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.

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.

As you may know, over this past weekend I visited the Arizona State University campus and in particular the W.P. Carey School of Business. This post isn’t going to serve as a recap of the weekend, but it was during this time that a single concept was driven home to me. The Dean of the MBA program was giving a quick overview of the core curriculum and what stuck out to me was when he mentioned what the purpose of a business is and how it is measured.

The Purpose of a Business

In short, it can be said that the purpose of any business is to provide value. Value to the customers, employees, shareholders, and even the community in which it does business. A successful business purchases materials or labor and turns them into a product or service that is valued higher than the original expenses. How one goes about doing this and the specifics of any business is another matter, but I believe it’s an important concept to realize that you’re in it to provide value.

I see so many people that are “in business”, and their primary goal is to make money. Interestingly enough, customers aren’t just going to buy something so the owners can make money (exceptions include kids fundraisers and lemonade stands). Whether we own and run our own business, or sell our services to a business as an employee, we need to remember that the most important thing is to provide value to the other party. If you can do this, the money will be sure to follow.

The Measure of a Business

Now that we’ve talked about the purpose of business being to provide value, it can then be said that the measure of a business is how much value it provides, and this is measured in dollars. It’s no secret that people are in business to make a profit, but this profit is only a measure of the increased value that a business is able to provide in excess of it’s original costs.

This goes hand in hand with the purpose of a business because it again drives home the point that money is secondary to value. It’s an interesting concept to think about in conjunction with any business. For those of you who run blogs and attempt to “make money” from them, ask yourselves what value your providing. Why should someone visit your site over another, what’s the added value? This is a question I ask myself all the time, and it can often be tough to answer. So in whatever you do, ask yourself what value you’re providing and how you can increase it in the future.

I’ve read a lot of articles, many of which are announcing the new results of some study, but none have hit the nail on the head quite like this one I read most recently over on Yahoo. It’s basically calling people out. Even though you may say you detest them, you secretly like meetings.

Ever since I started working this is something that I’ve noticed. I’ve always wondered why people would complain about having to go to meetings, yet they continually either set them up themselves or make sure they’re invited. I think some of the quotes from the article say things best:

• “The disparity between public distaste toward meetings and private affection is likely due to the stigma attached to admitting you like them. It’s declaring yourself either a show-off or a sheep—and definitely a time-waster.”
• “Just talking about a meeting—even if it’s a gripe—signals you rated an invitation in the first place. It’s “another way to show how important you are,” says Karen Tracy, a professor of communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder.”
• “Meetings are held because, while people detest them, they hate actually working more.”

I don’t think that this sort of thing applies to everyone, but it’s pretty prevalent in my opinion. I would actually recommend reading the entire article. This is one study that actually hits the mark.

You may work for a company or own your own, but however you do business, it’s done through some sort of business entity. If you work for someone else, you may not be all that concerned with what type of entity it is. But if you ever plan on owning your own company or running a side business even, you’ll want to be aware of the different entity options available to you. I’ll go over some of the main ones here.

The Sole Proprietorship

This is the simplest form of organization and the most prevalent. It represents a single-person ownership where the person essentially does business in his or her own name. It’s a very popular entity because there are no legal formalities involved for forming or dissolving a business. It offers simplicity of decision making (since there’s only one owner) and low organizational and operating costs. The major drawback of the sole proprietorship is that there is unlimited liability to the owner. In the event of unsettled debts or a lawsuit, the personal assets of the owner are not protected.

As a sole proprietorship, any profits (or losses) are taxed on the owners personal income tax filings. The income and deductions are reported on the Schedule C of the personal return. This makes the accounting of the business much simpler. It’s also important to note that many sole proprietors will register a DBA, or Doing Business As which allows the owner to operate under a name other than their own as well as open a business account with financial institutions.

The Partnership

This form of ownership is very similar to the sole proprietorship except that there are two or more owners. Most partnerships are formed by an agreement between the participants known as the articles of partnership. This type of entity also carries unlimited liability to the owners, however, it could present problems for owners with unequal personal wealth having to absorb the losses. A limited partnership can be utilized to get around the unlimited liability with general partners and limited partners though if you choose.

The tax situation for a partnership is also very similar to the sole proprietorship. Any profits and losses are passed through to the individuals personal tax returns. This again helps to keep the accounting of income and expenses relatively simple.

