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Taxes are an important part and issue in running small businesses.  Advocacy groups hope Congress will pass laws to simplify compliance and to lower taxes.  Such measures will help small businesses create jobs and improve the economy.  Much depends, too, on the outcome of the elections in 2012.  Barbara Weltman enumerated tax trends for 2012 in SmallBizTrends.com.

Can a discussion of the federal deficit, now in excess of $15 trillion, be separated from a discussion on taxes? Of course not! Therefore, taxes will continue to be an important topic on the federal level because of the dichotomy between raising taxes to address deficit concerns vs. keeping taxes low to help create jobs and improve the economy.

Which will win out in 2012? Much depends on what happens in the November elections. Until then, however, there are some important trends in taxes worth noting:

1. Taxes will remain a political football.
As a general rule, Republicans are against raising taxes, while  Democrats want to raise taxes on the so-called wealthy (many of whom are small business owners).

Taxes will surely be a key issue in the presidential race.

2. Tax audits are on the rise.
According to one KPMG survey, tax audits of businesses have increased. Corporate executives who were surveyed reported a 61 percent increase in federal tax disputes; 37 percent reported an increase in state tax audits.

What continues to be a popular audit topic is worker classification to determine whether a company is properly treating a worker as an independent contractor or whether the worker should be treated as an employee.

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Just Baked, famous for its gourmet cupcakes, recently opened its commissary in Livonia.  It is nearing its target to make 2 million cupcakes this year.  Not only that.  With four retail stores to open in Detroit this month and 5 more middle of 2012, the company is nearing its goal of  20 stores in southeast Michigan.  “You don’t need ovens, mixers or refrigeration,” founder of Just Baked Pam Turkin told AllBusiness.com. “You just need to build a retail storefront.”

While Pam Turkin, founder of Livonia-based Just Baked LLC’s cupcakes, has spent most of her time and energy getting her baked goods into more than 400 stores across Michigan – including Meijer and Spartan Stores – she is now developing a franchise system to grow the brand in Southeast Michigan.

Just Baked, known for its gourmet cupcakes with names like Fat Elvis and Grumpy Cake, has seven retail locations in Southeast Michigan and is set to open four more around metro Detroit by mid-December, three of which will be franchise-owned.

Turkin said she expects to open five more by the middle of next year, for a total of 16. She said she hopes to open 20 stores in the region in all.

“You don’t have to be a baker or have a culinary background to own a Just Baked franchise,” Turkin said. “This model lets people who don’t want to put the time and money and risk into opening a bakery, open a bakery.”

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PizzaMarketplace.com bared the New York-based marketing agency Zeta Interactive’s list of “best buzzed” and “worst buzzed” CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies.  The list was culled using a software that scanned blogs and social media sites.  Yum! Brands CEO David Novak and Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle came in No.5 and 9, respectively, with Steve Jobs grabbing the No. 1 position.  The period covered by the research is January to mid-November last year.

Yum! Brands CEO David Novak and Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle have received a lot of positive buzz this year. This is according to research by Zeta Interactive, a New York-based marketing agency.

Zeta Interactive used data mining software to scan blogs and social media sites for discussions specifically referencing CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies. The study was done from Jan. 1, 2011, through mid-November.

The company then broke down the list between “best buzzed” and “worst buzzed” based on those discussions.

Novak was No. 5 on the “best buzzed” list, receiving an 86 percent positive score.

Doyle was listed as No. 9, with an 83 percent positive score.

Topping the list was the late Steve Jobs, former Apple CEO, who earned a 92 percent positive score.

Both Yum! Brands and Domino’s Pizza have had big years. Yum!, parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, has turned in consecutive positive earnings reports buoyed by the company’s staggering growth in China.

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Students and individuals seeking higher learning today are lucky to be alive in this era of amazing advancements in technology and communications. For instance, the rise of elearning and online education has now allowed students from all walks of life to obtain degrees and educational certifications with the convenience of not having to leave their homes, drive to school and attend a class on time. With online education and elearning, you can now seek an education right from the comforts of your own home, at virtually any time you wish and any pace you want. You even have direct control on which courses and subjects to concentrate on.

