CNN Money

Whether a child is groomed to take over the family business or mistakenly pushed into it, problems often arise when family and authority mix.

“Being in an emotional relationship and a business relationship puts a different, more difficult kind of strain on relationships,” said Getzler, who inherited his consulting firm from his father.

Difficult-to-solve personality issues are almost inevitable in family companies, and without an exceptionally strong patriarch or matriarch leading the family business, problems can mushroom.

Despite whether a favored daughter was groomed for the business or a son was mistakenly pushed into a position of authority, a parent might not have the ability to select an appropriate heir.

“Once the patriarch or matriarch retires or dies, many businesses become a free-for-all - despite carefully laid plans,” Getzler said.

To that end, Getzler offers some tips to help business owners make rational decisions about their successors. These strategies can also help owners make other tough calls when family relationships are at stake.

1. Set up an advisory board.
2. Employ a family business counselor.
3. Manage egos and salary demands.
4. Stop the feeding frenzy.

“Everyone gets along generally when there is a lot of money to go around. The fights start when someone feels they are working hard and not making enough,” Getzler said.

In the end, he insisted, “there’s nothing magical,” to navigating through difficult family business issues. “It’s about getting people to focus on the end result.”

Designer Adam Ellis has reinvented the ice cream truck. In doing so, he’s reinvented a street vending business. Boutique flavors, a chandelier on the inside, and a truck that customers can write on, this is the ice cream truck overhauled, inside and out. An awesomely unique truck begs to be explored, and clearly has something different to offer.

Adam’s truck reminds adults of their childhood - but with a twist. Ice Cream trucks have pretty much disappeared from the suburban landscape. What Adam has done is taken a good idea that’s expired - and reinvented the concept for a different time.

How does this relate to your business? You’re probably looking at something within your environment that you take for granted. That blends into the background. That has long been forgotten, or no longer useful. Examine your business - your marketplace, and your environment, and ask, what could we reinvent? What could we do differently than anyone else in our business?

Being different allows you to capture the interest of potential customers, retain the love of your evangelists, and stand out in your marketplace. And sometimes it’s as simple as reinventing the ordinary things right in front of you.

Smart Biz Blog

A national survey of small business owners revealed that the U.S. health care system remains a top concern.

Almost nine out of 10 small business owners surveyed said the current health care system is in need of change, with six of 10 saying a complete overhaul is in order.

The survey found 55 percent of small business owners do not offer any health insurance to their employees, citing high cost as the No. 1 reason. Of these business owners, 55 percent said they would be more likely to offer such benefits if the federal government provided some financial incentives for this coverage.

A third of small business owners said they were cutting back on noncapital investments so they could provide health care for their employees.

Results were based on telephone interviews with 603 small business owners nationwide conducted July 12-23 for the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. The margin of sampling error is plus-4 percentage points.

Small business owners were asked what effect adequate health insurance has on a company’s employees. Eighty-four percent said that adequate coverage attracts the best qualified employees, and 81 percent agreed that it improves employee loyalty. Eighty-three percent believed it reduced an employee’s likelihood to leave a company.

Portland Business Journal

While the cost of mailing a letter will go up by two cents, rates for other categories will drop.

The new postal rates contain hidden surprises — and therein lies the opportunity for business owners. While the cost of mailing a first-class letter weighing one ounce will increase by two cents, to 41 cents total, rates for other categories actually will be reduced, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

Letters weighing up to two ounces will drop to 58 cents — five cents less than the 63 cents they currently cost. Businesses that reduce the frequency of their mailers by combining them stand to gain. A small business mailing 5,000 such letters would save $250 more than what it would have saved before the rate drop.

Businesses often send letters in unwieldy shapes and sizes in an effort to get noticed in a pile of junk mail. However, it is more expensive for the USPS to process these pieces of mail. A two-ounce large envelope will now cost 97 cents to send, which is a 53 percent increase from the earlier 63 cents. A possible solution for businesses? Reconfigure the mailing to a standard envelope size and pay just 58 cents to post it.

inc.com

Combining marriage and business is not an endeavor to be taken lightly. It requires serious consideration and answers to some tough questions. Here are 10 tips for running a successful home-based business with your spouse:

1. Determine if you can work side by side.
2. Discuss your goals.
3. Write a business plan and solicit feedback.
4. Define each person’s role.
5. Keep the lines of communication open.
6. Be circumspect when talking with clients.
7. Form a united front.
8. Set firm boundaries and honor them.
9. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
10. Don’t deal with family matters during business hours.

AllBusiness.com

As confidence in military and White House leadership continues sliding, Americans are gaining confidence in the country’s small business leaders.

When asked how much confidence they have in leaders of a range of public and private institutions, 54% expressed a “great deal” of confidence in leaders of small business, a new Harris Interactive poll found. That put the small business sector atop the list of institutions in which respondents expressed the most confidence. The military came second with 46%, and major educational and medical institutions came next, with each sector notching 37%. The telephone poll of 1,013 Americans was conducted Feb. 6-12.

