Debbie Ervin, MBA – Pilot Mtn Business Assistance

If you have a business, then you need to track company finances.  The two main reasons are:  to keep your business running smoothly and to generate reports required by the IRS, SEC, and anyone else that you may have to answer to.

QuickBooks helps you perform basic financial tasks, track your financial situation, and manage your business better.

QuickBooks works best for smaller and mid-sized companies and non-profit organizations.  There are many different versions to meet business needs.  It is not hard to use, BUT you should know accounting rules.  It is hard to find a problem if you are not sure what rules apply and why QuickBooks puts items in different places.  

I have added a link to give you more info on why you should use it.

http://cazley.com/10-reasons-why-you-should-use-quickbooks/

These rules can apply to business as well as your personal life.  Work can be one of the biggest stressors that you will ever have.

1) Honesty is the best policy.  When we weave webs of deception, we need to expend enormous mental energy to prevent them from tangling; as a result, we are left with less brainpower for solving real problems.

2) Give up on toxic people.  Many people become wiser, calmer, and emotionally healthier with age and experience.  Others display neither psychological health nor interest in changing.  You may have already spent much of your life trying to get the love/respect you deserve and need from someone in the second group. I’m so sorry, but that love/respect will not be forthcoming.  Go find the people who are willing to do so

3)  Let it go.  According to neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD, when you feel an emotion caused by a negative event, it takes only 90 seconds for the body to process the resulting stress hormones and return to its baseline setting.  Next time you are overwhelmed by a terrible situation, dive in for 90 seconds.  Don’t think, just feel.  It will be over very soon.

4)  Trust your gut.  Complex thought has its place, but your senses are your most effective tool.  Thoughts can “spin” our reactions to what we encounter, while the gut-deep impulses we get from instinct are usually more honest.

5)  You’re more powerful than you know.  We stumble into the delusion of powerlessness in our lives because we’re afraid of how other people would react if we did what we wanted.  But it’s our job to defy that fear, no matter what others may say or do, and to trust that love/respect will carry us through.

I think everyone has heard about Target’s identity theft issue.  I know that I don’t want that to happen to me.

Jean Chatzky writes for AARP Magazine and has the following tips to protect you:

• Monitor Your Financial Life – check your credit card activity and your bank accounts on a regular basis.  This is fairly easy if you set up accounts online.  Get your free credit report every 3 months at annualcreditreport.com.
• Layer Up – Most states allow you to put a freeze on your credit accounts so that thieves can’t apply for credit in your name.  They charge from $3-$10 per credit reporting bureau to freeze or unfreeze your account.  There are also several sites online that offer free credit monitoring or you can subscribe to identity theft protection services.
• Ditch the Snail Mail – US Postal System has been called an absolute gift for identity thieves.  Anyone can reach into your mailbox and take info from it.  Subvert them by doing as much banking and bill paying online as possible.  (Don’t know that I think there is much difference with all the hackers out there.)
• Protect Your Technology – Make sure that you have the latest antivirus software and the most recent secure browser.  If using Wi-Fi, make sure that you have a secure connection.
• Fix Poor Passwords – Make your password long and complex and change them often.

Don’t forget about the small business seminars in Mt Airy on May 12 and 14th. These are on marketing your business through social media. They are free to Surry county residents.



http://www.surry.edu/Portals/0/pdfs/CCE/Small%20Business/2014/05-12-marketing-your-business-through-social-media.pdf

For more detailed information about experience, training, and education, please feel free to check my linkedIn account @ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/debbie-ervin-mba/31/122/17a.

If you are a brick and mortar business, cleanliness is important to many customers.  I am a bathroom person, so it disgusts me to go to a restroom that is nasty.  I realize that the people using it are the ones usually making it that way, BUT that does not reflect on them as much as the business itself. Water slung everywhere, paper on the floors, mirrors covered in water spots and toilets needing to be flushed are poor reflections of your business.  Take the time to check these areas out during the day.  If you are a large business, you may have employees doing checks.  Make sure they are actually doing clean up because I go into many stores and see employee sign offs, but they are so nasty that nothing has been done.

Another area for larger stores with carts is to keep the carts near the door.  Send someone out to bring carts back.  The carts need to be cleaned out also.  My husband shops at some of the larger stores for household and yard items on a regular basis.  He could not find a cart in the store on a beautiful spring day on a weekend.  This is when everyone is buying.  He actually had an employee tell him that they were all in the parking lot and he could find one there.  Most of the carts there have paper and trash in them most of the time.  NO CART TO CARRY ITEMS, THEN NO SALES.

According to The Handbook of Program Management by James Brown, A Program Manager is the individual who is responsible for delivering a major product or service, while improving that product or service AND enabling the organization to continuously outperform the competition.

A project manager’s role is to ensure that the project stays within the constraints set at a program or upper level.  These usually consist of cost, schedule and scope.

The program manager’s role is more complex.  They may be managing multiple projects simultaneously as well as defining policy, setting objectives, establishing culture, handling operational responsibilities and are accountable for profit or cost margins linked to business strategies. 

Do you like to learn new things?  Do you need continuing education classes?  Try ED2GO classes.  I have taken four of these so far.  I have had accounting fundamentals, WordPress, website design and intermediate Excel.  These are interactive, instructor-led, online, and can be found at many technical colleges. They offer courses in accounting, business, computer applications, language, design and composition, technology, personal development, college readiness, technology, health, and several others.  The ones that I have taken ran from $60-75 each.  The classes start once a month, run for six weeks, two lessons per week.  You have a two week grace period.  You can download and save the lessons or print them out for reference.  They are much better than tutorials, easy to understand, and a great way to learn.  You will get a completion certificate at the end of the course and around 2.5 CEU’s.

The only downfall that I have seen is that you need to have the software on your computer for the computer applications.  This can be expensive if you don’t already have it.  I have not had to purchase any books.

If interested, go to ed2go.com and check it out.  You will be asked to give your zip code to find the nearest school offering the classes.  That does not really matter since you will not be going to the school.  You will have to register and pay through the school.  I have done this online or by phone.

Have you checked to see if the state owes you any funds?  There are two websites that have been sanctioned to facilitate searching for these funds according to AARP Magazine.  MissingMoney.com allows you to search the unclaimed property records for 40 states at the same time.  Unclaimed.org allows you to search states individually.  Check out both sites and may be you will get a pleasant surprise.  Be careful when searching for these sites.  There are many others with similar names and may charge a fee for their services.  The state governments and their websites do not charge fees.

I went to one of the small business seminars in Elkin yesterday.  It was called Going Mobile for the Small Business.  It was a great class.  I heard terms that were unfamiliar, learned what they are, how they would apply to getting your business known in the technological world that we have become.

The class was taught by Martin Brossman and he is very knowledgeable and personable.  The class was interesting and upbeat.  I also met some nice people from a variety of businesses and walks of life.  I also met a Libby Isley from Pilot Mtn.  This was a pleasant surprise since we live close to each other and have similar interests in business.

I would encourage anyone in Surry County to check out Surry Community College’s small business website for future FREE seminars.  They offer seminars in accounting, bookkeeping, finance, E-commerce, human resource management, marketing, social media, web development, small business and many others.

Another bonus is it was fun and a way to network.