Three Things to Consider When Starting Your Own Accounting Firm

So you’ve been in the industry for quite some time and you most probably have done work such as preparing financial statements, analyzing the cost of everything from operations to projects, budgeting, and/or internal auditing for various companies or corporations. But what if you were to extend your services, not as an accountant working as an employee, but as an independent certified public accountant running your own business of helping other small businesses manage their accounting systems?

It may sound tricky at first, but with the high demand for accounting services in the market, you will never run out of clients ranging from government agencies to retailers. However, there are three basic things to consider when setting out on your own: your business plan, your marketing strategy, and your office requirements.

A Business Plan for Your Accounting Firm

Like any other business, your firm needs a vision, a mission to achieve your vision, goals, core values, a marketing strategy, estimated costs, and an identified niche in the market. All of these are essential because it will guide the operations, management, and administration of your company for the next three to five years.

Your Marketing Strategy

Building up a good reputation, on and offline, will help your accounting firm establish a good name in the market. With the Internet as an influential marketing tool nowadays, use this to your advantage by setting up and maintaining a website that will make you visible to potential customers. In addition, joining business associations and other networks is beneficial because it will give you more opportunities to sell your services.

Office Space and Staff Needs

While a shared office space is cost-efficient and ideal to save on operational costs, it is also important that your staff is able to work productively in an efficient environment. Since looking for the right office space takes time, make it effortless by finding the perfect one for your company online. Take, for example, the options of renting a Chicago office space here. You can determine what size and type of room is available and suitable for your new firm in just a matter of minutes.

Whether you are starting from scratch or buying an existing firm, your accounting firm will surely be a success with these tips in mind.

Helpful Ideas for Putting Up a Skin Care Center

Money plays a huge role in our everyday lives. It is used for acquiring our necessities as well as our luxuries. A lot of us work very hard to earn as much money as we can in order to cover our daily expenses.

While some of us are willing to work under a certain management, there are some people who detest the idea of having a boss. Therefore, they opt to establish their own business where their words and opinions are valued most.  Experts say that the most in-demand businesses being established today are those that have something to do with health and beauty.  Since almost everyone is concerned with their body and health, skin care and similar industries will always be in the limelight.

A Skin care service clinic is one business that is sure to generate high revenue.  In fact, there are plenty of skin care centers operating these days such as this skin care treatment center in Calgary. Check this website to learn more about their services.

It is true that competition in the industry is already tight, but instead of being discouraged, use it as an inspiration. This competition will inspire you to think of other ways to stand out among your competitors.  New ideas will also make more people notice your company’s existence. However, there are various steps that you need to follow in order to make your skin care clinic successful. Here are some ideas that may help:

  • Choose the products that you want to feature in your product line. Since there are a lot of options, try to focus on a few products and see if they will fly. Though the original plan is to sell a complete skin care line, keep in mind that less is sometimes more.
  • You have two options on where to get the skin care products you would like to sell: make them, or get them from a supplier. There are some business owners who prefer producing their own products so they can have full control of branding and pricing. However, this is a more complex and risky decision. It will require you to undergo a lot of seminars that cover the skin care product-making process. It is risky because if you miss one step, the finished product may not work for your customers.
  • Decide on the specialty you would like to focus on. Skin care clinics have dermatologists and other skin care professionals. Make sure that all your staff are reliable and duly licensed. To save money when hiring professionals, you can try hiring some on a part-time basis. Dermatology centers in Swedesboro like this one follow the part-time employment business strategy.
  • Starting a skin care center requires a lot of planning, decision-making, and risk-taking. The pointers mentioned above are just a few of hundreds of ways to build a successful skin care business. If you want to learn more about this business venture, join information sharing portals where you can find a lot of helpful ideas and opinions from your fellow businessmen. 

The Advantages of Renting a Mobile Office

If you are planning to start your own business, the first thing that you have to consider is where you are going to do all the business operations. In short, you need an office so you can do all your transactions. Since you are just starting the business, you might not have enough money to construct a huge office or rent a big office space. Therefore, the best option for you is to rent a mobile office.

Yes, this is a popular option for many business starters nowadays. This might seem like a novel idea for many, but this has increased its popularity over the last few years. If you are still not convinced, here are some of the reasons why renting a mobile office would be a huge advantage:

• This allows you to move your office from one place to another. For instance, you think that you are not doing well in a specific location, you can just find another spot where your business can operate well and moving there won’t be a problem.

