Vlad Rusz is a CPA at Centaur Digital Corp , helping busy business owners efficiently manage their accounting system. getty Bianca started her massage therapy business three years ago after getting her license. She began by offering in-home services to the local area. However, as more referrals poured in, her business gradually grew to encompass larger geographic areas. She decided to pass the travel costs to her clients, but she recently realized she is now paying income tax on her travel costs because she didn’t deduct her travel expenses. (Income is taxed, so if you charge clients for travel expenses instead of deducting those travel expenses, you are in effect paying income tax on your travel expenses.) Like many business owners, Bianca didn’t know how to properly track and deduct her automobile on her tax return. The IRS gives business owners two options for accounting and deducting vehicle-related expenses. You must know which method will be most beneficial and how to accurately track the deductions. The following cover three steps for effective mileage deduction for business owners, plus two common pitfalls and a bonus tax strategy. 1. Track mileage and expenses. The first step in deducting the business use […]

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By Tonika Bruce, CEO of Lead Nicely , who helps startups, nonprofits and leaders WIN with unique & innovative marketing and business strategies! getty The success of any business venture depends on two factors: the goals and metrics for defining that success. One of the goals is customer success, which starts with understanding why and how customer success is critical for growth. Customer success goals might be straightforward, but the real deal lies in metrics. For entrepreneurs already on top of one or more of these CS metrics, monitoring business success will be easy. Here are five customer-focused metrics that reflect the performance and true health of a business: Customer Loyalty Once the business gets off the ground and starts attracting clients, loyalty is arguably one of the most important objectives to focus on. Customer loyalty is reflected in the retention rate. Tracking retention rate will indicate the number of customers that consistently use a company’s product or service over a specified period and—in the case of merchandise—repeat purchases. The actual number of loyal customers can be calculated with this formula: Retention Rate = [Number of customers at the end of a specified period] – [Number of new customers […]

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Jason Miller Helps The Most Influential Brands and Celebrities Create Generational Wealth With Their Business | CEO, Strategic Advisor Board Getty Business leadership is a crucial aspect of any organization’s growth and success. Strong leadership can set the tone for the entire company and be crucial in guiding a business to achieve its goals and objectives. It is more important than ever for business leaders to be adaptable in order to be able to navigate an ever-changing market environment. In this article, I will explore the role of adaptability in business growth leadership, the importance of setting clear objectives and some ways to leverage technology and data to help build and empower your team. Changing Conditions I’ve witnessed how flexible business leaders who capitalize on new opportunities and respond effectively to changing conditions have a greater chance of success in today’s fast-paced environment. For example, companies that have successfully embraced the shift toward e-commerce and digital platforms have been able to capitalize on the growing demand for online products and services. One famous example of a company that has embraced adaptability is Amazon. Founded as an online bookstore in the 1990s, the company has since expanded to become one […]

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getty Do you know every day the profitability of what you do? Are you sometimes unsure whether your product is profitable? Would you like to have a control panel showing you what is happening in your company to help you make the right decisions? We drive a car and regularly check the control panel, yet we manage a company without paying attention to any indicator that shows us what is really happening. So are you driving your company with a blindfold on? After having worked in mentoring programs with many companies from different sectors and countries, I find that, in general, they do not have a control panel or dashboard, and if they do, they make poor use of them. When running a company, you should have some basic indicators that can be analyzed on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, depending on the case. Managing by intuition and without reliable data can lead you far from reality and cause you to take unnecessary risks and experience a loss of profitability and competitiveness. Therefore, you should define these parameters—which must be simple and very practical—to make the next step, which is reading and diagnosing the situation. Once this diagnosis […]

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Bitter battles between Democrats and Republicans are bad for business, a new report says, but there’s little consensus among companies on how to address the problem that they fear won’t change soon. The political environment is likely to be as tough or tougher for business after the 2024 elections regardless of the victors, according to 70% of top lobbyists and legal officers of more than 100 corporations surveyed by the Conference Board, a nonpartisan think tank. Given current schisms, each election carries the risk of reversals of public policies and laws, deepening the difficulty for businesses to make long-range plans. “You can go from ‘Green New Deal’ to Marjorie Taylor Greene,” said Paul Washington, executive director of the Conference Board ESG Center, adding that power can shift quickly from progressives who see climate change as an existential crisis to Republicans like the US representative from Georgia who say there’s no such thing. No consensus on the role business should play to reduce polarization Polarization among policymakers was cited as the leading source of political turbulence for businesses across industries by 89% of those surveyed between Oct. 20 and Nov. 29 at the public and private companies, half of which […]

