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Business planning

Should I close my S corp and switch to an LLC for my 2016 taxes?

3

Answers

David Favor

Fractional CTO

If you're a US citizen living outside the country more than 330 days/year, then you meet the Foreign Income Exclusion test. Talk with your tax preparer about this. If you meet this test, you're first $100K (roughly) is income tax free, if + only if you take the money yourself. If you run the money through a US Entity (any type of organizational structure) you're required to pay tax on 100% of all your income. Best talk with a Tax Preparer you can run through your situation with. I suggest checking with H&R Block Executive Tax Services. They're very cheap + receive up to date education about tax system changes. Likely they'll provide more consistently correct information than expensive CPAs.

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Aishwarya Shiva

Technical consultant and Digital Marketing expert

You can use affiliate marketing for this. ClickBank.com has lots of spirituality related products that will be great for advertising on this kind of niche. Generate link for those products from ClickBank, add banners or in-text links for these product and bring a lot of traffic. You can earn about 75% of the sale of these products from your affiliate links. Second option is infolinks.com. They pay very less but their presentation of ads is very great as compared to Google Adwords. If you want a comolete tutorial on how to earn passive income from your site then call me. Free call link: clarity.fm/aishwaryashiva/early638

David Favor

Fractional CTO

Likely this is the wrong question, so my response is just a guess... from doing software development since 1982... Best to tool your infrastructure, so no load balancers are required. If you design your code where your most accessed data remains memory resident + moving data from persistent storage (disk) into memory is fast, you'll have no requirement for load balancing. You give no information about the size of payload (in bytes) which will be requested, so no way to guess sizing of your net connection. Also you say 1 million status calls + give no time frame over which these calls must be processed. Based on your question, likely your best starting point will be to hire a seasoned developer to design your system to maximize memory resident data. Also, using webhooks may be a poor choice, as this makes code extremely complex, so only a few developers will be able to maintain + extend your code, so you'll pay more for development + have difficulty finding developers. Stick with a LAMP stack allowing Apache to manage threads, rather than Webhooks + your life will be easier + your budget lower.

Edmund John

Emerging Markets Entrepreneur & Investor

You could use a payment processor and also a call system such as twilio. If you want to work with the phone companies (i.e. 1900 number in the US) this is also an option but the API's are not friendly (or non-existent) and they will take a larger fee.

David C

I help you buy, sell, plan, value a business

In my experience great advice can move across industries in several categories; cash flow management, human resources, process improvement, systems and measurement. Ask him questions relating to how he measures, rewards and retains his best staff. Ask about how he ensures proper cash flow management, how he extends payables for instance. Ask about how he tracks the efforts of employees to know who is contributing to the bottom line and who is not. Ask him how he knows when it's time to make changes in how things are done. Ask him how he responded to the last new competitive threat. Ask him how he plays a role in different aspects of his business; sales, purchasing, marketing, etc. Good luck. Simply taking the time to put some thought into what you should be asking will help make this meeting into a great opportunity. Don't get too scripted though and ask him what he thinks you should learn about what he's been through. Cheers David C Barnett

Chris McKee

Expert in issues related small business accounting

I don't have any tools or articles off the top of my head, but I can share some tips on evaluating decisions like this. I think there are two key questions to answer when evaluating investment decisions like this. First, what is my outcome I hope to get? Secondly, are there any objective metrics I can use to evaluate whether I've achieved that outcome? The first question is to help bring clarity on why you are making the investment. For example, if you decided to invest $30,000 in marketing for your company, you could do that a lot different ways. In order to deploy those funds most effectively, you need to be clear on the outcome you are trying to get. Is that outcome more awareness of your brand? Or is it to generate new business in the near term? The first objective would lead to one type of marketing, perhaps targeting advertising. The second objective might lead you instead to a lead generation program, perhaps by hiring a third party lead gen firm. Once you've answered the first question, you can move on the second one regarding metrics. This question is important because it leads you to how you are going to measure and hold your organization accountable for the success of the investment. So if you are investing in a lead gen program, you need to quantify how many incremental qualified leads the program should generate which then lead to X number of new customers which leads to X amount of new business. Then you can decide if it's a good investment before you spend the money, and you have an objective measure of whether it's successful as it progresses. Keep in mind that not everything will have objective measures of success. For example, if you are investing in a branding awareness program, it's going to be much harder to measure that success objectively. However, you should still try to have some measure or idea of what success looks like at the end of that investment. In this example, perhaps the firm handling the campaign has some measures they can track based on their experience of whether the campaign was successful. I think answering these two questions before you spend any money within your organization is important, not just major investments. It's a little mental math you should go through in your head each time something new comes up. Why am I doing this (what outcome do I hope to achieve, what needle will this move) and how will I know if it's successful? Sometimes it just 30 seconds in your head, sometimes you get the management team together and talk it out. Hope this is helpful.

