Tax season is a stressful time for almost any business, but a skilled tax accountant or CPA can help alleviate some of the stress.

A reputable accountant can help you manage and minimize tax obligations throughout the year so you can avoid tax pitfalls that can place your business in jeopardy. With an expert accountant, filing a business tax return can become just one more routine business task as opposed to a pending business crisis.

Of course, the right accountant can make tax preparation much easier, but finding the right accountant can be more challenging. Listed below are some qualities that business owners should look for when choosing the best accountants for their businesses.

1. They are experienced and have an in-depth understanding of tax laws.

2. They respect small businesses and self-employed individuals and have a solid understanding of their needs.

3. They are skilled communicators who can explain complex tax topics in lay person terms.

4. They value every client -- regardless of size -- and are committed to meeting their individual needs.

5. They view themselves as part of your team not just as "numbers crunchers" or tax return preparers.

6. They have integrity and solid business practices.

Another important aspect for choosing or retaining the right accountant for your business is that you have a good relationship with the accountant. 

References

Mare J. Kohler, "What to Look for When Hiring an Accountant:
How to find a tax pro who will find the maximum savings for your business, " Entrepreneur, March 11, 2011, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219298

Jean Murray, What to Look For in An Accountant,
US Business Law / Taxes, About.com, http://biztaxlaw.about.com/b/2008/07/30/what-to-look-for-in-an-accountant.htm

In business, a case study is a detailed account or analysis of a real-world situation or realistic fictional scenario. It covers some aspect of a company, industry, person, or project over a particular time frame.

Case studies are used for educational and training purposes, but they can also be used to market/promote businesses. Listed below are suggestions for creating a compelling case study that demonstrates how your business can successfully help your clients or customers meet their needs or achieve their goals.

Case Study Content

Title

The title of the case study is much like a newspaper headline, so it should immediately capture the reader’s attention. Those few words should speak volumes. Consider this title for a case study about a financial software company’s services: “Customized Financial Software Helps Accountant Increase Profits by 25%.” What accountant would not want software that could lead to increased profits?

Description of the situation

It is important to provide an overview of the situation that the client or customer who is the subject of the case study experienced. This information should include a description of the client or customer, description of the problem, and impact of the problem on the subject. Tangible information such as statistics and concrete examples will help paint a picture of the difficulty that the subject of the case study experienced.

You can also discuss how you became involved with helping the subject solve the problem.

Discussion of the solution

The next step is to give information about how your products and/or services solved the subject’s problem. For example, what specifically did you do to help the subject get the desired results? What were those results? How did those results help the subject improve the situation or achieve its goals?

The solutions must directly relate to the problems that were listed in the background section and should provide quantifiable evidence about the benefits that the subject received from your products/services.

Provide a summary

A summary or conclusion provides the opportunity for you to recap important points about the subject’s problem, solutions to the problem, and lessons learned. It can also emphasize how your solution will help the subject in the future, thus demonstrating the long-term impact of the solution on the subject’s business, professional, or personal life. You can also discuss how your business can successfully address the problems that members of your target market are dealing with.

Additional Tips

Make the case study visually appealing

Most of us are drawn to attractive things. Therefore, creating a case study that is not only well written but also looks good is essential.

Headings, subheadings, and white space guide readers through the case study. They give them valuable information at a glance. They can be used to transition from one topic to the next and connect information.
Also, color, graphics, and images help make the case study more interesting and attractive. But do not go overboard because too much color, graphics, and “clutter” are distracting and will make the case study difficult to read.
Furthermore, font attributes like bold, underline, and italic can be used to emphasize important points and grab readers’ attention. But, if used too much, these special attributes lose their impact and make text more difficult to read.

Use precise verbs

Precise verbs allow readers to visualize exactly what is happening. They use the active voice – rather than the passive voice – to describe what a person can do or has done.

The following examples illustrate how precise and action verbs can be used to create clear messages.

• Precise verbs

General verb: I will contact you next week to discuss the writing project.
Precise verb:  I will telephone you next week to discuss the writing project.

