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

by Vivian McInerny, The Oregonian

He savored the speed. Engines blasting. Colors blurring. Cars rocketing past with a force he could feel in the bones of his teeth.

Tarran Pitschka, gripping steel railings for support, stood on the racetrack. Even as floating debris settled on his shoulders, the residue of seared tires from the cars burning past, he was thinking, “Cool! What can I do with this feeling?”

The answer was to create a line of cranked-up T-shirts and caps called Wicked Quick.

“It’s not satanic. It’s tough,” Pitschka said.

Harley-Davidson and other specialty shops picked up the line. Pitschka felt confident the appeal reached wider, so he took Wicked Quick to a trade show, hoping to capture the attention of menswear buyers. A stylist who claimed she was working on a movie set bought a few pieces for the actors. Pitschka was skeptical. But last week he received a DVD trailer for the July release of “1408″ based on a Stephen King novel about a haunted hotel room, and there is actor John Cusack wearing an early Wicked Quick T-shirt.

Nordstrom began testing the brand this month, with 1,200 pieces in 13 stores. Pitschka hopes to expand the Wicked Quick brand to include other designs, such as his Teflon-coated stretch nylon jacket and a leather duffel bag embossed with the distinctive graphics. Wicked Quick is available in the U.S., Canada and Germany, and Pitschka hopes soon to land accounts in South America and Australia to give the still small brand global reach.

For now, the company still consists of one person.

More on this, click here.

DePauw University student Ryan Tinker has a ways to go before he earns his college degree, but he’s already a cog in America’s entrepreneurial machine.

The 20-year-old sophomore from Overland Park collaborated with fellow DePauw student Zach Koch to start BookSnag.com in January 2006. With a $500 investment in computer equipment, the two created a Web site to help students at the small liberal arts school in Greencastle, Ind., save money buying and selling used textbooks.

BookSnag’s idea is simple: Provide a local alternative to the campus bookstore for exchanging textbooks. Students can use BookSnag for free. Sellers name a price for old textbooks and list the offer. Buyers can search by title for the books they need and either purchase at the asking price or make a counteroffer.

If a book is not available, the site directs users to Amazon.com as an alternative. Tinker and his partner earn revenue from Amazon on referrals.

The DePauw duo are among a growing number of young entrepreneurs running a business. According to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, 188,000 self-employed people were under the age of 21 in 2005, compared with about 142,000 in 2000.

DePauw University News

Without credit, I had to come up with a fresh approach to funding my cosmetics startup.

The bill was more than $60,000, due in 30 days, and I had no idea how I’d cover it. There was no way the contract was going to pay off by then, but there was also no way I could turn that contract down.

Read the story of Mascara Plus.

As a small business owner, it often feels like everyone is trying to sell you something. But sometimes, companies give stuff away.

That’s the case with the online resource offered by Hewlett Packard Small Business.

Granted, they hope you’ll eventually buy something when the need arises, but the information and services can be a boon to business owners—and all of it’s free.

Hewlett-Packard Small Business has a wealth of free tools, tutorials and templates on its site geared toward small business customers.

One of the main attractions of the site is the Business Templates area (not surprising for a printer company), which offers about 700 pre-built designs for Microsoft Office, CorelDRAW, QuarkXPress and more. Most interesting to small business owners is the collection of agency-quality graphic design templates from StockLayouts, where you’ll find great-looking brochures, letterhead, flyers and so on.

But templates are just part of the story. Beneath the Learn & Use banner is a link to free online classes in HP’s learning center. These have the feel of genuine online college or post-graduate courses — complete with lesson breakdowns and even recommended prerequisites — and are taught by well-qualified instructors. You need to register and enroll for a given course, but all are free of charge.

HP offers a few dozen courses in all, broken down into specific areas such as Software & Technology, Business Skills and In-house Marketing. Recent additions include an introduction to using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and understanding Microsoft Vista Business Edition.

You’ll want to bookmark the page and check back often, as HP conveniently flags which lessons are new or updated and shows which new courses are coming soon.

Small Business Computing

If you’re looking for a cheaper, faster way to market your product, why not tap into the increasing number of blogging moms? Overall, as a hot demographic, moms spend more than $2 trillion a year, so they definitely have the purchasing power. BlogHer counts more than 400 family and mom-related blogs right now, and growing. “Moms are the ultimate internet networkers, “said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.com. They pass along shopping tips and product picks in the ideal word-of-mouth network.

Blog-ad firm Blogads reported that the average consumer on mommy blogs is a 29-year-old female with an average income of $70,000 a year, who spends four hours a week tapping into these blogs–basically, she’s a marketer’s dream consumer.

The media is taking notice of the products moms are chatting about. In fact, one blog, Cool Mom Picks, says at least four rather obscure companies they’ve written about have gotten spreads in Real Simple.

Entrepreneur Daily