Tax Newsletter – January 2010

PART 1: NEW FEDERAL AND STATE LAW CHANGES(not necessarily in order of importance)

ENCHANCED FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER CREDIT – EXCELLENT

EXCLUSION FOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION – GOOD

MAKING WORK PAY AND GOVERNMENT RETIREE CREDITS:
MAKING WORK PAY CREDIT – GOOD
ECONOMIC RECOVERY PAYMENT – EXCELLENT
GOVERNMENT RETIREE CREDIT – VERY GOOD

SALES TAX ON NEW CARS – GOOD

AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY CREDIT (formerly the hope credit) – EXCELLENT

RESIDENTIAL ENERGY CREDITS:
NON-BUSINESS ENERGY PROPERTY CREDIT – EXCELLENT
RESIDENTAL ENERGY EFFICIENT PROPERTY CREDIT – EXCELLENT

CALIFORNIA NEW JOBS CREDIT – VERY GOOD.

CALIFORNIA DEPENDENT CREDIT REDUCED – VERY BAD (but only in CA)

IRS COBRA PREMIUM SUBSIDY – NOT GOOD

CA ‘USE TAX’ FILING REQUIREMENTS FOR BUSINESS – BAD

NEW REVENUE RULINGS AND REVENUE PROCEDURES DETAILING TAX BENEFITS AND PROCEDURES TO VICTIMS OF PONZI SCHEMES – EXCELLENT

NEW CALIFORNIA MAXIMUM TAX RATE FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH TAXABLE INCOMES OF $1 MILLION OR LESS – BAD

NEW CA ESTIMATED TAX REQUIREMENTS (FORM 5805) – NEUTRAL

CASH FOR CLUNKERS – GOOD AND BAD

MORTGAGE INTEREST UPDATE – GOOD AND BAD

CA IOUs – (my opinion.) BAD

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OK, let me try this with a few marketing ideas:

WEBSITE: good only if you promote and optimize it.

SOCIAL MEDIA: bad. we all hate twitter. but darn, it’s really good for outreach.

DIRECT MAIL: good if done right, not spammy

SALES: good. People mostly fear sales just because it’s not done authentically.

OK, your turn! Give us your best wisdom. After all, knowledge is bliss.

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I’m outlining a few points below just to alert readers – who are authentic, non-misleading, decent business owners – how to comply and stay current with legal advertising (promotion) laws.

MAJOR POINTS FROM NEW FTC GUIDELINES

1. WATCH OUT BLOGGERS!

They’re really watching bloggers now! If you’re being paid to endorse a product you must disclose that now. In the past, these endorsements often sounded like they were genuine, caring people raving about some product they recommended. Ah, but did you know if they were being paid to say those great things? Now you do. Or you should, once these advertisers comply.

I notice daily on news radio that celeb reporters endorse products but don’t tell us they are paid for it, so I’m wondering when and where the FTC crackdown on this will take place, aren’t you?

The FTC elaborates on this ruling explaining that “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller…” which is a ruling equally proposed for research organizations who must disclose how they were funded for their particular research results.

I’m holding my tongue about medical research facilities ‘finding’ that certain pharma drugs have no serious side effects, when in fact the medical research is actually funded by the very pharmaceutical company who manufactures that drug.

So, before you get angry at the FTC for these guidelines, try to consider that their purpose is to try to protect you from this sort of misleading information.

2. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

Some of you reading this are celebs in your own field, so please don’t dismiss this as irrelevant info just because you’re not Brad Pitt: new rulings state that ‘both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections (meaning: celebs get paid to say what they say)…” and now they are required to tell us that.

3. “TYPICAL” EXPERIENCE

Advertisers or companies “using an endorsement denoting that this is a ‘typical experience’ with a product or service when that is not the case will be requird to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In the past, advertisers could describe unusual results in testimonials as long as they included a disclaimer like “results not typical”.

Have more questions? Need more detail? Here’s the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/index.shtml.