General verb: The board must consider the problem.
Precise verb:  The board must solve the problem.

The precise verbs describe a specific action; therefore, the reader is less likely to be unsure about what will or did happen. In the second example listed above, “consider the problem” could mean to think about the problem, note that the problem exists, or examine the problem and make a decision about it. The second sentence makes it clear that the board has to rectify the problem.

• Active/passive voice

Passive voice: The marketing plan was developed by ABC Marketing Associates.
Active voice: ABC Marketing Associates developed the marketing plan.

Passive voice: Mitchell’s designs are an improvement on the overall project.
Active voice: Mitchell’s designs improve the overall project.

In the first example, the passive voice focuses on what was done, while the active voice focuses on ABC Marketing Associates performing the action. The active voice is direct and paints a clear picture of who did what.

Ask the client to become involved with the case study

If you are creating a case study that is based on your work with an actual client, ask the client for their input. Perhaps they will provide testimonials or other information that will make the case study more compelling. Also, their input would – in essence – be a recommendation.

Include contact information

Be sure to include all of your business’s contact information, even if the case study appears on your web site. This makes it easier for the reader to contact you.

A case study that provides concrete examples of how your business can help customers or clients achieve their goals can help you grow your business. It must be well-written and include accurate information. Most importantly, it should focus on the needs of your target market.

References

Businessdictionary.com, “Case Study,” http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/case-study.html#ixzz1kOfVkbll

Cengage Learning, “Writing a Case Study Analysis,’” http://college.cengage.com/business/resources/casestudies/students/writing.htm

 “How to Write a Case Study,” http://www.ehow.com/how_2002065_write-case-study.html

Schweitzer, Karen, “What is a Case Study?” About.com Business School, http://businessmajors.about.com/od/casestudyfaq/f/CaseStudyDefine.htm

Sparks, Suzanne D., 1999, The Manager’s Guide to Business Writing, New York, New York: McGraw Hill

Williams, Katherine, “Precise Verbs Create Effective Communication,”
http://professionalwritingservices.net/preciseverbs.html

Williams, Katherine, Ten Tips to Improve your Writing Skills, http://professionalwritingservices.net/2010.09.01_arch.html

Sunday, February 12, 2012, was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. As a president who played a pivotal role in American history, I thought it would be nice to include a bit of history about his life as well as some of his quotes.

Brief History
(Wikipedia)

“Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts to be elected to the United States Senate.”

Quotes from Abraham Lincoln
(BrainyQuotes)

American Government, Politics, and Culture

• Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
• Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
• America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
  As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
• My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
• Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Personal Growth

• Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
• Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
• You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
• Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
• Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
• In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Consider these statistics:

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States; one in every three deaths is from heart disease and stroke, equal to 2,200 deaths per day.” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

“More woman die of heart disease than all forms of cancer combined.” (American Heart Association)

What can we do?

The Department of Health and Human Services launched the Million Hearts™ campaign in September 2011 to work on decreasing these truly staggering statistics. The campaign is a private-public initiative that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services are co-leading. The program’s goal is to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in our country over the next five years. It will focus on “integrating and amplifying a range of existing heart disease and stroke prevention programs, policies, and activities.” Public sector partners include the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Indian Health Service. And private sector partners include the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, and YMCA as well as Walgreens.

We can become a part of this initiative and help prevent heart disease and the devastation that it causes in the lives of heart disease victims and their loved ones.  Here’s how we can help ourselves and others:

• Take the Million Hearts™ pledge at www.millionhearts.hhs.gov.
• Encourage others to take the Million Hearts™ pledge at www.millionhearts.hhs.gov.
• Eat a heart-healthy diet that includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and is low in sodium and trans fat.
• Get at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise most days of the week.
• Find out from your doctor if you should take an aspirin every day.
• Get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked on a regular basis. If either or both are high, then get effective treatment.
• Do not smoke.
• Limit alcohol intake.
• Get fit and maintain a healthy weight.

