Business tips: How to Settle Disputes Between Business Partners

When disputes between partners in a business arise, they can threaten the business more than any competitor can. Even partners with the best intentions are likely to end up at each other’s throats even though they had hoped to avoid such conflict. Here you will learn how to settle disputes between business partners: 8 tips that will make the difference between peace and war.

Stop fighting: As with married couples, disputes between business partners can escalate, causing more damage than either one ever intended. All partners do not need to agree on the underlying reasons for the dispute, but certainly they can agree to stop fighting and start searching for constructive and mutually beneficial solutions before their relationship and their business are beyond repair. 

Discover the root of the problem: The resolution of a dispute between business partners requires an understanding of its root causes. Most of the time the problem goes deeper than who left the lights on over night or who was too lazy to take the money to the bank. An honest exploration of the reasons one or more partners are at odds is necessary. Find out if the problem is personal incompatibility, hurt feelings, or a desire for more input into daily operations. Get neutral parties involved: Those without a stake in the dispute can more accurately determine its underlying problem and path to resolution. Depending on the nature of the partnership and the severity of the dispute you can hire mediators or ask for mutually respected third parties to come in and broker peace. Many businesses form a board of directors that can serve as objective intermediaries when necessary. Re-evaluate the business: Disputes between business partners may be a good time for them to revise their business plan to accommodate their concerns and make the business more suitable to all parties involved. This way, disputes between business partners can potentially have remarkably positive implications for the business. Follow your exit strategy agreements: Every partnership should have pre-defined mechanisms in place that provide an escape route when one of the partners cannot continue. For the sake of your business kick in those provisions and make the separation short and sweet. Don’t let friendships get in the way: The desire to preserve friendships often prolongs disputes between business partners because one or both partners don’t want to see their relationship end. The truth is that disputes usually end friendships as well as business relationships, so there’s no sense risking further damage to the business by trying to avoid that fate. Have a respectful dialogue: Do what you can to understand your partner’s concerns and try to clearly communicate based on facts, not innuendo or insults. If you can both remember the respect you once had for each other, you will probably be more willing to reach a compromise that will diffuse the situation at hand. Retain legal counsel: If your partner has really gone over to the Dark Side, you could stand to lose a lot. Even if your dispute hasn’t reached the state of full hostilities, you need to prepare for the worst. Your attorney can review the details of your partnership and be ready to protect your interests should the need arise.

Disputes between business partners can present situations every bit as frustrating and perplexing as those that spouses face. Use these 8 tips to settle differences between business partners. You will find that you can reduce the damage done to your business, and sometimes uncover new opportunities.

Six tax tips for new business owners

Here are six tax tips the IRS wants new business owners to know:

Decide what type of business entity you are going to establish. The type of business entity will determine which tax form you have to file. The most common types of business are the sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation and S corporation.

The type of business you operate determines what taxes you must pay and how you pay them. The four general types of business taxes are income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax and excise tax.

Good records will help you ensure successful operation of your new business. You may choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses. Except in a few cases, the law does not require any special kind of records. However, the business you are in affects the type of records you need to keep for federal tax purposes.

Every business taxpayer must figure taxable income on an annual accounting period called a tax year. The calendar year and the fiscal year are the most common tax years used.

Each taxpayer must also use a consistent accounting method, which is a set of rules for determining when to report income and expenses. The most commonly used accounting methods are the cash method and an accrual method. Under the cash method, you generally report income in the tax year you receive it and deduct expenses in the tax year you pay them. Under an accrual method, you generally report income in the tax year you earn it and deduct expenses in the tax year you incur them.

3 Tips of Small Business On Poster Marketing

Small businesses often have great product and service ideas and exciting promotional plans. They need to if they want to be able to compete with the big enterprises. With a smaller budget for marketing, they often resort to creative and effective ways to get the word out on their products.

As marketing is an essential part of any business, small business owners know that they need to be able to communicate with their target market if they want to be successful. No matter how phenomenal and outstanding the product or service, the consumers will not be attracted to it unless there is marketing involved. A business can hardly survive without marketing. People do not become customers in a snap. They need to hear and learn about your business before they can even be attracted to your offer.

A wise small business owner knows this and he or she will only spend his or her budget where it is believed to have a return for their investments.

Here is where poster printing can be a valuable tool for many small business owners. Print posters are effective marketing collaterals for any small business owner to have as they are affordable and are the easiest means for you to get the word out.

So how do you maximize your poster printing for your very own small business?

1. Focus on your poster design because a good one spells the difference between totally wasting your money or creating a spark of ingenuity that can make an impact on your target market. Your design can make you more visible especially if you have an outstanding offer. Do not blow your chances of getting seen by having a design that whispers. Also, do not be too preoccupied with the aesthetics of designing your print posters. Always remember that the main objective of your poster print is to attract people attention so make sure that your target clients get the message in your design.

