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Keep Your Sales Pipeline Flowing

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Business owners spend a great deal of time and money marketing to many, in the hope of attracting the few to their business. This process can be likened to a pipeline with a wide mouth narrowing as it goes along. The wide mouth represents the number of prospects you need to get interested in your product, so as to end up with enough conversions to hit your sales targets – the (much) narrower end of the pipeline. If the pipeline isn’t constantly topped up with new prospects who are then moved through it to be converted into customers, sales become uneven, income is inconsistent, and running the business becomes crisis prone.

Classify and monitor prospects

The stages in a sales pipeline can be different from business to business, and particularly between business-to-business (B2B) and business=to-consumer (B2C) type businesses, but there are some essential similarities. In all businesses there is a need to generate inquiries. The technique may be through advertising, shopfront display, cold calling, word of mouth or networking.

Chimpanzees and Charity

Disneynature's newest movie, Chimpanzee, is a documentary masterpiece for all ages. It's a truly original film that stands out in a multiplex of lookalikes, copies, remakes, and sequels. And Chimpanzee's cinematography is amazing — the simple beauty of the jungles and the animals stands in contrast to so many of today's movies all tricked out with 3D gimmicks and computer-generated special effects.

Filmmakers spent four years "embedded" in the lush rainforest of Ivory Coast's Tai National Park to make the movie, which follows the life of "Oscar," a predictably adorable young chimp. Oscar learns how to use rocks to open nuts (apparently harder than it

looks) and use sticks to go "fishing" for army ants (apparently a real delicacy to chimpanzee foodies). There's a turf war with a rival community for control over a valuable nut grove. And, this being a Disney movie, Oscar loses his mother to a leopard around the beginning of the third reel. (It's handled sensitively — there's nothing to terrify children or grandchildren in the audience.) Losing his mother poses a real threat to Oscar's life, until, remarkably, he's "adopted" by Freddy, the community's alpha male. The film is narrated by Tim Allen, whom even the youngest viewers will recognize as the voice of "Buzz Lightyear" from Disney/Pixar's mega-successful Toy Story series.

Primatologists have suspected that chimpanzees like Freddy might altruistically adopt orphaned young in their group. But this is the first example of such behavior actually caught on film. (There's no word on whether Freddy "taxed" the rest of the community for the expenses of caring for Oscar, or whether "tax avoidance" is part of their natural behavior!)

Disney has announced that they are donating a portion of Chimpanzee's opening-weekend ticket sales to the Jane Goodall Institute for the "See Chimpanzee, Save Chimpanzee" program to protect habitats. Disney will donate 20 cents for every ticket sold, with a minimum donation of $100,000. (The movie grossed $10.2 million over its opening weekend, the highest opening gross in history for any nature documentary.) So — and here at last we come to the tax question of the day — does that mean that if you were one of the first to see it, you can deduct part of your ticket?

Unfortunately, no, that's not how it works. You got your "money's worth" from the movie itself, although Disneynature can certainly deduct the contribution on its return. It's like buying a ticket to a college football game. The college itself may be a not-for-profit organization — but buying a ticket isn't a "donation" because you get something of value in exchange. (Some colleges let you make donations in exchange for the right to buy season tickets — in those cases, the IRS treats that "right" as being worth 20% of the donation amount and lets you deduct the remaining 80%.)

Deductions for charitable contributions are a mainstay of the tax code. Charitable contributions let you do well for society while you do well for yourself — which of course is something we want to help with, too! We can help you maximize deductions for gifts of used clothing and household accessories. We can help you plan for bigger gifts of cash, cars or boats, art or antiques, appreciated securities, real estate, and even life insurance. And don't forget, we're here for the rest of your "community," too!

 

Free, No-Obligation Consultation

 

 

I would be honored to chat with you about your accounting, tax and finances whether personal or business. I offer a Free, No-Obligation consultation (at your place or mine). During our meeting we will discuss your concerns and questions and let you know how we can help you and our costs. My consultations are not just sales pitches, I will offer you some solid ideas and solutions to help you right off the bat. To schedule a consultation at a time convenient for you, call me at any of offices or call me toll-free at (888) 758-5966 or click here to email me.

 

 

I hope you found this information useful. I am excited by the fact that my practice is growing. The key to my firm’s growth — and probably your business too — is referrals from satisfied clients, customers and friends like you. If you know of a friend, colleague or business that would like to grow with us please let me know.

 

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Do Skinny Cows Make Lowfat Cheese?

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The California Milk Advisory Board is an agency of the California Department of Food and Agriculture dedicated to promoting California dairy products. You've probably never heard of the Board. But we'll bet you've seen their television spots, with their catchy slogan: "Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California."

Now, The Atlantic magazine reports that landowners on the other side of the country are saving millions in tax by taking advantage of "America's Dumbest Tax Loophole: The Florida Rent-a-Cow Scam." But are those Florida cows as happy as their cousins in California?

Here's how it works. Florida's "greenbelt la

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A Dubious Privilege

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The "Occupy Wall Street" movement argues that we live in a divided nation. First there's a gilded "1%" enjoying lives of ease and privilege. Then there's a downtrodden "99%" struggling just to stay in place. But here's a take on "the 1%" that you won't hear at your local tent city . . .

The IRS is struggling just like the rest of us to carry out its mission with limited resources. Back in 2003, they audited just one out of every 203 returns. By 2010, that number was up to one out of 90. To stretch that audit budget even further, they're auditing more and more taxpayers by mail. But one study shows that 10% of IRS mail never gets where it's supposed to go, and 27% of those who do get their mail don't even realize they're actually being audited! Naturally, that leads to more and more of the paperwork screw ups that every taxpayer fears.

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Being Smart About Business Loans

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Most businesses operate to some extent on borrowed money, but borrowing too much means you’re paying more in interest than you need to. Borrowing too little means you’re under financed and won’t have enough capital to accomplish what you want to do. That’s why you have to work out, as near as possible, just how much money you will really need, and when you’ll need it, before you talk to anyone about borrowing funds for your business. And of course you’ll also have to work out how to repay what you’re borrowing. Here’s a process for estimating your borrowing requirements.

Check your business plan

Start by taking a good look at your business plan. It should be an overall guide to both the amount you need to borrow and to the times when funds will be needed. And if you don’t have a business plan that tells you this kind of information, create one before going any further.

Mastering Tax Breaks

This weekend's Masters golf tournament featured the usual perfect weather, gorgeous scenery, and competitive play that fans have loved for so long. Tiger Woods came into the tournament as the betting favorite based on his win at last month's Arnold Palmer Invitational — his first tour victory in nearly three years. But Tiger's performance disappointed his fans yet again — in fact, he even hit a spectator on Saturday. And in the end, Bubba Watson became only the third leftie in history to don the coveted green jacket.

It turns out Tiger isn't the only one having trouble on the course. Our good friends at the IRS have also "sliced into the rough" over the question deducting conservation easements for golf courses. A "conservation easement" is a gift of a partial interest in real estate you make to a publicly-supported charity or government. If you own a historic townhouse, for example, you might donate the right to make changes to the facade, to ensure it keeps its historic character. If you own a farm at the edge of the city, you might donate development rights, to ensure it remains green space. You’ll need an appraisal to support the value of your gift, as the IRS is cracking down on inflated conservation easement deductions. If your gift exceeds 50% of that year’s adjusted gross income, you can carry forward the excess for up to 15 years (rather than the usual five year limit for all other charitable gifts).