• If your business does not take off as you have hoped for, you can just cancel your rental. Besides, you can rent the mobile office for a specific period of time depending on your needs. If you have built an office just for this business or rented an office space for at least 5 years, you may lose a huge amount of money.

• This type of office can be easily redecorated. It can be anything you want it to be. You can create an office out of it. You can also do actual sales in this office. You can also decorate the outer parts of the office to attract more people to purchase the products and services that you offer. Cleaning and maintaining its overall look can also be very easy.

• Renting a mobile office would not cost a lot. In fact, it is one of the cheapest options you can ever find. Despite its low price, it can still create a positive impact on your business.

Go ahead and find the best place where you can rent a mobile office and let your business take off. If you wish to have the best mobile office rental option, check this out.

What Constitutes Accountancy Malpractice?

Malpractice suits are becoming more and more common these days and accountants are not exempt.  Malpractice suits against accountants can be brought when the accountant deviates from GAAP – General Accepted Accounting Principles – of GAAS – General accepted Auditing Standards.

Negligence or violation of the rules or guidelines have the potential to financial harm or loss to a client and, as such, the accountant can be held liable.  Certain situations may enable a client to serve a malpractice suit to recover some or all of their money and compensation.

Examples of Accountant Malpractice

There are many reasons why an accountant may be served with a malpractice suit and these examples serve to give you an idea of how to avoid becoming the subject of one yourself:

  • Giving incorrect advice
  • Errors with Accounts Receivable
  • CPA License Fraud
  • Inadequate auditing
  • Deviation from GAAS and GAAP standards
  • Securities Fraud
  • Giving bad tax advice
  • Dishonesty and/or Malfeasance

Tax and Auditing Malpractice

Malpractice suits that involve tax advice and auditing are increasing fast. What may seem like inconsequential things to some, such as not filing a tax return on time or not completing a tax return properly, can leave an accountant wide open to being sued.

With auditing, failure to carry out a proper audit, not detecting fraud or not informing clients of areas that need to be tightened up are all good examples of reasons for malpractice suits.

The Ins and Outs of an Accounting Malpractice Suit

In order for a plaintiff, i.e. your client, to bring a successful malpractice suit, they must establish no less than four separate parts to their claim:

  • They must how that you, as their accountant, had a duty towards them;
  • They must show that you breached or violated that duty;
  • They must show that your actions harmed them, including financially;
  • They must show that your breach or violation were direct causes of the harm.

If you have become the target of an accounting malpractice suit and you believe that you are innocent of all charges, you should seek legal help immediately.  If you are in the Oklahoma area, consider contacting an Oklahoma City attorney – these ones come highly recommended.

To avoid the chance of becoming embroiled in a lawsuit in the first place, make sure your actions are the correct ones and that your practices are above board and cannot be faulted in any way.

What Makes a Disability Lawyer Your Ideal Representative

Making a disability claim can prove to be a difficult and lengthy process. What makes it even more so is that you cannot process the application yourself because you would be home recovering from whatever it is that caused your disability. Somebody would have to stand as your representative.

Two types of disability representatives

There are two types of representatives that you can have. The first one is known as a non-attorney disability advocate and the other a disability lawyer. You can opt for a non-attorney representative. Basically, he would interview you and perform the initial processing of your claim. The most basic info he would need from you include medical sources, educational background, and work history.

Having a non-attorney representative is fine, however if you got denied and you would need to make an appeal, they can no longer help you. This is why having the services of a disability lawyer from the start of the whole disability claims process is important; simply because he can easily represent you all the way. Remember, your goal here is to get the money to sustain you while you are on leave and recovering.

Finding the best legal representative

When choosing a good disability lawyer, you need to look into his track record. How many cases has he handled so far? How effective was he in handling them? Does he have a high approval rate? These questions are essential in finding the best lawyer to represent you. If you live in Alabama and you’re looking for an Auburn disability lawyer, check out Carmichael Law Group.

Finding a good disability lawyer and getting approved of your claim is not the end. Know that you are recovering and out of work since you are on-leave. This means that you will be going through a tough financial difficulty until you would be able to get back to work.

