A good friend of mine wrote this article for a local magazine. The article received great reviews and because of that I ask him if I could post it here. The author’s name is Dale Stefancic.  To find out more about Dale, email him at dale@dalestefancic.com or visit www.EntrepreneursOnCall.com

LEADERSHIP

Leadership is a powerful word.  With it, there is an amazing amount of responsibility,  should you decide to assume the role of a Leader.  Often the question of are leaders born or are they made is frequently debated.  I believe both situations exist;  just as someone is born with a gift to be an artist, pro athlete, talented musician, actor or actress.  You can be born with the gifts to be a leader.  Can you become a leader?  I believe you can.

Leadership is reserved for those individuals that have vision, passion, compassion, drive, desire and unending will to attend to a higher level.  It may be as simple as having the leadership for your family.  To have them take the safe path, keeping them out of harms way, demonstrating through actions the correct and best way to get things accomplished.  Leadership is not attained by a title such as supervisor or business owner.

Leadership is a constant demonstration of one’s ability to lead through action with passion and purpose to illustrate the intended result.

While working in the business world, I have seen too many times  management just delegate responsibility or tasks without knowing first hand what it takes for the desired outcome  they look for.

Leaders are respected and listened to because they have demonstrated time and time again they have done what it takes to overcome and are willing to demonstrate to others through action and gain the respect needed to be valued and listened to.

The majority of leaders should know and understand that people are the core building blocks of their team and/or organization.  To be an effective leader, you need to understand the core building block of your people and their respective values.

Many organizations just look at their people in a professional capacity. This short sighting will miss the mark.  To ensure your leadership fits and attracts the right people, doing the right things take into account all the roles each person comes to work with, within and outside their team or organization.  You may have to address their personal roles outside of work such as parent, little league coach or volunteer.

Many times a person’s role shows up at work.  A leader is no different and you must understand and be aware of it.  The right leader will identify their own growth and development and prioritize them.

Keep in mind, you get the people you deserve.  It is our decision.  For you to attract and lead better people, you need to become the leader that those people need and deserve.  That means you first need to invest in yourself.  Keep improving one of your strengths and make your weaknesses strong.

Leadership begins from within.  Identify core roles, prioritize them and plan on development and then acting on them.  Any relationship begins with you.  Leadership begins with you.  To be effective, it is dependent on your ability to communicate well.

All communication begins with a thought before it is translated into words and messages. How many of us have allowed ourselves to speak first and think later?  What was the result?  In many circumstances, it created some unwelcome ripples in our life and in our leadership.  With sound leadership, our internal and external communication must be open, honest, clear and timely and at times radical.    When our thoughts line up with our words, our actions will follow in alignment.  You are congruent.  You walk the talk.  When you do that, people do what people see.

Be creditable.  This is who you are.  A creditable leader has quality of relationships and has earned the right to lead, versus it being a granted position.  Leaders are authentic, trustworthy, and compelling.

Be competent in what you do.  Leaders are expected to get it correct, which means problems need a proactive approach.  Usually problems will stem from three areas-people, strategy and execution. Your problem will most likely always fall into one of the three categories.  Identify which one and solve it.

Lastly, I want to mention consequences.  How do you do things and what was the consequence of your action?  How did you make your decision?  How did you choose to communicate your decisions and what was the impact on others?

Decide if you are a leader or if you need to work on yourself in some capacity to become a leader!

Dale Stefancic

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788

www.aboutbusinesssuccess.com

Aboutbusinesssuccess.com is a web site devoted to your personal and business growth. It contains marketing articles, personal growth videos and relationship building strategies.

We have a great article today from guest writer James Kim. Take a look at the pros and cons of your legal structure. If you do not feel you have the correct structure for your business, contact a lawyer who can help with either implementing a legal structure changing an existing structure. Thanks James for this great article.

Ron Finklestein
Business Growth Facilitator
ron@ronfinklestein.com
330-990-0788

Choosing a Legal Structure for Your New Business

One of the first things that an entrepreneur has to do when
starting a business is decide on a business ownership structure. Here, we
outline the different structures, helping you find the business solutions
that best suit your startup and understand its tax implications.

1.  Sole  Proprietorship

A sole proprietor is someone who owns an incorporated business
on their own. In this structure there is no legal distinction between owner and
business and, therefore, the owner has complete control over and liability for
the business, including the debts and legal actions against the business. In
sole proprietorships the profit is “passed through” to the owner and the business
profits will be documented on the individual tax return, Form 1040.

Many people consider the sole proprietorship to be the most
simple and straightforward business organization because you don’t have to file
any specific forms (like income tax forms) or pay massive startup fees.
However, on the downside a sole proprietor is fully responsible for all debts
and has limited financial opportunities, making it
difficult or impossible to raise capital from investors.

