BizAlert

BizActions BizAlert Blog moving to new home

2009-06-30T17:04:59-04:00

Significant changes have been taking place at BizActions over the last 6 months. We have released a new web site and several new information delivery systems, along with social networking applications. As a result of all that activity, we purposely stopped posting to this blog.

BizActions new blog system and all content will now be accessed via: http://bizblog.bizactions.com

BizActions entire staff will be regularly contributing blog posts to this forum accoring to their department specialty and focus. We hope you bookmark the page or pull the RSS feed fom this new site.

Thank you.

Translating the Twitters and Warbles

2008-12-01T12:38:02-05:00

By Steve Willey

Let’s see if you can understand this sentence without having to give it any real thought:

All transactions effected pursuant to this instrument shall be effected for the account and risk and in the name of the undersigned; and the undersigned hereby agrees to indemnify and hold you harmless from, and to pay you promptly on demand, any and all losses arising there from or any debit balance due thereon.

Still scratching your head? How about this, then:

You'll be responsible for anything you owe on your account.

When writers come across source material, they often run into gobbledygook like the above example of jargon, which is sometimes a condensed, efficient means of communication between individuals working in the same field. Doctors will know right off that ESRD is short for End Stage Renal Disease. BizActions writers will say Timely Op to mean Timely Opportunity. Wall Street Journal writers will know that the Ten Point refers to the What’s News column on page one that is printed in a ten point font.

Everyone in those situations understands everyone else. No harm, no foul. (Oops, I slipped into jargon there.)

When we write for our sponsors, however, the situation turns more complicated. We need to avoid gobbledygook and jargon, a word that derives from a 14th Century word meaning the “twittering or warbling of birds.” As writers, it’s our job to translate the twittering into plain English that can be readily understood by readers from divergent backgrounds. We want to be certain they have no doubt about what we are writing and what it means.

An example of how avoiding jargon and gobbledygook is helpful: A local office of the Veterans Affairs Department rewrote a standard form to make it more clear and found that the number of telephone calls about the form dropped to 200 a year from 1,200.

So, if we are writing an article on getting a mortgage, there is no point in using the term conveyance fee. Few will know what we mean. Much simpler to simply say a person could be charged money to cover the costs of handling the paperwork involved in transferring ownership.

In an investment article, we would avoid saying a company is full franked. We’d say simply that it has paid full corporate tax on its dividends.

That’s not to say we don’t use any jargon. Some is necessary. An accounting article may require the use of, say, the term zero-based budget. Fine, but be sure you immediately define it. Of course there, too, you can run into a problem. Which of these two definitions do you think works best?

1. A method of budgeting in which all expenditures must be justified each new period, as opposed to only explaining the amounts requested in excess of the previous period's funding, or

2. A budget where total income minus total expenses equals zero dollars. In other words, you assign every dollar or of income to an expense or savings category. This method forces you to spend your monthly income on paper before you spend it in real life.

Use plain English in your writing and your speech and you can avoid a situation similar to the one in 1985 when former President Ronald Reagan, describing some tax law revisions, said they didn’t improve the system and instead made it more like “Washington itself: complicated, unfair, cluttered with gobbledygook and loopholes designed for those with the power and influence to hire high-priced legal and tax advisers."

Here are four examples of my least favorite jargons often found in daily conversations:

Dynamic solutions
Take ownership
Paradigm shift
Holistic approach

Send in your list of favorite and not so favorite pet-peeve bits of jargon and gobbledygook. Some families even have their own jargon. Share it with us so when we meet your relatives we’ll know what the heck they are talking about.

How One Firm Eases Tax Season Stress

2008-10-01T18:32:54-04:00

If, by the end of February your car is overdue for servicing, your favorite chair at home is coated with dust, and your dog is convinced you’ve moved away and left him… congratulations! You may be a tax accountant, or at least work for one. It’s no secret that for a few long months each year, CPAs cease to exist as surely as if they were in the federal witness protection program … except of course, to their clients. That’s why one Alabama firm has brought in a doppelganger… well, sort of. How many times during tax season have you said, “I wish there were two of me?” At Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith PC (BMSS) the partners recognized this problem and decided it was past time for a solution. That’s why they hired Betsy Nolen.

