When it comes to the fourth quarter, one hot item on everyone’s mind is budgets. Planning for next year provides an opportunity to reflect on how your 2017 financial goals are tracking and what has changed. An honest assessment helps you avoid creating an unrealistic budget. By assessing your current state in October, you give yourself enough time to make adjustments to your … [More]
Encouraging Employees to Save for Retirement Can Be Tricky, But It Doesn’t Have to Be
Does your small business offer an employee retirement plan? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Only 14 percent of small-business owners with fewer than 100 employees offer a plan to help their staff save for retirement.1 Providing a retirement plan can be difficult for a small business. It can be expensive, challenging to manage and often come with confusing compliance … [More]
Benefits of Having a Networking Buddy
It’s a proven fact that most people would rather stay home than walk into a room full of strangers under the guise of networking. OK, I don’t actually have any stats on this, but I think most of you will agree with me :) There are, of course, a few of us who feel like we’ve won the lottery every time we get to chat it up with a complete stranger, but let’s face it, most … [More]
Finding Joy in the Midst of Stress
No matter what place in your career you find yourself, it is likely there has been a time when you just did not feel as passionate about what you are doing as you would like to. We hear about “burnout” so much that we almost expect to get to a point where we are no longer happy with our jobs. At the risk of sounding like I have rose-colored glasses permanently glued to my head, … [More]
Why the 4th Quarter Is Critical!
The sales year has four quarters in it — and the 4th Quarter is the most important of the year. “Q4” is the quarter that has a double impact to your performance. First, consider that sports coaches always teach their players to compete until the end of a play, a game or a season. Many sporting events are not won until the last minute or play of the game. Yogi Berra’s famous … [More]
Small Business Continues to Lead Arizona – Arizona Small Business Association is the Leader
Who creates the jobs in Arizona? Simple answer: Small businesses represent more than 99 percent of Arizona’s entire private-sector economy, with minority-owned businesses accounting for 25 percent of those businesses. And 88 percent of the state’s exporters are small businesses. Small business employs almost 1,000,000 growth of 2015. These figures come from the 2017 … [More]
Arizona’s New Paid Sick Leave Policies: It’s Time to Get Ready!
Summer is upon us and so are Arizona’s new sick time pay rules. On July 1, 2017, virtually all Arizona employers must begin providing either 25 or 40 hours per year of paid sick leave to their employees. The new sick leave requirement, which was part of a 2016 voter initiative that also increased Arizona’s minimum wage, requires Arizona employers to track both the accrual and … [More]
Have We Reached ‘Peak’ Professional Conferencing?
I would argue that we have, and yet fads continue to surprise me. Remember when the iPhone came out in 2009 and Apple’s first campaign was titled “There’s an app for that”? Today, we could substitute the word “app” for conference, summit or expo. There is little shortage of local, national or regional conferences to attend based upon an industry, field of study or trending … [More]
Why Offer Group Insurance?
Even with all the talk of changing the Health Care Reform System, the laws have not yet changed. As an individual and a business, you still have the same responsibilities that you had last year. So, you are required to have health insurance as an individual. And the reporting and compliance requirements as a business offering insurance are still the same. It’s hard, when we … [More]
SRP Delivers the Tools to Help Your Business Thrive
The early leaders of SRP understood the importance of growth in the Valley, which is why they worked to bring a reliable source of water and power to the area. Today, SRP continues to support the Valley by providing these essential services and offering tools to help you grow your business. Workshops to help your business thrive. SRP empowers your business to succeed by … [More]
5 Reasons Why a Strong Brand Is Important for Your Small Business
Small-business owners are at the leading edge of the business world. As forward- thinkers, they love the rush of turning a new idea into reality. As idea people, they sometimes lack the logistics, like marketing and branding, to get ahead of the competition. Building a solid foundation, developing key potential partnerships, and understanding how customers … [More]
The Solution for Sustainable Success: Trust Your Instincts
I work with entrepreneurs every day. The successful ones have tapped into a sort of formula that allows them to obtain success they can sustain. They’ll start by evaluating their natural strengths — their instincts — and how that impacts the way they lead a team. Here are the components: Find out how you do things. The most successful business owners I work with start by … [More]
How to Buy Word-of-Mouth Referrals?
With 68 percent of small-business owners identifying word-of-mouth as the best way to acquire a new customer, you’re not alone in wanting to understand how to increase it for your business. Unfortunately, it’s not something that can be bought. Word-of-mouth referrals require someone trusted by others to put their reputation on the line for your business. That’s why it’s such … [More]
New Year, New ASBA!
With exciting additions to staff, the launch of several new programs and a rebrand in the works, ASBA is taking the expression, “new year, new me,” to a whole other level! ASBA is excited to announce that Jack Lunsford, after serving as “Interim” for five months, has officially been appointed President and CEO. “Jack is a visionary thought leader and change agent,” says … [More]
Federal Law Alert: New I-9 Form Released
The new I-9 form was recently released. As of January 21, 2017, you must now use the new form. Therefore, we recommend you train all employees who are responsible for completing the I-9 and start to use it for new hires as soon as possible. A few important notes about this new form: While the new I-9 is intended to be completed as a fillable PDF to reduce errors, it … [More]
There Is Always a Solution
The primary challenge in creating value in business today is far more complex than ever before. The reason for this stems from contradicting performance requirements that companies should meet in order to create value, such as quality and low cost, reliability and speed, customization and standardization, innovation and efficiency. This challenge becomes exacerbated by having … [More]
Safeguarding Your Company from Cyber Tax Crimes – Take Action Now!
As if tax season was not bad enough, the U.S. Internal Revenue Services (IRS) recently issued an urgent alert warning that cybercriminal phishing scams are utilizing a new, more dangerously effective method for large-scale thefts of sensitive tax information from tax preparers, businesses and payroll companies. Once cybercriminals have this sensitive tax information, they may … [More]
In-Network vs. Out-of-Network: What it Means for Your Dental Coverage
When you have dental benefits from Delta Dental of Arizona, you can visit any licensed dentist. However, your benefit plan might have limited coverage for services provided by out-of-network dentists. To ensure you’re saving the most money and receiving your full benefit, it’s always best to visit a dentist in the Delta Dental network. Here are three things you should know … [More]
