Business 101- 3 Ways to Protect Yourself, Your Business & Your Health
November 21, 2011 | 
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The second seminar in the Protect Yourself Series, Business 101 was fantastic! Thank you to all who joined us, and mark your calendars for Business 201 on March 20, 2012.
Here are three KEY TAKEAWAYS from each presenter on protecting yourself, your new business and your health:
From Lauren B. Ades, Esq, Hodes, Pessin & Katz, P.A.~
Incorporating your business entity is a priority. However, choosing an entity type is not black and white. There are pros and cons to LLCs, S Corporations, partnerships and all the others. You should not view your entity type as set in stone. As your business grows and changes, so might your entity type.
Download Lauren’s Business Question Check List. If you have started a business, or are planning to, you need to make sure you can check the “yes” box to all these questions.
Questions on how to make sure your new business is protected? Contact Lauren.
From Tammy Schneider, CPA, Director of Women in Business Practice, Glass Jacobson~
Know the difference between an employee and a contractor. If you dictate a “contractor’s” hours, provide them with equipment, outline their job duties. . . your contractor is probably an employee! The IRS is vigilantly looking for these “oversights.”
Check out other ways to practice safe tax in Tammy’s presentation:
Questions about setting up your business’s finances? Contact Tammy.
From Lynn Brick, RN, President & Founder of Lynn Brick’s Fitness and Brick Bodies~
First, you can do push ups in a suit and high heels. At least Lynn can. And the rest of us are now inspired to be able to as well.
Second, starting a business can cause stress. But, not all stress is bad:
Strength train at least 2 times per week
Take time for yourself every hour
Restore and rejuvenate your mind, body and soul with yoga, tai chi or spa treatments
Exercise your heart every day
Stretch your body
Surround yourself with positively positive people
This stress is good. Prolonged emotional, psychological or physical stress from extrinsic or intrinsic forces becomes chronic, which can be detrimental to your health.
Visit Lynn Brick’s Fit Tips to find out how you can better incorporate the good stress into your life to manage the bad.
Q4 Report- What does Your Investment Portfolio have to do with Brad Pitt??
November 18, 2011 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
What do Brad Pitt, “best selling” author Michael Lewis, and this year’s stock market bump share in common?
Recently, I finished reading the New York Times bestseller, Moneyball, and was drawn to the similarities between baseball’s use of statistical analysis to evaluate undervalued players (sabermetrics) and the processes we deploy in managing our clients’ investment risk in their diversified equity portfolios. It seems that when sufficient information exists, markets are efficient at processing the information, determining the true value of all things in that market, be it investments or baseball players. As we saw in major league baseball, whatever inefficiencies may exist are eliminated over time.
Widespread studies on investor psychology reveal that many individuals abandon their investment plans in the face of negative news and painful losses in their portfolios. Knee jerk reactions such as this wreck havoc with their long term investment strategy, and cause realized losses that the investor may never recover from. Instead of realizing losses, investors should understand that the long-term upside potential of equity investments are greatly enhanced after a prolonged period of loss, as historically low prices are the catalyst for the next bull market. Don’t forget, the largest run up in the stock market in 75 years occurred immediately following the market disaster of 2008.
On Paul DePodesta talking with Michael Lewis, “It’s looking at process rather than outcomes,” Paul says. “Too many people make decisions based on outcomes rather than process.” Lewis, Michael , Moneyball – The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, 2004, p. 146.
Paul, we feel your pain. This is the most common theme we encounter with clients and we strive to help them stay true to their long term investment plan. Our client portfolios are statistically designed to capture market returns. Said another way, our portfolios possess a very high probability of providing successful outcomes for our clients. But, this requires commitment to a long term portfolio management process. Any deviations or short cuts from the process will only add additional risk to the desired probable outcome.