Nolen is a personal valet, and her services are available to everyone in the firm, from the partners to the receptionist. She takes cars for servicing, does personal banking for coworkers, shops nearly every day for them, buys birthday presents for the mothers of busy CPAs… she even wraps them. She picks up prescriptions, pays bills… gives rides to the airport. Whatever BMSS employees need, she handles it with a smile. They even trust her with their credit cards and the partners say that Nolen’s services more than pay her salary.

For the third year in a row, the Birmingham Journal named Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith PC (BMSS) near the top of the "best places to work," list, and called them an "innovator in the human resources field."

What do they do that's different? Several things, including paid sabbaticals, massages during tax season, and extra time off once tax season has passed. But chances are, if you asked the staff what to name the number one perk that makes their lives easier, they'd say "Betsy."

Betsy Nolen was hired two years ago as a personal valet. The idea of hiring such a person was the brainchild of founding partner, John Shank, though he admits that he read about another business that did this, and thought it might work for BMSS. Originally the plan was to try out the new position for the coming tax season. But they didn't know then what an asset Betsy would be. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that she seems to be the ideal candidate for the job.

After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama, Nolen moved to South Carolina to continue her education. During the day, she was a full-time nanny... a job which helped her develop strong organizational and multi-tasking skills. Maybe it even helped her become a bit intuitive about the needs of others. When she heard through a friend that BMSS was talking about hiring a personal valet, she threw her hat in the ring. Based on her two years in the position, it's safe to say, the staff and partners at this growing firm consider Betsy Nolen a great addition to their work family.

What the Job Involves

Since Nolen was the first person to fill this position, she pretty much created the job. Most days, she spends doing banking and shopping errands for staff members... and that's not limited to the partners or upper level staff. Her services are available to everyone at BMSS. The employees at Wal-Mart are accustomed to seeing her just about every day, whether she's picking up odds and ends for the office for fellow employees, or picking out a birthday present on behalf of a partner. She not only buys those presents, she wraps them too. She even keeps a stash of wrapping supplies at her desk for that very reason.

On any given day, 28 year-old Nolen may be asked to take a car for servicing, make a bank deposit, or pick up and deliver medicine for a coworker's sick child. The job has also evolved into event planning, as she is frequently called upon to plan celebrations like wedding or baby showers or anything else that comes up.

For firms that may want to hire a personal valet, Nolen says there are a few special skills to look for. Naturally organization is important, but also flexibility. While she starts every day with a plan, there's always a good chance that she'll need to completely rework the plan to incorporate urgent tasks that pop up. But, says Nolen, it's also important to be able to prioritize. "Sometimes you have to say ‘I probably will not have time today, but I'll do it tomorrow.' There's only one of me," she says, and that may mean having to ask someone to wait when there is no real urgency.

Whatever, the task, she is happy to do it, and that's a big part of why the staff and leadership at BMSS love her. "She's one of the family. She handles our internal hospitality," says John Shank. "The staff dearly loves her." These days, when recruiting new blood is extremely competitive, BMSS has two advantages, according to Shank. One, they offer every other Friday off during the slower season, and they have the services of Betsy Nolen. He even credits her with being part of the reason why BMSS consistently ranks high on the lists of best places to work. "Having Betsy here adds a great benefit in terms of stress relief."

For a position that started out as a tax season experiment, it's safe to say, this one has been a success that more than pays for itself. If your firm is looking for a way to boost productivity, morale, and enhance your recruiting ability, adding a personal valet may be just the thing you need. But don't get any ideas about spiriting Nolen away from her current job. The good folks at BMSS may have gentle southern accents, but if you mess with family, they're likely to get a bit testy.

Hiring a personal valet is a winning idea, but you'll have to find your own Betsy.

Showcase your firm as an industry leader with personalized messages to your recruits, clients, prospects and referral sources. Let BizActions help you launch and manage your own cost-effective, easy-to-implement electronic newsletter. Call 866-240-8477 to learn more or visit us on the web at http://www.bizactions.com/

You get what you pay for.

