Small Business Health Care Tax Credit Info

Corporate Business Solutions  helps put small and medium – size businesses on the path to success.  In fact, we utilize our expertise to access the information necessary for growth.   Through our affiliated companies, we can even navigate the way through all of your small business tax challenges.

If you are a small employer, there is a tax credit that can actually put money in your pocket. According to the IRS, the small business health care tax credit benefits employers that:

•offer coverage through the small business health options program, also known as the SHOP marketplace

•have fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees

•pay an average wage of less than $50,000 a year

•pay at least half of employee health insurance premiums

Here are five facts about this credit:

•The maximum credit is 50 percent of premiums paid for small business employers and 35 percent of premiums paid for small tax-exempt employers.

•To be eligible for the credit, you must pay premiums on behalf of employees enrolled in a qualified health plan offered through a Small Business Health Options Program Marketplace, or qualify for an exception to this requirement.

•The credit is available to eligible employers for two consecutive taxable years beginning in 2014 or later. You may be able to amend prior year tax returns to claim the credit for tax years 2010 through 2013 in addition to claiming this credit for those two consecutive years.

•You can carry the credit back or forward to other tax years if you do not owe tax during the year.

•You may get both a credit and a deduction for employee premium payments. Since the amount of your health insurance premium payments will be more than the total credit, if you are eligible, you can still claim a business expense deduction for the premiums in excess of the credit. 

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Small Business Prep for the Holiday Season

Corporate Business Solutions  is a Chicago-based business consulting firm that is recognized for the ability to assist in the growth of small and medium- size businesses.  Our experience allows for us to assist business leaders with the challenges they face in today’s small business marketplace.

Many savvy small business owners are thinking ahead to the holiday season. Data from Google revealed that more than a quarter of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween, so retailers need to be ready for the rush. If you haven’t already started prepping your business for the holidays, now is the time to start.

Here are a few key areas your marketing and sales efforts should focus on, and what you can do now to ensure a great shopping experience for your customers all season long.

  • Website optimization– As more and more businesses take their retail operations online, it’s incredibly important to provide a seamless, fast website for your customers. A recent report from website performance solutions provider found that slow websites mean fewer sales — 57 percent of consumers will abandon a site that fails to load after 3 seconds. Be sure your website is ready for holiday traffic or prepare to lose customers.
  • Holiday season shipping – In an age of Amazon Prime and same-day delivery, consumer expectations about e-commerce shipping are higher than ever. Any retailer that’s selling online needs to think about realistic shipping times and cutoffs throughout the season to make sure customers get their deliveries before the holidays.
  • Keeping online shoppers safe – Online sales means the potential for more businesses to get in on the holiday sales action, but it also means a greater chance for cybercriminals to hack sensitive customer data. Online retailer websites and associated back-end systems need to be up to date, compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and able to handle the expected transaction volume throughout the holiday season.
  • Marketing and social media– You may be planning some great sales for the season, but without the right marketing campaigns, your customers likely won’t know about them. Social media, email blasts and even texts play a role in holiday season marketing now, and businesses should be crafting the right messages for the right customers.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Construction Company Management Tips

Corporate Business Solutions is a leading business consulting firm that works with businesses that have a minimum of 10 employees and $1 million in revenue. We work directly with business leaders in many different industries, including the construction industry.

If you’re an owner or manager of a construction business, we have tips that may help you be more successful:

  1. Hire good salespeople.   Your sales personnel are the face of your business.  It is worth it to spend extra time with every member of your sales team, ensuring they know every aspect of your business and can present the business in the best fashion possible.
  2. Train your sales staff on prospecting.  In business-to-business sales, the telephone should be your sales staff’s best friend. Many salespeople have a fear of the phone, rejection and those in authority. You will have more than enough prospects to turn into sales if you teach your salespeople how to find prospects in their everyday activities.
  3. Teach all staff member’s great customer service skills.  More than one sale has been landed by a personable and well-trained receptionist after the official salesman had failed to close the deal. A sale starts when anyone enters your establishment.
  4. Market your company aggressively.  Stand out from your competitors. Sponsor seminars with your local chamber of commerce, write articles, speak to the local service club, redesign your website, sponsor golf outings and frequently stay in contact with prospects and customers.
  5. Increase your cash flow.  Teach your sales and estimating staff that not all sales are good sales. Unprofitable projects and jobs steal much needed time and money and could be avoided if your staff analyzed jobs more thoroughly before taking them.
  6. Control overhead.  Identify what can be reduced and what can be eliminated to improve cash flow. Scrutinize every expense including additional offices, gas cards, trucks, travel expenses, cell phones, service contracts, insurance policies, etc., and cut unnecessary costs.
  7. Improve job costing. For certain contracts—especially government contracts—cash flow can be accelerated by instituting more accurate and consistent job costing, resulting in larger immediate billings. If overhead is a billable expense, have someone accurately quantify and document the expenses that qualify as reimbursable according to the contract. The business owner cannot be the master of everything—know when to get help.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

POS Systems and Cash Registers for Small Business Use

Corporate Business Solutions  helps small to medium – size businesses implement new systems, procedures and protocols, which will often lead to the business achieving a greater level of success.

As you probably know, every store needs a cash management system to handle purchases at the point of sale (POS.)  When deciding what to buy, it’s critical to learn the parts of a POS cash register, understand the benefits and potential drawbacks of various point of sale systems and even to know how much money to keep in the till.

For a new business, the choice of cash register or POS system may simply depend on the budget of the retail location.  Before selecting a cash register or POS system, it is important to understand your business needs, the cash management options and POS hardware available and make your selection based on an educated decision. In addition, before you buy either a cash register or a POS system, learn what kind of warranty or support comes with the machine. Also plan how you or your staff will be trained to use the equipment.

Some benefits of POS systems include:

•More detailed reports

•Inventory management and control

•Customer relationship management (CRM)

•Marketing tools

•Omni-channel capabilities

•Improve accuracy

•Loyalty programs

•Gift Cards

•Easily grows with business

Some benefits of cash registers include:

•Low cost for startups

•Most models are easy to use

•Fewer components

•Basic functions and reporting

•Longer life since it does not need to be updated constantly like a POS

To learn more about what we can do for you and / or to schedule your appointment with the experienced business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Workplace Tips for New Managers

Corporate Business Solutions is often called upon to help small to medium-size businesses access the path to success. We can help with all aspects of business, including staffing, cost control systems and accounting.

Many times we help overhaul internal functions, including staffing and promotions.  If you’ve recently been promoted to a new managerial role, we have tips that may help you be proactive in your new position:

  1. Respect longstanding employees. Workers who aren’t necessarily older but who have been in a job for nearly 10 years might not take too kindly to a new boss who makes unreasonable demands, particularly if the employees feel they were unfairly passed over for the promotion this manager received.
  2. Spearhead a group outing. By organizing a happy hour or bowling night, managers can halt tensions before they progress. Bonding experiences build trust.
  3. Establish credibility. Simply landing a job is only the first step in proving your managerial proficiency. Now you need establish yourself as a trustworthy person by keeping promises.
  4. Be confident in your team’s abilities. Every team needs guidance, but an overabundance of it can prove detrimental. Young managers should trust their employees’ abilities to successfully complete their assigned tasks.
  5. Respect diversity. Appreciating or even celebrating differences (whether they’re age, gender-related or racial) within your underling pool is a great way to foster a sense of togetherness in the workplace. It is great to indicate to direct reports that you value the strength of a multigenerational, multicultural team and their ideas.
  6. Network as much and as often as possible. Acquainting yourself with a platter of conferences, meet-and-greets, seminars, and workshops is a great way to gain visibility for both you and your organization. Also introduce yourself to key people in other departments.
  7. Be an open communicator. It’s pretty tough to lead a team behind closed doors. Sound interpersonal skills can be indispensable to managers, whether they are just beginning their careers or have been in their roles for years.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us at 877-357-9366.

Tips for Business Lunch Etiquette

Corporate Business Solutions  was formed by a group of business professionals who have been involved in building some of the fastest growing analytical, management consulting and strategic tax planning companies in business today. We now offer the highest quality consulting services available in the marketplace. We work with small to medium – size businesses in a variety of industries, including contractors, small manufacturers, wholesale companies and job shops.

