yet firmly part of their regular habits. And so, customer churn sets in.

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An Accountant Reveals the Worst Small Business Accounting Advice

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Owning a small business is one of the most rewarding endeavors you can take on, but it can also be the most challenging. Especially when you are just starting out. That’s why most new entrepreneurs look to friends, colleagues, and even professionals for advice about running their business and managing their finances and accounting. But how do you know if the advice you’re getting is good advice?