“The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.” – Thomas Carlyle

“I often feel sorry for people who don’t read good books; they are missing a chance to lead an extra life.” – Scott Corbett

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney

Whether you have an established tax practice or you’ve been thinking about starting one, you can benefit from the advice of others who have gone before and, in one way or another, achieved success.  Once again, we’re helping you find books that will enable you to achieve your business goals.  This week we took a cue from Entrepreneur.com to supply you with 5 book recommendations that others have found helpful, in no particular order.

Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company by Michael S. Malone (Portfolio, 2007)

This book follows the rise of corporate giants William Hewlett and David Packard, examining those characteristics that made them both successful.  The San Francisco Chronicle calls it “a lesson plan for managers…” while Businessweek calls it “…a biography, management guidebook, and business history, all in one.”  What sets this book apart from others is that Malone focuses on the honesty and integrity upon which Hewlett and Packard built their empire.

New Ideas from Dead CEOs: Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office by Todd G. Buchholz (Collins, 2007)

Author Todd Buchholz follows the lives of 10 successful CEOs, including Estee Lauder, Ray Kroc, Walt Disney and Mary Kay Ash.  Buchholz himself describes the book’s purpose upfront: “I dare you. Search this book for the solitary secret that will guarantee riches while protecting you from being flung against the wall by competitors. You won’t find it.  Not because I have failed to divulge the lives and lessons of great CEOs, but because I tried to reveal the simple truth about making it big: It does not take a village, a Harvard MBA, or even a rich uncle. It takes passion, and obsession with turning a great idea into a sweeping revolution.”

Your Management Sucks: Why You Have to Declare War on Yourself…and Your Business by Mark Stevens (Crown Business, 2006)

This book enables anyone in a management position to reevaluate his/her approach and identify weaknesses that must be overcome in order to run a successful business.  In fact, this book presents a week-long “battle plan” that, in Stevens’ own words, “challenges assumptions about success and provides a road map for taking your business to the next level.”

Buddha: 9 to 5 – The Eightfold Path to Enlightening Your Workplace and Improving Your Bottom Line by Nancy Spears (Adams Media, 2007)

This book takes the Buddhist practice called the Eightfold Path and gives it a corporate spin, complete with practical exercises and case studies that enable readers to see the Eightfold Business Path in action.  Focusing on the Buddhist concepts of intention, mindfulness, and right action, this book provides a very zen approach to better managing your business, your employees and your work environment.

Red to Black in 30 Days by Allen Bostrom (Universal Accounting Center, 2008)

Small businesses are failing right and left; we hope yours is not one of them.  Red to Black in 30 Days enables readers to learn the Universal Project Management Model that will enable them to save failing businesses.   This book is a guideline for financial professionals who work with disheartened small business owners in need of a good turnaround plan.

Each chapter focuses on a crucial aspect of the turnaround process. Simple steps are outlined from initial contact through stabilization and profitable growth. This can be the guide through your first turnaround experience or it can enhance the management skills of even the seasoned tax preparer.  You may find that in offering turnaround services your business (and those of your clients) will be the few that thrive in these difficult financial times. For the cost of this one book you can enhance your value to current and prospective clients.  Order your copy now.

Resources

Edelhauser, Kristin. “10 Biz Books to Read This Summer.” 31 May 2007  Entrepreneur.com

You should periodically increase your prices in order to remain competitive and profitable.  And now that we’re in the middle of a recession you may be considering a reduction in your current fees.  However, don’t let that be the motivating factor.  While you should never be embarrassed by your prices, there are those rare instances when you should lower them.  In Paul and Sarah Edwards’ book Home-Based Business for Dummies, they provide 5 circumstances when lowering your prices just might save you in the end.

1. You’ve overpriced your services.

This can easily happen, especially when first starting your business.   We strongly recommend that you set firm prices upfront.  But everyone makes mistakes, and you can easily revisit your pricing list in order to set more reasonable fees if you find you’ve overpriced yourself.

2. Your expenses have decreased.

You can pass your savings on to your clients, if you would like.  Or you can see this windfall as your reward for cutting your own expenses.  Either choice can benefit your business.

3. You want to reward long-term clients.

There’s no doubt about it; this makes for good customer service.  You want to retain long-standing clients and offering them reduced fees for certain services may be one way to ensure that happens.