2008-09-10T19:17:38-04:00

In this struggling economy, it would serve both consumers and suppliers well to take a step back and give a little thought to the implication of the phrase “You get what you pay for.”

Unfortunately, we’ve heard the saying so often that its wisdom may be diminishing with the repetition – and that will cost you whether you are looking to purchase or hoping to sell. We all understand that there is often a direct correlation between the price one pays and the quality of that purchase. We all inherently believe that if we pay a high price for something, that object should be of a higher quality than if we paid a lower price for the same thing or something similar.

Bargain Hunting

For example, how much difference can there really be between two brands of paper clips? Most people would think that every box that contains 100 paper clips should cost exactly the same, but such is not the case. (Please allow me to offer my apologies to all the overly sensitive paper clip suppliers to Staples, Office Max, and all the other office supply stores the world over, if it appears I have forgotten to mention style, function, color, labor costs, taxes, insurance and million other factors that come into play in the production of their exceptionally useful product.) I intend to talk about products and services that are both larger and more expensive that the under-appreciated paper clip.

Now it is only natural for someone in search of a paper clip or anything else to want to get the best product possible at the lowest price available. Bargain Hunting is ingrained into the heart of anyone who has ever clipped a coupon. But when it comes to services that require “out-of-the-big-box” custom effort, a person should truly take to heart the “You get what you pay for” saying. Avoid the bargain unless you like disappointment – and believe me you will be disappointed and here’s why.

Unless you the type of person who is a 100% compulsive buyer, and never, ever compares two or more versions of the same product or service before purchasing, you are going to want to get the better product or service at the least expensive price. And the longer you take to make your decision between the two (or three or four), the more you will become confused between not only the differences of the products or services, but the value associated with those differences.

Email Newsletters

Let me talk about a service I know a little bit about – email newsletters. One pretty much looks like another and odds are you have personally created enough Word documents in your life that you know how any document looks is easy to change - as easy as clicking a different font style and color or other similar functions. You’ve probably already created something that looks like a newsletter and sent it to a group of business associates right from your desktop computer.

So why use an outside service? Here’s a simple metaphor to help understand the answer. If you live one mile from the nearest grocery store, you are probably close enough to walk, but I’m betting you drive your car 99.9% of the time for a whole bunch of reasons. Take my word for it there are a bunch of reasons to use a professional service to send out your company newsletter too. Then the question becomes, why does one newsletter provider’s service cost more than another? Don’t they both do the same thing?

The quick answer by extension of similar metaphor: If you had to drive from New York to Los Angeles, would you rather make the trip in a Chevrolet Aveo5 priced at $10,235 or a Mercedes-Benz SLR priced at $495,000? They will both get you there. Now you may not have a half million dollars to spend on a car, much less a newsletter service, but unless you’re delusional, you are not going to expect the same level of quality between the two vehicles and you shouldn’t in your newsletter providers service either.

Here’s the part that most business owners don’t get. If you walk into the Mercedes dealership and tell the sales manager that you were just shopping a Chevy Aveo5 and wondering if he could pull out the leather seats and match the price, what do you think would happen? Why then would you lower your price if the service you provide is world-class? And why would you expect a company whose service you recognize as superior to reduce their incentive to provide superior service by asking them to compete with an inferior service?

Let’s face it. No one knows your business like you do. There are considerations that consumers will never understand and they don’t even want to make the attempt. I’m not saying you should never give someone a discount to get their business, but if you do it on every deal, words spreads – not only to other prospects and customers, but you can bet your own staff will start believing that your service isn’t worth what it used to be. That’s a nasty road full of potholes you don’t want to drive down.

An August 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal reported that The Big Three auto makers have asked their ad agencies to cut fees, with General Motors demanding their fees be slashed by as much as 20% this year and next. You can bet GM doesn’t expect the volume or quality of service to be reduced however and any agency that fails to meet expectations will undoubtedly find themselves replaced. What does this do?

Well, it creates downward pressure throughout the media chain, meaning that suppliers, such as publishers will pressure printers to also cut costs. Staff in every supply to the advertising agencies will find themselves downsized to meet the price demand. But worse, look at the message it sends to the marketplace.