Indeed, online education and elearning have become so popular that there are literally hundreds of schools out there offering degree programs for students on the web. Even MIT, one of the United States’ most prestigious institutions, has joined in on the fun with its own elearning program.

The question now is, how are you supposed to pick a school with all your options out there? Here are 3 ways to do just that.

Compare and compare some more

It can be tempting to settle for the first school and program you see after running a search on Google. If you really want to get the most out of your money, take some time to research carefully on good elearning schools and programs. Pick out some schools that pique your interest, and then sit down to compare all of them, weighing all of their pros and cons.

Cost

Quality education is usually expensive, but it doesn’t need to be too expensive. If attending Yale or Harvard is too expensive, it doesn’t mean you’re out of options for a good education. The same concept applies to elearning schools and programs on the web. The most expensive schools are often great, but they’re not for everyone. If you have a limited budget, you’re not quite out of hope yet.

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Public speaking is something that’s sure to be tackled in any effective communication course. If it’s something that scares you to willies, don’t be embarrassed about it. Many people are terrified of speaking in front of a crowd of people. Even the best speakers today confess to feeling jitters when they have to make speeches in public. If you’re made to undergo a course on how to communicate effectively, it’s likely that you’re required to at least make presentations in front of people at work. Picking up speaking skills will come in handy during such situations. Facing a group of people can be difficult, but all it takes is some practice, perhaps taking a course from OpenSesame.com, and a lot of sucking it up to speak in public effectively.

1.  Read to yourself, out loud

If you need to make a presentation in front of fellow employees and your boss or manager, read your presentation material out loud to yourself before the big day. Better yet, record your voice using a headset microphone on your computer and listen to how you sound like. Listen to yourself and make corrections on mistakes that you make, such as mumbling, frequent pauses, stammering and more. Doing so allows your presentation to be more powerful and effective.

2. Try your hand at acting

Silly as it may sound, acting actually works wonders for your public speaking woes. Acting helps you conquer your fear of being in front of a crowd, as you immerse yourself in a character’s lines and mind. You don’t have to enroll in an acting class or anything like that. How about acting out a favorite movie scene of yours? Mimic everything, from the actor or actress’ accents, movement and facial expressions. You’re not out to win awards here, so don’t worry if you’re not too good an actor. For now, your goal is to loosen up in front of an audience.

3. Be confident

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In tough economic times, every corporation needs to guard against waste and inefficiency. That’s where corporate training can prove crucial. But are employees receiving the correct training and in the most efficient format?

1. Classroom Doldrums
Many employees like outings. They are a chance to get away from the pressure and tedium of their jobs. An outing (even if it’s only down the hall to the corporate training center) can prove a refreshing distraction—almost a “paid vacation.” But the class itself frequently doesn’t live up to its promise.

Sometimes even the mid-level execs who exit these training sessions can be heard mumbling their disagreements—lack of consensus. But all too frequently, the bulk of employees can be seen marking time, doing texting on their cell phones, doodling and the like. They’re bored, but at least they’re getting paid for it.

2. Trainer Blindness
Many corporate trainers are nominally good at what they do, like many teachers in public school. They may know training, but they may not always know the material. Sometimes the trainer is only freshly trained in the material themselves; they are not seasoned veterans. In other words, they can’t answer the tough questions. That’s embarrassing.

Also, without the proper background experience with the material, the trainer can miss opportunities to illuminate the material in a way that can prevent future problems—like an awareness of computer security weaknesses. There may be “conventional wisdom” that everyone may have heard about, but then the frontline experts may see it differently because of empirical experience. Having the wrong trainer can worsen this kind of disconnect.

3.

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For many years now, “customer service” has become a dirty word in some parts. That is regrettable. Some corporations feel the pinch on their bottom line and tighten in the one place where tightening is perhaps the most detrimental—listening to the customer. When the customer gets squeezed by CSR quotas, the company will end up paying dearly. But it need not be as bleak as all that.

We’re talking about the focus on quantity rather than quality. To be sure, the customer service rep (CSR) who makes a dire mistake will pay dearly with the proverbial “pink slip.”

