Mr.Imposter syndrome.. I honestly expected someone to come and say 'What do you think you're doing!!'..even after 5+ years running a biz small business |
- Mr.Imposter syndrome.. I honestly expected someone to come and say 'What do you think you're doing!!'..even after 5+ years running a biz
- S-Corp Salary:Distribution Ratio
- My Dads painting company
- My High School chose me to go to business classes at Yale University!
- Starting my own business
- Going all in to start a business - Identifying my financing options and strategies - Please review and provide advice on others to consider
- What is your dividing line between personal and business work?
- Membership funnel question
- we'd like to hear you suggestions!
- Looking for self serve card payment option for my customers
- Easiest ways to digitize liability forms
- Anyone has heard of Fundera? Has it been helpful for you to take out a loan?
- कैसे शुरू करें मशरुम कैनिंग का व्यवसाय । How To Start Mushroom Canning Processing Business
- best format for emailing customers?
- Is bigger and louder advertising better? Example: van wrap vs basic vinyl lettering
- Using a chip reader for the first time
- Anyone here know about S-Corp elections and taxes?
- Getting eaten alive on government contracts by larger firms.
- Small business in need of software/direction
- There are hardly any reviews for tax advisors and accountants. How did you decide who to go with?
- Print on demand custom envelope, letter, photo and certificate?
- Check shown as deposited, but vendor says they never received it.
- Is starting a breakfast cereal company a bad idea?
- Online marketing
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:26 AM PST So.. I run a small (but of course cool) UK animation studio. I've slowly grown the biz, first from a spare room.. then a cheap windowless office.. now light, kinda cool but rustic and still cheap office.. we have a small and growing inhouse and remote team. There have been regular bread and butter jobs and the odd cool one from the UK and overseas. The businesses reputation and repeat business has slowly built up, plus my own google seo knowledge and effort has always been on the up. Then this year after a concerted marketing effort since October 2019.. plus an award and crossing the 5 year milestone.. it has got ridiculously busy. With silly-ly large and well paid projects (*a point of perspective of course).. I'm considering expanding the office space and running a small film studio space too. Finding crew for that. Etc etc.. A producer assistant joined at the start of January. Shes doing well and picking things up quickly which is making the speedy expansion easier and less stressful. We are still a small business.. but with 5 frequently busy workers. It could soon be 10.. it's getting silly. It's all good... It's still fun 90% of the time.. and much if it is still creative work... But.. today I had a real distinct feeling that any minute now, some tall figure was going to walk in and say.. "What the $%€£ do you think you're doing, you cant run a business. Ha... your own business... dont be so silly.. How you've got this far without going bankrupt is beyond me. Now.. pack up your things and let the grown ups take over." I know imposter syndrome is a thing, and a relatable feeling for many if not all. But having a real fear of an actual person, 'Mr or Mrs imposter syndrome' is a first for me. Anyway. It made me smile at the ridiculousness of it all... both the phantom character.. and the stumbling success of the current business approach... [link] [comments]  |
| S-Corp Salary:Distribution Ratio Posted: 26 Feb 2020 07:53 PM PST S Corp Salary:Distribution Ratio I really appreciate your input on this question. My wife and I are the only members of an LLC filing taxes as an S Corp. my question pertains to the ratio of what we pay through payroll in salary and what we payout in distributions. I've been given conflicting advice on this ratio. On one hand, the ratio should be about 70% in salary. Simple and straightforward. On the other hand, I've also been told that the salary can be whatever you want as long as it is reasonable. For example, my wife is an executive coach / life coach. So she could earn revenue of $200k for her business and pay out only $40k in salary. The reason being that $40k is an average wage for a life coach. The answer here has big tax implications since the salary is subject to the 15.3% social security and Medicare tax and distributions are only subject to the income tax. Please share your thoughts. Sources: 3 different tax accountants that we have had. 2 votes for 70% and 1 vote for the reasonableness method. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:04 PM PST My dad has been the owner and operator of a painting company for coming up on 20 years now. Recently, the phone has started to die out and he's really feeling the pressure. I've tried to help using apps like Thumbtack or posting Facebook/Instagram ads. I'm just looking for any kind of suggestions to get the phone ringing again. Angies List was good at first, but slowly turned into a bust. Google Ads generate a lot of clicks, but no leads. I feel like I've hit a wall. The quality of work he does is amazing and the reviews he gets are great. [link] [comments]  |
