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FEBRUARY 21, 2014As a small-business owner responsible for overseeing every aspect of your business, you are most likely pressed for time, which means that even the thought of an audit can cause your heart to skip a beat. We recently asked the OPEN Forum community: When it comes to taxes and audits, what are some of the red flags for small businesses? Have you been audited, and what was the experience like?

While there’s no guarantee that you can prevent an audit, there are tactics to make the prospect less likely and things you should and shouldn’t do if the “tax man” does come knocking on your door.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

An audit involves a thorough review of income and expenses for your business, and it’s important to realize that the burden is on you to answer the IRS’s questions and prove you made the amount of money you reported and are due certain deductions.

“The IRS is looking for income that might be unreported, under-reported or deductions that might be overstated,” says OPEN Forum community member Sazeeda Itwaru, a business consultant who is principal of Avant-Garde Consulting, a tax advisory and business consulting practice.

It’s your obligation to pull out and provide all the documentation requested by the IRS—and the excuses that you didn’t know or your dog ate your paperwork won’t cut it.

Red Flags to Avoid

There’s no surefire way to avoid a tax probe, but according to Itwaru, small businesses can cut the chances of being audited by avoiding the following red flags.

1. Reporting a net loss in more than two out of five years. “If the business cannot satisfy three years of profits in a five-year period, you are likely to get audited, so it’s advisable to follow the IRS publication 535 guide for business expenses,” Itwaru says.

2. Consistent late filing of tax returns and payment of taxes. Failing to follow filing requirements and meet deadlines triggers penalties, interest and unwanted attention. Always ask for an extension if you won’t be able to meet a deadline.

3. Unreasonably high salaries paid to shareholders who are also employees. Determine reasonable salaries for your type of business based on industry, skill level and geographic location.

4. Excessive deductions for business meals, travel and entertainment. Maintain receipts for all expenses, along with detailed records, and don’t overstate these expenses.

5. Shifting income to tax-exempt organizations such as charities to avoid paying taxes. This is considered tax abuse.

6. Claiming 100 percent business use of a vehicle. “If the vehicle is not designated for business use and there is not another vehicle available for personal use, the business owner should maintain detailed mileage logs and calendar entries for the purposes of each trip,” Itwaru says.

7. Cash businesses beware. Cash-intensive businesses, such as beauty salons, restaurants and car washes, will always be under closer IRS scrutiny, as they are more likely to under-report taxable income.

What to Do if You’re Audited

OPEN Forum community member Betty Pelzer-Sharper, who owns the Washington, DC-based residential real estate brokerage BSharper Real Estate, was involved in a random audit. “It was my first year filing as a new business with a lot of expenses,” she says. “The audit was time-consuming and stressful, but I got though it without having to write a check.”

Pelzer-Sharper fared well in terms of the outcome of her audit because she called her CPA. She also had an ultra-organized system for maintaining and retrieving key tax records like receipts and expense and income documentation.

“I maintain a database on my expenses and income, and my filing system is categorized like my expenses and income on my tax return,” she says. “This enabled me to reconcile my expenses and income against the data in my database and my receipts and documentation. My American Express Year-End Summary report was a great resource as well.” With her CPA’s assistance, Pelzer-Sharper also provided the IRS with a detailed cover letter that outlined what documentation she included in their requested package.

In addition to good records, Pelzer-Sharper made sure to have positive interactions with the IRS agent. “A bad attitude will hurt you,” she says. Be polite and do your best to meet the deadlines set forth by the agent or ask for an extension.

Never Ignore Tax Notices

Even if you don’t have the money to pay the government, don’t ignore tax notices, warns Itwaru, who was audited a few years ago and feels that one of the reasons she fared so well was that she responded to her audit notice in a timely manner.

“Ignoring tax notices won’t make the problem go away, it will only make it worse,” Itwaru says. “Penalties and interest start to build up, and over time, the IRS can levy, lien or seize your property!”

In other words, always address the tax man head on.

Read more articles on small-business taxes.

Photo: Cassandra Hubbart

While there are minor mobile OS players, the major players are Apple iOS and Google’s Android. As a small-business owner, your task is deciding which product proves more innovative and useful for your business’s needs.