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Global data suggests that improving key ESG and CSR metrics can remove a barrier to finding talent LONDON, Feb. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Unit4 , a leader in enterprise cloud applications for mid-market services organizations, today announced the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-focused findings of its second annual Business Future Index. The survey found that acceleration of business transformation drove major improvements in ESG over the two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but much work remains to be done. Unit4 commissioned a survey of 3,450 respondents across 12 global markets to gain insight into how the acceleration of people, policy and technology changes over the past 12 months have affected business operations, including ESG results, which are a key metric for modern organizations. As companies compete for top talent, progress on ESG initiatives and corporate social responsibility (CSR) can remove barriers to recruiting and retention. Key Findings Sustainability has improved: 24% of respondents reported their organization was doing very well in meeting sustainability goals in 2022, a significant improvement over the 19% who reported that in 2021 ESG performance is stronger: 69% of organizations say they’re in a better position now to meet ESG and CSR […]

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Missouri State’s College of Business programs jumped up in the most recent ranking released by U.S. News & World Report, the university announced Monday. The university’s online bachelor’s degrees in business ranked No. 51 in the nation in 2022. They jumped to No. 32 in the 2023 listing. “We have many improvement programs in place to ensure that we are offering industry relevant courses and programs, as well as providing our students with excellent value,” said Elizabeth Rozell, associate dean of the College of Business, in a release. “That’s what enables our students to be workforce ready.” The U.S. News & World Report provides an annual ranking to help prospective students research programs. The programs are evaluated based on academic offerings, course delivery, support systems and affordability. The ranking methods emphasize value and opportunities for students to connect with their peers and instructors. It also considers: Student support services and technology. Credentials and training of faculty and staff. Expert opinions from high-ranking academic officials. "We pride ourselves on the caliber of faculty, curriculum, facilities and students within COB,” Rozell said. “We work to add more and more online opportunities each year to provide our students with increased flexibility.” MSU’s […]

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BNP Paribas is seen in this illustration taken, May 1, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Q4 sales from bonds, currency and commodities trades up 45% Bank raises 2025 targets, plans 5 bln-euro shares buyback Q4 net profit down 6.7%, dragged down by higher costs Shares up by more than 2% PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) – BNP Paribas’ trading business drove the French bank’s sales growth in the fourth quarter, underpinning Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe’s expansion strategy as Wall Street peers show signs of retreat in the field. Global markets revenue jumped by about 24% in October-December, the euro zone’s biggest bank said on Tuesday, fuelled by a 45% leap in revenue from trading in commodity derivatives, rates, foreign exchange and emerging markets. BNP’s 45% sales growth in FICC trading (fixed income, commodities, currencies) compared with 25% growth at peers, analysts at Barclays said. With Bonnafe at its helm for over a decade, BNP has been growing securities trading, in part taking advantage of rivals’ retrenchment as Wall Street firms from Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to Morgan Stanley (MS.N) axe jobs amid a slump in dealmaking. Revenue at BNP’s trading and securities services branch CIB rose 15.7% in 2022, making it the biggest […]

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After a year of 29% increase in revenue per available room, a metric used to measure the financial performance of hotels, hospitality investors have raised funds and are ready to transact. Yet, the bid-ask spread remains wide still, according to Brian Nordahl , executive vice president of CBRE Hotels. Nordahl – a 30-year-plus veteran in hospitality operations, consulting, and investments that recently joined the commercial real estate services and investment firm – believes the hospitality industry in Dallas will perform “stronger than the national average.” Despite the rising costs of inflation and the emergence of new shared accommodations options, Nordahl believes the industry will have a strong second half of the year if a pause in interest rates rising occurs. With the main drivers of demand for hospitality being business travel, personal travel and meeting and group travel, the industry as a whole has almost got it figured out, according to Nordahl. The 29% increase in RevPAR in 2022 is mainly due to increased demand from personal, meeting and group travel. The remote working side also opened up a new array of customer segments for the hospitality industry. For instance, hotels converted rooms into private offices and larger conference […]

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By E.J. Kenney, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Consumer Products and Life Sciences, SAP Signs of economic stagnation top the list of concerns for most midsize business leaders across the consumer products industry. From inflationary pressures on operational costs and pricing to monetary policies that result in high interest rates, they are competing in a unique environment of opposing forces: exuberant demand tempered by caution in the face of a potential downturn. Even though no one can accurately predict how the economy will pan out over the next 6 to 18 months, consumers are already changing their buying behaviors. They are quickly pivoting their attention to more value-based labels and retailers that allow them to buy more products at lower unit costs. And in some cases, they are modifying their overall consumption. According to research from the SAP Insights center , this widely observed consumer behavior is no aberration. Approximately half of surveyed midsize consumer products companies rank their fear of economic stagnation ahead of worries such as global shortages in natural resources, employment and livelihood crises, and widespread distrust and misinformation. Breaking down patterns with digital fluidity Each long-term risk influences how consumers choose between being […]

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