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Letting go, Stopping the Isolation, Creating Systems, Making your Millions: I’m still absorbing lessons from a great talk by Christine Comaford last week.

Don’t know her? She’s author of Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality,  a five-time CEO, a multimillionaire, and a Buddhist monk.

She reminds us entrepreneurs that we all have a million dollar idea which only needs direction to be pulled into reality. . . and that there’s no magic bullet: we have to do the work by investing your time, money, and heart.

Because I work primarily with entrepreneurs, I wanted to pass along some of Christine’s wit and wisdom in hopes it helps remind us, even if they’re things we know but are not keeping top of mind:

1. Don’t isolate. Entrepreneurs tend to do that, bury their head in their business instead of working ON their business. I’m a master of this: getting so absorbed in the details of what needs to be done that I forget to look down the line – or more expansively. I’m going to try putting that on my calendar to see if that works “March 1: think expansively”. Christine says an antidote to isolation is community: get out there, support your peeps, join in, get feedback, you get the idea.Be mighty and courageous and good – get out there! (I do so you’ll probably see me)

2. Create systems to transform information and implementation: build a database, set up quickbooks, hire people to be your MVP’s (most valuable persons, as Christine says) to do what you should NOT be spending your time doing. For example, I have MVP’s who are writers, editors, designers, programmers, SEO specialists, accountants, admins, and more because I am good at the strategic planning, not the minutaie of details that my MVP’s rock at!). Delegation to MVP’s is what enables you to think like a CEO. And it’s so freeing, especially for us creative types.

3. Manage Communications. OK, that’s my tip, not Christine’s. But she concurs that it’s critical to manage your Social Media, set up autoresponders (they save me so much time!) and outsource what you can. For example, I have my programmer set up my enews so it’s graphically templated and properly programmed for delivery, plus he adds it to my archives online. Perhaps, you just need to set up autoresponders for inquires that come to you about your services, classes, products (in marketing it’s all called ‘product’). Maybe you need to put some of your classes on video and sell those on your website? Anything that saves time, gives you that time to earn more revenues.

If you need help with high level marketing or business planning (to brainstorm with someone who thinks like a CEO) or with marketing tasks, that’s what we do. Visit our site for pricing and details or call us to help you choose our service that fits your exact need! Remember, Knowledge is Bliss. Thanks for the wisdom boost, Christine!

If you want more wisdom from Christine, take a look at her upcoming workshops: http://www.rulesforrenegades.com/home.html.

And if you missed our former lesson from Christine, take a look here: http://www.allisonbliss.com/wordpress/2010/02/04/beceome-mighty-like-christine-comaford/.

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If you don’t know Christine Comaford, she’s one of the original investors of Google, has built, lost and rebuilt many fortunes, retired at 40 to do philanthropical work (and not that phony movie star stuff, but helping altzheimer and hospice patients – soulful and hard work), started a biz helping over 153 entrepreneurs become millionaires (http://www.christine.com/thanks.html) all this after dropping out of high school.

And I learned more from her in an hour than all the business training I ‘ve had in 20 years!

Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of her wisdom, but today, start by thinking how you may be limiting your potential. Here are a few ways I limit myself:

It took me years to justify to myself hiring my genius Assistant Jaimie Harris to offload the work that eats my time and at which I stink like database updates, recording online sales, quickbook updates, etc. Jaimie is far superior and faster than I at those important business activities. [and a master 'architect' at organizing, too!]. It’s so obvious that we need to do what earns our business money instead of those things we suck at doing. So, why does it take us so long to hire these “MVP”s (most valuable people), as Ms. Comaford calls them?

I’m reasonably good at finding experts to help my clients in areas where I’ve no expertise (i.e.; copywriting, design, web programming, quickbooks, printing, etc.). But I haven’t found a perfect mentor to help my own business blossom. Like most entrepreneurs, I feel I should be able to do that myself. I teach business, for heavens sake, so I should know WHAT to do! But I’m not doing it. So, hence the need for a mentor. Ah, but who to ask? How to approach them? Christine suggests you write a list and just ask for their advise.  I’m so very stuck! Am I really the only one with this issue, or is there someone who wants to be my ‘find-a-mentor buddy’ on this?