The message it sends to the marketplace is that if your company is suffering, or isn’t successful, your first recourse is to squeeze those in a position to help your firm regain its success. It just doesn’t make sense to make it harder for those suppliers responsible for communicating your value proposition to the marketplace in economic times when you are in most need of their expertise. Unfortunately common wisdom (or lack thereof) demands that advertising is the first item cut when things go bad and the last put back in place when prospects improve.

When you realize that GM’s proposed advertising savings of $20 million in fees is only 0.13 percent of their total losses for the second quarter of this year, it’s hard to believe that the savings is really worth the kind of reduction in quality for the service product being purchased?

And make no mistake, not only will you get what you pay for, but remember the correlation of the three production constants of “Time, Money, and Quality.” Everything affects everything else and your long-term success is always based on the success of those who work for you.

Mike Braun
Online Marketing Manager
BizActions LLC

Creative recruiting ideas!

2008-09-09T12:53:26-04:00

If recruiting new blood for your accounting firm is on your agenda, you may need to get creative. A shortage of talent means that, whether you're scouting on college campuses or trying to woo experienced professionals, you'll need to offer them something they can't get just anywhere. That's why some CPAs are developing volunteer opportunities for their staff members and encouraging them to participate during work hours. Read on for details and to see how one firm strives to be a good corporate citizen.

Recruiting new talent is becoming more and more of a problem for CPA firms. That means it's time to tap into what job-seekers really want. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that sixty million Americans volunteer their time every year. And a survey of the next generation of Volunteers are 42 percent more likely to be very happy than nonvolunteers." General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center accountants -- conducted by Deloitte & Touche USA -- shows that 62 percent would rather work for employers that offer volunteer opportunities through the job. Firms that harness this drive can not only attract high quality individuals and gain the loyalty of their staff members, but they can also benefit society as a whole by fostering social responsibility.

For the Washington D.C. firm of Raffa P.C., the commitment to community service came first. "Serving not-for-profits is what we've always been about," says cofounder Kathy Raffa. "Close to 98 percent of the work we do is for this sector." A quick look at their Web site and you'll see a phrase that has become something of a mantra, that is, "giving back is part of the job." When they recruit, their reputation for community service precedes them. People want to work for employers that share their values. That not only makes recruitment easier, but shared values tends to generate loyalty from the staff. Kathy Raffa says that helps explain why their retention rate is so high.

Top-Down Commitment

For a volunteer program to be effective, the commitment needs to be real. At Raffa, it starts at the top. Cofounders and partners, Tom and Kathy Raffa give to the not-for-profit community in terms of financial support and time, by providing these agencies with countless hours of pro-bono services. One way they demonstrate their social responsibility is by encouraging staff to serve on boards of local not-for-profits. Currently, dozens of Raffa employees are doing just that. Staff members also frequently give up their lunch hours to help out at an organization near their office that has become a favorite at Raffa. The program is called Reading Buddy, and is designed to encourage children to read.

If you visit Raffa on a certain Friday each month, you might be surprised by the sea of blue jeans. They call it Denim Day. Once a month, employees come to work in jeans so they can dig in and hold some kind of fundraiser that will benefit a randomly selected charity. Whatever the amount the staff raises, the partners at Raffa match.

While Raffa may have more resources to fulfill the mission of serving not-for-profits than some firms do, even the smallest office can find ways to let employees volunteer. One California office that has limited staff does it this way: once employees have met their existing deadlines, they are free to donate some of their work hours to do pro-bono work for not-for-profits.

Besides the satisfaction of being socially responsible, individuals and firms that participate in community service can enjoy other benefits as well. Generally, volunteers learn such skills as teamwork, communication, and time management, and they learn to take initiative and to view life positively. When firm members from different departments volunteer for the same organization, interaction between the departments improves. Smart employers recognize the power of community service to help individuals develop both personally and professionally. In fact, one survey done in the UK indicates that about 58 percent of employers will give more weight to applicants who have done significant volunteer work than those with paid work experience.

If establishing an effective volunteer program is something your firm would like to try, you can find help by logging onto Volunteer Match. Volunteer Match will show you how to track volunteer hours, promote events, and set guidelines.