The taxable year is the same as the owner’s: a calendar year. As
mentioned above, a sole proprietor must fill out a Form 1040-ES (Estimated Tax
for Individuals). The profits or losses are calculated on Schedule C. Earnings
from the sole proprietorship are subject to the self-employment tax, Schedule
SE, Form 1040, which is a contribution to Social Security and Medicare. You can
calculate the self-employment by multiplying net earnings from self-employment
by the self-employment tax rate. The self-employment tax rate for 2011 is 13.3%
(10.4% for Social Security and 2.9 for Medicare). However, you can deduct half
of your self-employment tax contribution in figuring your gross income by
filing a Form 1040 Schedule C (line 27). You can visit http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=130102,00.html
to determine eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Other forms
include the Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return) and Form 940
(Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment Tax Return).

To find these forms see http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98202,00.html

2.  Partnership

A partnership involves two or more people who carry on a trade
or business together. This structure of business, like a sole proprietorship,
“passes through” profits or losses to its partners and these partners pay taxes
on their share of the profits in their individual income tax returns.

Instead of the Form W-2, the partnership must turn in a Schedule
K-1 and the Return of Partnership Income (Form 1065).Then, each partner reports
their profit and losses with the individual tax return (Form 1040) and Schedule
E.

Forms: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98214,00.html

3.  C Corporation

In a corporation, shareholders exchange money or property for
the corporation’s capital stock and usually take the same deductions as a sole
proprietorship for its taxable income. C corporation refers to any corporation
that is taxed both in corporate income and shareholder income (as opposed to
passing through the income to the owners like a sole-proprietorship or
partnership). This process is sometimes referred to as the “double tax.”

In a c corp you can implement “income splitting.” If the owners
keep some income within the corporation (“retained earnings”), it will be taxed
at typically lower corporate income tax rates, not at the individual tax rates of
the shareholders. These retained earnings are reported on Form 1120. C corps
also have to file the Estimated Tax for Corporations, 1120-W, quarterly.

Forms: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98240,00.html

4.  S Corporation

In an S corporation you have both limited liability while paying
income taxes like a sole proprietor or partner. S corps are essentially
corporations that have chosen to pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and
credit through to their shareholders; they are not subject to Self-Employment
Tax.

The IRS defines an S corporation as one that is 1) a domestic
corporation, 2) has only allowable shareholders, 3) has no more than 100
shareholders, 4) has one class of stock, and 5) is not an ineligible corporation
(like an insurance company or domestic international sales corporation).

To become an S corp the corporation must first turn in Form 2553
Election by a Small Business Corporation. An S corp “passes through” its net
income to its shareholders via a Schedule K-1 in Form 1040 (Federal Income
Tax). The salary paid to the employee-owner is subject to employment taxes
(940), but the remaining income, the distribution from the S corp, is not subject
to employment tax. The IRS requires, however, that the salary allotted is
“reasonable,” to prevent shareholders from giving themselves extremely low
salaries, attributing the rest of their earnings to distributions, and thereby
avoiding high employment tax.

5.  Limited Liability Company

If your business will most likely engage in some sort of riskier activity (the use of hazardous
materials, selling of edible goods, caring for children or animals, requiring
injury-prone actions), you should opt for the LLC, which protects your personal
assets from business debts and claims. There are no tax advantages (or disadvantages) to forming
an LLC: LLCs with one owner file for taxes as a sole-proprietor, while LLCs
with multiple owners file taxes as partnerships.

This is because the federal government does not identify LLC as
a classification, so a member (and owner of an LLC) must file as a corporation,
partnership, or sole proprietorship tax return. A Form 8832 is filed to
establish a business classification. Owners of an LLC may also have to pay
additional state taxes, or “franchise taxes,” in addition to the income
tax.

While understanding the legal side of business can be
complicated and, well, “taxing,” hopefully this summary of the basics has clarified
it a little!

James Kim is a writer for Choosewhat.com. ChooseWhat is a company that provides
product reviews and test data for business services and products.  Their
goal is to help small companies make informed buying decisions on business
solutions that help their business.

 As a professional speaker, I am often asked what topics I speak about. That is easy to answer because I can speak on:

 entrepreneurship,  small business skills, marketing and most any topic relating to  small business skills and small business success.

The common thread tying all my topics together is called The One Degree Difference. We must learn to think differently about our business in order to get different results.

My book Nine Principles for Inspired Action discusses the nine behaviors succussful people implement and there are examples of how people learn to think differently and how this change in thinking leads to different actions.

The One Degree Difference simply stated is that it does not require a massive change to get massive results. It only takes a small change in our thinking, a one degree change, to get massive results.

Change your thinking change your business.

Ron Finklestein

Small Business Speaker
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Contact me to see how you can learn more about the One Degree Difference.  

Is an entrepreneur a leader? How does entrepreneurship differ from leadership? The answer depends on your perspective. In the traditional sense, anyone who starts their own business is an entrepreneur. Not all entrepreneurs are leaders.

