Coaching can help both corporate clients and individuals achieve their full potential. The coach assists in introducing positive and lasting change by identifying problems and devising long term solutions. In addition, good coaching increases the quality, effectiveness and productivity of the group. This makes the job of a manager easier and helps to build employee skills and independence. Using tools to enhance and encourage employee performance, good coaching techniques can help the organization perform at its potential.

Performance Coaching

Performance coaching is not about leadership coaching or executive coaching. It is about improving the performance of an organization. It has the potential to deliver tangible benefits to both the organization and its individuals. Coaches focusing on performance formulate models to highlight problems, and to structure solutions.

A feedback report from the coachees (people who are being coached) is also a part of performance improvement coaching. This helps the team members to evaluate the skills of their manager, and assists in building their individual capabilities.

Managers acting as coach to team members, help in delivering positive results. Hence, if they lack leadership skills, it adversely affects the overall performance.

By engaging in performance improvement for the industry, managers identify factors like interpersonal issues, skills, knowledge, attitudes, skills, etc., causing failure.

The coach uses certain parameters to gauge performance, based on some key qualities of the coachees. The three main principles essential for performance to excel are the interest, dedication and aptitude displayed by the performers. In addition, their commitment is assessed for the improvement of their ability.

Lastly, it is found, that people do benefit from working with the coach.

Job of the Performance Coach

When compared to present day performance coaching, traditional coaching has many limitations. In the traditional method, the coach is passive and does not have the necessary techniques to tackle certain situations. The performance coach, however, uses more innovative methods, which have had a demonstrable record, and are in use even after 10-20 years of their inception.

The job of the business performance coach also includes assisting in recruiting and retaining of employees. This helps building a rewarding and profitable business. After developing some important human resource systems, the coach refers to it for the day-to-day management of the company.
To avoid unpleasantness while working together, it is better to maintain a healthy relationship between the coach and the members. Both need to keep their cool and avoid situations leading to disagreements. Coaches cannot afford to quit, or ignore the situation, if unpleasantness does occur. They need to assume a proactive role to resolve the situation so that business performance is not hindered, resulting in the company incurring losses.

Uses of Performance Coaching in Business

When working with a performance coach one can expect immediate and long lasting changes in the performance of the team. They get to the root of problems and devise strategies to correct them. If two or more companies have been merged, the managers strive to create a cohesive working strategy, to simplify operations.

Other than managerial functions, the performance coach tries to keep down company overheads by hiring and retaining the best employees. The main goal of any company being profit, performance coaches work with the company to increase overall profitability.

One size does not fit all. Different companies have different needs and prospects for improvement. Performance coaches keep this in mind and formulate improvement plans accordingly. In conclusion, the underlying principles of business expansion and prosperity are common to all companies. Performance coaches identify and implement these principles scientifically and effectively.

Learn more about Bill Cawley at http://www.BillCawleySpeaks.com/

In this video, motivational speaker and peak performance coach Bill Cawley introduces himself and tells the story of his recovery following a life-changing accident 15 years ago.

What seemed like a simple dive from a dock on the New Jersey shore went tragically wrong, and Bill Cawley sustained a spinal cord injury which left him a quadriplegic.

After doctors told him it was time to “scale back his dreams,” Bill found a way to regain his independence and achieve his goals in business and in his personal life.

Bill Cawley shares his story and explains how he found the strength and strategies needed to overcome this challenging situation, and how we can all achieve success and happiness using the same approach.

He also explains why even times of great adversity are actually “motivational neutral,” and how we can use this insight to achieve our dreams.

Duration : 0:4:7

Read the rest of this entry »

Owning and operating a home based business has many advantages and benefits over working at a regular 9-5 job. There is always the simple pleasure of just being at home in addition to the above average income the self employed usually bring in. One consideration that you may not have fully explored is the qualifying deductions you can make on your tax return.