Allowing employees to stretch their wings and become active in volunteer work has long-reaching power... power to improve the community and power to develop a loyal staff with the potential for leadership. If managed well, this is one employee benefit where everyone involved can end up on the winning team.

Teresa Ambord
Assistant Editor
BizActions LLC

A Free and Effective Explosion of Resources for Your Firm

2008-08-29T15:47:56-04:00

When you hear the term "social networking," do you think of teenagers and college kids? That is where it started. But if you think it's just a trendy place for young people to meet up, you're missing a powerful marketing tool that your competitors may be taking advantage of. In the U.S. alone, social network advertising is expected to jump 169 percent between the end of 2007 and the end of 2008. By 2012... it is expected to increase by 450 percent.

And no... we're not just talking about advertising to Generations X and Y. Two companies with names you might recognize, Del Monte and New York Life, are using social networking to tap into an exploding method of marketing. They do it by providing information that is useful or fun for their target markets, in the form of interesting Web sites, white papers, links, blog sites. Here's an example: Del Monte has established a "Moms Online Community," where mothers can interact and exchange ideas and information. And of course, it also provides a platform for Del Monte to advertise... perhaps adding interesting new recipes built around Del Monte products. CPAs can use social networking to do the same thing, such as providing simple tax tips or publishing items of wide interest to the public, like the 2008 list of best and worst 529 plans.

Then again, CPA firms looking to recruit will find a compelling venue for advertising their firms to members of the younger generation. Find out more about using social network marketing as a significant recruiting tool for kids who are looking for career guidance, as well as their parents and grandparents who are hungry for financial guidance.

Find out more about social networking and your business by reading BizActions article: Don't Ignore Today's Version of Watercooler Marketing

Teresa Ambord
Assistant Editor
BizActions LLC

Going Green

2008-08-22T16:46:26-04:00

Going Green is Not Just a Tree-Hugger Fad.

The Right Shade of Green is Good for Business.

Are you growing weary of seeing the admonition "go green" everywhere? Many people suspect that businesses that put "green" on their product labels, their ads, and their Web sites are merely jumping on a popular trend as a way to increase revenue. Whatever your beliefs about global warming... there are ways to conserve that are good for your business, not only because you save money on resources, but also because they can greatly increase your productivity. In fact, here is one way you can bump your productivity by 10-50 percent while you slash your use of paper and ink. Warning! If you try this, you may never go back to the old way.

Install a second monitor on your computer. Sound bizarre? Maybe. But if your work requires you to go back and forth between documents, you not only waste time but you increase your chances of making errors. Many people try to solve the back and forth problem by printing one of the documents... sometimes stacks and stacks of paper that are not otherwise needed and that end up in the shred pile. Dual monitors eliminates the toggling, the errors, and the wasted paper and ink.

Find out more about greening up your business and your bottom line by reading BizActions article:
Going Green: Using Dual Monitors Saves Paper and Increases Productivity

Teresa Ambord
Assistant Editor
BizActions LLC

How to get more e-Newsletter email addresses

2008-07-25T19:37:21-04:00

Use the Web site e-Newsletter sign up option to generate leads and increase the size of your database.

There are many great ways to tie the BizActions newsletter in with a company’s web site. Not only by matching the look and feel of the website with the color scheme on the newsletter but also making various connections between the two areas with masthead links, banner links as well as content.

A very important feature that all BizActions users with a web site should be taking advantage of is the newsletter sign up form. The web site sign up option provides an easy tool to help generate new leads and increase database numbers. BizActions users can grab the exact HTML code to place on their web site to implement a sign up form for their newsletter.

Once implemented, the system allows a user to pull a list of any members added via the sign up form by running a search based on wording automatically placed in the Memo column, “Web site sign up”. This is a great way to help increase the number of members in the system.

In addition, web site sign ups are very good leads because they show that a person has taken an active interest in receiving news and information from that particular firm. The member has taken the steps to physically sign up for the newsletter on their own just after visiting the web site.