A leader can rally the troops to take action. A leader can keep them motivated with a strong vision for the company. The odds of success increase significantly if the entrepreneur is a leader. If not the entrepreneur can thrive if they learn to master the basic skills and behavior of leadership or if they surround themselves with someone who can effective communicate that vision to the staff, the customers and valued business partners.

We cannot be all things to all people but we can surround ourselves with others who can effectively fill the gaps in our own skills sets.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

As someone who speaks on topics of interest to small business owners, I have found entrepreneurship to be of the greatest interest. An associate once told me that 65% of all small businesses started are one person companies.

This means there is a strong interest in taking control of their financial destiny but many times these new business owners trade one job for the many jobs required of running a small business: sales, marketing, bookkeeper, customer service, etc.

It is hard to be successful as an entrepreneur unless you have the success mindset. We are not taught to be a business owner in school and the business owners I know who have MBAs found that it is very difficult to applly what is learned in a college course designed for Fortune 1000 companies.

Who fills that gap between what was learned in school and how it is applied in the trenches? Someone has to. It can be filled in two ways: ongoing training and personal improvement and working with a coach, mentor or ideally a group of advisors. Working with someone else is where the best small business ideas can be tested before the wrong decision is made.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

I was recently selected to conduct webinars with other business professionals. I am proud of this association and wanted to share some of the details with you so you could captialize on this opportunity as well. With this opportunity you can experience high quality business training from the comfort of your office or home.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me. My phone number is 300-990-0788. My email address is ron@akris.net.

Thanks for reading – Ron Finklestein

A Cutting Edge Way to Increase Your Business Knowledge, Easily and Affordably!

April 21, 2008, Minneapolis, MN – Business Expert Webinars (BEW), an international community of business experts, comprising best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus, announced its launch today with more than 100 speakers and 700 live business education webinars that begin airing in May 2008.

“We are using webinar technology to deliver business eLearning,” said Lee B. Salz, President and CEO of Business Expert Webinars. Topics include all genres of business –sales, networking, public relations, marketing, real estate, human resources, entrepreneurship, management and many others. Visitors interested in participating can view the extensive schedule and sign up for webinars at

http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com?afflink= bewrfinklestein040208

. Each webinar is taught by a live presenter on the phone and is supported by a presentation delivered over the Internet.

“People are frustrated with the free webinar offerings where the price of admission is a sales and marketing pitch. Either the entire webinar is an infomercial or the content is delivered at a high-level in the session and concludes with, ‘if you really want to know how to do this, buy my CD, DVD, book, etc.’ Thus, they aren’t really free,” said Salz.

Business expert and author of “Selling to Big Companies,” Jill Konrath, said, “What attracted me to deliver content with Business Expert Webinars was that the experts pick very specific topics and go deep into the subject matter. This is strictly business education. Participants come away from BEW webinars with actionable information they can implement immediately. It is a great way for adults to learn valuable information inexpensively, without leaving the office.”

About Business Expert Webinars

Business Expert Webinars is an international community of business experts that comprises best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus. For more information, visit BusinessExpertWebinars.com.

I was recently selected to conduct webinars with other business professionals. I am proud of this association and wanted to share some of the details with you so you could captialize on this opportunity as well. With this opportunity you can experience high quality business training from the comfort of your office or home.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me. My phone number is 300-990-0788. My email address is ron@akris.net.

Thanks for reading – Ron Finklestein

A Cutting Edge Way to Increase Your Business Knowledge, Easily and Affordably!

April 21, 2008, Minneapolis, MN – Business Expert Webinars (BEW), an international community of business experts, comprising best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus, announced its launch today with more than 100 speakers and 700 live business education webinars that begin airing in May 2008.

“We are using webinar technology to deliver business eLearning,” said Lee B. Salz, President and CEO of Business Expert Webinars. Topics include all genres of business –sales, networking, public relations, marketing, real estate, human resources, entrepreneurship, management and many others. Visitors interested in participating can view the extensive schedule and sign up for webinars at

http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com?afflink= bewrfinklestein040208

. Each webinar is taught by a live presenter on the phone and is supported by a presentation delivered over the Internet.

“People are frustrated with the free webinar offerings where the price of admission is a sales and marketing pitch. Either the entire webinar is an infomercial or the content is delivered at a high-level in the session and concludes with, ‘if you really want to know how to do this, buy my CD, DVD, book, etc.’ Thus, they aren’t really free," said Salz.

Business expert and author of "Selling to Big Companies," Jill Konrath, said, "What attracted me to deliver content with Business Expert Webinars was that the experts pick very specific topics and go deep into the subject matter. This is strictly business education. Participants come away from BEW webinars with actionable information they can implement immediately. It is a great way for adults to learn valuable information inexpensively, without leaving the office.”

About Business Expert Webinars

Business Expert Webinars is an international community of business experts that comprises best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus. For more information, visit BusinessExpertWebinars.com.