Though military leadership had the second-largest percentage of respondents expressing a great deal of confidence, that figure has slipped substantially from 2002’s high of 71%. Likewise, the percentage of those expressing a great deal of confidence in White House leaders has slipped from its post-Sept. 11 high of 50% in 2002, to 22% in 2007.

Confidence in the leaders from other public sectors has been slipping as well. The percentage with a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court dropped from 33% in 2006 to 27% this year. Over the same time period, the support for leadership of organized religion shed three percentage points, going from 30% to 27%.

Outside of small business, the captains of corporate America and Wall Street also saw growing shares of respondents with a great deal of confidence. The percentage of those with a great deal of confidence in Wall Street leadership edged up from 15% to 17% between 2006 and 2007. And “major companies” gained three points, going from 13% to 16% during the same period.

startupjournal.com

Blackanthem Military News, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Air Force’s new small business director, Ronald A. Poussard, looks to expand opportunities for small businesses and reach beyond goals to support the Air Force mission.

Mr. Poussard, who is a member of the Senior Executive Service, was selected as the director of the Air Force Office of Small Business Programs. He will be responsible for the leadership, management and oversight of the Small and Minority Business Program, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority Institution Programs for the Department of the Air Force.

Mr. Poussard began his Federal government career with the U.S. Navy as a student trainee in 1982, and has held a variety of increasingly senior positions in the acquisition community. He has been a staff analyst supporting major systems such as the C-17 cargo airlift aircraft, as well as the Deputy Director of Contracting and the Small Business Director at the 11th Wing, Bolling AFB, D.C. He also served as the Director of Contracts and contracting officer establishing the first joint Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency space-based radar program. Mr. Poussard has also served as senior business adviser to Air Force Program Executive Officers and field acquisition commanders for space and command and control programs, providing contracting and business analyses for the development of acquisition strategies and source selections. Additionally, he was the Deputy Director of the Defense Acquisition Regulations System Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Poussard holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University, a Master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University, and a Masters degree in National Resources Management from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is also a graduate of several executive leadership courses.

Blackanthem Military News

Just over a year ago, we covered Ether, which makes it easy for (budding) entrepreneurs to sell spoken advice and support by providing them with a dedicated 1-888 number for customers to call, and taking care of billing and payments. Now, a massive player has joined the arena. Skype’s latest software release includes a beta version of Skype Prime. The service is very similar to Ether: sellers set a price, fixed or per minute, find buyers for their service, and Skype handles the rest. Of course, instead of using phone lines, both sellers and buyers use Skype’s voice over IP platform.

While Skype charges ‘call providers’ more than Ether does—30% commission versus 15%—Skype’s obvious benefit is its existing global user base. Skype has over 171 million registered users, is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Which means a very large reach for minipreneurs who’d like to sell their services, whether they’re offering Spanish lessons, tax advice or something saucier. (Note that Skype’s guidelines state that call providers cannot offer any content or service that is adult, sexual, pornographic or paedophiliac.)

Other alternatives include BitWine and Wengo.

springwise.com

Things Scam Companies Don’t Want You To Think About

My editor, Owen Thomas, recently passed along to me an email that had found its way to his inbox about a stock called Xethanol (XNL), suggesting that I might be interested in looking into it. The email claimed that Xethanol was attempting to defraud investors. I wasn’t too familiar with the company, but I knew it produced ethanol and was often mentioned alongside companies like Verasun (VSE) and US BioEnergy (USBE). That was enough to spark my interest, and a quick search of the company name along with the word ’scam’ came up with this Sharesleuth article.

Read the article at Business2.0

“Try offering salespeople bigger commissions to offset the lower salaries you’re paying,” suggests Dave Lorenzo, a managing partner at the Gallup Organization, who frequently advises entrepreneurs. Or go beyond standard one-time commissions: One of Lorenzo’s recent clients, Brite Building Services in Dix Hills, N.Y., is a commercial-cleaning company that pays its salespeople relatively modest salaries but sweetens the deal with a percentage of any new business they bring in. The employee gets his cut over the life of the account, like an annuity. Very few big companies offer anything like that.

You might also ponder a reward that’s a little off the beaten path. “The only limit is your creativity,” says Lorenzo. One real estate firm he knows has a gym as a tenant and gives its own employees free memberships. (In return the gym owner gets a little break on the rent.) Whenever possible, Lorenzo says, entrepreneurs should “try working a deal that’s connected to your regular business. If you sell appliances, give your employees appliances at cost. Car dealerships routinely let them drive demo cars.”

Okay, so medical supplies may not lend themselves so readily to that kind of incentive - how many Foley catheters or artificial heart valves do most of us need? - but Lorenzo insists that you can find appealing alternatives if you try. “The hottest thing today is letting employees work from home. People who have been successful in traditional sales jobs, especially, love being free to set their own schedules and not have anybody looking over their shoulder,” he says. “And it’s a win for you too, because you don’t need to have office space for them.”

