The Free Financial Advisor

You are here: Home / Archives for Small business

Economic Pressures

by Leave a Comment

There’s a lot of movement in the economy. Several different news threads and innovations have the ability to change the direction and velocity in which our economy moves. In today’s newsletter, we’re going to talk about some of those economic pressures, what they entail, and what they mean for our economy.

Taxing corporations and the wealthy

A news story recently came out about taxes. More specifically, this news shed light on how the wealthy manipulate the tax code in their favor.

I think the information shared in this story was well known already, or assumed rather, but served as a confirmation. A large number of wealthy individuals aren’t “paying their fair share” in taxes.

This will only add fuel to the fire. The fire I’m talking about is the tax overhaul in the tax code. The Biden administration has said that they want to increase taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals/families.

If they’re successful, it would mean more tax revenue for the federal government, which is a good thing. Is there a chance that the increase in taxes creates a disincentive for those corporations and wealthy individuals?

Perhaps, but I don’t think it’s very likely, broadly speaking. I have only one reason…those corporations and individuals are good at making money, and I believe that will continue.

Government spending

As I said, the change in the tax code will generate more income for the federal government. You may be thinking, “Great! We can reduce the national debt!”

I think that’s very unlikely. That may sound skeptical, and it probably is on some level, but both parties are spenders now. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, they’re both going to print money to push forward their agenda.

Borrowing costs

I’ve talked about inflation a lot lately, and I promise I’ll tone down after I make this point, but I haven’t explained why runaway inflation is a bad thing.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are advantages (i.e. increased rates on savings accounts), but the disadvantage is higher prices. Households can run into trouble because they can’t afford necessities anymore.

The larger problem, however, is the cost of borrowing. Over the last, almost 15 years, rates have been low. And they’ve stayed low, other than an attempt to increase in 2018.

People and corporations borrowed a lot of money. Some bought things they didn’t need. Others to increase research, development, and innovation. Some people used record amounts of leverage to take part in the wild stock market (as of late).

With that said, the cost of borrowing will go up and the cost to service that debt will go up. The higher rates go, the more money that will be needed to pay for/down the debt. When that happens, less money will be spent on “productive” things.

That can slow growth and negatively impact the economy. That’s why central banks reduce rates in times of negative or low economic growth. It reduces borrowing costs and incentivizes people and companies to spend money instead of saving it.

Labor

The last thing I’ll say that has the ability to tie into the last point is the current labor shortage. There are more jobs available right now than people to take those jobs.

Small businesses, in particular, find it especially difficult to fill vacancies. Couple a labor shortage with a strong push from workers, unions, and government bodies to increase wages, and you get wage inflation.

When wage inflation becomes more prevalent, price inflation (CPI) becomes more likely. If companies have to pay their employees more, they need to account for that increased expenditure somehow. They turn to increase the prices of their products and/or services.

Demand is unlikely to suffer because of higher wages. People are making more money, so they should be able to afford higher prices, right?

Conclusion

If you read back some of my other posts, you’ll see I’m optimistic in select areas of the market, and I’ll stay optimistic in those areas no matter what type of economic pressures the country faces.

With all that I said, I believe there are enough economic pressures to cause a decline in the market and the economy, but there’s no telling when that’ll actually happen.

Related reading:

Employment, Stimulus, Rising Prices

Inflation, Gold, Semiconductors

Why Financial Literacy is Important

Disclaimer

**Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Securities America Advisors, Inc. Securities America and its representatives do not provide tax or legal advice; therefore, it is important to coordinate with your tax or legal advisor regarding your specific situation. Please see the website for full disclosures: www.crgfinancialservices.com

Are Business Gifts Tax Deductible?

by Leave a Comment

How do you strengthen relationships with customers and/or business partners? A tried and true way is using gifts. However, gifts cost money, so the next question is, are business gifts tax deductible?

The straight answer is yes, but it’s much more nuanced than that.

There are limitations

Business gifts are tax deductible, up to a certain dollar amount. You can deduct no more than $25 of the cost of the gift you give to each person through the course of the year.

Incidental costs such as engraving, packaging, and shipping are not included in the $25 limit as long as it doesn’t add substantial value to the gift.

Gifts that cost $4 or less are not included in the $25 limit IF the company name is permanently placed on the item and the gift is widely distributed.

Entertainment

Any item that can be considered a gift or entertainment is usually considered entertainment and is deducted at 50% of the value of the gift. For purchases that fall under both categories, use the “gift deduction” on lower-cost items and the “entertainment deduction” on items larger than $50.

Gifts to others

If you and your spouse give gifts to the same person, you’re treated as one taxpayer. The same rule applies to partnerships.

Gifting to a customer’s family counts as a gift to that customer, unless the customer’s family member(s) is a client as well.