Boilerplate Madness

So many examples have crossed this desk of customer complaints receiving boilerplate responses that had no bearing on the topic. The harried CSR wants to keep their job, so has to meet or beat quota. The customers’ needs only stand in the way.

Case in point: a customer needed to transfer money and decided to try one of the new international money transfer vendors based in San Francisco. We’ll call them “Company X.” The customer had moved to the Philippines and they signed up using an email address for their overseas PayPal account. Funds would go from PayPal to Company X and then to a brick-and-mortar outlet in the Asian islands.

The customer had not yet had their overseas PayPal account verified, and despite the Company X mentioning nothing about this as a requirement, the lack of verification proved to be a stumbling block when the first transfer was attempted. The customer attempted to resolve this with the vendor’s customer service department only to receive a boilerplate (pre-packaged) message about the lack of verification.

The customer then switched to their American PayPal account which had long since been verified, but they received the same error and same boilerplate response.

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Open the Gates – With more than 13 football fields of show space, CES attendees have to crowd in opening day and walk themselves ragged in hopes of not just seeing all the show but seeing what will win/fail big in the coming year. While a few folks have said CES is on its last leg, we wonder if they were at the same show we were this month. More than 3,100 exhibitors squeezed into a mere 1.861 million net square feet (13+ football fields) of exhibit space and the show drew more than 153,000 attendees. There was the urban sprawl of the big boys trying to out-glitz each other (even as they experienced record losses or marginal profits).  Microsoft announced that this was their last keynote, last time of exhibiting; and folks immediately said, “See the show is losing its relevance in a real-time world.”  These same folks probably said Ballmer couldn’t get out of his own way.  Suddenly he’s brilliant? Folks pointed out that really big things in the past have gone on to bomb, die. You know Palm/WebOS, netbooks, 3D TV, etc.

O.K.:
- Palm/WebOS – It was a year+ between announcement/delivery and nothing changed even though everyone else looked at what they did and leapfrogged them! Of course, Leo didn’t help.
- Netbooks – Cheap, weak knock-offs of the Mac Air (that’s about it). We liked the idea, but you couldn’t do squat with ‘em! Google didn’t help ‘em either.
- 3D TV – Hey we were blinded by them; but once you got past watching a few movies and maybe some football, there was nothing to watch. If content isn’t there, why sit in front of the set with glasses on?

This year, we’ll probably be caught up in the hype (again) and miss some of the winners, but whose fault is that? Yeah!

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“I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies.” – Mary, He’s Just Not That Into You, Warner Bros (2009)

While the universe continues to expand, we live in an ever-shrinking world. It was first identified by Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy when he advanced the idea of six degrees of separation, our increasing connectedness. Not long ago, Facebook’s Paul Adam reduced it to our being six degrees away from people who influence us. O.K., so Facebook didn’t invent it; but you have to admit they “enhanced” the idea by cutting your search time in half. Then one of their engineers had to correct biz development by saying we’re really separated by 4.74 people. Come on folks, the world population just streaked past seven billion…so of course we’re closer together! But we prefer Mitch Joel’s world-shrinking approach–today we’ve only got six pixels of separation. He probably knows better but after writing his book Six Pixels of Separation and doing a blog and podcast by the same title, he takes a more creative approach to our growing connections. Joel is trying to interpret what’s going on in the interconnected world while Adam and his engineer are just collecting, selling the connections.

Close Enough
They both know we are constantly sharing content online in more ways and are using more platforms to share more stuff with more groups of people who share it – good news, bad news, stuff – with more people.

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E-learning offers a wide variety of training and development programs for those who are looking to upgrade their job skills. By using individual online training courses that employ specially-developed e-learning software, these programs are able to offer a wealth of material to users in their very own home. The convenience that e-learning provides is quickly making it one of the more popular methods used for training and development purposes.