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A Brief History of Mobile OS

For the most part, Apple iOS and Google’s Android have fought for market share since 2008 when the first Android phone was launched to compete with Apple, which was introduced in 2007. While at first Apple led in market share, in early 2012, Android passed Apple. That’s interesting in its own right, but business owners know that choosing one system over another just because it sells better isn’t a good enough reason to pass it out to your employees or use it as a platform for your next app development.

So how do you choose the right mobile OS for your company’s needs?

Apple Benefits

The strength of the Apple iOS is found in the phone’s software. The system is known for being user-friendly and especially reliable. Because the hardware and software are made for one another, the phone tends to operate without any interface problems. Apple products work seamlessly with other Apple products.

The iPhone camera is also still considered by many users to be the top-of-the-line in the mobile camera market. The newest version has an even bigger sensor and an updated flash design. So if your business relies on you and your employees being able to take high-quality mobile photos, Apple may be your best bet.

Android Benefits

Google’s Android is an open platform OS system, which means there are far less restrictions for developing it. For Nick Nascimento, CEO of A Geek 2 Go, an onsite and remote computer and software maintenance and repair company, it’s the Android’s adaptability and resulting cost-effectiveness that made him gravitate toward the system for his business.

“Apple was once the leader, but Google’s Android has taken the lead and is putting distance between the two companies. Innovation is about the applications and the ability of the hardware to adapt to changes and offer the freedom to do what we never could before,” Nascimento says. “In the world of small business, where there is limited available liquid capital, it’s Google and its Android’s application flexibility that boosts the bottom line.”

Nascimento gives an example: “As a tech company, we need to stay current and on top of changes. With the Android phones, we get 100 percent upgrades (not just updates) to our smartphones and tablets without having to buy all of the new hardware. As a result, we were able to keep our last hardware for over three years and stay current. Compare that to our first gen iPads, which were technically obsolete (no longer able to update OS or many of the apps we needed daily) far too soon to make it financially feasible to replace them with new units simply to have current capabilities.”

And though Apple is known for premium applications, Nascimento found the same app flexibility offered by Android, coupled with savings. “We have been able to find the same quality for much less or even free,” he says.

When to Consider Both

If you happen to be in the business of developing apps, rather than asking yourself which mobile OS platform to choose, realize that you’ll be shutting out a huge market share if you opt for one over the other, says Richard Linevsky, present of Catalogs.com, a destination website offering more than 700 product catalogs through its Web portal. The company recently introduced the e-catalog technology, Dynalog, which offers a dynamic and interactive alternative to online PDF print copies of brochures.

“A lot of people will focus on Android or Apple, but if you want to be successful, you have to be on both platforms,” Linevsky says. “Don’t bother guessing where the customers are coming from, because they’re most likely coming from both.”

A freelancer since 1985, Julie Bawden-Davis has written for many publications, including MSN Money.com, Parade.com, Entrepreneur, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

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“That was the worst day of my life,” says Cragg, whose company sews, designs and manufactures military, law enforcement and medical system gear and cloth shopping bags. “Some of the people I laid off had worked for me for 10 to 16 years, and some were a part of a charity program I run with the local veteran’s hospital that arranges for the employment of formerly homeless vets.”

Whether you’ve lost a key client and as a result have to let an employee go or need to stop using a longtime vendor, every small-business owner must deliver bad news at some point. And most dislike the process.

“Many small business owners go to great lengths to avoid giving bad news, but putting the task off only makes the underlying problem worse,” says Geoffrey Tumlin, CEO of Mouthpeace Consulting LLC and author of Stop Talking, Start Communicating: Counterintuitive Secrets to Success in Business and in Life.   “It might not win you a popularity contest, but effectively delivering bad news is an essential skill.”

The next time you have to deliver bad news, try these steps.

1. Determine your main objective. No matter what type of bad news you need to share, the welfare of the company must come first, says Cragg, who notes that once you’ve established the goals of your company, you can figure out what you need to say.

