As all small business owners know, no sale is really a sale until the money is in. Most businesses no longer operate on a cash and carry basis, so customers buy on credit. This means that often the receipt of that money is delayed. Every time a company extends credit it takes a risk that  Continue Reading »

Baby boomer business owners in the United States are looking to turn their years of sweat and toil into cash for retirement, but the faltering economy rapidly turned the seller’s market of a few years ago into a buyer’s market, negatively impacting value. Adding to their woes, the large number of baby boomers who own  Continue Reading »

As a Maine-based small business owner, it’s important to plan all year long to make the most of the tax law. Here are just five of the tax-smart decisions to make during the year that could, if handled properly, significantly reduce tax liability: Should vehicles, equipment, and buildings be purchased or leased? If a major business purchase  Continue Reading »

Does everyone in your Maine-based small business understand how to make money for your company? It’s easy for employees to view their jobs narrowly and forget that they may be able to contribute help out the bottom line. Ask everyone in your company to come up with a list of ways to meet the company’s  Continue Reading »

Credit sales are a fact of business life. An important skill that Maine-based small business owners develop is maintaining the balance between the total cost of bad debts and profit gains. As a small business owner, you need to constantly monitor your total receivables and bad debts. Part of the process involves weighing the benefits  Continue Reading »

As a Maine-based small business owner, you may be considering going back to school to gain new skill to help your business. Are the tuition expenses tax deductible? The training must meet one or both of the following standards to be considered work-related education for business deduction purposes: In order to retain your current professional  Continue Reading »

If you operate your Maine-based business as a sole proprietorship, a single-member LLC (which is treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes), or a husband-wife partnership, here’s a great family tax planning deal: Hire your under-age-18 children as legitimate employees of the business. It doesn’t matter if they work part-time or full-time. This idea  Continue Reading »

When there is an alleged breach of contract between two businesses, can one sue the other for both damages and loss of business value? As an example, say that Trusty Trucking Company loses its contract to deliver insulation for its primary customer, Good Insulation Company. Furthermore, the contract loss was due to an alleged breach by  Continue Reading »

When dealing with accounts receivable, it can be easy to put off having a policy in place to protect your business. As unpleasant as it can be do deal with customers who aren’t paying their bills, it is far worse for your small business to do nothing and hope the issue doesn’t come up. Here  Continue Reading »

As a small business owner, you are always going to have customers who don’t pay their bills on time. Due to unique relationships with customers as well as the varied responses they have to collection efforts, trying to collect the money owed to your business can be a difficult situation. Customizing guidelines for each account  Continue Reading »