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10 Things to Find Out While Selecting a Small Business CPA Firm

Looking to hire a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm for your small business? Going the CPA way might actually make sense over hiring just any accountant. The problem is, how do you know which is the right CPA firm for you? Here are some of the factors to consider while selecting a small business CPA firm.

1. Does the firm specialize in serving small businesses like yours?
A CPA firm specialized in serving small businesses is likely to understand and address the challenges unique to small businesses more effectively than one that is not. Also, it is likely to be efficient and agile in serving your needs as its services, processes and operations are built to cater to small businesses.

2. Does the firm have any client(s) in your industry?
A CPA firm specializing in serving small businesses in your industry is likely to be more familiar with the accounting principles and tax laws specific to your industry than a CPA that serves clients in any and all industries. This industry experience makes it an effective and informed business advisor for better business decision-making.

3. Does the firm offer all the CPA services you currently need or will need in the near future?
As your business grows, you will need a CPA firm that provides more than just accounting, tax, payroll and bookkeeping services. You will need a firm that can also be your business consultant, part-time CFO and a personal financial planner. Hire one that is a good fit for your present needs but also has the capacity to serve you as you expand.

4. Does the firm have expertise in areas relevant to your needs?
Understand your needs first before seeking a solution. For example, if your internal staff handles your accounting and bookkeeping but you need an outside help for certain types of taxes, then hire a CPA firm that is an expert in those types of taxes, preferably in your industry. If you want to setup a retirement plan for yourself and/or for your employees, hire a CPA firm that also provides financial advisory services.

5. What credentials and licenses in accounting and finance do the firm employees have?
Most highly-recognized professional credentials in accounting and finance, such as CPA, CFP, CFA, PFS, EA, etc., have requirements for continuing education and compliance with their standards to ensure that the professional is not only knowledgeable about the subject matter but also that his/her knowledge is up-to-date. It’s always wise to hire professionals with the highest professional credentials in the field of your needs.

6. Who will actually serve your account?
A typical CPA firm has accounting staff ranging from the most junior staff accountant to the most senior firm partner. Their ranks are largely determined based on their level of expertise and experience. Ask your CPA firm who will be your single point of contact for your account and who else will work on your engagement.

7. What is the firm’s client callback policy?
One of the main reasons to hire a small local CPA firm is the ease of access. Ask whether they have a written policy of returning client’s calls within 24 hours and addressing their queries and getting them resolved within 72 hours. Also, find out whether they will be available over the weekend for an occasional urgent situation.

8. What fees will the firm charge?
Depending on the nature and scope of your engagement, a CPA firm may quote you either an hourly rate or a flat fee. Ask them to explain why their quote type (hourly or flat) is appropriate for your situation. Also, ask whether there is anything you can do on your side to help lower the fees.

9. Is the firm also skilled in preparing personal tax returns and providing other personal finance services, if needed?
Most small businesses are flow-through business entities whereby their business profits and losses flow through their personal tax returns at the year-end. Therefore, as a small business owner, you need a CPA firm that has experts in not only accounting and taxes but also in personal finances.Such a CPA firm applies a holistic view to your finances in devising optimal tax strategies.

10. Does the firm have a strong referral network for your other professional service needs?
For many small businesses, their CPA is their most trusted source for many great referrals. You should be able to count on your CPA for reliable referrals for your other professional service needs such as legal, financing, banking, investment and insurance. Once you hire the right CPA firm, it should become your primary source for other reliable professionals.

Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

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Online Home Based Business – Virtual Assistant

Gone are the days of secretaries being tied to desks outside the boss’s office. With the advancement of technology, a new online home based business is developing along with it – the virtual assistant. This online home based business allows someone to do almost all of the administrative tasks necessary for a business from home, which benefits both the employer and the virtual assistant. By not having to pay for benefits, an online home based business as a virtual assistant becomes appealing especially to smaller companies on a smaller budget.For many employers, hiring a virtual assistant is much more cost effective. This online home based business allows employers to hire someone to do simple administrative tasks outside of their office, saving space. Also, since this online home based business means that the individual is a contracted employee, usually the employer does not have to pay for training, healthcare, or vacation time.Still, if you are considering starting your own online home based business as a virtual assistant, you need to realize that it is still work. You will first need to determine what type of virtual assistant you want to be, and you will need to gear your online home based business toward that niche. Then you will need to decide how much time you want to devote to your online home based business so that you can set appropriate limits as a virtual assistant.Yet, you need to understand that the first days of your online home based business will probably require you to work more hours than you originally wanted to work. After all, you are still in the building phase of your online home based business as a virtual assistant, and you will want to establish solid practices to gain clientele. During this time of building your online home based business as a virtual assistant you will need to remain flexible.Also, creating an effective marketing strategy is essential to starting your own online home based business as a virtual assistant. You know your niche, and now you need to market your online home based business to those that will use it the most. Remember, you are trying to build your online home based business, so it is good to market yourself as a virtual assistant wherever you go. Even joining a networking group is effective if you want to build your home based business as a virtual assistant, as many companies are often looking for help with administrative tasks.Read the rest of the article here: Online Home Based Business.

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