“Your core message is easy to spot,” Tumlin adds. “It’s usually what you don’t want to say, and the message you’ve been avoiding, such as ‘we have to let you go.’ ”

2. Be swift and kind. Your main objective should be to deliver bad news as quickly and painlessly as possible with the least amount of collateral damage. “You never know when you’ll want to rehire someone or need an advertising company again. The person receiving the bad news shouldn’t feel one bit worse than necessary,” Tumlin says.

Tumlin suggests delivering bad news in such a way as to make the experience as face saving as possible. “Point to outside factors for why you’re making changes, such as you need to lay someone off because you lost a contract,” he says. “Blaming something else is much better than dragging the person through the mud while pointing to his or her work.”

3. Don’t negotiate or counsel. Sticking to your guns when delivering bad news is critical. “You’re not sharing negative feedback, and it’s not time to negotiate,” Tumlin says. “Repeat variants of your message to further explain, but don’t add any new information. You risk drifting away from your core message and being talked out of your decision.”

While it’s acceptable and a good idea to answer practical questions, such as how long until the final day of work, avoid responding to emotional questions or allowing yourself to be mined for details.

“Don’t answer questions about how this happened or if it was because of something the person did previously,” Tumlin says. “That only brings up issues you shouldn’t be discussing. Stick to your story and don’t get pulled into any drama.”

4. Handle potential outbursts quickly and efficiently. “If someone has been with you a long time, there may be some crying or anger,” Tumlin warns. “Offer a tissue if there’s crying, and if someone gets angry with you, remind him or her that you’ll be the one giving out references, so it would be a good idea to settle down. Self-preservation often kicks in and the person stops.”

5. Offer assistance. Whenever possible, give bad news recipients a ray of hope, Cragg advises, who was so committed to the people he laid off that he created a follow-up program dedicated to finding jobs for his former employees. “I had weekly calls with them until I’d gotten each a job referral,” he says.

Ned Lavelle, co-founder and owner of Pinthouse Pizza, hired a former coworker to run his brewpub when he started out, but had to let him go eight months later. “By explaining that I’d made a tactical error during hiring and that I was committed to doing what I could to help the former employee find a position, I was able to preserve goodwill between us,” Lavelle says. “How I treated the situation also sent a positive message to our employees.”

6. Get out. Once you’ve delivered your message and answered questions, make as graceful and quick an exit as possible. “If you’ve created a clear core message, it speaks for itself,” Tumlin says. “Overstaying a difficult situation is not productive. You might give up ground you hadn’t intended to or talk about topics best left unsaid. Your best bet is to be clear, be concise and be gone.”

Read more articles on hiring and firing.

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1. Ask leading questions. Encourage game-changing ideas by asking yourself questions that lead to more questions and then ultimately answers, says Ken Moll, founder of Blue Elevator, a business consulting and advising firm. “Questions that ask ‘what if’ are particularly useful,” he explains.

“Focusing on challenging questions is particularly helpful,” adds Marc A. Price, co-founder with Michael F. O’Keefe and Scott L. Girard Jr. of Expert Business Advice, who are also co-authors of the Crash Course for Entrepreneurs series of books. “Asking yourself leading questions, such as what if the cost of materials from your supplier goes up and could a substitute product be introduced, are helpful because they drive contingency planning, which often leads to innovation.”

2. Alter your routine. “One of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing is to extract yourself from your day-to-day routine, both figuratively and literally,” says O’Keefe of Expert Business Advice. “When I’m in the office, doing the same things, working on the same projects and speaking with the same people, it gets monotonous, and I tend to hit cruise control. I formulate my best ideas and often have more aha moments when I’m away from home, out of the office and disrupting my usual routine.”

3. Listen to your customers. Sometimes a good idea is offered up by a client in need of a certain service or product. Keeping your eyes and ears open is vital, says Girard of Expert Business Advice. “An old proverb once said that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason—so you can do twice as much listening as you do talking. You need to constantly be asking questions, but most importantly, listening to the answers. Feedback can be a great source of ideas and inspiration.”

4. Examine the market. One of the best places to look for breakthrough ideas is right in front of you. “I get my inspiration from industry information,” says Dave Sentenn, founder of Local Monster,  a company that shows small businesses how to generate traffic to their websites and convert the traffic to new business. “I try and innovate, or simply improve upon, what’s already working and then ride those trends and needs into a product of my own,” he says. “Many of my ideas are not original, but I always try and have a different take on what’s already working.”

