Font Size : Increase font size Increase font size Decrease font size
The tax, vat and accounting Blog

Archive for July 3rd, 2009

by Joe Mears

It’s simple if you don’t take credit cards you are losing out on significant amounts of business. Everyday greater numbers of people are starting to use credit cards and if your competitors are accepting them and you are not, then you will have an even bigger problem.

In the merchant account industry there are many options with different companies to sign up for a merchant account. Despite this, you must be very careful to understand that a merchant account can work out to be much more costly than you think. This is because of the the ‘extra fees’ that merchant account providers will add.

These hidden fees can really eat into profits and in some cases make the difference between being profitable or not.

The most effective method for dealing with this is to find Merchant Credit Card Processing Services who are completely upfront about all the charges your merchant account will incur.

From there, you are in a position to work out what your total costs will actually be.

2009
03
Jul

High-end Investments

by Samatha East

High-end investments arent much different than traditional investments: You invest your money in stocks or bonds or mutual funds or ETFs and make all the same decisions that an average investor does. The major difference is the amount of capital in play (usually a lot) or the risk exposure (usually very high).

In other ways, high-end investing is an almost completely different beast. Its not so much investing (buying and holding on) as it is trading or speculating assuming a business risk with the hope of profiting from market fluctuations.

Successfully speculating (or guessing) requires analyzing situations, predicting outcomes, and putting your money on one side of a trade based on those predictions. Speculating also involves an appreciation of the fact that you can be wrong 75 percent of the time and still be successful. High-end investing means you have to chuck all your preconceptions about buy-and-hold investing and asset allocation, and all the strategies that stock brokerages put out for the public consumption. The following sections outline the high-end investment vehicles you can find out about in this book.

2009
03
Jul

Tips for Choosing an Accountant

by Chuck R Stewart

Attention all small business owners! Are the bills piling up? Do you know exactly how much you have in petty cash? Are there receipts scattered around your desk? If this sounds like you, then you should seriously consider finding a good Cincinnati CPA . But, how do you go about finding one you can trust? Even in a place like Cincinnati, for example, just consult the yellow pages and under the heading of Cincinnati accountants you’ll likely find a myriad of accountants with no way of knowing where to start. So, here’s a step-by-step guide to locating and choosing a good accountant.

Here’s How:

1. Make a list of referrals: Identify at least five accountants by contacting your financial planner, banker, insurance agent, and industry association. Ask other business owners about their accountants. Find out who they use and if they are happy with the services their accountant provides. If you don’t get any worthy referrals in this manner, use the phone book and choose several accounting firms. During the initial call, ask for an accountant who specializes in small businesses. An accountant that usually handles big businesses will not give you the individualized attention and help you require. Use this information to create a shortlist of prospective accountants.