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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

How Accounting Software Can Increase Profits

Most small business owners who use accounting software quickly master the basics. They automate processes like invoicing and payroll, track expenses and view real-time financial reports to manage cash flow and make better business decisions.

But what many business owners don’t take advantage of are key insights that can improve customer care and increase sales. Here are some smart ways you can use your accounting software to help boost your bottom line.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Tips for choosing a small business bank

Finding the right bank to serve your small business needs can be a daunting task.

With so many competing financial institutions to choose from, business owners simply don’t have the time for the in-depth research required to carefully weigh all the options.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Why Bookkeeping is Crucial to Your Success

Keeping track of sales, earnings, expenses, and purchases is fundamental to the overall health and sustainability of your business. Effective bookkeeping produces the data you need to evaluate your current practices, anticipate challenges, and set attainable future goals.

But despite their proven importance, many business owners dread and avoid accounting tasks. In fact, 40% of surveyed entrepreneurs claim that bookkeeping is one the worst parts of running a business!

Wondering if it’s really worth the aggravation?

Here are four reminders of how effective bookkeeping is the cornerstone of small business success.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

How to get your life back in a seven-day-a-week business

Small business owners already have a difficult and time-consuming job running their business. If their business is open five days a week, they usually need the weekend to catch up on paperwork, pay bills and manage any tasks they didn’t get to during the week.

For those with a seven-day-a-week business, there’s even less time off. They often feel the need to be onsite any time the business is open, to deal with unanticipated issues, help the staff out, and ensure all tasks are completed.

Being onsite seven days a week isn’t healthy or productive, however. It can cause burnout and result in errors being made. It affects the business owner’s personal life and quality of life, not to mention their overall well-being.

Here are three tips for getting your life back when you operate a seven-day-a-week business.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

4 questions you should ask your accountant

Ideally, you and your accountant are more than just “adviser” and “client”.

With your combined skills, expertise, and shared mission to support a thriving business, you’re more like strategic partners.

The key to achieving success in any partnership is, of course, strong communication. At your next meeting, be sure to ask your accountant these four important questions.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Signs it’s time to upgrade systems

Most small business owners can’t afford to think small. They always need to keep their mind on growth strategies to help them achieve long-term profitability.

But becoming profitable in the first place often requires business owners to work long hours on a shoe-string budget. They don’t always have time to implement systems that will support them when they’re ready to scale. It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to use free or low-cost software solutions that can get them up and running, but hold them back as their needs evolve.

Read on to learn if it’s time to upgrade your current systems to support your small business as it grows – and what to look for.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Three Ways an Accountant Can Save You Money

Many small business owners think they’re saving money by handling their financials themselves. While it’s a real asset to learn bookkeeping basics, cash flow management and your tax obligations, hiring an accountant to oversee your finances has many benefits.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Ways To Keep Customer Data Secure

Cyber crime is a serious concern for business owners. Recently IBM Chair, CEO, and President, Ginni Rometty, called it “the greatest threat to every company in the world”. According to Juniper Research, by 2019 cyber crime will cost businesses a staggering $2 trillion.

It’s impossible to put a dollar value on what your customer data is worth – or the cost to your business should sensitive data be compromised by theft or loss. For many small companies, a security breach could simply mean the end of the business.

If you don’t already have a data security plan in place, these tips will help you take steps to prevent a devastating loss.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Use your Accounting Software to Boost Sales

If you think accounting software is just for tracking expenses and generating financial reports, you’re losing out on an opportunity to improve your bottom line. By taking advantage of insights provided by your software solution, you’ll benefit from a more informed approach to marketing and customer service – and by making the most of all the ways your software can improve productivity you can take meaningful action to increase profits. Here’s how.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Three reasons why you need small business insurance

If your small business operates on a tight budget you might be tempted to eliminate costs that you think aren’t necessary. Often small business owners choose to go without business insurance as a way of saving money, but doing so can be incredibly costly in the long run.