In the same respect, Girard suggests examining what hasn’t worked for your competitors. “Sometimes the most unique ideas or inspirations come from the failures of your competition,” he says. “It could be they were almost there. So when they fail, ask yourself: Why did that just happen? The right answer may immediately come to you while they’re still trying to pick up the pieces.”

5. Get a fresh perspective. Bouncing ideas off other entrepreneurs also works well, says O’Keefe, who reports that he and his partners come up with their best ideas together. “Sharing ideas, even with business owners in other industries, is bound to broaden your horizons and lead to innovation,” he says.

Seeking counsel with a business adviser can also help you experience a breakthrough, Moll says. “It’s difficult to truly see yourself without some guidance. An objective adviser can steer the process and help you discover your unique value proposition and what will best resonate in the marketplace.”

6. Don’t force it. In this Internet age, instantaneous results are often expected, but creativity can’t be rushed, says O’Keefe. “The best strategy for coming up with new ideas is to not have a strategy for coming up with new ideas. Some of the best ideas throughout human history have materialized from epiphanies.”

Brainstorm, but don’t try to dictate innovation by putting a deadline on it. “If you get stuck, relax, go for a run, walk, drive or just remove yourself from your desk,” O’Keefe says. “When you come back with fresh eyes, you’re much more likely to get hit by inspiration.”

A freelancer since 1985, Julie Bawden-Davis has written for many publications, including Entrepreneur, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

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“I always thought it was just an elaborate Rolodex for companies,” says the creator of the Magazine Creation Academy and editor of Life Is Short Magazine. “Then I saw stats on how LinkedIn has a much better conversion rate than Facebook and Twitter, so I took the plunge and joined an online LinkedIn course a month ago.”

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Since then, Meleady has seen a marked increase in business. “As soon as I started taking advantage of the site, I saw instantaneous results, including being asked to appear on a podcast and to create a magazine. I’ve been active on Facebook nearly every day for the last five years and it never gave such results in such a short time-frame.”

Many small-business owners don’t realize how powerful LinkedIn is as a networking tool, says social media expert and LinkedIn evangelist Karen Yankovich. “According to a study done by Hubspot, LinkedIn is 277 percent more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter,” she says. “Small-business owners are finding many benefits to connecting on the site. It provides an appropriate way to keep contacts warm in a professional, unobtrusive and authentic way.”

Your LinkedIn profile is being seen by people even if you’re ignoring it. “Your profile is the front door to your world. When people want to find out more about you, they’ll do so through your LinkedIn profile, because the site is ranked high by Google search algorithms. This provides a huge opportunity to make sure potential customers know exactly what you want them to know about you,” Yankovich says.

No matter what your industry, LinkedIn, which has 259 million registered members worldwide, has become today’s business card, agrees Risa Edelstein, director of marketing and retail product development for the family-owned company Echotape, a manufacturer of industrial tape. “I’ve found the best suppliers on LinkedIn, and use it to help make final hiring decisions and to check out my competitors,” says Edelstein, who introduced her company’s 70 employees to LinkedIn in February 2013, resulting in increased sales.

Want to start making LinkedIn’s networking power work for you?

1. Claim your expert status in your headline.

“LinkedIn gives you an ideal opportunity to highlight your areas of specialization with your headline,” says Yankovich, who notes that the headline is searchable by Google, so having your specialties clearly stated in your headline is critical.

2. Make your profile professional.

Include a business-like head shot of yourself, your email address, website or blog address and your Twitter handle. Claim your personalized URL with LinkedIn rather than the URL they assign you, if it’s available. And be thorough in your summary of your skills and expertise.

3. Make yourself searchable.

Sprinkle keywords throughout your profile regarding your areas of expertise, which will cause you to appear in online searches. If you specialize in tax law, make sure to use that and similar terms throughout your profile.

4. Build up your connections.

Unless you have a bad vibe about someone, Yankovich suggests accepting all invitations and sending them out on a regular basis. “The more connections you have, the greater the power of your network,” she says. “Your first degree connections have their own connections. It’s often in these second degree connections that you find valuable contacts.”