Here’s the funny thing:

I used to mentor hundreds of people while part of a career advisory network for a large center in San Francisco. I was one of their most requested advisors, in fact (probably because I worked in the over-glorified film industry at the time). I LOVED mentoring, and even have become friends with a few mentees.

Ms. Comaford says that mentors love to be asked for their advise. (true, we do) But they’re also nervous about whether their advice will really help you or not. (true, I always wondered if those I advised had the results I expected. So few ever bothered to call me back to let me know – and as a mentor that’s your only reward, really).

So what holds us back?

Below are a few ‘issues’ of mine (and almost all entrepreneurs I know), but I’d like your insight, too. You might have that revelatory answer we’re all seeking! And if you’re stuck like the rest of us, perhaps this might start you thinking, too:

1. we believe as entrepreneurs we should be able to get all the answers ourselves.

2. we fear a mentor will think we’re idiots, or say no, or be too important to waste their time on us.

3. we’re not sure who to ask to help us (my issue): who has the knowledge and experience I don’t (like Christine Comaford) that I’d trust to advise me?

4. we know we’ll be held accountable and fear we’ve no time to get their recommendations implemented.

5. how come we can’t do for ourselves these things we so easily do for our clients. What is that ‘issue’ and when the heck will I ever learn to overcome that? Geez!

What am I missing here? How have you overcome it for your business? Oh, please do share with me and my readers your comments.

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We’re trying to port over our existing business lines (multiple lines, we’ll TRY to share one fax) to our new place three miles away so we can keep the same business phone numbers. Comcast first says they can do that, then they renege saying they need to ‘research it’. hmmm?

Can anyone advise us on this – we’ve not moved for a decade, are just too ignorant about how to make this all work so we’re ‘down on friday’ and ‘back up on Saturday’. After all, ignorance is expensive (and time consuming!) and knowledge is bliss.

What service do you use & why? What works best for home based businesses? What tricks can you teach us (and our readers) to save us time, hassle, money – something all us entrepreneurial companies need!

Thanks in advance.

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Do you find that the New Year brings an onslaught of those events or messages from people, all about “setting one’s intentions towards success”?

I love those, because I think it’s so critical to step away from our daily chores in business to look at the bigger picture: “Could I spend time on myself, and less on my business?” “Am I earning enough revenue, and if not, why not?” “What are my bigger-picture life goals, and how does my business fit into that – or interfere with it?”

My friend Christine had me in hysterics when she put me on hold at work, saying, “Oh, if only work didn’t interfere with my personal life so much.” It was funny, to be sure. But it also gave me food for thought about my intentions for the year.

MAKE MONEY HELPING OTHERS

Like many of my colleagues, along with the need to earn a living I started my business to help people, and to give profits to worthy organizations I support. This year I wondered if my intentions (and donations) were significant enough.

Then I learned something remarkable.

As I was writing this eLetter, I heard about a company that tripled its revenues in just a few hours:

http://doubletakeclothing.bigcartel.com/product/help-haiti-20. In one day they launched a brand-new, extremely worthwhile business model, selling t-shirts to raise money to aid Haitians in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake. These savvy business-owners created unprecedented demand in just two hours, and made $1000 in that amount of time. And that was only their first day in business!

HOW DID THEY TRIPLE PROFITS IN THREE HOURS?

They caught the attention of one of the country’s leading bloggers, Seth Godin, who then mentioned them in his hugely popular blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/). Sales and donations have been pouring in from this exposure ever since. Sure, they have other marketing strategies in place. But this one brought significant exposure to them, fast!

It makes you think, right? In our country we so fortunate to have the social services, emergency networks, and infrastructure that Haiti lacks. In our businesses we are equally lucky that we can generate income. We may not make all we want to, or have a lot of time to spare. But I think we sometimes take for granted all that we do have.

