Setting Up Products and Services

  The products and services your business sells make it unique. The same thing is true of how these items are set up in your accounting software.  Whether you’re using QuickBooks Online or something else, setting up products and services correctly can impact the quality of the information you can get out of your accounting […]

The Concept of Internal Control   

 Internal control is a very special phrase in the accounting profession. Tactically, it’s the set of processes that help a company produce accurate data throughout the organization, follow reporting requirements and laws, and maintain consistency and accuracy in its operations. Strategically, it’s an entirely new way of thinking and doing business.   Internal control helps […]

Five Fun Customer Perks to Set You Apart in the Marketplace

It’s always fun to surprise and delight your customers with customer perks. This puts a smile on your client’s faces. It also boosts loyalty, and is fun for your employees too. Here are five fun customer perks to set you apart in the marketplace Handwritten thank you note. Email and social media have all but […]

Filed an Extension? Five Tips to Make Tax Time Painless

Filed an Extension? Five Tips to Make Tax Time Painless Some people filed an extension and have until October 15th. The deadline to file on April 17th has already passed. Tax time is probably not your favorite time of year, especially if you have to pay the government your hard-earned dollars. Here are five tips […]

The Entrepreneur’s Paycheck

As business owners, we may be so busy making sure the bills get paid and the product gets out the door that we may not be quite as proactive about our own compensation.  To pay themselves, many new business owners take what’s left after employees and vendors have been paid, and that ends up being […]

Five Places Where Spending More Pays Off

It’s generally a good idea to keep overhead costs low so that your business profits will be higher.  This is especially true with items that are easily commoditized and fairly standardized, such as utilities and rent.  But there are times when increasing expenses pays off nicely, and here are five places where spending more pays […]

The Death of the Annual Performance Review

If you have employees, you probably also have a process to help them understand how they are doing on their job performance. There’s a new trend in large companies to kill the annual performance review and replace it with continuous, instant feedback as well as a tool called an after-action review.  This trend is the […]

Five Ways to Add Pizzazz to Your Customer Service

It’s the little things that add up to make an exceptional experience for your customers. Here are five “little things” you can add to your services to create an exponentially memorable connection with your customers.   Generosity   Add a little extra something to the products or services you offer. It could be a piece […]

5 Keys to Building a World-Class Internship Program

As a summer intern with an east coast consultancy, I worked 80 hours a week scrubbing data for an econometric model of longwall mining. It was as terrible as it sounds. I had the classic intern experience — a constant flood of tedious, low-value work. Here at Vivint, we decided to build an internship program […]

Don’t Just Start a Business, Solve A Problem

As long as consumers have problems, they will always search for solutions. People will always look for better, faster and smarter ways to accomplish everyday tasks. And fortunately for entrepreneurs, there are still lots of rooms for improvements in existing products. That said, the biggest issue for most founders is finding these painful problems and […]