5. Ask for recommendations.

Recommendations on your LinkedIn page are like “social proof on steroids,” says Yankovich. “Giving and getting recommendations on the site is a great way to build up the trust factor between yourself and your connections and anyone who looks at your page. If someone praises your work, ask the person to write you a recommendation. Many people are happy to do so.”

Recommendations are not be confused with endorsements, which are also a useful feature on the site.

6. Reach out to contacts.

On a regular basis, Yankovich emails about 20 of her LinkedIn contacts by sending a thank you for connecting and offers herself as a resource. “Seven out of 10 times, they’ll reply to me and sometimes it will result in a phone call to see how we might help one another,” she says.

7. Add media.

Take advantage of the opportunity to share media on your profile page, such as blog posts, articles, Web pages and video. In addition to rewriting her summary a month ago, Meleady uploaded a YouTube tutorial and a few promotional videos, and feels that these efforts are the reason she experienced quick results.

8. Set up a company page.

“Personal profiles establish you as the expert, and company pages are where you can showcase all of your products and services,” Yankovich says. Include on the page a blurb about your company, as well as articles and photos.

9. Take advantage of groups.

A wide variety of groups exist on the site, offering you the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and forge valuable partnerships. Yankovich suggests active groups with 200 to 1,000 members. Look for groups where people are asking and answering questions and offering feedback about the topic.

A freelancer since 1985, Julie Bawden-Davis has written for many publications, including Entrepreneur, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

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“It was unbelievable to us,” says Weissman, co-founder and CEO of SYNQY Corporation, which helps companies deliver and manage interactive online experiences. Weissman and his team have advised many companies, including Apple, Adobe and Symantec.

Paradox Of Excellence

Fortunately, Weissman immediately understood what was happening. He had recently co-written a book with David Mosby, The Paradox of Excellence,  which discusses the phenomenon he and his team experienced that day.

“It was obvious we were victims of the paradox, which says the better you do your job, the more invisible you become to everything but bad news,” Weissman explains. “Your perceived value erodes as customers lose sight of the problems you relieved through the excellent job you’ve done. This common reaction of taking good work for granted stems from customers continually expecting more and more from companies.

“This is best understood through a concept called the ‘Revolution of Rising Expectations’ [developed] in the 1800s by French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville. He hypothesized that revolutions aren’t caused by oppression but rather from unfulfilled expectations,” Weissman says. “Today, customer expectations increase faster than company performance, creating an ‘entitlement gap.’ Customers feel entitled to any performance they believe they deserve—independent of the practicality or affordability of the company delivering that performance.”

Solutions To The Paradox

So what can a small-business owner do to mitigate the paradox of excellence and the resulting entitlement gap? Weissman recommends companies build an “advocacy bank” of positive feelings about your company with your customers.

“In a socially acceptable manner, become transparent about what you provide and continually reinforce your value to your customers,” Weissman suggests. “Do this by making them aware of how much you do for them, how fast and how well you do it, how much benefit they get from what you do, and why they should be working with you.”

Weissman offers this example of building positive feelings: “My drugstore tells customers how much they saved by using their loyalty card on a given trip to the store as well as cumulative savings over the life of the relationship. This reinforces the store’s complete value during every transaction.”

Remind Customers Of Your Value

Patty Jensen’s company also had trouble with customers taking their services for granted until she and her fellow employees became aware of the paradox of excellence. Jensen is vice president of account services for JDA Inc., which assists retail clients in developing an integrated and engaging brand message throughout the purchase process.

“The concept really resonated with us,” Jensen says. “Even though we’re an accomplished design and marketing agency and have retained clients for over a decade, we were only as good as our last mistake. Despite our track record, we had to re-prove and rebuild client confidence after minor errors.”

Jensen’s company dealt with the destructive cycle by becoming completely transparent. “Our clients had no idea the amount of detail and time that goes into tracking and monitoring their jobs, so we started showing them production schedules and holding weekly production meetings,” she says. “They came to see the many versions of creative concepts and rounds with production and editing. Once they became more involved, minor human errors were no longer a sticking point for them—they refocused on our creative work and how it accomplishes their goals.”