Joshua Davis

Digital Marketing Expert

Google has placed importance on responsive design because it improves user experience and therefore more users visit the site and stay on the site longer. In turn this raises the sites ranking in Google. Your site content still needs to be good for you to rank in Google. Making a poorly ranking site responsive will not see much benefit. Google has stated that it will be more favorable to responsive and user friendly sites than those that are not. Article: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/ Site Test: https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly Feel free to message me if you have more questions.

Elmo Lombard

MBA focussed on business strategy and growth

A referral from someone that you know is always better than online reviews but unfortunately this is not always possible. Before I start engaging with any unknown business I start with a few basic online research actions. 1) Who owns their web domain. Goto https://www.whois.com/whois/ and enter their domain name. Here you can get a good idea to who their domain belongs to and if it is a Nigerian or some other suspect person or company run.... 2) Online reviews can also help but look out for companies that they claim use them and do some research on these companies, maybe contact them to confirm that they actually use this services. 3) LinkedIn - check out their employees, address, and any details to match what they supplied to you. Maybe link to someone in the company and ask them a question that might catch them off guard. 4) Company directory - how long have they been in business and does the address match the one they provided to you. 5) Google maps - check their address on street view, do you see their name on the building or does it look like a legitimate place of business? None of these are fool proof but doing this will give you a good gut feeling.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is Google Adwords and is it beneficial?

5

Answers

Pamela Hazelton

Conversions, marketing, ecommerce and content.

Here's a good explanation of what AdWords is: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/adwords.html Beneficial? Yes, but only when the time is taken to understand how it works and the importance of using the right keywords and phrases in respect to the available budget. I've seen too many companies go through money very quickly by bidding high on very general terms.

Devin Jordan

Hardware Startup, China Manufacturing, Consulting

I would not trade equity for design work. Unless this person will actually become a part of your team and create enough value to warrant equity. Otherwise it is short sighted to trade equity for something you need very early on just to launch. I'm sure your design/brand will evolve over time and this person will have put in a minor amount of work compared to what it will take to launch and continue a successful company. Additionally, you may be putting too much weight on your brand and not enough on what you're actually selling? However it is hard to give a more detailed answer without knowing what exactly you are doing and how detailed and ongoing the design work is. I would love to help answer your question, but need a little more detail on what exactly it is you do and what type of design/branding work you need.

Pamela Hazelton

Conversions, marketing, ecommerce and content.

You're entering a highly competitive market. Aside from creating info sheets, images and video that show why your products are better than others, you will likely need to drum up interest online in advance. Keep in mind that store shelves are most always full, so to carry a new product they have to decrease the space allotted to another company. By generating true interest first, you can highlight that the product already sells. Also, don't forget to provide samples to bloggers, writers and other appropriate publications so they can review the products. That's a big step in kicking off a true word-of-mouth campaign.

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

To increase chat engagement, have the chat bubble say the following when visitors first land on your site: "Thank's for your interest in [company's] [product], can I give you a tour of [whatever it is you want to engage with them on]." The general idea is to 1) thank them for giving you something (e.g. their interest in you and your product), and then to 2) offer to give them something (e.g. a tour of xyz). If you'd like an explanation for why this structure works, or suggestions for structures, designed around your specific product, let me know, best, Lee

Elmo Lombard

MBA focussed on business strategy and growth

I have 12 years experience in ERP solutions like SAP and various others and get this type of question a lot from SME's. I your case you want to provide implementation services and ultimately sign a retainer support contract for 36 months. There are a few good ones out there, start with https://www.odoo.com/ , they have a good system that can grow with a business.

