You are both. The problem is that you might not think of yourself as a “Brand”. You think brands are Apple, Facebook, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. Wikipedia says a brand is a… “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” I underline the word “distinct” because I believe that’s the key to a good brand. So what’s distinct about you? Are you the BEST bookkeeper on the north side of Atlanta? The small business EXPERT in the western suburbs of Chicago? The LEADING firm for Accounting and Cloud Computing in Las Vegas? If you haven’t thought about this, or haven’t thought about this recently, you should. In this Social Media age, you need to establish yourself as something. Give your clients and prospects a way to distinguish you from all others that may offer a similar (but lesser) service. Your website, newsletter, Social Media and Blog have a lot to do with your brand. These outlets can establish you as a thought leader. They give you the opportunity to make your case. Your well established brand will work to remind your clients of what you do and [...]
Five Hidden Talents of Your Accountant
When you think of an accountant’s duties, you might think about traditional tasks, such as tax preparation, bookkeeping, and financial statement preparation. Here are five additional tasks that accountants can help with that you might not think of. 1. Evaluating Current Accounting Employees How can you know if your accounting employee is a star that does everything right, is organized, and is fast? Or if you’ve accidentally hired someone who talks a good game but is doing everything wrong, takes way too long based on your size company, or is making unnecessary and costly mistakes? Your external accountant can often help you objectively evaluate your current staff and point out their strengths and weaknesses so you can create the right training programs for them, communicate the right message at review time, or take the proper HR steps you need to. Your accountant can also help to train your bookkeepers so that they are more efficient. If your bookkeeper is not performing at the level of pay you are providing, it can be an inefficiency in your business. Your accountant can help you make sure you are not over- or underpaying your current staff. 2. Hiring a Bookkeeper For your businesses [...]
Is Your Data Backed Up? Seven Often-Overlooked Places
Hopefully, you’re already making backups of the data on your business server on a regular basis. It’s simple to set up data backups automatically and then forget about them until you need them. But have you ever looked around to see if there are any gaps in your backup strategy? Here are seven places to look to make sure all your business data is backed up safely. 1.Online Calendar Do you use an online calendar? If you use a calendar such as Google Calendar, then it’s a good idea to keep a backup in case something happens to it that’s out of your control. In Google, go to Settings from the Settings menu, click the Calendars tab, and Export your calendar to get your backup. 2.Website It’s common for business owners to rely on their webmaster to have a backup of their website, but this is often not within the scope of the webmaster duties. Check with your webmaster to get a backup of your website files so that you are protected against hackers, hosting problems, and more. If your blog is in the same place, make sure you have a backup of it as well. You may also want [...]