The $25 limit only applies to gifts given to individuals. Gifts given to other companies, generally, don’t apply and are fully tax deductible.

Gifts to employees are taxable compensation.

Other relevant information

Keep adequate documentation that includes the purpose of the gift, what was spent, the date of purchase, and the business relationship.

Gifts given to a 501(c)3 non-profit are tax-deductible. Up to 25% of taxable income for a corporation.

A large majority of the information I have listed above came from the IRS publication about “Gift taxes”.

Related reading:

Some Often Overlooked Tax Deductions for Business Owners

 

**Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Securities America Advisors, Inc. Securities America and its representatives do not provide tax or legal advice; therefore, it is important to coordinate with your tax or legal advisor regarding your specific situation. Please see the website for full disclosures: www.crgfinancialservices.com

How Much Cash Is Needed to Start a Pawnshop?

by Leave a Comment

So you want to start a pawnshop. Where do you start? What do you buy? How much is this all going to cost?

A pawn shop can be a very cash-positive business. While doing research for this post, I stumbled onto a Quora thread that showcased how much money can be made with such an operation. The profits ranged from $30,000 per year to $60,000 per month.

But, you have to get started. In today’s post, we’ll highlight what you need and what it’s going to cost.

What do pawn shops do?

First off, we have to talk about what a pawnshop actually does. Pawnshops buy, sell, and trade items. These items can come from the owner’s personal collection, something they acquired via purchase or something they acquired via loan collateral.

When someone comes to a pawn shop to borrow money, they have to bring something of value for collateral. When the pawnshop lends money to this individual, they retain that valuable item until the principal (plus interest) is repaid. If they fail to repay, the pawnshop keeps the item.

Legal and location

There are many things you need to obtain when you start a pawnshop.

You need to take care of the legal requirements first. This includes licenses, articles of incorporation for your business entity, and permits.

Licenses include pawnbroker’s license, precious metal dealer license, secondhand dealer license, Federal Firearms License (if you plan on selling firearms) from the ATF.

The next thing you need is space. Where you set up shop is an important decision. The right location can bring in a lot of traffic and improve your earning potential. However, the right location comes at a cost.

Areas with high foot traffic cost more. Often, pawnshops will choose a space that’s close to a popular area, far enough away that it’s not too expensive, but close enough to make it convenient for the consumer.

Assets

There’s a minimum asset requirement needed to open. That number depends on the municipality, state, and country you plan on setting up shop in. For example, Texas has a $150,000 minimum requirement.

What do you need?

After you have all of the proper licenses and permits and pick where you’ll operate, you need to buy things to be operational.

These items include a computer (computer system/network), cash register, signs, equipment to display your products, record keeping, insurance, lockable cases, and a state of the art security system.

What you’ll also need is an adequate amount of capital to purchase more inventory and lend money to consumers.

What’s going to cost

Depending on the size of your pawnshop and the anticipated foot traffic, your start-up costs will vary. If you’re a larger shop with a high probability of having a lot of visitors/customers, your starting capital could be between $50,000 and $75,000. A smaller shop with lower projected traffic can get by with $15,000.

Last bit of advice

When you start a pawnshop, you need to refine and learn some new skills. You have to educate yourself on how to assess the value of goods so you can acquire sellable items, but not at a cost that eats into your profit margin.

Also, you have to come up with a business plan. What interest rate will you charge on your loans? How much will you mark up the items you sell? How much are you willing to pay for inventory?

All of these questions need answers. Keep in mind, this planning process should take place prior to buying the necessary licenses and other items to get the business started.

Related reading:

3 Ways to Get Financing for your Small Business

4 Ways to Use Business Loans

Some Often Overlooked Tax Deductions for Business Owners

Business Retirement Plan Guide

 

**Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Securities America Advisors, Inc. Securities America and its representatives do not provide tax or legal advice; therefore, it is important to coordinate with your tax or legal advisor regarding your specific situation. Please see website for full disclosures: www.crgfinancialservices.com

Signs That Your E-commerce Business Is Successful

by Leave a Comment

Successful eCommerce guy getting ready to make money.

Milestones are a great way for us to track our progress in life, as well as in business. You’ll always remember the day you started your business, launched your website, as well as the first customer you ever sold to. These milestones keep us grounded and help us appreciate the journey.

Unfortunately, some milestones are harder to measure than others. For example, there are no milestones that point out the exact moment that your business becomes successful, apart from a few personal metrics, like making a certain amount of money or generating traffic. To help you keep in touch with how successful your business has become, here are three signs that can tell you that you have a successful business.

Your e-commerce website earns money even when you’re not paying attention.

When you first launch your business, you need to be hands-on if you want it to run. You’re constantly making sure you have products in stock and that the pages are as responsive as they should be, all the while also making sure you’re investing enough in marketing so you can generate the kind of traffic your business needs.