Reminding clients of how much improvement has occurred because of your work is also critical, notes Jennifer Benbrook, vice president of online marketing for Sequoia Technologies IMS,  a search engine optimization and marketing company.

“We’ve always delivered great search optimization results, but we were only retaining about two-thirds of our customers,” Benbrook says. “After becoming familiar with the paradox of excellence, we realized that our clients had forgotten about their less successful performance prior to working with us. Now, in addition to providing clients monthly performance reports, we illustrate the value of our work by indicating their original performance before they hired us.”

As a result of the changes they made, Sequoia Technologies now enjoys a 98-percent client retention rate, which has meant steadier business for the company.

If you recognize the paradox of excellence at work in your business, it’s time to turn the tables in your favor by using these tips to prove your company’s value.

Freelancer Julie Bawden-Davis has written for many publications, including Entrepreneur, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2013The popularity of social media has taught us that people like to be heard, and the same holds true for employees and customers. The trouble is, many small-business owners don’t know how to effectively listen.

Much of the problem lies in the fact that small-business owners receive little to no training in the art of listening, says Chris Majer, founder and CEO of the Human Potential Project 

and author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life.

However, as Meredith Wood, an OPEN Forum community member and director of community relations for Funding Gates, points out, “It’s easy to waste your time networking in unrewarding places. Where have you found to be the most rewarding places to network with other small-business owners?”

Fortunately, a variety of in-person networking opportunities exist. Consider checking out some of these meetings and events recommended by OPEN Forum members.

BNI (Business Networking International)

Founded in 1985, this international business networking organization has 150,000 members. Members meet weekly to share referrals and increase exposure, which can be profitable. Mike Adray, president of Adray’s VP Handyman, joined his local BNI chapter in late 2010 and has found the group to be especially profitable for his business.

“I’ve received several referrals that exceeded $10,000, and my largest referral to date was $19,000,” says Adray, noting that he also passed on a referral for $70,000 to another member.

Chamber of Commerce

Don’t overlook your local chamber of commerce. Most chambers host networking events designed to bring small-business owners together with each other and the community. Visit the website of your local chamber or give them a call and get a list of upcoming events, such as mixers and trade shows, the latter of which gives you a chance to showcase your business.

Eventbrite

Community member Andria Younger, founder of Cre8iv Branding,  often attends business-oriented events she finds on Evenbrite.com and Meetup.com. “I have found [both sites] to be a great resource for networking opportunities,” Younger says. “Your competition is hanging out at the same events and conferences. Breakout from your competition and look for opportunities to connect to people in a fun social environment. Where does your target market like to hangout for fun?”

Le Tip International

Meetup

SCORE

Since its inception, nearly 10 million Americans have used SCORE’s services. There are 348 chapters throughout the U.S. Each chapter is comprised of accomplished and experienced entrepreneurs and business owners who are trained as business counselors and volunteer their time to mentor entrepreneurs and small-business owners who are just starting a business or wish to work on their existing business.

Volunteer Organizations

Though their direct intent is not to build business, organizations that strive to make the world a better place, such as Kiwanis International  and  Rotary International,  end up offering vast networking opportunities. Joining such organizations offers the chance to build your business and volunteer your time.

A freelancer since 1985, Julie Bawden-Davis has written for many publications, including Entrepreneur, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

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OCTOBER 24, 2013Truly great leaders know themselves well. They understand their dreams, aspirations and what motivates them to succeed, and this knowledge allows them to lead well and inspire others to succeed.

“From Thomas Edison to Mary Kay Ash to Steve Jobs, great leaders throughout history tap into their strengths, talents and even their quirks to become world changers,” says Karen Zeigler

, a life strategist for women in leadership, who provides business coaching, including leadership development training.

OCTOBER 21, 2013In many ways, the relationship between a doctor and patient is the same as that of a small business and a customer. A good bedside manner can comfort and reassure a client, while a poor one can leave a customer feeling dissatisfied, ignored and most likely walking out the door.

“The success of any business depends on creating and maintaining meaningful customer relationships,” says Mike Muhney, founder and CEO of VIPorbit Software

and co-creator of ACT! software. “When you connect with customers on a personal level and give them the best experience possible, that goes a long way toward securing future business.”