The best way to go through all this is to get on top of your finances and manage it well. You can achieve this by coming up a good budget. It may just be a list of money coming in and going out. Through this list, you can cut your purchasing and limit your expenses to what is essential. Remember; until you can get back to work, your income will pretty much be limited so you also need to limit expenditures.

Investment Strategies for Low Risk Investments

When it comes to investing, risk and reward are closely related and taking a risk is sometimes the best way to make high returns. However, investing can be a risky business and many people have lost money by choosing risky investments. We don’t have to look too far back in history to see how a global, or even local, financial crisis can cause investors to lose money very quickly, and it is at these times that risky investments often fail. This is why more people are choosing safer investment options. These provide slower growth and smaller returns, but are generally protected against large losses.

Cash
Cash is one of the safest investments and will slowly build wealth in virtually any financial conditions. Despite the name, cash is not actually investing in cash, but rather investing in a high interest bank account or term deposit. There are two main downsides to this type of investment. Firstly, you need to have a significant amount of cash to make an investment worthwhile. Secondly, the growth of a cash investment is relatively low. A cash investment generally only grows to meet inflation, which means that your money in not actually growing like you might expect. Despite this, cash is a great investment in troubled financial times. Another great thing about cash investment is that many countries have an insured deposit scheme. This means that your money is guaranteed (up to a set amount) by the government in the event of a bank collapse.

Bonds
Bonds are another form of interest-bearing investment. There are many different types of bonds, and some are safer than others. In the US the most common types of bonds that are considered to be relatively safe investments are US Treasury bonds, Government Agency bonds and Municipal bonds. However, these investments are not completely risk free and in the event of an agency or local government declaring bankruptcy you may lose part or all of your investment. TIPS and I-Bonds are two of the most popular types of bonds in times of financial uncertainty. Corporate and high yield bonds are also options for investors, but there are not generally considered to be safe investments (although some corporate bonds may present a safe investment option).

Treasury Bills
These are an obscure investment that many people are not aware of. Basically these are short term securities that can be purchased from a bank, broker or from the TreasuryDirect website. These are sold at a discount on the face value and can be a great investment. For example, the face value of a T-bill is $1000 and if you purchase this at auction for $950 then you will receive the full $1000 when you redeem the bond.

Diversity
As with any type of investing it is a good idea to create a diverse portfolio that contains many different types of investments. This means that it is a good idea to put some of your money into cash investments, some into bonds, some into the share market and so on. There is lots of information about creating a diversified portfolio, but for more information about SMSF investment strategies you should visit this site. It is a great place to start investigating creating a diversified portfolio.

These are great ways to keep your nest egg safe and ensure that your investments are protected from any financial trouble. You cannot expect that these investments will provide double digit growth, but you can be sure that they stand a good chance of providing a safe investment for your future.

Making a Fair Bit of Extra Money on the Side

Nowadays, people have to make sure that they’re making as much money as they can. This is because the current economy is terrible. No one is safe from getting bankrupt. Many large and well-established businesses, because they weren’t being careful, ended up losing all of their money during the recession. Sure, we may have recovered from the worst, but we still continue doing our best to earn. I can definitely say we’re doing the right thing. We can never be too safe, economically speaking, in today’s world.

For this post, I’m going to talk about something people would really do well to do on the side: binary options trading (find out more on this website). Through binary options trading, so many people from all over the world have been able to supplement their income greatly without having to lose much of their time.

What exactly is binary options trading (click here for an in-depth look)? If you didn’t know, binary options trading is the most popular form of online trading in today’s world. So many people from so many countries are doing binary options trading, and many of these people are making a great living off it. Why is this the case? This happens to be the case because binary options trading is very easy to do. To do binary options trading, people just have to buy options and then predict whether the values of the underlying assets they are for are going to rise or drop by a certain time. A correct guess will always lead to a trader earning a fixed amount of money.

Of course, when it comes to binary options trading, you really have to be careful about the brokerage you are going to do it with. Choosing to work with the wrong brokerage will most likely lead to you losing all of your hard-earned money in the long run. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of illegal brokerages out there, and these illegal brokerages continue to scam many people who are new to binary options trading.

The good news is that there are a number of legitimate brokerages out there that offer amazing services, and one of these brokerages happens to be Banc de Binary. Unlike other brokerages, even the legitimate ones, Banc de Binary is regulated in the EU by the CySec. In addition to this, it also offers amazing services such as binary options trading signals. Also, it offers its clients access to hundreds of underlying assets in different markets.

