Running a successful business requires an adequate understanding of pricing. Your business needs to sell its goods and services for a price that customers are willing to pay and that satisfies your business's financial needs.
When it comes to setting prices, retail sellers need to factor in sales tax. Thanks to new legislation, this is especially important for e-commerce businesses. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), "as a small business owner, you are required to assess sales tax, collect it and pass it on to the appropriate authorities within the prescribed time." Except for wholesale items, raw materials, and sales made to nonprofits, U.S. retail businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods they sell.
While the concept of sales tax seems simple enough, the recent Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc.adds complications to e-commerce companies doing business nationally. The decision enables states to charge sales tax to out-of-state sellers, which means you don't need a physical presence in a state to pay sales tax. In South Dakota, the state can now charge sales tax to any business that delivers more than $100,000 of goods or services or totals 200 transactions on an annual basis. [Interested in online tax software? Check out our best picks.]
"This is a major change in the sales tax world," said Judah Fish, CEO of Saltwater Tax Group. "Many state laws will likely change in the coming months as states will obligate online sellers to collect sales tax and restore one of their largest revenue streams."
Fish expects other states to set similar parameters to South Dakota in terms of the minimum dollar sales amount and transactions needed to enforce the tax. Other experts have shared similar sentiments. If your small business mails three $15 items across the country, it's unlikely that any state will create a law where purchases that small result in paying a sales tax, but those selling larger amounts need to take note.
With the ruling coming down in late June, there's still a lot left to play out. In the meantime, find out how to prepare your business for what's to come. Follow these general tips for managing sales tax.
"Along with the obvious changes that are going to need to be implemented from an accounting perspective, a huge portion of the impact of this decision is going to be technological," said Christian Gainsbrugh, the founder of LearningCart. "Many people take sales tax calculations for granted, but managing and calculating those rates behind the scenes is no small feat."
]]>Below I've listed just "some" of the Life Hacks/Business Hacks that may help you in your business:
Taking a nap, we've seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. But napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. Click Here
Think this is evil? Think not! Some of the best, and most profitable, business professionals have employed these tactics for years. Jump in and learn something. Click Here
We're all guilty. Every day from the moment we wake up, we live our lives caring what other people think of us. Click Here
"Critical Thinking" may sound like an obnoxious buzzword from liberal arts schools, but it's actually a useful skill. Critical thinking just means absorbing important information and using that to form a decision or opinion of your own—rather than just spouting off what you hear others say. This doesn't always come naturally to us, but luckily, it's something you can train yourself to do better. Click Here
Sometimes, you get to a point at work where your motivation is completely depleted. But circumstances dictate that you can't quit. So how do you keep going? There's always a way. Click Here
There are so many more articles but we just wanted to share just a few.
]]>GUESS WHAT? MOST OF US HAVE BEEN THERE…
So, how do you stay on task when a project just isn’t grabbing you? We decided to put together a little list of four of our favorite tricks to stay focused when you just simply aren’t engaged.
Number one: Set a timer and give yourself little accomplishment marks. By setting a timer and allowing yourself to take breaks once you hit your time, you’re tricking your brain into thinking your task is a game. And who doesn’t love games? Seriously. Try it out — maybe 20 minutes is when you generally fall off your chair and throw in the towel. So try setting the timer for thirty, and reward yourself with a breather afterwards.
Number two: ACTUAL rewards when you hit bigger goals. Any chocolate lovers out there? Duh – dumb question, eh? Do you have 12 pages to design, or a big beast of a website to build? Maybe your reward is a piece of your favorite fancy organic chocolate, and your goal is one page design to get that reward. Or completion of the About page on your website. Whatever it is, the prize is chocolate. If that’s not motivation, we don’t know what is. Just make sure that if your reward has anything to do with food — particularly chocolate — that your goals are relatively time consuming. Otherwise we’re just encouraging you to pig out and that’s not the intent.
Number three: Listen to some groovy beats. Music is a great way to cut the office silence — silence that can be a drag and make staying on task challenging. If you work in an office and you have a pair of headphones, you can totally listen to music without disturbing anyone, provided there’s no rule against it. Try working to some suitable tunes for the task at hand, and notice how much more quickly the time passes.
Number four: Stop when you’re ready. And no, we don’t mean stop altogether, but if you’ve gotten to that point in your day where you just know you’ve had enough, don’t keep straining to do more. All that will accomplish is to cause you to build up more resentment toward the project. Then you’re going to have a really hard time wrapping things up. Balance is key, so if your brain needs a rest, give it a rest and come back to it tomorrow. You’ll return to your seat fresh and ready to get back to work.
]]>What Small Businesses Need to Know About the Upcoming Payments Changes
The way we pay for stuff in the United States is changing — pretty quickly. And it’s worth paying attention to the shifts, especially because they’ll affect your day to day both as a small business owner and a consumer.
Change can be overwhelming. From chip cards (EMV) to new mobile payments technologies like NFC and contactless payments—staying on top of it all can be a lot (especially when you’re running a small business). So we put together a quick run-down of all of the upcoming payment technology changes that will soon affect you as a small business owner.
Increasingly, Americans are paying electronically (with cards and phones) instead of with cash and check. In fact, a recently released Nilson Report projects that cash and check payment volume will decline by 24 percent and 46 percent (respectively) in the United States by 2018. At the same time, card-payment volume is set to grow by over 50 percent in the same period. So it’s worth making sure your business is set up to accept all forms of payment.
Yes, people are paying with cards more. But soon, they’ll be paying with a specific type of card — chip cards (aka EMV cards). The nationwide shift to EMV cards is one of the most critical things to have on your radar. The gist of it is that in the coming months and years the United States is phasing out magnetic-stripe cards in favor of EMV cards, which are way more secure (aka harder to counterfeit). How does this directly affect you? Your business will need a new processing system to be able to accept the new cards. You can pre-order the Square contactless and chip reader here.
The liability shift is a key reason you’ll want to switch up your point-of-sale system soon. Because come this fall (October, to be precise), you could be on the hook for certain types of fraudulent transactions if you aren’t set up to accept EMV cards. But if you sell with Square, you can rest easy about the liability shift. That’s because if you reserve our new Square contactless and chip reader, we’ll cover the liability shift for you until you receive your new reader in the mail.
The shift towards contactless payments like Apple Pay (aka NFC)
Increasingly, people will want to pay by tapping their phone, watch, or card. The most buzzed-about examples of such contactless payments are Apple Pay and Android Pay. Besides the cool factor, there are three main reasons why contactless payments are likely where things are headed: 1) They’re really, really secure; 2) They’re really, really fast; and 3) They’re really, really convenient. Contactless payments are locked down against fraud because the transaction includes multiple layers of encryption to protect your customers’ payment details. And in terms of speed, they leave cash, magnetic-stripe, and EMV payments in the dust. In an Apple Pay transaction, all a customer has to do is hold up his or her phone to the payment device (like the Square contactless and chip reader), and the entire transaction is over in just seconds. As for the convenience factor, well, there’s no need to carry around a George Costanza–style wallet anymore.
If you haven't already upgraded your credit card reader then we suggest that you look into it quickly. October 1st in the deadline.
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