We know that many business owners find it necessary to hold business meetings over lunch.  If you have a business lunch coming up, we have simple tips that may help you achieve success:

  1. Don’t make the attendees drive across town to meet you.  Be sure to keep it close to their office.
  2. Confirm the lunch a day or two in advance to be sure there was no miscommunication regarding time, date or location.
  3. Don’t dig into business immediately. Waiting until after you’ve ordered lunch will prevent you from getting interrupted in mid-thought. Until then, make small talk.
  4. Before ordering, consider how you will look eating it.  During a business meal, it may be smart to avoid foods that are complicated to eat, like pasta with sauce, anything barbeque, oversized sandwiches or lobster in the shell.
  5. When possible, put your cell phone away.  Place it on silent so sounds and / or vibrations are not affecting the lunch hour.
  6. Avoid gesturing with your utensils. You may very well be involved in an animated discussion — that’s certainly not a bad thing. But don’t get carried away and start waving a fork or knife in the air.
  7. Paying with credit cards looks more professional than paying with cash.  You also have a record of your business expense both for your business expense accounting and for the IRS.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Technology Management in Small Business

Corporate Business Solutions is a leading business consulting firm that works with businesses which have a minimum of 10 employees and $1 million in revenue. Ultimately, we help access the information needed for a business to reach their goals.

There is a reason the U.S. Small Business Administration is suggesting it’s time for small businesses to get connected. Information technology is an essential partner in management of your business, regardless of the industry you operate in.   As a business owner, you can manage your business with greater accuracy and efficiency with the assistance of information technology and computer applications.

  • Storage: You may already use a computer for data storage for your business. Inventory, sales, receivables and payables stored in Excel, Open Office or a similar program keeps these figures at your fingertips. Accounting software stores your payroll information, tax records and specialized data for your business. Once you’re acquainted with a program, you won’t know how you functioned without it. You can eliminate much of the physical storage at the office by using information technology to scan and store old personnel and payroll files, tax files or client files.
  • Marketing: Large and small businesses are on a level playing field on the Internet. You can have a Web presence, take orders, buy merchandise, sell excess or even operate some businesses entirely online. A marketing tool that uses information technology is the Quick Response or QR Code that looks like a bar code but is square. A scan advertises your website address and includes any text you choose. You can use your business management skills to direct employees or contractors to do your Internet marketing, or you can choose to learn a new set of skills in information technology.
  • Information: Whether you learned business management by the book or by practical experience, you’ll need updates all of your life. The Internet is a wealth of information to keep you current with trends, techniques, software and human resources. You can draw on online databases and websites to locate potential employees, compare insurance proposals, tackle employee issues or check out the competition. Managing your business with information gleaned from the Internet keeps you knowledgeable and on the cutting edge.
  • Communication: Communication by email is faster and costs less than sending a paper letter in the mail. You can transform your business to the 21st century with the use of email for communication with clients or customers. Information technology allows you to organize email file folders by client or by type of communication, such as orders or billing. You can drag and drop your email files to closed folders as your company completes projects. Your communication files become closed files, placed in storage on CD or on a hard drive with a duplicate copy or backup automated by a program or service.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

External and Internal Environmental Factors in Small Business

Corporate Business Solutions  has the proven-expertise to put your business on the path to success. We often help small to medium –size businesses determine their external and internal environmental factors that are affecting business. The internal business environment includes factors within the organization that impact the approach and success of your operations. The external environment consists of a variety of factors outside your company doors that you typically don’t have much control over.

To be successful, business owners must manage the strengths of internal operations and recognize potential opportunities and threats outside of operations.