David Geiger

Customer Acquisition, Growth, Lead Gen, Sales

There isn't one. You can find a list, but it's guaranteed to be overpriced and the contacts will be outdated. Email lists have a shelf life, but unlike milk or bread, their vendors never rotate the stock. This means regardless of their quoted acceptance rate, you'll overpay for an outdated list. Your best solution is to source your own list, particularly in this niche market, through strategic and targeted lead generation campaigns. Save yourself the wild goose chase of chasing something that doesn't exist. I've purchased lists in niche markets, was quoted high acceptance rates, but after testing the emails against an email validation service such as BriteVerify, found the deliverability rates to be less than half of what I was promised. After running into this same problem more than once, I've developed various lead generation tactics to quickly identify and qualify high quality leads and I'm happy to discuss these with you.

Pamela Hazelton

Conversions, marketing, ecommerce and content.

Confusion. Once a brand is established people associate it with the products it sells or services it offers. Also, even if it is legal to register it in your own country, you could very well have problems should you ever want to branch out in the future. It's always best to try to come up with something unique and identifiable.

Sharique Nisar

Strategy Consultant | Marketing | BI | Analytics

If you can shell out few bucks, reach out to them directly via phone and emails. Creating this database is crucial and may involve expert assistance. LinkedIn is good to get traction but the process is slow. I have worked on similar lines, so if you need any help, reach to me. Best of luck.

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

Here are some options: ___Free Options___ 1) Make apps without needing to spend a lot of time learning to code. Look into "MIT App Inventor" (http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/). It's a very _easy_ way to make pretty complex apps using drag and drop coding. You can find youtube tutorials that will show you how to make your first app within 5 minutes. I've used MIT App Inventor to make prototype apps for many of my ideas, saving me tens of thousands of dollars if I paid a dev to do it instead. Learn to do "real" coding yourself. The main investment will be your time. There are plenty of free resources for learning coding on the web. I'd suggest learning "React Native", it's a relatively new way to code apps, which allows you to make one app that will run on both Android and iOS. 2) Find a software engineer cofounder. Go to Meetups, conferences, local hackerspaces / makerspaces. Hang out on relevant online forums (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/ make sure to read their rules for posting before posting though). It won't be easy to find a tech cofounder, your idea will need to be amazing, and you yourself will need to be very passionate and capable in order to convince someone to partner up with you for sweat equity. ___Paid options___ 1) Use developers with less established reputations / portfolios (lower cost, higher risk) Be very wary of freelancers on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, etc. Here are some basic hiring rules: In your hiring script, make sure to ask for all applicants to give their account name for github/bitbucket and Trello. Don't hire agencies, only hire individuals. To get hired, ask them to do a simple task via Trello and submit the code via github/bitbucket. This task should only take them maybe 1 hour. Check the quality of what the applicants and if they deliver it in a timely manner. Keep the 1 or 2 people that do a good job. If you don't do this vetting these "low cost" developers may end up costing a lot in the longer run. 2) Use developers with more established reputations / portfolios (higher cost, lower risk) With this option your app will probably cost > $20k to develop, but it can be worth it if you have a single idea that you know you want to move forward with. I can introduce you to a very high quality developer in NY if you're at this stage. Let me know if you'd like any additional help more tailored to your specific app ideas, best, Lee

Gregory Jenkins

Entrepreneur and Finance Operations Specialist.

I have found networking events to be the most effective way to meet influential people who may be able to help you in your career. I have found job fairs to be a waste of time. My suggestion is to find out events that Facebook is hosting. Try to find out who from Facebook will be attending. Do some research on those attendees. If you get a chance to meet them at the event, do no talk about yourself. Talk about Facebook and the specific Facebook employee you're talking to. Let them know that you follow Facebook. Be genuine and personable. Wait until they ask you about yourself. Remember to bring a business card. (One with a photo would be a really nice touch so they can remember your name and face.) If they give you their business card, send a simple "it was nice to meet you at" email. Don't immediately ask to connect on LinkedIn. I personally hate that. If you made a positive impression, chances are they won't mind engaging with you. Cultivate the relationship. That's how they get to know you and keep you top of mind for opportunities.

Shaun Nestor

Content Marketing Advisor & Agency Consultant

What is your product? Who are you trying to reach? What is keeping you personally from filling this role until you can create a better system or bring on a PM?

