If you run a small business, or even a rather large business, you probably already know how important it is to have a good accountant. If you don’t already run a business or don’t think that your finances are complicated enough for you to have an accountant, it’s very possible that you’re missing out on some very profitable advice. Accounting services aren’t just for medium to large size businesses. They can provide you with great financial advice and recommend strategies that can improve your overall business and, of course, lessen your tax burden. They can also be that important auditor you need to keep all of your finances in check.

Aside from just the importance of an accountant though, it’s just as crucial to find the right accountant for your needs and type of business. Some focus mainly on tax accounting while others specialize in small businesses. And since it can be difficult switching to a new accountant after some time who knows nothing about your business, it’s even that much more important to find the right one from the very beginning. Some things to consider will be their expertise, the services they can provide, and their experience level. You might also want to get a few references and interview them yourself so that you feel comfortable with them.

I’ve had an ING Direct online savings account for quite a while now, and I’ve been really happy with it. It’s really simple to set up and then transfer money between accounts. If you’ve been thinking about setting up an online savings account but just haven’t yet, there’s no better time than the present. As an incentive, if you use the link below and open your account with at least $250, then ING will give you $25 as a bonus. This will only work, however, for the first person that uses the link, so there’s really no time to waste…

ING Direct $25 Bonus Link

For awhile now, I’ve been making a little bit of money here and there by doing surveys. I’ve heard about these types of websites and programs before, and they’ve never really worked out or at best they paid a couple of cents per survey. However, I’ve now found a site where you can earn a couple of dollars per survey and have a check sent to you. I’m not being paid to promote them, but I thought I’d share with you what has already worked for me.

The site is Opinion Outpost, and it’s actually run by a company that my college entrepreneurship professor started and then later sold. All you have to do is sign up with an email address and then fill out the profile questions so they know what surveys to send you. You then wait for them to send you emails with various opportunities and your account gets credited with the associated points. Once your account reaches $5.00 you may request a check which typically comes in about 3 weeks or so even though the site says it may take 4 - 8 weeks.

I’m not going to promise quick riches with this program, but it never hurts to get a bonus check every once and a while. It’s also something that I actually do myself and know works. So try out the program and see what you think.

Over the past weekend while we were in Dallas, my brother was looking to buy Mario Kart Wii after he saw how much his daughter enjoyed the game in store. Best Buy either didn’t have it in stock or was holding it back because it was in the ad for the next day, I can’t remember which, but we couldn’t get it there so we went to Circuit City instead for which he had a gift card anyway.

Long story short, we ended up getting the game. But it’s the Circuit City experience that I was really soured with. My brother wanted to get another wheel for the game so that he would have two. Since Best Buy was selling it for $9.99, we figured that Circuit City would price match it and everything would be fine. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. As it was explained to us, in order for them to do the price match it had to be in an ad, they had to call the store to verify it, and the other store had to have it in stock. In our situation, the ad didn’t come out until the next day and they were holding the wheels back so they would be in-stock when the ad did come out.

Keep in mind that it was just the ad that was coming out the next day. The regular price was still $9.99 at Best Buy while it was $14.99 at Circuit City. All this just comes down to poor (very poor) customer service. If these are really the stipulations of their price matching policy (I’m not exactly sure it is yet) then it’s poor customer service from corporate on down, and it’s no wonder that Circuit City’s stock price and financials are tanking. Needless to say, I definitely won’t make Circuit City my first stop when I’m looking for something. The only chance they have of my future business is if they’re the only ones that sell something I really want, which is highly unlikely given their competition.

So we decided to head back to Dallas for an extended weekend, and we’re leaving tonight. It’s not something that I had really planned on doing, but I happened to find some pretty cheap flights on Southwest. Round trip for the both of us is just under $300, and we’ll stay with my brother and his wife.

I’m hoping to be able to post regular updates, but I guess we’ll just see how things go.

We knew it had to eventually happen. Honda just yesterday announced the new FCX that runs off of a hydrogen fuel cell and an electric motor. You can read the story about the announcement for all the details.

It’s a great concept and couldn’t come at a better time (for marketing and consumer demand), but they’re unfortunately only going to produce about 200 units over the next three years, and then only in Japan and California. So for most of us it’ll be a little ways off until we can get our hands on one, but it’s about time that we can actually see the ball rolling in that direction.

A little while ago, I received a couple of questions in response to a post that I wrote about various post MBA opportunities. Here’s the comment in full:

After reading both articles, I’m curious what sources you used to research the MBA program. I find myself overwhelmed at the information available on the internet and the fact that I have to weed through advertisements to find the real stats and information.

Were you saying in your other post that you are not fronting any money out of pocket for your program what-so-ever?

I’ve also been told by a number of people who have completed their graduate work to just pick the school that requires the least amount of credits and will be the least expensive. Some people give the reasoning that it is just another piece of acquired paper that the employer wants to know that you have. What do you say to that?

Thanks for your insight and feedback!

So, there are a couple of questions here, and I’ll just answer them one at a time in order. To research the different MBA programs and ultimately choose one, I used (for lack of a better term) a funnel approach. I more or less started with the U.S. News and World Report rankings of the best graduate business schools. I wouldn’t say that I was all that concerned with the specific rankings, but I used it as a starting point to find the schools that I would look into further. I also narrowed the field of schools by geographic location; I wanted to stay in the southwest region if I could, and I didn’t want to be on the west coast or up in the northeast.

Once I chose about 5 to 8 different schools that I could be interested in, I started looking into them in more detail using information from U.S. News and more importantly from the individual schools’ websites. Among other things, I looked for the program specialties and the size of the entering class.

As for the second question, I was fortunate to receive a generous financial aid package from Arizona State so that the out of pocket costs for the program will be minimal at worst. I think everything would have been covered except that the tuition cost has gone up this year compared to last and I have to buy an approved laptop for the program.

For the third point, I’ve heard similar comments myself and my answer is two-fold. If you are planning on staying with your current employer and the culture is such that you just need an MBA to check the box in order to move up, then the least expensive and the fewest credits could be the best option for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to get your MBA full-time and make a significant change to your career, either by accelerating yourself into leadership or by completely changing your career path, I think that the type of MBA program does matter.

For one, you can look at the average starting salaries of graduates from the different schools. There really is a pretty wide range from the top of the pack on down. This information is available from U.S. News or from each school’s website individually. Aside from this aspect, and I think more important, is the network that you will gain from the school and the fact that you will be an alumni. And as I briefly mentioned before, each school usually has a specialty or at least has some programs that are stronger than others. If you’re interested in marketing vs. entrepreneurship vs. supply chain, then you’ll want to look into schools that are stronger in your area of interest. These specialty rankings can also be found in U.S. News and World Report.

Hopefully some of this has been helpful in answering the questions. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or email me directly using the contact form.