If you are starting a new business click on the deer picture

ARE YOU STARTING A NEW BUSINESS?

Employee benefit Plans

• At James M. Alga, CPA, we can offer small business counsel on the various types of benefit plans and tailor one crafted to meet your objectives for employee benefits
• There are simplified retirement options for offering employee benefits
• More comples employee benefits retirement plans under ERISA have nondiscrimination rules (these include rules for highly compensated employees
• Group term-life employee benefits plans are not taxable for the most part with certain PS58 rules as limitations. They employer can fully deduct these costs.
• Cafeteria employee benefits Plans enable funding with pre-tax dollars with a tax savings for both employees and employers
• Accidental and health insurance employee benefits plans are fully deductible and tax free to the employee subject to certain restrictions
• No additional cost fringe employee benefits plans are tax free to the employee

Business Valuation

Valuations are important for multiple owners (partnerships, more than one corporate shareholder)

• It is good to have a buy out agreement in the event of an owner's retirement, disability, or death
• Estate tax returns have an audit risk where regular valuations do not occur
• Businesses build goodwill over time, an intangible asset that has sales value. It is good to evaluate that through revenue and profit analysis
• Lending institutions are interested in business financial statements and valuations as well
• Succession plans involving family member or non-family members or key individuals benefit from regular business valuations
• Non compete agreements have value in the business valuation process
• Liabilities and contingencies are identified in the process (such as environmental regulation)
• Book value (balance sheet) may radically differ from the actual business valuation. We use income approach valuation methods, market approaches, and blended valuation techniques.

Budgeting and efficiency

• In today's tough economy, it is even more essential for the small business owner to size inventories, size payroll staffing, and to target marketing and ad dollars
• Not going through the budget and efficiency evaluation process is as foolish as ignoring your financial statements and management reports
• You should know the types of products and services you sell. You should know who buys what. You should know what the best offerings should be. You should know what margins you are dealing with. You should look at price and the competition.
• Getting the most out of employees. Some employee "fake" efficiency by working to about 10% to 20% of their capacity. Their pay incentives (bonuses, rates of pay, promotions, and raises) should be tied to increased efficiency. When this is not going on, the business encounters overhead burden, and it's time to make a change in personnel.
• There are ratios in every industry to measure your comperable efficiencies. These ratios measure financial and operational strength, sickness, and health.
• Your software or bookkeeping system should identify your most profitable jobs and customer. If you are not easily getting this information, it is time to make a change.
• Marketing needs to focus on missed opportunities (priming those up) and your most profitable offerings.