4. You want to get new work.

This is an age-old incentive in attracting new clients to your practice.  By offering a one-time discount you can build your client roster rather quickly.  Also consider offering your clients a similar discount for referring any of their friends and family to you.

5. You want to extend a professional courtesy.

Many professionals offer colleagues a special discount.  You might consider doing the same.  Perhaps you might do this for other home-based business owners.  While you may lose a little money upfront, consider all that you might gain in referrals later.

Cutting prices, when done for the right reasons, can be good business.  If you have considered reducing your fees as a result of the recession, think again.  There are better reasons for discounting your services as listed above.  When implemented properly you may find yourself with even more clients as a result.

UAC Provides You with Valuable Business Tips

If you’re interested in more business-building advice, you will greatly benefit from UAC’s video library which contains all the following DVDs:

If you are looking for ways to better promote your business, consider our DVD, “The Art and Science of Getting Clients.” You’ll learn how to access effective marketing techniques that can help you grow your tax practice by $30,000 to $125,000 per year!

But don’t stop there.  Consider learning about expanding your business by adding bookkeeping services to your menu.  Learn more about our Professional Bookkeeper Program and order our DVD “Introduction to the Professional Bookkeeper Program.”

And if you do that you’ll also want to know how to “Start Today and Have Your Own Bookkeeping Service”; this video will let you know how you can build your own accounting practice.

Finally, learn how to introduce your services to potential clients by using the “‘Yes’: Sample Marketing DVD.” Use this to role play, watch with clients or pass out to prospective clients.

If you order these DVDs the worst-case scenario is you will add valuable materials to your professional library for a very small cost.  But the best-case scenario is that you will change the course of your career and enjoy a lucrative business with an unending stream of clients who find your services to be priceless.  Don’t wait to boost your business potential.  Order our special DVD 4-pack today!

Resources

Edwards, Paul and Sarah.  Home-Bases Business for Dummies.  New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, 2005.

Serving You with Our Free Newsletters

We enjoy sending you information that we hope improves your work as a tax preparer. Our three newsletters, AB Tips, Tax Tips, and Career Tips, are intended to help professionals like you advance in whatever their current position in the financial field. The AB Tips Newsletter is designed to share accounting and bookkeeping tips with subscribers. Intended for individuals with their own accounting practice or for those who would like to start their own practice, we specifically include tips on how to market your services, how to streamline tasks, how to organize your office space, etc. Our Tax Tips Newsletter is for tax preparers or those interested in tax preparation. We provide tax news, information on starting your own business, tips on building your clientele, etc. And finally, we have our Career Tips newsletter, for those who work or would like to work in the accounting field. In this newsletter we include information on getting the right job, advancing in your field, moving into management positions, etc.

As we learn more about your needs, we alter our approach in order to better serve you. We’re adding a few things to the newsletter that we hope you enjoy. Here’s a breakdown of what’s included and how we hope it helps you.

Two articles

Since we began running our free ezines over two years ago, we have included two articles every issue that offer accounting and tax information, tips on running and marketing a small business, career guidelines and promotional pieces. The newsletters provide us with the opportunity to share our products and services with those we believe they best serve. Universal’s programs are top of the line and life-changing; we promote them because we know they help people like you achieve career goals and realize your business dreams.

We also use the newsletter as an opportunity to expose you to our many free resources, including personalized information from our President and CEO, Allen Bostrom in Allen’s Blog, UAC’s accounting and tax forums, the newsletters, and the Universal video tour.

Recently we’ve responded to requests for purely informational pieces as well. Last summer we asked newsletter subscribers to tell us what you wanted to read about. For the past six months we’ve tried to include articles on all suggested topics. Each newsletter contains one, if not two, informational pieces. We continue to welcome your feedback as we write articles intended to help you improve your financial services. Please visit our forums for a chance to give us feedback on past articles and suggestions for future articles.

Press Releases and New Products

We want you to be in the know about everything Universal, so we include all press releases, enrollment offers, and information about new products in our newsletters. From our new interactive testing center to our customized Professional Bookkeeper Program for Canadian residents, we want you to be the first to know what’s happening at Universal Accounting Center.