Home Office Deduction

Your office at home and related expenses are allowed deductions according to IRS guidelines. To qualify, your home must be the primary place where your business is conducted. Additionally, the office space must be used exclusively for your business. It is best to have a room that is obviously equipped for business use only. Should a question arise, there must not be any doubt that the room is used for other purposes. Needless to say, keep the day bed in another room.Details of what qualifies as a home office and what can be deducted is explained more fully in various IRS publications found on their website at www.irs.gov

Home Office Building Expenses

You can deduct home office improvements and repairs. So, if you were to paint your home office, it is considered an expense associated with conducting business from your home and it is deductible.You can also deduct mortgage interest as a percentage of the full mortgage paid on your home. Lets say if your home office takes up 100 square feet of your 1,000 square foot home, you could deduct up to 10% of the interest on your home mortgage as a business expense. This also applies to those who rent. Property taxes paid for your home also qualify at the same percentage rate as the mortgage. Home owners can also depreciate a percentage of the home over 39 years. Home expenses that are not related to your business cannot be deducted.

Utilities

Using the same percentages, you can also write off utilities such as electrical, gas, etcetera.

Phones and Communications

The IRS considers the first phone line in your home to be personal. Additional lines for business use including a cell phone are tax deductible. Internet service fees are deductible as a percentage depending on its business use.

Security

A percentage of the secured home area and its security costs are deductible as a business cost.

Moving Expenses

Form 8829 titled Expenses for the Business Use of Your Home is where you would claim moving expenses related to your business. Again, if 25% of your belongings were business items, that percentage can be written off as a business expense. Unfortunately, a C corporation cannot claim this deduction.

Software

Any software that you purchase for business use can be deducted. You will probably be required to write off over a period of time programs that are over $500 in value though. Check with IRS guidelines for further information.

Insurance

The premium you pay on your home owner\\\’s insurance is partially deductible. Any insurance that covers your business specifically can be deducted as a cost of doing business. An incurred loss not covered by insurance can be deducted fully or partially depending on its\\\’ use.

Tax Preparation Expenses

You might be able to deduct the cost of having your taxes prepared even though it may not be specifically about your home based business. Any software that you purchase to help you prepare your taxes for your business may also be deductible.

Retirement Account

Contributions to a self employed retirement account may also help reduce your tax liability. Inquire with a qualified specialist like a CPA to determine current laws regarding this special benefit.

Educational Expenses

Any monies spent on learning skills that are specific to your home business are usually tax deductible. If you purchase a course in gift basket making for example as a precept to starting your gift basket home business, that would be tax deductible.

Transportation

You can write off transportation expenses related to your business. Traveling to and from a clients place of business, for example, would qualify. The IRS allowed 37.5 cents per mile for the 2004 tax year. You must keep detailed records though. A journal kept in your car with odometer readings should suffice.

Meals and Entertainment

If you entertain while conducting business even if it just over a meal it is deductible. While you can only deduct 50% of the cost of meals and entertainment, it is well worth keeping records. Additionally, you can deduct your meals if you are conducting business out of town. Please remember to stay within IRS guidelines to avoid awkward questions later.

Summary

Most home businesses do not take all the deductions that they are legally entitled to mainly because the idea of an audit is so fear invoking. Just stay within the IRS guidelines, keep receipts and accurate records. If you have any questions or doubts, call and ask the IRS. You can also consult with a tax preparer to help you discover, implement, and plan on what deductions you can legally take.

Remember, tax deductions are a way to foster the growth of your business. Take advantage of your legal right to legally minimize your tax liability, your home based business will be glad you did.

Internal controls protect a company from fraud and also allow a company to be in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or more often referred to as GAAP. 

What is internal control?

Overall, it a process implemented by a company’s Board of Directors and Management, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding objectives in the following areas:

1.       Effectiveness and efficiency of operation in the business

2.       Reliability of Reporting

3.       Compliance with applicable rules, laws, and Regulations governed by GAAP, FASB, and GASP

Accounting systems provides businesses with a uniform way to use a company’s data and financial information to strategize in the areas listed above.

There are four key elements of implementing internal control:

1.       1.Environmental control

2.       2.Risk Assessment

3.       3. Control Procedures

4.       4.Monitoring  of all of the above – the overall system

The reason these issues are so important is that it ultimately protects the company from fraud and collusion.   In addition to criminal injuries, good internal control is necessary to inform the management of abuses or inconsistencies vis a vie over-production, poor production, or inadequate production by both personnel and equipment.  For example, manufacturing production controls must be stringently adhered to.  If a machine is off by 5% in making a product, the ramifications of this downturn could be a disaster.  Simiiarly with people.  People in an organization need to know what is expected of them up front.  This comes with good controls.  It then becomes easier to monitor their commitment, production and success at their job.  Numbers do not only belong in the front office.  For a business to run successfully, all employees need to know production numbers, reality of achieving those numbers and  can contribute mightily to enable production to increase based on their input.