| My High School chose me to go to business classes at Yale University! Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:15 AM PST I'm so proud of myself. I've never gotten chosen for something like this in my short-lived life. The classes are for business, where me and a team of other students like myself identify a problem and come up with a solution, then present it to shark tank and hopefully get an investment from one of them! I can't wait, i'm so excited! They also give some tips for business, and will definitely help me jump start my business plans early on. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:35 AM PST Hello first time posting here so sorry if it isn't exactly correct. I am at college studying architecture / building design and am pretty good at cad software so I was thinking about starting a business doing floor plans and photos for real estate agents. I was told to find a proper job in an architect firm but I feel like I am way too young to be doing that and that they wouldn't want to take on a 17 year old designing buildings... Or details even, and I can't do much only one or 2 days a week. So I want some tips on how you started out and what you found difficult and things I should avoid. It's not a big leap from my regular job making about $120aud a week so any higher is good and I still live at home so I don't need to make lots... Bit lots would of course be nice hahahah If anyone has any advice on how to go about starting a small business I would love to hear your input. Thanks :) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:49 PM PST I'm getting all my pieces organized to see just where I'm at and what it will take to get my company started. For this post I am not going to outline what I have identified as the startup cost as I am still putting that together. I'm simply trying to understand what capital I realistically could have access to. Situation - Business would be brand new. No revenue. I have excellent credit above 800. Currently employed earning a high salary. I do not own any real estate. The business costs are largely in tenant improvements (construction) and would not be able to be used as collateral for an amount to adequately secure a loan. I'm looking at my finance options right now and here are the sources I've identified.
Credit Card Flex Loan - I have a Citi Double Cash Card that also provides me the option of a fixed APR loan available for the total credit limit. Handled different than a cash advance. Likely not a necessary option as I either access these funds as credit or a loan. Simply depends on if I would be looking to pay the balance off to avoid interest, or make large purchases and pay the lower loan interest rate. Those are my personal financing options I've identified. On to business sources: I am HIGHLY unlikely to get an SBA guaranteed loan. I'll pursue one, but I'm not counting on it based on what I outlined above. I am an accomplished business professional but on paper the banks will not think my experience relates directly to my startup. They will consider this a strike even though I have done my research and know what I'm doing. Point is, I'm not counting on this as a source of capital. However, perhaps if I don't request a huge amount in the form of an SBA loan then it could be more likely. For example, putting 50-70% down on the loan just to acquire the loan and get me more capital to work with. Business line of credit - I expect I will be able to get something here considering my credit. How much I should expect to have access to, I don't know. I'm not interested in equity financing as if I were to secure an additional $100k I think I would be golden and giving up large amounts of equity for such a small amount doesn't seem worth it. I'd rather bust my ass to maintain that equity and come out better in a year if things go well. Not sure if I'd want to approach friends/family for debt financing. Do angel investors bother with debt financing? Are there any other sources I should be considering? Complex or unlikely sources are welcome just to make sure I'm covering my bases. Ways to preserve capital
Any additional thoughts or avenues to explore are highly appreciated [link] [comments]  |
| What is your dividing line between personal and business work? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:34 PM PST My title may not make sense. What is your dividing line between doing work for a client, and freely helping a client that has also become a personal friend? I'll give an example. I've become friends with a customer that pays me well for my work time. We both have some shared hobbies, like woodworking. Say I go over to his house to use his lathe to turn a bowl because I don't have one. During the course of things, he mentions a problem with his computer and how he can't get an image to print the way he wants. In that situation, where do you draw the line between helping him, charging him, and balancing it out as a favor for a favor? This is not a specific example I've encountered, but it's similar to situations I've had in the past. I'd really like to know people's opinions on this. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:46 PM PST Currently to attend our yoga studio we allow clients to purchase one free class. After that they can purchase a 2 week "intro pass" to try as many classes as they want during that 2 weeks. Once the 2 weeks are up they are faced with a decision. Purchase drop ins, a punch pass or join the membership. I'm toying with the idea of removing the 2 week pass and first free class and going with 1 week for free. After the free week is completed they need to make a decision. I think clients purchase the 2 week pass, get a taste of the studio and then do not commit to purchasing one of other passes. I could also do the 1 week pass for $5 or $10 and donate all the proceeds to various local charities. Having a nominal amount also means a credit card would need to be entered. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| we'd like to hear you suggestions! Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:17 PM PST hi, we're a startup SAAS company, aiming to provide users with more efficient OA and data integration service. we're trying to collect users opinions to help us generate a better product using experience. Have you ever used any SAAS platforms (e.g. Airtable/Notion/Smartsheet)? Please taking this survey https://paassurvey.typeform.com/to/Ip0S5t You'll have a chance to get a $10 Apple store gift card. We would like to hear about your experience and suggestions! [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for self serve card payment option for my customers Posted: 26 Feb 2020 07:25 PM PST Hi Reddit, It's my first time posting here but I didn't really know where else to turn. I run a small business within an office with a customer base I can trust (I have personal relationships with each of my 300ish customers). I want to introduce a method whereby customers can pay by card for products if I am not there. What I am envisioning here is something like a tablet with a dashboard where customers can select the item they are purchasing. When the item has been selected a credit card reader will prompt payment for the customer. Does anyone know of a service that operates like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Easiest ways to digitize liability forms Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:06 PM PST Right now we are doing liability forms on paper. I would like to switch to a digital signing. What's the best way you have found to do this. I'm not looking to keep all these old records, I'll start over with each client digitally. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone has heard of Fundera? Has it been helpful for you to take out a loan? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:29 PM PST |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:46 PM PST Mushroom is a food item that's rich in many nutritional contents like Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Protein, Minerals, etc i.e. all in all a healthy food item thus it's no surprise that this food item is preserved so as to increase its shelf life and allow it to be used for longer period of time. One of the preservation methods used is Canning which is basically storing mushrooms in a can after appropriate sterilization. How to Start Mashroom Canning Business The canned mushroom finds its application in various restaurants and hotels as mushrooms are used in a large variety of cuisines and these hotels and restaurants essentially have to maintain stock in their kitchen so as to regularly serve the orders irrespective of the local market fluctuations. The canning also removes the parasites which are usually present in mushrooms thus is also used in the household kitchen; therefore it's a profitable business. [link] [comments]  |
| best format for emailing customers? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:10 PM PST if anyone here that knows or has a business that does this, i'd really appreciate the help. i have customers that i'd like to email information to. i cannot use pdf format as there's audio and video. would anyone know of a another format? [link] [comments]  |
| Is bigger and louder advertising better? Example: van wrap vs basic vinyl lettering Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:07 PM PST Hello. I was wondering... if you had the money would you opt for a basic vinyl lettering on your company vehicle (in my case a van) or a wrap. The cost is about 2-3k vs $5-600. Ive been thinking about spending a decent chunk of money on marketing (new yard signs, new fliers) and one of the things id like to do is letter my new (to me) work vehicle. I want to hone in more on my branding. Im just not sure if a wrap is too over the top/tacky. My business is window and pressure cleaning. Thanks for reading. Hope yall arent getting annoyed of me. :) [link] [comments]  |
| Using a chip reader for the first time Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST I am just about to start independently delivering food and drink locally. Does anyone have any experience they could offer me on buying and using a card reader? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone here know about S-Corp elections and taxes? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:26 PM PST *Of course I will talk to our/a CPA also, looking for at least some education on this matter / talking points first. Will soon be majority shareholder of my fathers business. Business is a very small corporation, employs 7 people, and elects to file as an S-Corp. The business, after all is said and done with the accountant on the corporate return has reported a loss the past few years – which is about right as the business' checking (our only account) has maintained damn near the same balance, this year a decrease. Fear not, I am confident we are positioned well for this year and upcoming years. My father, the current sole owner, is very… "old school", has no idea what a "basis" is or anything really about that end of a business if I am being honest. His relationship with our accountant is not good due to a spat they had years ago. Just sends over payroll, check stubs, bank statements and pays accountants bill. No real communication between them otherwise. Pays himself W-2 wages only, no distributions I know of or can find on the return, and goes about his day. It's just that way. However, looking at 2018 business tax return and his K-1 and Shareholder Basis Computation, the business not only reported and passed through a loss, but his shareholder basis is "negative" (I know it can't, see below) as well, quite a bit. The AAA on the 1120S is also negative, but not the same exact amount as his shareholder basis. Has always been electing to file as S Corp (no previous E&P or whatever). However, the AAA and his shareholder basis are very close to the same amount, -($27,000) and –($26,000), respectively. (Question 1) And so this means he could not take a distribution as his shareholder basis ("bucket") is empty, correct?