E-Learning for Employees

Today’s society is one that is constantly in motion, making the essence of time one that is highly-valued. This means that people are making choices that are based on how much time any particular choice is going to make to see if it will fit in with their current (and very busy) schedule. Since more employers are putting a higher emphasis on employee knowledge. If an employee plans on climbing the company ladder, they must show initiative by participating in training and development programs. This shows their employer that they are serious about becoming an important part of that particular company.

5 Reasons Why E-Learning is so Successful

The following are the top 5 reasons why e-learning is successful in today’s society.

1. The User has Complete Control
Personalized control over when and where you are able to study is a high selling point. There are no classes to rush to, and instead a self-paced system is utilized for convenience.

2. Supportive Learning Environment
If you have a question, there are people that you can contact who can provide the answer. You’re never alone as someone is always a phone call or email away.

3. Increased Productivity and Profitability
E-learning training and development programs were created in order to increase both the knowledge and skills of employees.

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The advent of the computer along with the very busy schedules that most people tend to keep in today’s world, have made it so that people are always looking for the most convenient ways to get things done. When it comes to your profession, most employers place a lot of emphasis on training and development. E-learning allows you to upgrade your professional skills online, which is a very favorable option for those who live a very busy lifestyle.

Often times an employer will offer on-the-job training and/or development options so you can acquire the necessary skills that can move you up the corporate ladder. Yet some employers don’t, putting the ball in your court if you are interested in taking the necessary steps to upgrade your current job skills.

What Exactly is E-Learning?

E-learning refers to the ability to take an educational course online. So what exactly does this rather new way of learning that takes place solely in an online environment mean? How does one learn only in an online environment? It’s easier than you may think! Special e-learning software is used that offers a straightforward and uncomplicated way for you to learn a new skill (or update any old ones).

How it Works. The first thing to do is to simply browse through what is called ‘the marketplace’. This is where all the courses, along with all the information about them, are located and waiting to be browsed through. Once you find the course you want to take, you buy it, and then load the course content directly to your own special area where the host is able to track your progress There’s always someone available to help you, so you’re never left on your own when it comes to asking a question.

Example Courses

There are literally thousands of courses available in the e-learning market!

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“Why, anybody can have a brain. That’s a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got: a diploma.” – Wizard, The Wizard of Oz, MGM (1939)

Maybe the computer never delivered on the promise of the paperless office, but it did open the floodgate on one thing … data. The result has been a data explosion:
- 1,203 Exabytes of digital info was created, replicated around the globe last year
- 1 Petabyte of new info has been produced every 15 seconds this year
- The annual growth in information is 59 percent
All of this is because people want to do it themselves (O.K., maybe companies “encouraged/pushed us a little) with ATMs, self check-in/check-out, email/video/tweets, online tell your life story, personalized TV/video/music entertainment, online travel/banking/paying/shopping.

DIY World
Folks just can’t do enough themselves.

Social Noise – Social media has made some significant “contributions” to big data but even more comes from the growing networks of sensors and monitors. The great thing about social media though is that so many people volunteer to put in so much information about themselves, their wants/needs, friends and thoughts that enterprises are able to collect/analyze all of the data and use predictive technologies to plan for tomorrow.
As if that wasn’t good enough, all of that DIY work, every click, creates an even bigger digital shadow about you … 8-10 times more than the data you produce.

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Entrepreneur.com list ten franchise trends for 2012.  This list is not a recommendation but is only a guide on the opportunities available should you want to own a franchise.  Some franchises, like child and senior care, have been going strong for years and others franchises, like health and spa services, are just taking off. These franchise categories are expected to continue their growth next year.

What does the future hold for the franchise world? Some industries on Entrepreneur’s list of 10 trends for 2012, like child care and senior care, have been going strong for years–thanks to the ever-growing demographic groups they serve–and show no signs of stopping. Others, like spa services and health services, have just started taking the franchise world by storm in recent years. Whether they’re new or old, these are the franchise categories that are primed for continued growth over the next year–whatever the economic circumstances may be.

This list is not a ranking and is not intended as a recommendation of any particular franchise company.

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QSRMagazine.com reports that Wingstop has been granted $15 million financing by Franchise America Finance (FAF) and The Bancorp Bank which it can use to develop new restaurants.  This will be available to both new and existing franchisees said Dave Vernon, vice president of franchise sales.  Wingstop, a fast-casual restaurant chain, is soon to open its 500th location.