We can also make financial contributions to organizations – like the American Heart Association – that are fighting to prevent and eliminate heart disease.

And one more thing

Stress can negatively impact both mental and physical health including heart health. In its article, “Heart Disease and Stress,” Web MD reports the following:

“Medical researchers aren't sure exactly how stress increases the risk of heart disease. Stress itself might be a risk factor, or it could be that high levels of stress make other risk factors (such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure) worse. For example, if you are under stress, your blood pressure goes up, you may overeat, you may exercise less, and you may be more likely to smoke.”

The article also speculates that chronic stress could be a risk factor for heart disease. This state exposes the body to unhealthy and persistently elevated levels of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

Business owners (as well as others) often deal with a great deal of stress. Given the effects that stress can have on our hearts, it is imperative that we find ways to minimize and manage it regardless of how many challenges we face in running our businesses.

Let’s start today.

Most of us probably need to improve our health in some way. Listed below are some simple things that we can do today to help us improve our heart and overall health and help others do the same.

• Take a brisk walk for 15 minutes during the workday to relieve stress and get some exercise.
• Replace your afternoon snack of a candy bar or potato chips with something healthier like baby carrots and hummus.
• Drink a bottle of water instead of a bottle of soda.
• Spend more time relaxing and having fun.
• Make a contribution to the American Heart Association at http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Giving/Giving_UCM_001137_SubHomePage.jsp.
• Promote the Million Hearts™ pledge at www.millionhearts.hhs.gov.

References

American Heart Association, “Go Red for Women,” http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Be One in a Million this American Heart Month,” http://www.cdc.gov/features/heartmonth/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Prevention: What You Can Do,” http://www.cdc.gov/HeartDisease/what_you_can_do.htm

Web MD, “Heart Disease and Stress,”
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/stress-heart-attack-risk

People are becoming more aware of the extent to which pollution and other human-made stressors are damaging the environment. This awareness presents a great opportunity to start businesses that give people the opportunity to improve the health of our environment – or at least stop contributing to the damage.

Participating in recycling programs, purchasing eco-friendly products and services, and eating organic foods are some of the ways that people are helping the environment and themselves.

Given the interest in and need for environmentally friendly products and services, starting a “green” business can be a good investment. Listed below are tips that can help you launch and grow this kind of business.

1. Identify a Niche

It is essential to identify a segment of the market – whether businesses or consumers – that is eco-friendly to some extent and provide it with the products and services that they want or need.

There is currently a demand for a wide-variety of environmentally friendly products and services such as biodegradable bags; bamboo furniture: solar powered devices; and organic clothing, cosmetics, and fertilizers.

A good place to start is with your own interests. For example, a person who is interested in starting a landscaping service might be able to identify a viable niche for an eco-friendly business. In another example, a caterer might add a menu of foods that are prepared with only organic, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients.

2. Acquire Certification

Obtaining certification from a reputable, third-party certifying body will help green businesses build trust with its target market and create an outstanding reputation. Certification will also help them differentiate their products, services, and missions from competitors.

3. Operate a Green Business in Every way Possible

To impress and gain the trust of their target markets, green businesses should incorporate environmental sustainability into every aspect of business operations. It is not enough to just sell eco-friendly products and services. A business must also live green. This will help it strengthen its brand, build positive public relations, and acquire more customers. Some ideas for maintaining a green business are as follows:

• Meet environmental regulations
• Maintain an environmentally friendly work place
• Use green products
• Install energy efficient heating and air conditioning systems
• Purchase energy efficient appliances, equipment, and lighting
• Use eco-friendly products and supplies
• Reduce waste
• Develop a recycling program

The eco-friendly market is an exciting and rewarding segment of the business sector. If you are thinking about starting a business or taking an existing business in a different direction, this may be the market for you. 

References

Starting a Green Business, Small Business Administration, http://www.sba.gov/content/starting-green-business

Green Guide for New Business, Small Business Administration, http://www.sba.gov/content/green-guide-new-businesses