FSB 2.0

Thinking about starting a business? Follow these crucial tips and your company might just become the next big thing.

Starting a business is a complicated, risky, all-consuming effort. Indeed, just two-thirds of new small businesses survive at least two years, and only 44 percent survive at least four years, according to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association.

Taking the six steps below will help put you on the road to success.

1. Determine if you’re an entrepreneur or just a wannabe
2. Pinpoint an opportunity
3. Make sure there’s a market for your idea
4. Write a business plan
5. Determine your business structure
6. Look for funding

Fortune Small Business

As a business owner you may struggle with the question of how you will be able to get everything done. This is especially true for independent service professionals and solopreneurs. There are only so many hours in the day, this isn’t going to change. So something else has to.
To get started, make a list of all of the things you are going to stop doing, things that are not directly connected to the core of your business.

Here are some examples of things for a “to don’t” list:

• Don’t schedule meetings with everyone who asks
• Don’t check e-mail every 10 minutes
• Don’t spend hours thinking about small things like the best font type
• Don’t get lost surfing the internet
• Don’t keep doing things manually that you can automate

Once you have your list ready, keep it in a place where you can see it. As you begin each day, think about what you want to accomplish and remind yourself of what you will NOT be doing. As you take action throughout the day, be aware of your activities and check to see if something you are doing is on your “to don’t” list - if it is, stop doing it immediately! You can always add new things to your list as you become more aware of how you spend your time.

After awhile, you will automatically notice a “to don’t” and you will choose not to do it before you get lost in the activity and wonder where the last hour(s) went.

You can also use your “to don’t” list as a way to set stronger boundaries for yourself, and your business. Saying no to certain things makes the things you do choose to say ‘yes’ to, that much more clear and powerful.

businessknowhow.com

Before Cliff Finch entered the topiary trade, he was an underwater welder, setting up pipelines at the bottom of the North Sea. But for Finch, 58, the switch to creating garden sculptures wasn’t as erratic as one might think: Beneath every topiary Finch produces is a custom-welded metal frame holding the structure together. “Building the frame is the art,” Finch says, “Once you have the frame, you know exactly what you’re going to end up with.”

Today Finch and his wife, Joanie, own and run Cliff Finch’s Topiary Zoo in Friant, Calif., just north of Fresno. Finch does the welding and, over the years, has created sculptures ranging from the seven-foot chess pieces seen here to increasingly popular tabletop arrangements. In the past few months Finch designed and produced race- car- and jazz-themed centerpieces for private parties.

Rather than increase production by adding staff, the Finches have kept their business small - they’re the only employees, apart from a smattering of part-time support staff - limiting their revenues to about $75,000 a year. But for Finch, who retired in search of a less dangerous occupation, the topiary business has its perks: “It’s enjoyable,” he says, “and people like the sculptures. It has worked out.”

CNN Money

Keeping your tax files fit for the coming 12 months not only cuts frustration in another year, it likely will cut your taxes.

Here are some things to consider in the next few months:

1. Make a plan - At minimum your plan should summarize total revenue, collections by client and expenses from the past year to support projections for 2007. Update it quarterly.

   While you’re at it, consider major expenses you expect and time and budget those purchases to your advantage.

2. Keep better records - Probably the biggest single thing small-business people can do is keep good records. Poor record-keeping increases your taxes.

   It’s less likely that things get overlooked if they’re organized.

   Try this: Buy 12 envelopes and label them by the month. Put records of all deductible expenses each month inside the appropriate envelope; on the back, write a list of contents as you go and total each month’s expenses. (Or you can reach the same result with a paper accordion file.) At the end of the year, you’ll have a pretty good, organized set of records.



3. What’s your corporate structure? - Consider whether to change your business’s corporate structure. There may be tax benefits, for example, to switching from a C-Corporation to an S-Corporation. For most small businesses, the changes must be made by March 15 to affect this year’s taxes.
4. Set up retirement plans - If you don’t have a retirement plan in place, or want to make a change, do it now. Some plans take several months to establish, and an earlier start allows more savings - especially with automatic payroll deductions.

   A recent study reporting that just half of workers have socked away more than $42,000 for retirement by the time they reach age 40.

5. Do you work at home? - If you qualify - and there are plenty of restrictions - setting aside home office space may enable you to depreciate a portion of your home and also to deduct normal operational costs, such as mortgage or rent, property taxes, utilities and maintenance or repair costs. The sooner you set up your office, the longer you can claim those deductions.
6. Put your teens to work - Instead of paying them an allowance, pay older children to work for your business; their compensation will be a deduction for the business, and their tax rates likely are lower than yours.

   Sole proprietors don’t pay Social Security or Federal Unemployment Taxes on wages paid to their own children under age 18, but those wages must be reasonable for the child’s work.

7. Schedule a tax review - If you have a tax adviser, open your business calendar now and write yourself a reminder in about October to schedule a meeting next fall. A brief conference late in the year will result in a fee but may save taxes and time, accountants said.

thecolumbian.com