Wingstop, the rapidly expanding wing chain with almost 500 locations in the U.S. and Mexico, announced a new program designed to provide financing for franchisees. The financing will be provided through Franchise America Finance (FAF) and The Bancorp Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bancorp, Inc.

Under the terms of the partnership, Wingstop has $15 million available to assist with financing franchisees in the development of new restaurants.

“This collaboration allows us to provide national funding for our current brand partners and new franchise candidates,” says Dave Vernon, vice president of franchise sales for Wingstop. “Wingstop is adding new stores on a regular basis, and will open our 500th location this month.

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McDonald’s, the world’s leading global food service retailer, announced its global sales grew at least 6.5% in November.  The company attributes this growth to exciting promotional food and marketing events and the variety of products in its menu.  Franchise Wire reports Japan and China posted 8.1% sales increase.  McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner said the company will continue to focus on its customers and operations for sustained global business momentum.

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) today announced global comparable sales growth of 7.4% in November. Performance by segment was as follows:

U.S. up 6.5%
Europe up 6.5%
Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa up 8.1%

“We’re listening to our customers and delivering what they expect from McDonald’s by optimizing our menu, modernizing the customer experience and broadening accessibility to our Brand,” said McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner. “McDonald’s steadfast focus on our customers and our operations under the Plan to Win is driving the sustained momentum of our global business.”

In the U.S., the continued strength of McDonald’s breakfast daypart, everyday value, the addition of the seasonal Peppermint Mocha to the McCafé line-up, and the Chicken McNuggets promotion drove the 6.5% increase in November comparable sales.

Europe posted a 6.5% increase in comparable sales for November driven by performance in the U.K., France, Russia and Germany. Throughout Europe, an expanding variety of premium and mid-tier products, exciting promotional food and marketing events, and reimaged restaurants enhanced the McDonald’s experience and drove the segment’s comparable sales increase for the month.

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When you decide to venture out on your own and start your very own business, it seems there are dangers awaiting at your every footsteps and risks to be taken at every single stage. In this respect, it’s not all too difficult (or uncommon, for that matter) for a start-up entrepreneur to make a mistake with the strategy and/or expectations of their small business’s performance. Mistakes can cover a whole variegated gamut of missteps, from choosing an unsuited location to open a restaurant, employing the wrong currency conversion rates when dealing with foreign business partners or simply expecting too much too soon. The key to mistakes in business is to identify them as quickly as possible, owning up to them, and then finding the proper way of turning them around. Once you’ve reached that stage when you can turn faults into assets, you can truly and safely say you have arrived on the business scene. But what are the most common mistakes made by small business owners?

Instant Gratification
Many small businesses start out based on a capital of frustration, dissatisfaction and disgruntlement with one’s corporate employment. As such, one sets out with lofty ideals, matched by unreasonable financial goals. Be aware of the fact that if you’re planning to invest in a field with which you’ve had no prior professional experience, it doesn’t really matter how passionate you are about you. The odds are against you getting rich too quickly—did you know that it can take anywhere between fifteen and twenty years to build a truly successful franchise? Don’t let this fact of life discourage you. As a matter of fact, don’t let pitfalls of any kind discourage you, be they financial or otherwise.

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An estimated 500 million people travel by plane every year; an overwhelming statistic. However whilst no one would deny a person of a well-deserved holiday or break, many of these travellers are business persons wishing to travel nationally and internationally to different parts of the world to attend meetings, seminars and sales presentations. Not only are they adding to the harmful emissions that are released into the air, effecting animals, plants and, ultimately, people, but they are also racking up huge expenses that all need to be accounted for. It seems silly when video conferencing has been around for several years.

It is a well-known fact that planes, trains and motor vehicles release harmful chemicals and fumes out into the atmosphere which damages the ozone layer, animal life on the ground and affects people who have to deal with the increase in pollution. Cars release around 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air, affecting people’s health and wellbeing, every year.