So, his 2018 K-1 shows negative (-$8,000). (Question 3) So this is passed through to him? Reduces his tax liability by that amount from his W-2 wages? If his W-2 wages were $50,000, does that effectively reduce his taxable income to $42,000? But his basis (AAA?) though? It is also reduced by the same from his K-1? Limiting the potential for future distributions? (Question 4) I also thought I read somewhere that you may not "pass-though" a negative amount from your K-1 to a personal return to reduce tax liability if you have a AAA that is negative? So this means what, you carry forward a loss which passes through to you until you have a profitable year(s) to bring it back up? But what is the better scenario, carrying forward a loss, or taking advantage of distributions? Or can you not even apply the loss you carried forward because of negative AAA? How does this all work? (Question 5) What will my basis be starting out if I am assigned 51% or 80% of the shares? And what about the AAA account? Like I said, I'll talk to a CPA, but help me out a little here? Many thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Getting eaten alive on government contracts by larger firms. Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:30 AM PST Good morning, r/smallbusiness! I started my own urban and environmental planning company and we have been fighting hard to grow our client base. We are registered with PlanetBids and receive RFPs for government contracts at all levels (local, county, school district, etc). The problem I am running into in the urban planning field, is that many city planners tend to select the larger firms since they are "tried and true". These firms tend to take twice as long to complete the work and cost over three times as much as our firm, yet we are floundering. My question is, is how useful are professional certifications for procuring government contracts? I am half white half Salvadorean, but my latina mother offered to become a majority owner in the company. If she does, we would be able to go for the women owned and minority women owned designations. [link] [comments]  |
| Small business in need of software/direction Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:12 AM PST We're a small family business (flooring supply and full service flooring contractor) in the Northeast currently with 25 employees (a few in office and the rest are our installer and sand and finish crews + sub contractors). Our job sizes range from small repairs to into the six figures, a few hundred jobs a year, commercial and residential jobs of ALL sizes including new development, and we've also started supplying and distributing our own flooring. We have a great reputation, do well financially, and everything is projected to grow, however we are just at a loss as far as figuring out softwares and a general way to handle ALL these moving parts on the back-end. We're currently using Housecall Pro for job estimating (which isn't bad, however is far from perfect) and an outdated Quickbooks for the financials (and it is alllllll messed up and inaccurate) everything kind of exists in the owners head. We have no way to run reports, no P&Ls, we just don't have the correct processes in place. An enormous amount of time and energy is wasted kind of doing these little steps. We need a CRM, we need an accounting software to handle mid 7 figures of revenues, we need a sales software, we need a 21st century estimating and invoicing, we need an accounting software that is all tied together, we need dispatching and scheduling software that can make it so our in the field employees are able to know what job they're going to that day, what they need to do, etc.) We feel we've outgrown Housecall Pro, or are fast approaching it. How do we pull ourselves from this and "rip the bandaid"? What softwares do we look at for job costing, scheduling our employees day in and day out for these different project, make sure our financials are accurate, cut checks to sub contractors? Do we need to hire a consultant? An in house accountant? We've tried QFloors (industry specific to flooring and is like stepping into a time machine backwards and still doesn't have the capabilities to handle our constant flux and scheduling of our guys in the field. Any and all help is greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| There are hardly any reviews for tax advisors and accountants. How did you decide who to go with? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:06 PM PST I am not in the word of mouth position and seriously, who takes time to leave a review for an accountant when there is a bad waitress that needs to get roasted. So how did you scope your accountant/bookkeeper/CPA/etc. out? [link] [comments]  |