In short, we could write pages about internal controls.  Suffice to say that this is just a snippet  of information  about running a business.  If you are a small business owner, an example of internal controls would be the issuance of a purchase order to your supplier, a receiving ticket created by you when product is received, and matched to an invoice when received.  Although internal controls can sound sophisticated and overly-complicated, the bottom line is that you must know your business, understand all facets of your business, and in general ALWAYS control the money.  Start with that and then we can go to using GAAP and FASB.  Good luck!

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire - Nov. 13, 2008) - Unlike most other 20 year olds, Evan Kosiner is currently more focused on launching his fifth company than with getting to class on time.

On November 11th, 2008, this committed entrepreneur launches Traffic on Demand (TOD), a service which will provide on-demand traffic, weather and commuter updates to anyone with telephone access - all for free. Initially launching in Toronto, the service will roll out to major cities across Canada by mid-2009 - including Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, Barrie, Kitchener-Waterloo and the Niagara region.

“I’m very excited about this venture,” says Kosiner. “With TOD, a simple phone call is all it takes to get the latest information you need.”

TOD is just the most recent company started by Kosiner. A successful entrepreneur since the age of 13, he recently became Chairman of the Kosiner Group (www.kosiner.com), an umbrella organization for his five current companies. His entrepreneurial journey began with Carabiner Productions, a production company that distributed short films and segments made by teens for teens. It has since grown into The Television Development Company, which today creates corporate videos and segments for promotional use.

A mere two years after starting his first company, the 15 year old Kosiner unveiled Exclusive Entertainment, a disc jockey venture that would have him praised by a Toronto publication as “the Bar Mitzvah king (who) rules Forest Hill.” This too has grown from its humble roots, becoming PR/AV (Public Relations Audio Visual), which currently services mid to large scale corporate functions.

Company number three appeared in April 2007 with the birth of Uplights By Design (uplightsbydesign.com), which strategically placed theatrical lights throughout a banquet venue, thus creating a stunning ambience and memorable wedding experiences. Uplights By Design was also the first company in Canada to offer its clients state-of-the-art LED Par Can lights, creating an atmospheric glow with minimal power requirements and heat generation - and therefore eco-friendly to boot! Continuing in an environmental vein, Kosiner then launched GoCARDS (GoCARDS.ca) in September 2007, an online printing house that provides eco-friendly business cards, postcards and flyers - economically and efficiently.

Running five companies would be a feat for anyone, but it hasn’t stopped Kosiner from also currently pursuing a degree in Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University. Far from being overwhelmed, it’s a juggling act that the 20 year old actually relishes.

“I’m heavily involved with the day-to-day goings on of all my companies, especially Traffic On Demand,” he says. “I’m a big believer in making TOD’s services easy to use in an effort to get people where they want to go faster.” And the wait for traffic-fatigued Torontonians just got shorter - Toronto customers can already take advantage of the services offered by TOD by simply dialing (416) 485-4854.

Im looking at setting up a business so im looking for more opinions/help on the issue for small business and potential small business people such as myself

thanks for your time and if you have any links to any things which can help me on the issue is most welcome e.g. how to market the business, suppliers for small business etc

*Once you get set up and in business your biggest benefit you can offer to your customers is guest service & convenience! The two things the consumer doesn't get in the big box retail arena*

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Let me first start out and say that I am an internet marketer. Fairly new. That seems to be the problem. I am also a business coach and a dyed-in-the-wool entrpreneur. I have built two relationships with some internet experts online. I have paid for their packages and even looked at who they recommended. But what is going on with the push, push, push!!! Being fairly well-educated, I know how to read. If I don’t buy something at the original price of $399. how can it be reduced to $49.? This is a con and I for one am getting a little tired of being pushed into buying more and more and more on this subject. Instead of talking to me as an intelligent person and selling as an intelligent person with a legitimate product, I am getting inundated with crap. How do I know it’s crap? I don’t know for sure, but the example above gives me a clue. If a product is legitimate, it should have a legitimate price, maybe a sale, but that’s it. Who are we kidding here. Just get enough suckers to click on a site and give them a crap ebook that doesn’t really show them anything because you have to be an expert anyway.