Unnecessary journeys

Thousands of business people travel by various modes of transport to attend meetings. This means time away from their desk, resulting in a lack of productivity; It means expense, as everything needs to be paid for; It means harming the community, something which nobody wants.

Video conferencing allows for people, in several locations, to engage in conversation and interaction at the same time, provided an internet connection is available. Because the system is performing in real-time, users are exposed to high quality visual and audio elements, which saves money, time and the environment, without ever having to leave their desks.

Businesses remain reluctant to invest in video conferencing equipment, arguing it’s expensive, it’s of low quality and it’s unreliable.

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In any business, software needs to be constantly updated to keep up to date with the advancements in technology. New software packages allow for companies to implement a system which makes day-to-day tasks and activities easier to conduct and complete. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system integrates all of the facets of an operation into one easy to manage system, including manufacturing, development, marketing and sales departments. An ERP system can be an effective and useful tool, however, if staff and users are not given the correct and appropriate level of training, the software will not be used to its full potential.

When staff are trained on new software packages and programs, several mistakes are easily made. Here are the most common:

Forget to explain why

Training and education are two completely separate processes and many companies train their staff on how to use particular programs but fail to educate them on the deeper ins and outs of the system. Training staff on how to use a piece of software and how it helps with daily tasks and duties will ensure that they are capable of using the system to benefit them in their daily routine. However, without sufficient education, members of staff will not know how to diagnose a problem if one occurs. Educating staff on how to navigate a particular piece of software is not enough; they need to be able to understand why a system works in a particular way and why problems may occur and how they can be amended.

Change is difficult

Change can be a scary and daunting experience. Many staff may not want to have to adjust to a brand new software system, especially if they are relatively new to the company or have only recently come to terms with a former system.

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QSRWeb.com reports the acquisition of Planet Smoothie by Tasti D-Lite.  Tasti D-Lite is a frozen dessert chain for health-conscious consumers.  In the coming months, Tasti D-Lite products will be available in some Planet Smoothie stores and vice versa. Jim Amos, CEO of Tasti D-Lite said they plan to offer new franchisees the option to own and operate in a co-branded store concept, which fully integrates both brands into a unique customer experience.

Tennessee-based Tasti D-Lite, a frozen dessert chain catering to health-conscious consumers, has announced the acquisition of Planet Smoothie LLC, a franchise system with more than 100 units in operation, mainly in Georgia and Florida.

The strategic acquisition, which closed Nov. 30, will allow both brands to broaden product offerings, improve retail sales and accelerate unit growth through co-branding initiatives and non-traditional development opportunities.

“This acquisition presents an opportunity to combine two iconic brands to create a winning combination for both the customer and the franchisee,” said Jim Amos, CEO of Tasti D-Lite. “The consumer profiles of Tasti D-Lite and Planet Smoothie are very similar, so combining the two complementary brands will provide both brands an opportunity to increase the scale of the combined store network as well as sales at the store level.”

As part of the acquisition, Tasti D-Lite products will be added to select Planet Smoothie stores, and vice versa, within the next few months.

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BrightStar Care, an in-home care business, caters to the all ages – from children to elderly.  It was founded in 2002 and now boasts of 250 locations nationwide and $100 million net worth. It is one of the top 500 franchises in the U.S. according to Entrepreneur Magazine.  Shelly Sun, CEO, cites the growing preference of most seniors for home-based health care rather than relocating to nursing homes. NuWireInvestor.com reports that BrightStar Care plans to open more franchises in the U.S. and internationally in the coming years.

Franchises open: 180; 220 franchises are expected to open in the U.S. and internationally by 2013
Revenue last year: $100 million, up 50% from the beginning of 2009
Medical care, nonmedical care and child care

J.D. and Shelly Sun founded BrightStar in 2002 after their own poor experience with caregivers. The company likely got its fame after it was featured on Undercover Boss on CBS in April.

The company provides what it calls a “full continuum of home care” that includes adult and elder care services, child care and medical staffing services for individuals, families and health care facilities, the company says.

The company provides “every service available at nursing facilities in the comfort of an elderly person’s own home.

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