HERE’S AN ALTERNATIVE IDEA

Think about how much opportunity we have right now. We are not living in a war-torn country, with bombs threatening our lives daily. If you’re reading this, you’re probably not without food, water or shelter. And you likely have many communications media at your disposal: radio, TV, email, newspapers, telephones, mobile devices and more. Sure, we all whine about the time it takes to manage that collection of devices and media. But at least we have the choice.

What about our personal choices? How often have you thought, said or heard something like this: “I have so many clothes in my closet; I just can’t decide which to wear tonight.” “I have to go on a diet because there’s too much food to choose from.” “I can’t decide whether to take a yoga class, go to tai chi, or force myself to get to the gym tonight.” In this country our lives are insanely abundant.

ABUNDANT WEALTH

In a similar vein, we have so many ideas for our businesses that we don’t have time to implement them all: We could create a new service, build a website, launch a new campaign, hire more people or experts to help us implement our plans, or revise our marketing plan so we can find “balance,” and do everything we want without torturing our schedules or budgets.

We have so much education, training, and potential funding sources that we can’t even decide how to narrow our “titles” to one thing (i.e. “I’m a massage therapist, but I also do Reiki, offer herbal remedies, coach people on stress reduction,” and so on). I know you’ve heard this kind of introduction! We get frustrated at having to summarize all of our talents, and affix one small label on top, when most of us have so many competencies we can offer to others.

WHAT WE CAN DO

We can rethink our wealth: Does it make us happier to have money in our bank account, or to give it to someone in need? Will a new pair of shoes really help us get that boyfriend? (maybe it depends on the shoes! Just kidding). Do we need to travel more to get a better perspective on our life, or to get some needed downtime? If we take serious action on our marketing, can we earn more so we can fulfill a bigger life purpose?

Well, of course you can guess my answer.

HERE ARE TOOLS TO HELP

We created high-quality, low-cost tools and packages that help people improve their marketing; specifically those that help them fulfill their dreams. Our agency typically finds that clients who work with our designers, web teams and writers, and those who invest in marketing consulting (or coaching) earn triple what they pay us. And, our tools are designed to save eons of time while improving your marketing so you earn more. Below are a few  that we recommend – especially if you’re tired of twittering around, and reading about your friends having latte with their kids – who cares?!). If you’re not linked into how social media actually works to build business, or if you need some help making your marketing work, here are a few ways to get started:

Make your website do your work for you: http://www.allisonbliss.com/services/internet-marketing-website-consultation.htm

Let people find you on Google so you can help them: http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#internetmarketing

Ensure your strategies and messages will bring you business:

http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#speed

Learn about Social Media, with tips & tricks and a five-day action plan:

http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#social media

BRING PASSION TO YOUR WORK

Passion. Joy. Bliss. That’s what we’re all about. What about you? Please share your comments for our readers; your insights will help keep us all on track when we’re having those “downward momentum” days! Our blog: http://www.allisonbliss.com/wordpress/

Need help? Just call or email. We’ll get back to you. Really!

WHAT DO CLIENTS EXPERIENCE?

“As my business partner and I launched our new business, we needed help in bringing our services to market. We had heard great things about Allison, and we really liked her approach and style, so it was an easy choice to hire her.

We thought we would be getting a marketing plan, but we got so much more!

Not only is Allison an outstanding marketing mind who created amazing collateral, a website and a brand for us, but she is an astute business person overall. She listened carefully, asked great questions, and then suggested so many creative ideas to help us establish ourselves as a market leader for our service.

She helped us design different packages to provide our services – ways that we would have never thought of on our own. She regularly thought of different marketing campaigns to keep our name out there with a unique, professional style.

When the dotcom crash happened, and our business was severely affected, she helped us quickly re-brand ourselves to serve a different market and survive the downturn. And she worked with us in such a fun, non-judgmental way, yet with a calm authority that reassured us that we were getting sound, reliable advice.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and loved the results we got from her work – I can’t recommend her highly enough.” – Sandy Minella, CEO, Start Up Right

Thanks, Sandy! You prove my point that;  “Knowledge is Bliss”

May this be your most extraordinary year! Allison Bliss

510-864-8500

www.allisonbliss.com

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• programming & configuration,
• design,
• SEO (search engine optimization),
• marketing & internet consultation

What Do Clients Experience?