The process can be exhausting. But then, when you can take your hands off the wheel and still watch the business run, then you know you’ve got a winner on your hands. If you do realize this, it doesn’t mean you need to take your foot off the throttle. It only means you’ve hit a milestone and can move on to bigger things.

You show up on Google’s first page.

Being on the first page of Google and other search engines is the dream of every website, e-commerce and otherwise. It means that finally, your domain has enough authority to search engines’ attention. It also means you’re going to get a lot of traffic from this point forward. Hitting this particular milestone is something you should celebrate.

The first page of a search engine is a difficult position to gain, and it’s even harder to keep. Now that you’re there, you need to invest enough resources into making sure you retain your position and keep getting all the passive traffic that’s currently available to you.

You’re receiving and responding to customer reports.

This may seem like a bad milestone at first. But then, think about it. When was the last time you complained about a service you didn’t have any expectations of? If you get a terrible experience from a website you’ve never heard of before, you’re not likely to care. However, if it’s a website like Amazon (the one you’ve come to trust), you’ll feel the need to let them have it.

If your customers are complaining about your site’s responsiveness or your Powercash21 payment processing, it could be a good thing for your business. It means people actually expect an excellent experience from your website. It obviously also means you need to look into their complaints and make the necessary adjustments.

Here are more of our great articles:

Three Keys To Small Business Success

Four Things Business Owners Need To Know About Taxes

Five Factors To Consider When Turning Your Hobby Into A Business

6 Best Marketing Strategies To Help Increase Sales

by Leave a Comment

six best marketing strategies

Image source: Pixabay.com

A good online store will definitely want to improve their conversions and traffic. Before considering improving, it is important to put different strategies in place. There are various tactics needed to Increase sales. The problem lies in the best admissible one to choose.

Due to this constant issue, we have come together to select good marketing strategies as well as tools for e-commerce combined with profitable ideas on how to implement it. All are centred on getting the customers attention and encouraging them to make more purchases.

If possible make use of these ideas at least once every day and use it for weeks to come. When making use of these ideas, it is advised that you pick one that best suits you.

The first question to consider centers on the meaning of e-commerce marketing. This simply means making use of useful and promotional tactics to get more traffic. To increase the success of your strategies use a heat mapping tool to visually see consumer trends in your location data.  You should be able to convert the traffic you get into leads.  For example, using items like promotional stainless steel bottles are a fun method to build awareness in communities or events, and they can result in increased sales and leads for you.

Here are some tips to help you increase your online sales:

Use Instagram Efficiently

use instagram efficiently

Image source: Pixabay.com

On a grander scale, Instagram has more than 500 million users. Most of these users are active on the platform. Presently, it is regarded as one of the most visited social network applications in the world. It helps connect users, brands, and influencers. Taking good photos and dropping hashtags is the best way to develop your product through this social media platform. Most of the times if you are to gain the attention of your target audience, you may have to organize contests and competitions.

Minimize Abandoned Cart

The basic truth surrounds the fact that when you have a lower cart you will be at a financial loss. Visitors that surf a site, will add some purchase to it but what happens when they abandon their cart? It is nice to always have an email recovery campaign as it will help you retain your visitors. By creating this email, you can remind your visitors why they selected a particular product in the cart.

Start-up a Facebook store

This is another viable platform for e-commerce marketing and social media. It is advisable to start making sales from your Facebook store. Just so you know, your Facebook store can be joined with your Shopify store so as to avoid having to keep an inventory.

Increase your Email campaign

Getting enough email address is not enough, It is important to share and receive images through your Email. This will ensure that your channel is effective. There are a number of things your customers can enjoy from an email reminder when they make purchases on your online store. They include but are definitely not limited to these;

  • Send out a welcome email after your client has made a purchase.
  • Give out promo codes and gifts.
  • Send newsletters to show subscribers of a new product as well as company news.
  • Appreciate your best customers by sending them good notes and thanking them for their patronage.

Forward wish list e-mails as reminders

This is another type of email which is important to add to your marketing ideas. It can help you remind customers of products on their cart and also encourage them to add more products or items to their cart.

Customers should get what they want with ease

Image source: Pixabay.com
A poorly designed store will definitely not attract new customers. It may even chase your current customers. The question now would be; what makes a online store poorly designed?

First, they will be less trustworthy and at the same being difficult to navigate and also having difficult fonts.

To enable you to improve your sales, you have to find out how to sell on etsy with Printify.
You shouldn’t be surprised as their customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

This is just a few tactics that should be applied when planning on generating good online sales and traffic. Profitindustry.com shows you some of the best ecommerce platforms for a large catalog. Various online platforms have techniques which they use to Increase sales but yours can be different.