Here are three reasons you need small business insurance.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

9 reasons to switch to cloud computing

Don’t be left up in the air by traditional IT solutions. Check out the top 9 advantages for small businesses switching to cloud computing.

Cloud computing is fast becoming the norm because storing information and using software hosted on the Internet has many advantages.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

10 Productivity Tools to Help You Do More at Work

In today's fast-paced world, everyone wants to be more productive. Fortunately, there is an ever-increasing number of tools, many of them available online and across multiple devices, that promise to help us achieve our goals. The challenge then becomes how to know not just which tools will live up to their promise but which tools are right for our business.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Why Keep Your Data in the Cloud?

Cloud computing is quickly moving from an obscure concept to an everyday reality for small businesses all over the world.

A 2015 survey of small business owners found that 52% had already adopted some form of cloud-based data storage; however, a general lack of awareness regarding the logistics and advantages of cloud computing has made others a bit more resistant.

The truth is, there are several very practical benefits to moving your data into the cloud, including reducing operating costs and boosting efficiency. Here are three more ways cloud computing can help your small business run even better.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

4 Tips for Less Stressful Business Travel

Business owners fall into two categories: those who love business travel and those who hate it. The love/hate dynamic may depend on how much you travel for work, but even if you love business travel there are stressful aspects to being out of town.

Although we can’t guarantee that our travel tips will ensure a completely stress-free experience, here are four ways to lessen your hassle. If you’re someone who hates work-related travel, maybe these tips will help you love it.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Conference Tips for Small Business Owners

For small business owners, business conferences can be both a blessing and a curse. They give you the opportunity to develop new skills and learn strategies that you can use in your business, and they also provide you with the chance to meet new people and expand your business network.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

How to learn from failure in business

Ask any successful entrepreneur about their path to greatness and you’ll get the same answer: failure is an inevitable part of the journey.

It took Thomas Edison 1,000 failed attempts before he finally invented the light bulb.

Tim Ferris received 25 rejections before his bestselling book, “The 4 Hour Workweek” was finally published and sold millions of copies.

It’s a fact that 20% of businesses fail in their first year – and many fold before their fifth.

The truth is, building a successful company is typically a very long game. Not every idea is a winner; not every decision yields success. But you can learn from experience, gaining wisdom as you nurture resilience – key ingredients, along with hard work and a pinch of luck, that eventually lead to victory.

Here’s how to stay in the game long enough to win, and make the most of failure along the way.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

4 Tips for Getting Your Business Through Tough Times

If you’re a small business owner whose company hasn’t gone through hard times, that’s great but it’s likely to happen at some point. As much as we dream about being brilliant enough at business that we’ll never face slow times, there are many things beyond our control that can negatively affect our business.

Here are four tips for getting your business through difficult periods so you can look forward to many more years of business ownership.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Get paid first – why your salary should be your business’s first monthly expense

It’s the line item most often left out of a small company’s budget: the business owner’s salary.

Let’s face it: you can always spend cash on your business. From office expenses to employee salaries to rent, every month a portion of your revenue is accounted for.

But paying yourself first is a must. You need to earn a living – and paying yourself can actually help your business succeed.

Here’s why you should make your salary a top priority, starting now.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Four easy ways to make your business environmentally friendly

Your company’s environmental impact can easily be reduced with a few easy steps. Not only do these steps help the environment, they often have an added bonus of saving your business money, improving employee health and impressing your customers.

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Julie DeVincenzi Julie DeVincenzi

Great Reasons to Shorten Your Work Week

Okay, there probably aren’t a lot of people who need to be convinced that a shorter workweek is a great idea. Small business owners, however, might be on the list of people who need a little encouragement. After all, every day they take off could mean a longer day to make up for the missed hours.

There are some very real benefits to working a shorter week and those benefits aren’t just about the long weekends—though who would complain about those?

Here are some great reasons to consider shortening your workweek.

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