Hopefully, this post of mine ends up proving helpful to all of my readers. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about mutual funds. Many people are choosing to invest in mutual funds these days. While some of these people end up earning a lot in the long run, others don’t. There’s actually a reason for this, and we’re going to talk about it tomorrow. What I’m going to talk about tomorrow will surely help you make the most of your mutual fund investments, so please do make it a point to visit my site again tomorrow.

Making a Fair Bit of Extra Money on the Side

Nowadays, people have to make sure that they’re making as much money as they can. This is because the current economy is terrible. No one is safe from getting bankrupt. Many large and well-established businesses, because they weren’t being careful, ended up losing all of their money during the recession. Sure, we may have recovered from the worst, but we still continue doing our best to earn. I can definitely say we’re doing the right thing. We can never be too safe, economically speaking, in today’s world.

For this post, I’m going to talk about something people would really do well to do on the side: binary options trading (find out more on this website). Through binary options trading, so many people from all over the world have been able to supplement their income greatly without having to lose much of their time.

What exactly is binary options trading (click here for an in-depth look)? If you didn’t know, binary options trading is the most popular form of online trading in today’s world. So many people from so many countries are doing binary options trading, and many of these people are making a great living off it. Why is this the case? This happens to be the case because binary options trading is very easy to do. To do binary options trading, people just have to buy options and then predict whether the values of the underlying assets they are for are going to rise or drop by a certain time. A correct guess will always lead to a trader earning a fixed amount of money.

Of course, when it comes to binary options trading, you really have to be careful about the brokerage you are going to do it with. Choosing to work with the wrong brokerage will most likely lead to you losing all of your hard-earned money in the long run. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of illegal brokerages out there, and these illegal brokerages continue to scam many people who are new to binary options trading.

The good news is that there are a number of legitimate brokerages out there that offer amazing services, and one of these brokerages happens to be Banc de Binary. Unlike other brokerages, even the legitimate ones, Banc de Binary is regulated in the EU by the CySec. In addition to this, it also offers amazing services such as binary options trading signals. Also, it offers its clients access to hundreds of underlying assets in different markets.

Hopefully, this post of mine ends up proving helpful to all of my readers. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about mutual funds. Many people are choosing to invest in mutual funds these days. While some of these people end up earning a lot in the long run, others don’t. There’s actually a reason for this, and we’re going to talk about it tomorrow. What I’m going to talk about tomorrow will surely help you make the most of your mutual fund investments, so please do make it a point to visit my site again tomorrow.

Top Tips on Setting up the Perfect Office

Most businesses require some kind of office setting but how you set up your surroundings depends entirely on your business type and how many employees you have. For the newly licensed accountant with no employees you might consider just converting a part of your home into an office until your business grows but if you have employees, you will need proper office space.

When you set up your office, take care to follow these tips and get it right before you move in:

  • Furniture – Work out what your requirements are – desks, chairs, filing cabinets, visitor seating etc.
  • IT – Determine what IT infrastructure you require – computers, network requirements, servers, printers and anything else that goes with setting up your IT network
  • Telecoms – Determine how many phone lines you will need and access points for the internet
  • Health and Safety – Consider whether your office layout meets health and safety requirements. Is the furniture suitable, are there precautions in place for fire, and is there adequate ventilation and lighting? Also take the Disability Discrimination Act into account when you are setting up
  • Security – Do you need an alarm system or extra locks on the windows and doors? If you are thinking about having new windows and doors, I found this company in the Brampton area that offers excellent service at reasonable rates.
  • Office Layout – Plan it so that employees who work closely together sit near each other.  Keep health and safety requirements in mind though and ensure there is a clear path to any exits.
  • Decorate – Add in plants, pictures, etc., anything that will make the office a pleasant working area. Also consider how visitors will see your office as well
  • Stationery – Make sure you order your headed stationery well before you move in and ensure you have an adequate supply, along with envelopes, compliments slips, business cards and any other stationery you may need along with basics such as pens, staplers, staples, etc.
  • Insurance – Make sure all your insurance requirements are up to date and in place before you move in.

The final thing to do is advertise your new business premises. Let all your existing clients now and put ads in papers and on the internet to let new clients know that you are there for all their accounting needs.