2. Place your print posters in strategic locations. It is one of the most important factors when poster marketing. Being visible is the main ingredient to a successful and well placed poster. So make sure that you place them in areas where they can be easily visible and where traffic is high. But also be aware to put them where your target clients are. This means that you have to place your posters so the right audience will see them. Even if a large amount of foot traffic is in that location but the people who go there will not even be interested in what you have to say, then you are just wasting your time and money. No amount of great design can get these people to buy your product.

3. Print the amount you need. If you do not need to then do not have your poster printing company produces thousands of your collaterals. There are a lot of printers, online and otherwise, that can produce custom orders without any minimum required quantities. Order at least 50 posters and place them in strategic locations so your target audience can see them instantly.

Poster printing is one of the best means to market any business without having to spend a lot. For successful poster marketing, you can rely on these tips to get you the leads you need to grow your business.

How Creating an Online Business Works

What does it take to put together a nice and effective e-commerce Web site? Is it a lot of money? Sometimes. Is it a lot of skill? Many times. Is it a lot common sense and lot of patience? Always! Creating your online business can be a long and arduous process, or it can be done relatively easily. Just read all of the Web-hosting ads and it sounds like your site will be up and taking order before you can say "huh?"

There are many ways you can get your site developed and selling. In this article, we're going to focus on making it happen. We'll cover some of your options as far as the simplified tools you can use, the more complicated programs that can be used, as well as farming it out to the pros, and some of the other issues that you have to settle like your Web host and making your customers feel secure giving you their credit card numbers.

Looking for ways to help your online business succeed?

Risks of Starting Your Own Business

More than half of all entrepreneurial ventures fail. Having gotten that fact out in the open, we're now telling you to ignore it if you're considering starting your own business.
 
There are reasons that business ventures fail, and, when you know what they are, you can avoid them. Sure, there are risks involved with starting your own business. You could lose a lot of money. You could become estranged from your family if you put all your time and energy into work. You could lose your business to fire, an earthquake, or flood.

But there are risks involved with working for somebody else, too. You might lose your job. You might hate the job and be miserable every day of your life. You might have to take a salary cut, or become estranged from your family because you're traveling for weeks at a time.All of life involves risk. If you go into a business, or a marriage, or anything else thinking that you'll fail, then chances are that you will fail.

Most businesses fail because the person who started them didn't set goals, or failed to thoroughly think through what he would do, and how he would do it. Some entrepreneurs try to start a business without ever writing a business plan, which is a huge mistake.

A business plan is the entrepreneur's bible, and an absolute necessity. It not only serves as a road map for where your business will go and how you'll get it there, it will be an important sales document when you're trying to attract funding for your business.

If you do your homework, and adequately prepare before starting a business, chances are good that you can make it work. And remember that not attempting something you really want because you're afraid of the risk involved might be the biggest failure of all.

Starting Your Own Business Now!

So you want to start your own business. What sort?

Sole Trading
The simplest and most common way to set up in business on your own is to set up as a sole trader. You need to notify HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Tax is rarely simple, but if you are going to set up in business, being a sole trader is probably the most straightforward route for income tax, and it is relatively easy to set up and shut down. Financing it on your own can be difficult, and you are liable for everything if you get into debt, so your personal assets can be at risk.

Partnership
Partnerships can have full partners (who work in the business) or sleeping partners (no hanky panky, they just put in money and take a share of any profits). Working this way means that you can have more start-up money, more skills, and there is usually shared responsibility - if you are sick someone should be able to take over your work temporarily. The downside is that if the business fails and one partner runs off, the other partner has to pay all the creditors back on their own, although these days there is the option of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) which could help reduce some of the risk.

Limited Company
These are the businesses with 'plc' and 'ltd' after their names. Setting one of these up means there is limited liability, so your personal assets can be separate from your business assets in most cases. You need at least one director in order to register the company. Then you have to provide the following details to the Registrar of Companies: your company name, registered office, shareholders, directors, and company secretary. It is more legally complicated than sole trading or partnership, taxation is different, and there is public access to accounts.

Cooperative
All workers in this set-up are entitled to a vote in decision-making, and profits are shared out equally. The amount of discussion in meetings often makes it difficult to have clear-cut plans or quick changes of direction, and group ideology may mean that the most financially rewarding options are not chosen.

Going Concern
Instead of starting a business by yourself, you can buy one that is already up and running. The assets, employees and customers are already in place, and a track record often makes it easier to raise finance. Don't believe everything the business seller and broker tell you, get all the facts checked independently, and make sure the business will pay you a living wage.

Franchise
This is where you buy the right to market a company's goods or services. A good franchise gives an instant market position, a well-known name, long-term support and a proven way of doing business. To check out a franchise opportunity, speak to franchisees in other areas about the business and the income - it may not match up with the figures you were originally quoted.