There is a growing segment of the business community that views the funnel as being flipped upside down where the smallest part of the funnel is at the top and the wide part is at the bottom.  The idea is we put our current customers in the top or top prospects and we take such good care of them and provide them ways to refer our business that in the end we have a lot of new customers at the wide end of the funnel.  Think about it if you actively engage in conversations with your current customers and take excellent care of them and let them know you are looking for new business they will more than likely help you obtain what you want.  Think about all the money that you spend in advertising trying to get a complete stranger to purchase your product service.  What was your new client acquisition cost last year defined as total spent on advertising divided by the total number of new clients.  If you had your existing clients working as your marketing department what do you think that number would be in 2012? 

Look for ways to encourage your existing clients to get the word out about your services.  With social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. it is easier than every for your customers to share their experiences with your business than every before.  During 2012 look for ways to "flip the funnel" to help drive up your company's profits. 

Ideal candidate will have at least three years of experience in corporate and personal income tax.  Oil and gas experience would be beneficial.  The ability to work well with clients and be results driven is a must.  The successful canidate will get experience in a wide variety of industeries and get to work on a lot of different projects.   

Full-Charge Bookkeeper

We are looking for a full-charge bookkeeper with two years experience that is familiar with QuickBooks and payroll.  Basic income tax knowledge would also be beneficial. 

I just meet with a new client last week who owned a business and was considering taking a job with a company in the same field as his business after six years in business.  As we began to discuss his situation it became clear what he owned was a job not a business.  We discussed the possibility of selling the business but there was nothing to sell.  The reality was that all the customers of the business were coming from contacts of the business owner there were no systems in place to generate new customers.  Would you buy a business that was solely dependent on the relationships of the previous owner?  Of course you wouldn't but yet that is what some many business owners are hoping for when they are ready to get out of the business. 

Additionally, the business owner didn't have any documentation on what he did on a day-to-day basis.  Of course when you are starting out in your business you are going to have to a lot of the technical work of the business.  What most business owners don't understand is they need to develop a system that can be put in place so someone else can do that technical work and allow the business owner to do the strategic work of the business. 

Let's pretend that you have a landscaping business and you have four hours of time that you can spend anyway you want.  A lot of business owners would spend that time working in the business on one of the landscaping jobs and make let's say $300.  Was that a profitable use of the business owner's time?  Most business owner's would say yes because they made $300 but I would say to them at what cost?  What if the business owner would have spent those four hours developing a scheduling system that would result in less travel time between jobs.  Think about how much that could potentially save the business over the next  12 months in travel time and fuel?  I am sure it would have been more than $300.  The business owner could have paid someone $60 dollars to perform the four hours of landscaping work that needed to be done and made a profit of $240 plus they could have saved thousands of dollars over the next several years because of the new scheduling system they developed. The business owner could have used those four hours to develop a new referral campaign that could generate thousands of dollars in referrals.  There is so much more to running a business than just doing the technical work the business does. 

Had my new client taken the time to work on his business and not just in his business he might have had something to sell.  Instead he closed his six year old business and all he had to show for it was W-2 income he paid himself over the six years which he could have had if had worked for someone else. 

A business can't grow if the owner only spends his time doing the technical work.  There are only so many hours in a day and only so many days in a year.  If you are already covered-up then how can you grow the business where is the extra time going to come from?  As a business owner you need to leverage your time to make the most of it.  Start thinking about how you can spend your time that will produce the largest return on investment. 

• Sole Proprietor
• Partnership
• LLC
• S-Corp
• C-Corp

What most business owners don't know is by selecting the right entity structure they can reduce their tax burden around 15% on the profits of the company.  Think about that for a minute tax savings of 15% each year on the profits of the business for the life of the business.  The amazing thing is most business owners don't even seek out professional guidance when making this decision they just do what their buddy did when he or she setup their business.  

Before you setup the business meet with a qualified CPA and seek professional advice before you make the decision.  By paying a couple hundred dollars in fees you could save tens of thousands of dollars in taxes over the life of the business.  You will be in good shape if the rest of your investments in your business result in that type of return on the money spent.  

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.  We meet with a business owner recently who we will call Bill.  Bill was not happy with the service his CPA was providing and was considering making a switch.  Bill did not feel the CPA was providing much needed financial and tax advice.  Bill said he was paying around $6,000 to the CPA for the services she was providing.  After discussing Bill's businesses we were able to make recommendations to save Bill around $25,000 in taxes.  In addition there was a real estate transaction that took place where with some creative tax planning capital gain rates of 15% could have been paid instead of Bill's marginal rate of 35%.  

We quoted a price of $18,000 per year for our services.  Bill brought up the fact that his current CPA was "only" charging him $6,000.  We explained to Bill the other CPA's services were actually costing him $31,000 a year (the $6,000 paid to the CPA and the $25,000 in additional taxes).  Professional services are much like anything else you get what you pay for.  

Had Bill been using our service he would have paid us $18,000 which would only cost him $11,700 after tax.  Bill would actually make $13,300 by using our service.  Bill would have realized tax savings of $25,000, which is dollar for dollar as there would be no taxes paid on the savings, less our after tax fee of $11,700.  

The moral of the story is you can't look at only the price paid for a service in determining if it is a good deal you have to look at the total cost.  We believe a good CPA firm can more than pay for themselves.  Our goal as a firm is to save our clients more money in taxes than they pay us in fees.  So how much is your CPA really costing you?

If you are having trouble making ends mee in your business you need to go talk to your CPA.  There are a couple of reasons business owners don't meet with their CPAs:

• The business owner dosn't want to get billed for the CPA's time.  If David would have spent around $300 for a meeting with a CPA that billed by the hour the result would have been over $4000 in tax savings.  That is a pretty could return on $300.  Knowing that may business owners will not want to meet because of the costs involved we charge a flat fixed fee to our business owner clients to insure there is an open line of communication between our office and their office.  

• The CPA is too busy to meet with the business owner.  If this is the situation you find yourself in you need to find a new CPA.

The ecomomy is still pretty sluggish and small business can't afford to keep making mistakes with their money that could be prevented.  Give your CPA a call today and setup a meeting if they don't have time to talk about your business then give us a call at 405-759-2796 and we will meet with you. 

If you are thinking about buying a business be sure to do your due allegiance before you plunk down your money to buy a business. Don't feel uncomfortable asking some tough questions of the seller and requesting to see documentation of what you are buying. 

At the very least you should do the following;

• Review the balance sheet and verify that the assets on the balance sheet actually exist.
• Look over several years worth of income statements and balance sheets.
• Look for trends in the numbers.
• Get a customer list and research their best customers to be sure they are financially stable.
• Calculate the A/R turnover
• Be sure there is not one customer making up most of the sales because if that customer goes somewhere else then you are going to be in a world of hurt.
• If you are not able to get financial statements audited by a Certified Public Accountant then I would recommend you have the sellers request copies of their actual tax returns they filed with the IRS.  This may be the most important thing of all to do. 

If you decide you want to buy the business then you will need to negotiate the sales price and the asset allocation.  The asset allocation you will make has a big impact on the amount of tax you pay once you start operating the business. 

Buying a business is a big commitment and can change your life for better or worse.  If you are not experience in this process it is best to seek qualified help.  I am certain if the Smith's would have retained a CPA to guide them through the process and point out trouble signs this would not have happened.