  • Organizational Direction: The role of company leadership is an important internal business factor. Your leadership style and the styles of other company management impact organizational culture. The positive or negative nature, level of family-friendliness, effectiveness of communication and value of employees are cultural implications that result from leadership approaches. Companies often provide formal structure or direction with mission and vision statements. These are forward-looking statements that provide the business for company decisions and activities.
  • Other Internal Factors: The strength of your employees is another crucial internal business factor. Motivated, hard-working and talented workers generally produce better results than unmotivated, less-talented employees. Your business processes and relationships within and between departments and employees also significantly impact business effectiveness and efficiency. In a high-performing workplace, employees not only have talent, but they work well together and collaborate on ideas and resolutions.
  • External Competition: One of the most critical external business factors is competition. Whether you operate in a concentrated industry with a few major competitors or a large industry with many competitors, you need to know the competition. Many companies do competitive analysis to compare their offerings and prices to those of competitors. When developing business philosophies and products, it is helpful to use your strength in quality production, customer service or operational efficiency to build competitive advantages that benefit your customers.
  • Other External Factors: Other common external factors fall into several categories, including socio-economic, legal or ethical, political and technological. Socio-economic factors relate to the values, attitudes and concerns of your target customers and their economic abilities to afford your products. The legal, ethical and political environments generally relate to your need to abide by business laws and to meet the ethical or social responsibility standards of your customers and communities. In some industries, technological evolution drives the need for companies to adapt and constantly research for improvements.

To learn more about what we can do for you and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the experienced business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Tips for Lead Generation

Corporate Business Solutions  helps business leaders create and implement new systems necessary for effective management, including accounting systems, productivity protocols, organization methods and information systems. We’ve also worked with small and medium- size businesses that have had to overhaul their lead generation system to better reflect modern times. Many companies, including construction, HVAC and masonry, count on lead generations to function in business. So this area can be especially critical for business longevity and growth.

You have probably noticed that the phone will not ring on its own. To be successful generating leads you need to be pro-active and put yourself out there. If you’re a business owner that needs to create more leads, we have general tips that may help you:

  • Call all former customers every 6 months.
  • Send an email newsletter to your entire customer base as well as personal contacts that haven’t yet used your services.
  • Send out a postcard or letter to the neighbors of any project you are working on.
  • Offer a referral program for anyone who sends you a customer.
  • Place signage on job sites that includes your business name, website and telephone number.
  • Create social media pages and actively use the sites.
  • Take progress pictures of your jobs and post on social media several times a week.
  • Join a networking group or a chamber of commerce. Typically these groups will link to your website and refer your services.
  • Ask your customers to write reviews about you online.
  • Ask for testimonials and be sure to have a testimonial page on your website.
  • Ask your customers and friends to like you on Facebook and subscribe to your blog.

To learn more about what we can do for you and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the experienced business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.

Reasons to Hire a Business Consulting Firm

Corporate Business Solutions  was formed by a group of business professionals who have been involved in building some of the fastest growing analytical, management consulting and strategic tax planning companies in business today. We have now committed ourselves to a standard of quality in the delivery of consulting services never before seen in this marketplace.

There are many reasons why small to medium – size business owners opt to hire a consulting firm.  If you’re considering partnering with us, here are details that may help with your decision:

  • Save time and money – A small business consultant can help you to develop strategies for making improvements on all fronts, including the areas where you may be lacking some expertise. In addition, if your venture is on the fast track for growth, a skilled consultant can provide insight that can enable you to seize new opportunities while avoiding common pitfalls that could derail your success.
  • Utilize expertise at the right time – Even if you would prefer to tackle all business matters personally, engaging an outside expert when especially complex or sensitive issues arise can be an extra measure to ensure problems receive proper attention and are thoroughly resolved. It also can be useful to have a third-party’s perspective on matters that require objectivity, or an “extra set of eyes” to verify that no mistakes have been made in a critical process.
  • Managing changing workloads – If you don’t have ample support to meet an increase in demand for your products or services, you could be at risk of disappointing your customers — and potentially damaging your business’s reputation. However, you also want to avoid hiring more staff until you are certain that workloads will be sustained. Bringing in a small business consultant is one staffing management approach for navigating the ebb and flow of supply and demand, as well as for meeting other unexpected changes that present both opportunity and risk for your company.
  • Grow for the future – Highly skilled senior-level professionals who work as our consultants can serve in a number of critical roles, from accounting manager to chief financial officer. There are also many ways for you to work with consultants as your small business evolves. Most important, perhaps, is that these resources can give you the valuable time needed to focus on what you do best: being an expert at whatever it is that led you to launch your own business in the first place.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Corporate Business Solutions, call us today at 877-357-9366.