“Allison Bliss Consulting more than met our short deadline and provided us ample time and needed expertise to perfect our marketing campaign beyond our wildest expectations while enabling us to do timely website updates. Even better, Allison Bliss Consulting empowered us in creating a succinct message in the sleek, no-frills format we imagined. All these benefits were presented in the utmost efficient, professional and cost-effective manner.” – Patrick Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Financial Management, LLC.
http://www.fitzgeraldfinance.com

NEED DETAILS, FLAT RATE PRICING?   http://bit.ly/5XRZvT

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SHE’S BEEN FLOCKED!

What a fabulous client gift this would make for your clients, as well as friends, don’t you think? It’s a great way to make a memorable impression for any occassion: birthdays, holidays, you name it, Kerry’s got it! She also makes signs for businesses so I think of her as a kind of ‘all in one’ resource: 510-532-7272.

cars driving by are amused

this is what she saw leaving her house this morning:

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It’s important to figure out your positioning so you’ll stand out from the masses who do what you do (hairdressers, auto mechanics, coaching, marketing, whatever your ‘category’ is). Standing out brings much joy (like this elephant -isn’t it just so cute?) and helps you make more sales – that’s the purpose!

Naturally, our beliefs enter into the task of delivering our products to our market. Especially in service businesses where we must connect directly with clients, our beliefs are exhibited in the connection we have and our interactions with others.

Whether we listen respectfully to clients at an intuitive level, see how they react, and advise them with truth and honesty. If we just impose our standard works-for-everyone-else products or ideas onto their business, we’re not being truly respectful of their deeper needs.

If we elicit a depth of understanding and communication that leads to original thought and special clarity we are evoking a spiritual connection. Unfortunately, many businesses still sadly promote this as “superior service”, an overused and meaningless term in our current culture and one which they mistakenly think sets them apart, don’t you think?

MY OWN EXPERIENCE: RIGHT OR WRONG? YOU DECIDE

I started my own business evolving from musician to actor to film and tv director to marketing while managing businesses along the way. Finally I learned what I really wanted to express was both my creative and practical side using the full breadth of my experience studying human behavior, communications, anthropology, the arts, how people react (that’s what acting and directing teach), design, and management.

I wanted to help business owners evolve using their own inner creativity, purpose, talents and resources. I watched so many owners abandon their spirit as they grew their companies, losing their founding principles while being distracted with employee problems, financial disasters, lawsuits, sales fluctuations, and other complex management issues.

I try to bring a reflection of the owners’ spirit to their business development. I find that once a person’s beliefs are defined, a soul-fulfilling “practice” is about living a disciplined life to bring those beliefs into everyday practice—whether one is an abstaining nun devoting their body to Christ, a Buddhist monk living in the moment or just your basic entrepreneur trying to get through your day in an ethical and caring manner while earning a living. In business, we manifest our skills and talents in our work.

In the genesis of my own business, I became a trained musician, designer, filmmaker and manager which required experiencing my work and life on an intuitive level. I am trained to listen and perceive deeper issues about who my clients are, what they believe, what they need, how they do things and what their problems and successes are. Analyzing this, I am able to give a deeper level of advice based on what will work within the framework of their spiritual beliefs.

HOW REVENUES INCREASED

Once this kind of inner positioning really became clear to me with my own business (after a decade in business), I was able to start discussing the spirit of marketing with my clients. I started attracting the perfect kinds of clients for me and my revenues shot up. The same happens for my clients whom I teach to understand their market and themselves on an intuitive or spirit level so that they can fulfill their purpose with greater ease.

This is what my clients say. And this is how I’ve created a method to position my clients – which is often like doing surgery on yourself: impossible to do for you, not for me! I call it my Knowledge is Bliss package. So, if this entire article doesn’t help, feel free to call us for our help.

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