Although electronic payments have become increasingly popular, many businesses still use paper checks that can be physically mailed when paying employees and suppliers. In fact, it is estimated that most businesses in the U.S. pay at least half of their bills by check. Writing a Business Check With only a few exceptions, writing a business… Read More

The 401(k) plan is an arrangement that allows employees to choose between taking compensation in cash or deferring a percentage of it to an employer-sponsored retirement account. If an employee chooses to defer, the amount will be deducted from his or her paycheck before taxation. All 401(k) plans must adhere to the federal regulations contained… Read More

What is a personal financial statement? The bulk of a personal financial statement is a list of all of your personal assets and your personal liabilities at one particular point in time.  It is similar tour your company’s balance sheet.  For example, the asset section of your personal financial statement lists all of your personal… Read More

More insidious than Dave Ramsey’s obsession with debt, is his admonishing small business owners to not have partners. Let me say upfront that I completely understand what he is trying to accomplish with people, and I’ve certainly experienced my share of bad partnerships, but abstaining from all business partnerships is frankly a little goofy. Let’s… Read More

I am going out on a limb here, but I don’t like Dave Ramsey. That may be heresy to some, but let me explain why. Aside from the fact that he is dull to listen to, has not a funny bone in his body, and generally is preachy and dogmatic, that is not why I… Read More

One of the challenges facing all business owners is optimizing their capital structure. Capital structure is the ratio of different sources of capital being used in the business.  The most common sources of capital for small business owners are debt, equity and hybrid securities. Working capital for small business is the difference between short-term assets… Read More

What’s the difference between Gross Margin (GM) and Net Margin (NM)?  They are derived from the Gross Profit (GP) and Net Profit (NP) calculations.  Let’s see how this is done and how they vary. What is Gross Margin? Gross margin, also known as operating margin, is the percentage left over after the variable costs of… Read More

For many small business owners, having money in the bank means that they have made money and everything is going well.  The problem comes when the owner has no money in the bank and he goes to his accountant that tells him he has made money and will have a large tax bill in April.… Read More

On November 2nd, 2015 President Obama signed a law changing Social Security rules that eliminate the spousal social security so called  “file and suspend strategy”. This does not take effect until 6 months after law and anyone currently doing this will be grandfathered in and be able to continue to use this strategy. So anyone… Read More

Guest post by Annessa Traynor, The McCullough Agency Many key provisions of the Affordable Care Act  Out-of-pocket maximums for essential health benefits – These limit out-of-pocket member liability for in-network EHBs to no more than $6,350 for individual coverage and $12,700 for family coverage. Generally, member liability that is considered part of the out-of-pocket maximum includes in-network deductibles,… Read More