Luckily I think I have found some good resources, but it wasn’t easy. Yes I would like to make money on the internet. Yes as much as I can. But don’t throw stupid numbers at me that a new person could NEVER hope to achieve in the beginning. I know business and I am prepared to LEARN the internet business. I don’t expect miracles but I resent these get rich schemes that prey on anyone that expresses an interest in learning this industry. Vultures is too kind of a word. So for those of you who are interested in this business, let me give you some legitimate resources that offer a real product for a fair price. No I’m not an affiliate and get no money for this. I just want you to have good resources.

FYI

www.thirtydaychallenge.com

This course if free given by Ed Dale and Dan Ranies and is truly a gift. They are giving back to the internet community in an most honorable way.

WordPressDirect.com

Run by fair people for a very fair price. Great source for finding key words.

TrafficGeyser.com

Again, very fair price and tremendous information about using video and audio on your sites.

With these 3 sites, you can begin to understand what’s going on in the internet world and start your business with confidence. Also, when you start getting billions of offers for other products, be careful what you buy. You might not need it. Inform yourself first by reading blogs. Happy Holidays Lorna

A report by Pune-based ValueNotes, estimates that as many as 360,000 US tax returns were prepared in India in 2006. It anticipates further growth, estimating at least 1.6 million returns will be prepared here in 2011. The estimates are conservative and the potential is much larger at 22 million returns per year by 2011, but actual offshoring will be limited by CPA firms’ inhibitions about offshoring. However, competitive pressures could force many more firms to offshore.

Says Glen Keenan, President of Xpitax, a facilitating outfit “The whole outsourcing business requires quite a shift in thinking for the CPA firms, so comfort factor has to be really high in order to do that”

The accounting and audit services are relatively new in offshoring and are gradually gaining maturity with each passing tax season. Unlike other services, which are traditionally outsourced due to cost pressures, the demand for Returns offshoring is stems from the lack of accountants and excessive workload during the “tax season”. The number of CPAs and other qualified accountants in the US are just not enough to meet the increasing demand from increasing tax compliance, SarbanesOxley related work, estate planning, advisory etc. The demand-supply mismatch has led to severe competition for experienced accountants and salaries are skyrocketing, even at starting levels. CPA firms are discovering that offshored Returns are not only turned around faster, but are also 40% to 60% cheaper. CPA firms after initial success with Returns preparation is slowly sending more work offshore: bookkeeping, financial statements analysis etc

Adds ValueNotes CEO, Arun Jethmalani, “The industry will quickly move beyond 1040s. Both the vendors and buyers are at an inflection point on the maturity graph, and we expect tax returns preparation will drive penetration into a wider range of offshored professional accounting services.”

The Indian offshore services provider landscape consists of captives of the Big Four audit firms (KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Touché and Ernst & Young), American facilitating firms / agencies (Xpitax, SurePrep, CCH, IFR), Tier-1 multi-service BPOs (MphasiS, Datamatics, OPI), Tier-2 BPOs (PB Tech Impact Solutions, Cosmic Internet Technologies) and F&A BPOs owned/ controlled by Indian Chartered Accountants (GKM Management services, Business Accounting Services, Accountant Anywhere, Enablizer)

Pratibha K, analyst at ValueNotes feels “Facilitators like Xpitax and SurePrep are best positioned to service CPA firms, while Indian CA BPOs are well placed to operate as complete back-offices for accounting firms”

Based on analysis that included extensive primary research, ValueNotes has picked three winners from the current crop of vendors: Xpitax, GKM Management Services and Business Accounting Services.

Karthikeyan, MD, GKM Management Services opines, “As Chartered Accountants, we feel our biggest advantage is that we can speak the global language of accounting with the CPAs. We feel this is a good differentiating factor for us compared to the large corporate vendors. CPAs are bound to trust us more than the tech companies because of our common accounting background.”

The ValueNotes report titled “Offshoring Tax Return Preparation to India” suggests that return preparation will set the stage for other accounting services to be sent to India.

How many times have you done your taxes, and a week or a month later realized you forgot a deduction? The tax law is very complicated, so it’s easy to miss a deduction or two. In my experience, these are the top 5 missed deductions.