Prathamesh Korgaonkar

Entrepreneur, DMM consultant, inventor

Firstly be clear with what you are pitching exactly? If it service/ product , ask yourself why I need this service/ product? What is the pain area this service/prodcut can solved? Who are my competitors? How I am different from them? And last but not least how I can make money out of it? Answering these on a presentation will be your next pitch deck. About finding angel investors i would recommend www.angel.co where you can create your profile and search angels related to your industry. Also you can pitch directly to some investors by mails. I can teach how to get investors email id using various free tools. If you are looking for crowdfunding platforms make sure your product's prototype is ready, you do have some bootstrap money in your pocket by which you can create attractive video pitch and run a successful crowdfunding campaign using effective digital media marketing strategy. Kickstrter, indiegogo are best in crowdfunding.

Aishwarya Shiva

Technical consultant and Digital Marketing expert

Yeah it will be a great idea. I see many people like to listen instead of viewing video while traveling. This is why now a days audio books are getting popular among businessmen who don't have time to read or view long videos. Another reason might be that watching for so long with eyes is more stressful than listening with ears. So I think you should go with it. Good Luck.

Jacqueline Fisch

Intuitive Writing Coach - Books and Business

I've been loving Calendly--It links to my Google calendar, which I live and die by!

Pamela Hazelton

Conversions, marketing, ecommerce and content.

Word of mouth is your best bet. You may need to offer a few low-cost sessions to start building that trust.

Aishwarya Shiva

Technical consultant and Digital Marketing expert

I gathered some of the information from the Internet in this answer for you. References in the end. First you need to get exact answers to following question which require some thorough research: 1. Why does your audience need your services? 2. What propels your audience to seek your services? 3. Where does your audience go to learn about the services you provide? 4. Who (or what) influences your audience’s buying decisions? 5. What competitors are there nearby your business? 6. What they are offering? 7. What different thing you can offer than them that they can't replicate easily? 8. What is the current state of the industry you have business in? Then you can follow some of these strategies including the strategies you mentioned: Go for a referral system. Give discounts to those customers who sends more customers to you. Ensure your contact information (on your website, business cards, and social media accounts) is current. Use Google Docs to create an easy-to-complete patient referral form for physicians and other providers to complete on your website. Then, include the URL on your business cards and marketing materials. Create a free Google Voice account to add a dedicated physician referral phone line. You can even use Voice to record a custom greeting and transcribe your voicemail into text, so your front office staff can pull referral information from an email and put it right into your physical therapy documentation software. Take one day every several months to visit a handful of the largest physician groups near your clinic. Stop in and introduce yourself—and bring along a friendly smile and perhaps some goodies. You never know; they may have a patient who needs therapy that day, and you want to be top of mind. Partner with local athletic trainer, yoga instructor, or massage therapist. Take them out to lunch and build a strong relationship that will lead to long term partnership. They will refer targeted customers to you. Always follow-up your customers. Call or mail them asking about their health or reminding them about their monthly checkup. I will prefer to mail if not an emergency condition. You can also go for webinars and workshops for medical students. This will position you as an expert in medical community. Self branding will help you get more customers than promoting your business. Ref: https://www.webpt.com/how-market-your-physical-therapy-clinic

Aishwarya Shiva

Technical consultant and Digital Marketing expert

Goal is not just about doing things in better way than before. First of all you must answer a question. Close your eyes and imagine that you are a 100 year old person lying in hospital bed and going to die in a 60 seconds. Now at that time what makes your mind think that "I can die in peace now"? I mean what you achieved that gave you that much peace? Is it being the richest person in the world? Is it that you established the largest company in the world? Or you just invented a time machine? Or you just removed all the poverty from the world? May be you are a president of your country now. So we become what we imagine most of the time in our life. Secondly, you need to decide what are you expert in doing? In which field you can make change? When you know answer to all these questions then you will know your goal. It doesn't matter what you do in your daily life. But if it is done to achieve that goal then it counts. Even if its just doing nothing just thinking for hours about strategies to achieve that goal in a quiet place. Meditation really helped me in stabilizing my mind about my goals. You should try it too. And remember, never lose hope. "Hopelessness" is the only greatest enemy of success.

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