Regardless whether you have a retail store or provide a professional service, recognize your customers and show appreciation for their business.  You could accomplish this any number of ways: a sale, giving out free samples, holding a seminar or luncheon, giving out coupons for future purchases, and giving or requesting referrals.

Create a profile of your customers.  Why do they come to you instead of your competitor?  Ask for feedback from your customers regarding what they like about your business and what things they wish were different.  Asking the customer for suggestions and feedback is a great way to build goodwill and show the customer that you value their input without having to spend a single dollar to earn that feeling of trust and appreciation.  Feedback cards or online feedback can also be a great monitoring technique when you are not there to supervise your employees.  

Focus on your customer this month and make March a mad month for your business!

Thomas Goodwin is an Ohio licensed real estate agent (Realtor) and insurance agent.  He is the Founder and CEO of Northern Pine Properties, Inc., a real estate investment, development, and management company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While many businesses have strategic goals, long-term plans, mission statements, and exit strategies perhaps it’s also time that we started making new year’s resolutions for our businesses.  Most business owners make a budget for the next year.  But why not also use this time to critically evaluate the work-flow process and make any necessary changes that help improve efficiency, customer service, and best of all – profitability.

Think of something in your own business that did not go as smoothly as you hoped in 2007.  Decide what you will do differently in 2008 to improve that situation and achieve the desired outcome.  Then jot down a quick list of reminders and things to do to make sure that happens.

If the problem is inherent in your way of doing business, perhaps it’s time to review the overall process.  One quick and easy way to do this is to create or update an existing Gantt chart.  You can make these charts as elaborate or simple as your individual needs require, for instance Microsoft Project is a nice piece of software but I’ve found that you can open an empty Microsoft Excel or other brand of spreadsheet and label and shade the boxes to create the same basic chart once printed.

If you personally are the roadblock to your own company’s success, consider finding a coach or a mentor.  This doesn’t have to be something formal where you hire one (although you certainly can), it can be a trusted friend, a former industry professional that is now retired, and even some colleges offer coaching services to alumni.

Regardless whether you have a short list of things that you keep in your pocket or you decide to rethink your mission statement and supporting goals, these new year’s resolutions are not for you, they’re for your business. 

All the best to you and your business ventures in the coming year!

Thomas Goodwin is an Ohio licensed real estate agent (Realtor) and insurance agent.  He is the Founder and CEO of Northern Pine Properties, Inc., a real estate investment, development, and management company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

There are several to choose from:

• Sole Proprietor
• Partnership
• Joint Venture (for combining two or more existing businesses in a given project)
• C-Corporation
• Limited Liability Corporation
• S-Corporation

Since most people are familiar with the more basic sole proprietorship and partnership models, we will skip those and examine the pros and cons of the various types of corporations. We are also snubbing joint ventures since those are mostly done in a specific project setting between multiple companies.

C-Corporations

The C-Corporation will be your basic company that maintains its own financial statements and can choose to reinvest earnings or distribute them as it sees fit. The income or losses will be reported on the company’s own income tax filing and any dividends will be taxed to the individual shareholder.

Since many start-ups are smaller in nature it makes sense that an entrepreneur would not want to pay income tax as a C-corp and then again as an individual. This brings us to our next two forms of incorporation:

Limited Liability Corporations

The Limited Liability Corporation, or LLC, passes earnings on to the shareholders’ income tax return (so it is not taxed at both the individual level and the corporation level). However, if you are the SOLE owner of an LLC you will be taxed as if it’s a sole proprietorship. You may still have some of the limited liability protection that an LLC provides; for instance your personal assets may be shielded in the event the business venture goes bust.

However, most lenders and creditors are wise to the fact that a one-person LLC is really just a sole proprietorship that’s incorporated for liability purposes. Therefore, the creditors will want you to personally guarantee the repayment of any loan, usually by making you personally responsible for the debt if the business goes bust. This makes sense when you’re the only person owning/running the organization as you ultimately affect the degree of success that your business achieves.

S-Corporations

Another form of business that you may consider, especially if you’re flying solo and were thinking about filing the LLC method, is to form an S-corporation. The “S-Corp” is purely a tax maneuver with the IRS. You file the C-corp articles of incorporation the state of your choosing. You then submit the Form 2553 with the IRS and select S-Corporation. This form of business venture allows the income to pass through to your personal income tax so once again, like the LLC, it is not taxed twice (once as a corporation and once as an individual taxpayer). It’s important to note that you need to file this form within 75 days of filing your articles of incorporation, otherwise you have to wait until the next year (by March 15th if your new company operates on a calendar year) to change your tax status. You would operate as a C-corp in the meantime.

The S-corp is more limited in use than the LLC or C-Corp. An S-corp may not have more than a handful of owners… I read in one place 75 owners and in another place 35 owners. I need to seek clarification on this part. Regardless which number it is, or even if it’s neither of those numbers, that is still a limited number of shareholders allowed. Also, you cannot have more than 25% of your company’s gross receipts as passive earnings, i.e. rental property/real estate that you are not actively managing the business. If you’re a landlord but spend more of your time doing other things, it’s probably better to file as an LLC. An LLCs stock can also be held by other entities such as other companies (or even parent companies) whereas an S-corp can only be held by individuals who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Wow, it really sounds like I am touting the LLC over the S-corp. Well, that’s not necessarily true. It depends on your individual situation: how many owners you have, how many of the owners are actively involved in the business, how the ownership and profits are to be split up, and so forth. A drawback to the LLC in this respect is that members (owners of LLCs are referred to as members) would have to show a gain made by the LLC regardless whether or not that gain was distributed to them by the LLC or the LLC reinvested those earnings into the company (gains not distributed are referred to as “phantom income” because it was never received). If the company reinvested earnings over multiple periods, this could have a compounding tax effect (added taxes without realized gains) by the various members. One way around the phantom income problem in an LLC is what’s known as “gross-up” clauses to be added to the LLC’s operating agreement. These clauses simply state that the LLC will reimburse the shareholders for tax incurred on income that they did not receive.

As you can tell, the water is getting kind of muddy, but I hope when you analyze your own situation you can pick out the pros and cons of the various forms of incorporation and choose one that fits you best!

StartupNation has completed research focused on how to grow businesses and has compiled their findings into a great guide: 10 Steps to Grow Your Business. Once you have made it over the hump of starting-up, it is time to start growing your company. This guide provides detailed steps for accomplishing this task.

1. Measure and Analyze Your Current Status
2. Get Efficient through Technology
3. Enhance Your Customer’s Experience
4. Cozy Up with Vendors
5. Maximize Your Niche, Expand to a New One
6. Develop New Channels
7. Acquire Growth Capital
8. Create a Culture
9. Ramp Up Awareness and Demand
10. Improve Sales Techniques

A seed does not become a tree without some growing! Also make sure to check out StartupNation’s 10 Steps to Open for Business