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Archives for November 2014

Shop Small: Consultant, Business Owner Rallies Support For “Small Business Saturday”

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You’ve probably heard about “Small Business Saturday.”

But how much do you really know about “SBS” and the “Shop Small” movement?

“It came to life five years ago, and was founded on this idea of supporting, rallying behind, and celebrating small businesses” says Nicole Leinbach Reyhle.  The Owner and Publisher of Retail Minded.Com, Reyhle is a small business owner herself, and   is serving this year as a national spokesperson for SMS.

SBS happens again this Saturday, November 29, 2014, the day after so-called “Black Friday.”  The intent of SBS and the Shop Small movement is to encourage holiday gift shoppers to focus on locally owned small businesses in their communities and to direct their purchases to these local, independently owned ventures. [Read more…]

Before You Freelance: Former Prosecutor Says Get Your Legal Business In Order, First

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You’re fed-up with your existing job, and you’re ready to do your own thing.

You can’t find an “employment position” – with all the guaranteed health and vacation benefits – but you’d still like to do a day’s work, and earn a day’s pay.

Frustrations like these motivate people to work independently, taking-on individual projects and completing them on a case-by-case basis.

But as noble as the ambition is, you’d better have your business straight with city, county, state and federal government agencies before you try to do business with anybody else.

“If you get it wrong, you’re probably going to be hit with some surprise taxes” says Alex Kincaid, a former prosecutor who now practices business law. “And the company you are doing work for might get hit with some surprises as well.”

Kincaid joined me on “Austin Hill’s BigWorld of SmallBusiness” and noted that, as for the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service will scrutinize your independent contractor dealings by examining you and the company you’re working for are behaving with one another.

“The IRS will want to know who controls the relationship” she says. “Is it you, the freelance contract worker, or is it the company you’re working for?  Make sure the IRS will agree that you are  truly working as an independent contractor before you jump in.”

Kincaid also recommends the following: [Read more…]

The Ferguson Story Everyone Else Missed: Small Business Under Attack, Destroyed

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According to a dismissive CNN reporter, the flames at the pizza restaurant were “extinguished quickly,” before “much” damage was done.

And the looters, after they had already stolen from and destroyed the interior of a privately owned liquor store, blocked the entrance of the building so police couldn’t enter.

And then there was the convenience store – a store owned and operated by the QuikTrip Corporation – that was completely burned to the ground.

Amid the racial animosity and the threat of human injury, an important facet of Ferguson, Missouri’s civil unrest is being completely ignored: real people’s investments, livelihoods and life-savings, and the economic viability of an entire community, are being destroyed by “demonstrators” who have no respect for other people’s property.

Small business advocates and believers in the right to private property should not be silent about this. [Read more…]

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