1. Non-Cash Donations

Did you clean out your closets this year? Chances are you donated those items to Goodwill or a similar non-profit organization. The value of donated items (clothing, furniture, etc.) is deductible. You will need to get a written receipt and assign a value to these items, but the tax savings are worth the effort.

2. Points on Refinancing

With interest rates so low the past few years, there have been a record-number of houses refinanced. If you refinanced, you may have paid points to get a lower interest rate. These points are deductible over the life of the new loan. In addition, if you incurred points on an old refinancing, any unamortized points are deductible in the year of the new refinancing.

3. Educator Expenses

If you’re a qualified educator (teacher, aide, instructor or principal), you can deduct up to $250 for materials you bought for the classroom. Qualified expenses include books, supplies, and computer equipment. This law is set to expire in 2006, so take advantage of it now if you qualify.

4. Investment and Tax Expenses

Expenses for tax planning and investment advice are deductible as a miscellaneous deduction, subject to the 2% Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limitation. Expenses that qualify include tax preparation fees, safe deposit box fees, fees paid to investment advisors, legal and accounting fees related to tax planning, broker and IRA fees paid directly, investment publications, and more. Many people assume that they won’t have enough miscellaneous expenses to exceed the 2% AGI floor, but all of these expenses combined can be substantial, especially if you have unreimbursed employee expenses to add to these expenses.

5. College Savings or 529 Plan Contributions

Depending on which state you live in, contributions to 529 college savings plans may be deductible on your state income tax return. Because this deduction is only available on the state return (no deduction available on your federal return for 529 contributions), many people fail to include this deduction on their state tax return.

Imagine this scenario: you are an entrepreneur that supplies materials for end manufacturers. You register a domain name and hire a web designer to make you a nice web site to sell your products. You even come up with some very detailed and well-written pages which your peers consider authoritative. Naturally you would include a “Contact Us” page where your potential customers can get in touch with you. So you tell your web designer to type in your email address, and for the purpose of our illustration let us say your email is “rawmaterialsuppliesunlimited@hotmail.com”. Your web site is up and running. Traffic to your web site is pretty good but you do not seem to be getting any inquiries. Your web designer shows you the web logs and the stats do not lie–the majority of your site visitors surf away the moment they open up the “Contact Us” page. What went wrong?

For businesses, an email address is not unlike a storefront. A neat storefront is more likely to attract customers to come inside. Same with an email address. An uncluttered email address, and professional looking one, is more likely to be received favorably by your prospects. Let us go back and examine the email address we used for our illustration. The first part of the address, which is the name, is twenty-eight letters long. The more the characters, the more confusing it is for a user and harder to remember plus also more likely to be misspelled.

The second part of the address is the domain name of the company hosting the email. There is nothing wrong with companies like Hotmail or any of the others that provide free email to the public. In fact they are wonderful for personal use, but certainly inappropriate for business use. The negative image of free email providers, and certainly no fault of theirs, is that they are the preferred facilities of spammers and scammers. If you take a close look at some of the junk email that you receive, the spammer almost always uses an address from a free email provider. You do not want your business to be associated with spammers and scammers.

If you have a business and registered a domain name for it, the short and neat “info@yourdomain.com” is the most appropriate email address to list on your web site. It comes across as professional because it gives your prospects the impression that there is at least someone who specifically handles inquiries. Now in case you are not the technical contact who registered your business’ domain, get a hold of the person who did and tell him to set up pertinent accounts for yourself and your staff. When your prospects communicate with you, seeing an officially registered domain name as your email address will surely give them the impression you are serious about your business.

If you have not registered a domain name yet but have access to email, at least use the email facilities of your internet provider. Of course you cannot use “info” anymore if you will be using their email facilities but choose a short and easy to remember name, one closely associated with your company name and preferably limited to between eight and twelve characters. By using your internet provider’s email facilities, the knowledgeable prospects will know that you are legitimate because no respectable internet provider is going to allow their domain to be used by spammers and scammers.

Your email address is a powerful tool. Why else would spammers and scammers harness its power in order to carry out their twisted intentions? In fact many of them have gotten away with so much just by using this little tool.

The right sounding and official looking email address will give your business not only an aura of professionalism, seriousness and prestige, but it can also be a badge of sorts. That it indicates your pride with your company, that you have worked hard for it and that your prospects can have full faith in you.