Quotable Quote

Everyone could use a little inspiration now and then, so we like to include a quotable quote in each issue of our newsletters. Funny quotes, somber quotes, quotes that make you want to get up and accomplish something, we try to include a variety that inspire and uplift.

“The Bottom Line”

And last but certainly not least is an upcoming addition to our newsletters: a video clip we call “The Bottom Line.” In the serious world of financial statements, taxes, and projected profits, the bottom line is that we like what we do and can enjoy a good laugh about our profession. The humorous clip is intended to help lighten your load and improve your day. We hope you look forward to this new feature and share it frequently with coworkers, family, and friends.

We want our newsletter to help you move forward in your goals as a financial professional. So stay tuned as we continue to improve our newsletters so that they can better serve your needs. We appreciate your support.

7 Ways to Optimize a Small Office Space

Whether you work at home or from a rented office, limited space can make it difficult to create a comfortable and functional work environment. Inviting clients to your office can become embarrassing if you find it difficult to sit down yourself. If you’re suffering from cramped quarters, it’s time to reinvent your office space to one that is more professional and inviting. Here are 7 ways you can get started:

1. Consider what your office says about your business
Whether or not you like it, your office says something about your business. Whether it’s sloppy, creative, neat, or sterile, your clients will leave your office with a new opinion of your services as well. Before you make any changes consider the image you would like to project and go from there. Every item you bring into or take out of your office will be much more informed and could enhance the nonverbal message you’re communicating to current and potential clients.

2. Think outside the box
You don’t have to buy office furniture from an office supply store. Consider other alternatives. Ikea has a good selection of streamlined furniture that can solve storage problems while maximizing the amount of living space your office offers. You may find pieces that are unusual yet highly functional, giving your office a quirky and personable feel.

3. Measure before your buy
As you look for pieces that will enhance your professional image while optimizing the space you have available, be sure you measure before you purchase anything. You should know the parameters of your office and buy items that will fit nicely within designated spaces. And before placing furniture you can test a new office arrangement by taping the floor with the furniture measurements so you can see if your plan will indeed optimize the available space.

4. Use storage bins
It’s important that you have furniture that will enable you to store everything you need to adequately do your job. Whether it be a filing cabinet or a stackable shelving unit, you should pick items that will work best for your particular needs.

5. Optimize vertical space
In arranging an office, people often forget the value of vertical space. As you look to your walls, consider ways you can use that surface area to best serve your needs. Shelving can definitely be attached to walls, but that’s not the only thing. Some even attach their desktops to the walls in order to better optimize the space below which would be unavailable with a conventional 4-legged desk.

6. Decorate
A little paint and some wall art can make even the smallest spaces more appealing. Consider adding a soothing shade to the walls that will add a punch of color to your office in a fairly unobtrusive (and inexpensive) way. Think back to that image you would like to project and decorate accordingly.

7. Organize
You cannot optimize any small space without organizing its contents. In fact, you may be surprised at how this tip alone will make your office appear larger. Sort everything that appears homeless. Toss that which is unnecessary and file the rest. Hopefully the storage containers you have chosen will be suitable for all that remains.

Just because your office is small doesn’t mean it has to be uninviting. You want your work environment to reflect your professionalism and capability. Taking just a few steps to optimize your office space can make all the difference in the world.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.- Joseph Addison

That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit. – Amos Bronson Alcott

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. – Henry Ward Beecher

Whether you have an established tax practice or you’ve been thinking about starting one, you can benefit from the advice of others who have gone before and, in one way or another, achieved success. But it can be overwhelming to approach your local bookstore or library in search of the one book that would help you achieve your business goals; the shelves are saturated with “how-to” books for the small business owner. In attempts to help you find a book that will suit your needs, we will supply 5 recommendations of books that others have found helpful, in no particular order.

The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Start, Run and Maintain Her Own Business, by Emira Mears and Laurnen Bacon (Seal Press, May 2008)

We recognize that many of our readers are female entrepreneurs who start and maintain successful businesses. This book is for those of you interested in starting out small with a few local clients. Recommended on Entrepreneur.com, this book was written by two small business owners who found little information in the way of starting out small and growing at a steady pace while getting paid what they were worth. This book attempts to fill that void by helping female entrepreneurs ask themselves the most important questions as they either start, run or maintain their own businesses.