| Print on demand custom envelope, letter, photo and certificate? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:24 PM PST Looking for some options to speed up my delivery time for a small business of mine. We send out a letter (on headed paper), photo and a named certificate in a custom printed envelope. I'd like to do the same but paying another company to print them and pack them. My current solution is to get printed envelopes, flyers (for the certificates) and headed paper. I then print the rest, package and send. Whilst this works fine, it is very time consuming and means I cannot achieve a next day delivery option which I think would boost sales. I've been in touch with a few mailing companies but they want vast volumes so they're out. Any suggestions? I'm UK based but would be fine with seeing options in UK, Europe or North America. [link] [comments]  |
| Check shown as deposited, but vendor says they never received it. Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:30 AM PST We sent out a check back in July 2019 for ~$9k for inventory payment. It was deposited a few days later. However, now the vendor says they don't see it in their account and consider that invoice as unpaid. The check image shows no signs of forging, the back of the check has the vendor's company stamp in the back as well as their signature, which they admit is all theirs. They are a supplier we've been working with for many years and $9k is not a significant amount compared to the values of orders that we place. I.e. it's unlikely the vendor is scamming us. I opened a claim with my bank (chase). Has anyone experienced anything similar? What could have happened here? Is a claim like this likely to be approved? [link] [comments]  |
| Is starting a breakfast cereal company a bad idea? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:05 PM PST Hi, I had this idea to start a breakfast cereal for kids that will position itself in the market as a healthier but more fun option. There are 3 cereal brands that are already doing this, but they are positioned for keto only diets (0-8g carbs):
These companies are growing pretty fast, and supposedly Catalina Crunch makes millions in revenue per month. The #1 complaint is cost, and I think that must be associated with their higher quality ingredients and extremely low carb count. All of them have spot on marketing. My idea would be a to create a cereal brand that targets the general person that wants a healthier and fun cereal option with a more balanced nutritional profile at a reasonable cost - not something lableled as "keto" friendly. My cereal would be something that would bring a more middle ground option, kind of like Halo Top ice cream, but for cereal instead. I would want to go directly B2C via ecommerce platform like those cereal brands above to start. I want this brand of cereal to be in the mind of parents that want their kids to eat healthier breakfasts and not your typical overly loaded sugary cereal. I noticed all the healthy cereals in the market are super boring and composed of nothing but nuts, granola, and wheat flakes. Packaging is more mature and dead in emotion, not cartoonish like (Magic Spoon nails this). Despite being healther, they also have a horrible carb (like 30g+ of carb per serving) to protein (6-8g max) ratio. I just wanted to get the input of others on this idea and see what they thought of it. I tend to overthink and overlook details and would love external feedback if this is something worth pursuing. My biggest fear is that because the cereal market is dominated by 3 giant industry players, and that my brand idea is not hyper specific like keto cereal, that I could face a huge upward battle that'll cost me tons in marketing money - something I don't have. I believe I can however, create a superior product. Please do let me know your thoughts and how I should approach this. Would also love some insight of manufacturing costs, marketing, and other huge challenges I might face if I decide to go down this road. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:04 PM PST I have been in business for 25 years pressure washing in Florida . What is the best way to get my google my business to come up on google searches? When someone searches pressure washing or pressure washing near me? I come up in searches for concrete cleaning since that is in our name I'm actually 4th in the search. But for pressure washing I don't come up at all. I want to be found in pressure washing searches since that's searched more. How can I do this? [link] [comments]  |
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