The Limited Liability Company (LLC)

This type of entity is a legal form of business that offers limited liability to its owners. This means that the owners liability is limited to the amount of their initial and subsequent investments in the company. It’s similar to a corporation, but is usually utilized by smaller companies with a limited number of owners. A sole proprietor my choose to eventually form an LLC, but it would still be treated as a sole proprietorship for income tax reporting purposes. An LLC with multiple owners/members, however, may choose to be treated as a partnership, C corporation, or S corporation for federal taxing purposes.

The Corporation

A corporation is the more complicated of the various business structures. It is a separate legal entity, or Juristic Person. Aside from providing limited liability to the owners, it also has other legal rights and obligations. For tax purposes, this type of entity files its own separate return. The distributions to the shareholders can then also be taxed on personal returns (think of dividends) making it possible for what’s typically called double taxation.

Under certain circumstances, a corporation may elect to be taxed under Sub-chapter S of Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code. These are what are referred to as S corporations or an S-corp. In this instance, income or losses are passed through to the shareholders and taxed only once on personal returns. Certain qualifications, however, must be met for this status.

This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive and detailed list, but hopefully it has been helpful in explaining some of the main differences between these various business entities.

As most of you are already aware, the New York Giants managed to pull off the incredible upset over the New England Patriots yesterday in the Super Bowl. I’m not a fan of either team, but I was rooting for the Patriots to lose. I’m just glad they did. That’s all I’m going to say about the Super Bowl, so, switching topics…

Terrible Shopping Experience

Over the weekend, we went shopping for a few new items for the house to spruce up the place in order to better market it for sale or a possible rental. We decided to swing by the nearest Wal-Mart since they always have cheap prices and we were just looking for a couple rugs and maybe some bathroom hardware such as towel racks and the like.

It ended up being such an ordeal and taking much longer than any shopping trip needed to. The parking lot was poorly laid out and once inside, you could hardly get through any of the main isles since they were so narrow and packed with merchandise all through the middle. Many of the isles also didn’t go all the way through so your constantly back-tracking to try and find anything. Once we finally found what we were looking for we went up to the checkout which was a model case study of inefficiency. We stood in line at the express lane only to see person after person go up the lane next to us and cut in line at the next express register. Complete disregard for everyone who was actually waiting there, and none of the staff seemed to care.

Once we finally made it to the register, the cashier just mildly plodded along at her sweet pace and would put the items in the bags and then pull off the bag and take the time to tie the bag shut. I’ve never seen this before. There is a huge crowd of people waiting to be checked out, and she’s tying the plastic bags shut. Simply unbelievable.

Great Shopping Experience

On the other end of the customer service spectrum, we were picking a few things up at Lowe’s to finish our new floor in the front room. The guy the flooring department told me that I would need a brad gun because I wouldn’t want to just nail the quarter round trim all the way around the perimeter. I wasn’t really too sure about this since I don’t plan on putting in too many new floors, but I went up to the tool department to ask about it. After talking to one guy, I finally found a guy who took the time to understand what it was I was trying to do and just sold me some finishing nails and a nail set. Very simple and it got the job done. It was nice to talk to someone knowledgeable and who cared about what I wanted.

I know a lot of times here at Fiscal Musings I talk about getting the best deal possible and spending as little for something as possible, but I don’t want to lessen the importance of customer service. Repeat business is easier to come by when you treat customers the right way or at least don’t irritate them. And for this go-round, Wal-Mart irritated me.

It’s not something that my wife and I do very often, but last Friday night we decided to go out and grab something eat. Since I don’t like to spend a lot of money on eating out, we thought we’d keep it simple. I remembered that I had seen a commercial from Jack in the Box about a new offer they’re running called The Big Deal, and we thought we’d give it a shot.

The Big Deal is comprised of either a cheese burger or chicken sandwich along with two of their beef tacos and a 20 oz. drink. This combo type meal doesn’t seem all that different from any other fast food restaurant except for the price. It’s only $2.69 for everything. So, as you can see above, the total bill for both of us was under six bucks.

I was also amazed at how much we got for that price. I was a little skeptical at first because I figured the food would be miniature. I’m glad that I was pleasantly surprised though. Having the tacos included in the meal instead of the usual fries was great as well. I’m a huge fan of their tacos. It was also nice to get beverages included with everything. I usually don’t buy them because I don’t see the value in it and I can get it cheaper elsewhere, but the price was right this time.

If you’re looking for a great meal at a real low price, just head on over to your nearest Jack in the Box. I’ve been a big fan of them for quite a while, but they’ve outdone themselves this time. Now if only they’d put together a deal like this that includes the Sourdough Jack…