Leslie Self
Customer Support Representative

Target Marketing

2008-07-21T11:42:59-04:00

Suppose your accounting firm targets three distinct niches: manufacturing, high net worth individuals and real estate prospects. You would like to get your corporate message out to these unique groups, but because they are unique, they each need specialized content to make the newsletter relevant to their market segment. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here (not very far out) and assume that you don't want to purchase and manage three different newsletters. Yet with only one newsletter you are doomed to having a manufacturing specific announcement being delivered to the high net worth individuals and the real estate article going to a manufacturing prospect or client. On the other hand, there are certain messages you want all groups to get. An example might be opening a new office or promoting a partner.

What can you do?

BizActions has recently completed version 2 of an enhancement called Master Accounts. This enhancement allows sub-accounts within one Master account. There are many ways to strategically design a Master account. One method is to create sub-accounts by target market and send selected messages to each target market while still having the ability to send messages to all accounts. You could even send to a target market by partner. Additionally, you can have unique mastheads and other attributes for each target market. So ... as an example: the masthead for the manufacturing division could say, Friedman and Company, CPAs - Manufacturing Division.

The strategic design possibilities are endless with Master Accounts - it all depends on how you go to market. What works for your company and your strategies? Here are a couple of examples:

1 - Sub-accounts by office location
2 - Sub-accounts by sales rep or partner
3 - Sub-accounts by independent reps
4 - Sub accounts by member type - client, prospect, referral source
5 - Sub-accounts by department
6 - Combinations of the above

One other great opportunity with Master Accounts. Suppose you go to market through independent reps. You now have the ability for each rep to have their own branded account within your Master Account. You can send announcements that will appear in each reps newsletter and the rep can add their own content about their services. This would be very effective for real estate brokerage companies, financial brokers etc.

Hopefully, you see the advantages of target marketing through Master accounts. It is a major step forward in sending the right message to the right target market. It will increase readership and click-activity which should generate more warm leads.

How do you get started? Just talk to your Customer Support Rep. They can help you analyze what works best and the process for managing the sub-accounts.

Barry Friedman
CPA, CEO, Co-Founder BizActions LLC

Can You Hear The Clang?

2008-06-21T11:45:09-04:00

Sometimes we get in a hurry and forget to “hear” the words we write. I don’t know about you, but I can be enjoying a book or an online article or proofreading my own work, then suddenly I hear a “clang.” That’s the sound that happens when the words just sound wrong or are used incorrectly. It’s easy to forget sometimes that written words and the way you put them together have sounds just like spoken words.

A pet peeve of mine is when consecutive sentences end with the same word or words. It sounds clunky and dull.

"BizActions can save you money. Get great tips that can save you money.” Clang!

Sometimes writers do that to make a point or even for a comedic effect. That’s different. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like that.

“That would be the wrong thing to do. Because it would be the wrong thing to do.”
“The good news is, I’m going home for Christmas. The bad news is, I’m going home for Christmas.”

Another clunker… starting sentence after sentence with the same word.

“You should consult your accountant. You shouldn’t wait till the last minute. You could end up in trouble with the IRS if you do.” Clang! Clang! Clang!

Then there is the switch-up in the middle of the stream, when singular becomes plural or vice versa. I know… I sound like an old English teacher, but this one really bugs me.

“Each employee turned in their time card.” Clang squared!

People hesitate sometimes to say “his or her,” and it’s hard to blame them because it can seem cumbersome. But if you want to avoid the clang, don’t switch up. If the gender of the person is unknown say, “Each employee turned in his or her time card,” or make both plural and say “The employees turned in their time cards.”

Any grade school child knows the usual rules for when to use “a” or when to use “an.” But in a world where we use so many abbreviations, the rules get tossed. That is, listen to how the words sound when read aloud.

You would never say, “The President has an Masters of Business Administration degree.”

But if you use the abbreviation MBA, you should say, “The President has an MBA,” even though “an” comes before a consonant, because “M” sounds likes it starts with a vowel.

The moral of the story is, written words have sounds too… at least as long as somebody is reading them. If you want to avoid irritating your audience, read through your copy, listen for the clang, and silence it.

Teresa Ambord
Assistant Editor
BizActions LLC