The Big Book of Small Business: You Don’t Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax and Phil Bosta (Harper Collins, February 2007)

This book is a great resource for individuals looking to either start a new business or boost their current business to the next level. Called an “all-in-one toolbox for small business” this book is designed to help business owners make informed decisions while fostering a healthy work environment. You don’t have to forge this new venture blindly, and Tom Gegax uses his own example of running a $200 million dollar tire business to help guide you through the more harrowing obstacles of small business ownership.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap�and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins (Harper Collins, 2001)

Author of Built to Last, Collins wrote this books to answer the question, “Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?” Studying 1,435 companies in search of his answer, Collins and his team found 11 companies that were indeed great, including Fannie Mae, Walgreens and Wells Fargo. This book examines the traits these companies share in making that rare leap to greatness. Read this #1 bestseller to find out what those traits are and how you can infuse them into your own business.

The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management, by Peter F. Drucker (Harper Collins, 2003)

Heralded as the first person to systematically analyze “management,” this book’s compilation of Drucker’s essential writings on business management help small business owners better understand how to operate entrepreneurial businesses. If you would like both an introduction and in-depth look at Drucker’s management philosophies, which continue to impact the way businesses are run today, read this book.

In the Black: Nine Principles to Make Your Business Profitable, by Allen Bostrom (Universal Accounting Center, 2005)

Designed specifically for the small business, this book contains 9 practical principles that will enable you to improve your business’s profitability. And you don’t have to wait to complete the book before you can start applying them. Working from personal experience and the experience of his father, President and CEO of Universal Accounting Center, Allen Bostrom, shares tips proven in countless businesses just like your own. If you would like to run a more synchronized practice where all three business functions (accounting, marketing, and production) work together, this is the book for you. See why In the Black has become a bestseller on Japan’s amazon.com. Order your copy today!

References
Vaughn, Alexa. “5 Books for Women Entrepreneurs.” 4 March 2008. Entreprenuer.com

What? No, we don’t mean you move your business backwards. We mean back up your electronic data. Now that tax season is over, we’re guessing you have lots of valuable information on your hard drive. Imagine what might happen to your business if your computer crashed today. Don’t wait for it to happen before finding out. If you don’t have a system of backing up and saving your data, you need to start, and asap! As outlined in Scarlet Pruitt’s article on allbusiness.com entitled “Five Basic Rules of Data Storage,” here are 5 simple steps to follow in saving and storing your electronic data:

1. Determine your data-storage needs
Under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, some businesses are required by law to keep copies of electronic correspondence, like email, for up to seven years. So depending on your industry and specific needs, your data-storage needs will be different from your neighbors. It’s important that you research industry requirements to ensure your business is in compliance. Also consider what data will need to be backed up and how often. Is this a job you will perform or will it be an employee’s responsibility? You can also consider outsourcing this crucial task.

2. Choose a system that meets your needs
You have many options when considering backup and storage systems. There are special external drives you can purchase for that purpose. If your data is stored on numerous computers, however, you should look for a more efficient way of compiling and storing data. And while disks are a good temporary solution, they are not considered a reliable means of permanent storage. Optical media, like CD-ROMS and DVDs are a reliable method for long-term data storage. Also consider using an off-site, third-party storage provider if you would rather not bother with it in-house. Chances are you may not have enough data to justify a complex in-house storage system.

3. Activate your storage system
There’s no use having a storage system if you don’t update and maintain it. Be it your job or someone else’s, you must ensure your information is properly safe-guarded.

4. Properly label all media
In order for your storage system to be effective, you must properly label all the media. This requires you to institute a standard for labeling and storing data. That way, whether you do it this month or a new employee does it the next, all labels follow the same system of listing appropriate information. A filing system should also be introduced to ensure you can easily locate data when necessary.

5. Store data offsite
While your system of using an external drive may work fine for you in-house, what happens in case of a fire? All that data would be lost, regardless of your efforts to secure it. It’s good practice to regularly backup your system and then store copies of this data offsite to protect it from extreme circumstances.

Your system for backing up and storing important data doesn’t have to be complicated in order to be effective. But it does have to exist in order to safeguard your business from lost data.

References
Pruitt, Scarlet. “Five Basic Rules of Data Storage.” Allbusiness.com.