The above chart illustrates the rolling 10 year returns for the S&P 500 Index. We see a handful of negative returns, but in each instance, the following cycles produce satisfactory if not spectacular returns. Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s General Manager (as played by Brad Pitt in Moneyball), recognized early on that baseball was managed like the Good Old Boys club, and that it was resistant to change. Following his belief system, choosing to apply process over gut feeling, he is widely credited with changing the way professional baseball is managed today with its’ use of sabermetrics. Much like Moneyball, our hope is that this chart will help you see the “light at the end of the tunnel” and encourage you to hold the course.
Graph represents the S&P 500 Index from 1928 through 2010.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Securities by Licensed Individuals Offered Through Triad Advisors, Inc., A Registered Broker/Dealer. Member FINRA/SIPC.
Do You Need Help Fighting Fraud in Your Small Business?
November 15, 2011 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Glass Jacobson’s Douglas White Receives
Certified Forensic Financial Analyst Designation
Designation Bolsters Firm’s Forensic Accounting Department
ROCKVILLE, Md. – November 14, 2011 – CPA wealth management firm Glass Jacobson is pleased to announce that Douglas White, CPA, CVA, has been awarded the Certified Forensic Financial Analyst (CFFA) credential in the field of Forensic Accounting. The CFFA credential is sponsored by the National Association of Certified Valuation (NACVA) Experts and holds the designee competent in experience and knowledge in professional forensic financial support services.
Mr. White’s designation adds to Glass Jacobson’s already impressive Forensic Accounting department, which helps uncover and identify fraud schemes and protect businesses. In 2010, more than 42 percent of small businesses fell victim to some form of fraud, and stemming that tide is part of Glass Jacobson’s mission as a business advisor.
“Because small and medium-sized business suffer a disproportionate amount of financial fraud, it’s crucial that they are given the tools they need to detect and prevent fraud,” said Glass Jacobson President Ed Jacobson “Doug White receiving the CFFA designation provides yet another level on which our clients can know that we are eternally vigilant regarding their needs.”
Requirements to earn the Certified Forensic Financial Analyst designation include being the holder of one of NACVA’s three business valuation credentials (Certified Valuation Analyst, Accredited Valuation Analyst, or Government Valuation Analyst) or a comparable credential such as a CPA, or an advanced degree (masters level) in economics, accounting or finance, or business administration. In addition to demonstrating proof of substantial experience providing litigation consulting, CFFA applicants must also complete two weeks of intensive training offered by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts’ Forensic Institute and pass a comprehensive examination.
10 Signs an Employee May be Stealing from Your Business
November 7, 2011 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
In this second post about “PREVENTING AND DETECTING FRAUD,” we are going to look closely at some of the telltale characteristics of an employee that might be stealing from you. In Part 1, we discussed 8 measures you can take as a business owner to prevent fraud in your business.
Unfortunately, many of the characteristics that make a good employee are some of the same characteristics that are the earmark of the employee who’s committing fraud in your business. Here are just a few.
- Employee wants additional hours
- Employee wants to work alone and will not delegate tasks
- Employee is very loyal
- Employee resents your lifestyle or apparent income
- Employee works late or comes in early
- Employee takes work home
- Employee refuses to take vacation
- Employee with lots of discretionary income. Get suspicious if your single employee making $25,000 per year is driving a brand new Mercedes and has a five bedroom house with a pool and tennis court and does not have a large trust fund.
- Employee is a long-term employee. Why would they want to leave your dental practice since you are their personal ATM machine?
- Employee does not want overtime
So what are you supposed to do now? Do you instantly start suspecting each and every one of your employees of being a clandestine thief? Of course not! However, armed with the information from this and the previous post you should realize that you cannot just be a passive observer in your business. You need to get involved in many of the business aspects of your company that you may have previously ignored. YOUR money is at stake! As we near the close of the year, look closely at your books with your CPA for anything suspicious. If you suspect fraud in your practice, or want to set up preventative measures, contact us. Glass Jacobson’s fraud prevention team can help.
Questions?
larry.goldberg@glassjacobson.com