We all belong to the human race. It is a simple sentence and a statement of fact. There are many assumptions made in that statement. One of the primary assumptions is we belong to the human race. Because of our membership in this august society, we know how to build safe, effective, successful and lasting personal and business relationships that allow all parties involved to grow, prosper and get results.

I am not sure this is a valid assumption.

Why? Though we have much in common, many of us have not been taught know how to build rapport, connect with others, understand the best way to support others and know how to ask them to support us. This is evident by the divorce rate; as many as 50% of marriages end in a divorce (Source divorcerate.org.) What is interesting to me is that the divorce rate drops the older we get. For example the divorce rate is 38.8% for American males age 20-24 versus 6.5% for American males age 35-39. It would seem the old men get the more they understand relationship strategies.

The question is how can we shorten that learning curve?

In business, according to Grant Thornton, 97% of all business owners want to strengthen the customer relationship.

SCORE suggests that 64% of all small businesses fail because they do not know how nor do they understand the value of marketing. Marketing is nothing more than a process through which companies build strong customer relationships. Can you imagine how simple life can become when you understand this and implement relationship strategies in your business?

I could go on but you get my drift.

To address this problem, I teamed up with Dr. Tony Alessandra, one of the world’s foremost relationships strategies experts, to create a web site that teaches you how to build safe, effective, successful and lasting personal and business relationships. The web site is called People Smarts. In this site we address relationship strategy issues, presentations skills, collaborative selling skills, marketing, personal growth and development, how to treat people the way they want to be treated and a host of other important and powerful topics that, when applied, will help you create more effective relationships to get the results you want and need. The site contains a full array of videos, eBooks, PDFs and MP3 to support you in your personal, sales, business and leadership development needs.

We invite you to explore and try out this site. In lesson one (which you have access) you will learn the different between the Golden Rule vs. Platinum Rule and experience the overview of all functions of relationship strategies. In addition, you will receive an introduction of the two dimensions of behavior. In this lesson, you will be presented with a very simple model that has been validated with hundreds of thousands of people.  It is a powerful guide you can use to improve communication and morale, build better work groups, and develop better relationships with co-workers, supervisors, customers, vendors and others.

I invite you to give People Smarts a try. To learn more go to www.akris.net. If you have questions please feel free to call Ron Finklestein at 330-990-0788 or email him at ron@akris.net. This powerful tool can also be used in you place of business for all your employees. If you would like more details about this opportunity ask Ron and he will provide the details.

Ron Finklestein

www.peoplesmarts.ws
admin@peoplesmarts.ws

330-990-0788

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.

Marketing is designed to persuade you to take a specific action (call now, space is limited), or not do something (don’t throw that away, recycle it).

People have become cynical. Marketing has become so sophisticated that people feel tricked into doing something only to find the product or service did not perform as stated or expected. We are inundated with thousands of marketing message daily from people trying to part us from our time, energy and money.

What’s a marketer (business owner) to do? I have new and powerful marketing technique that is guaranteed to work. What is it you ask?

It is quite powerful. You simply market your products and services with Integrity. Integrity is defined as adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.”

Wouldn’t it be great when we encountered someone selling a product or service that interested us that we felt we could trust the person or company? That we could have an open dialog; that the message was to be consistent and had integrity. The honesty was there.

There are six questions your prospects wants answered before they buy. You can download the report at http://www.aboutbusinesssuccess.com. This report will help you communicate your message with honesty and integrity.

This message was prompted by a bad experience I had will my bank. I should say my old bank – I just left them. Here is what happened. I received my home equity line statement from my bank and the bank demanded the loan be paid in full. We are not talking about a small about of money. I called customer service to see what was going on. I was told my house was in the collections and foreclosure process, I could do nothing to stop it, and no one I could call. The process must run its course. They told me I was late 30 times (BTW, I was never late.) When I suggested they made an error, I was told I was lying.

I spent hundreds of hours trying to solve this (as a small business owner this time away from my business was quite painful) finding the right people to talk too, feeling really stressed out and helpless because of the stress it put on my family, only to find out they made a mistake. My house was not in foreclosure, it was not in collections, and all was fine.  I did not get so much as a letter of apology. I think they were afraid I would sue. Don’t worry, I am not that kind of person. The letter I did get, saying my credit was not damaged,  did not have a signature. The collection letters I received that had a phone number would not return my calls. I was even told they called me and I know they did not because I have just one phone I use for all call and the call log does not lie.

While I am going through all this I see the banks’ commercials on TV about how easy this bank is to work with, how much they care about their customers and how responsive they are to their customers’ needs. I was quite angry that there was a total and complete disconnect between their message and their actions. At this time, I should point out that I had been with this bank over 30 years. I am in process of changing banks. I paid off the loan in questions, and I am creating an arm’s length relationship with my new bank.

Contrast that with the city where I now live. They put in a new sanitation line on my property that caused all kinds of water  problems in my yard. It has been a slow process but they are taking ownership and fixing the problem at their expense and the investment they are making is not insignificant.

Problems will happen. It is how you handle the problem that is important. Which organization was more in integrity with their customers? Is your message congruent with your organization’s action?  Do you deliver what you say you will deliver? Is your marketing message consistent with your company’s actions? All people want is to be treated fairly and honestly. Do you allow people in your organization to do that?

Do you handle your customer problem with integrity? Do you handle your sales with integrity? Do you live your life with integrity? Do you market with Integrity? Are you seeing a theme here? Being in Integrity is all that you do and be? The true disconnect is when your actions are not consistent with your words.

Ron Finklestein

Http://www.businessgrowthexperience.com
ron@akris.net
330-990-0788

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.

To Your Success,

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