Author: Jennifer Brazer

Business growth and profit increase can be achieved by implementing four simple and effective strategies. 

Professional Growth 

Professional development or professional growth is one of the main strategies a businessperson should adopt to ensure a high business success rate. It refers to setting goals and strategies for a company and then measuring outcomes based on those goals. It requires continually motivating staff and staying focused on business success. 

It is crucial for all types of businesses. A businessperson should spare time to research and learn their field of business. What is required by the customers? How can the best product be sold to your valuable customers? This study will help a lot in the future by making customers rely on your products. You will win the trust and loyalty of your customers. They will come again to purchase your products or avail of your services and refer others to your company. Referrals from satisfied customers are essential to earn steady money and grow your business. 

These strategies will ultimately lead to an increase in the profit graph and business success rate.

Top-Notch Quality Products at Competitive Prices 

Selling top-notch products or services at competitive prices also significantly benefits businesses. All customers require high-quality products and services, but, at the same time, most customers wish to buy them at the same prices as those of others in the competition.  

Quality requires intensive research, homework, and management. Take time to analyze the market trends and what other competitors are providing. Study your bookkeeping records thoroughly while making strategies for selling high-quality products at competitive prices. Bookkeeping will help you with profit margin analysis. 

Profit margin means that the revenue from sales is more than the expenses/costs of the product. Research and study the methods to decrease the cost of products without compromising the quality. You do not need to raise the product’s price to increase the profit margin. Ultimately, you will win the war against products of the same quality but with higher prices. 

Establish and Maintain Excellent Customer Service 

The customer is the most valuable and central point of every business that must be focused upon while formulating strategies to improve the business success rate. Establishing and maintaining excellent customer service is critical to a successful business plan. Customer services require that all customers be equally valuable, and you must understand customers’ expectations. Your products and services should fulfill the needs and wishes of customers. All customers should be dealt with with respect and attention. Communication with customers should be practical and available when they need your assistance. 

A customer’s issues should be resolved promptly, and feedback should be asked for. Everyone should feel that their opinion is valuable. When you ask customers for their opinions or suggestions, they feel valuable and privileged to be customers of such a high-standard company. Take their opinion as advice for improvement and adjust. A compensation policy should be there for customers for any loss or damage. 

Happy customers are assets of a successful business and should be tracked using CRM software. This software tracks sales and customer transactions. 

Use of Technology – Key to Success

The use of technology in all fields has increased intensively. Young generations specifically adhere to this innovation. Wise business owners are using this tool to succeed in their field.  

Create Facebook and Instagram pages to share your new product and updates for easy and prompt promotion. The content of your website should be updated and informative. Catchy content and graphics will pull visitors who may become your potential customers after getting regular updates from your social media platforms. 

Conclusion 

Continuous efforts to implement the above mentioned strategies will increase profit and ensure business success. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

With the rise of multiple small, medium, and large-scale cloud storage service providers, cloud security has become a concern among the customers of these organizations. Of course, whenever a user hands over data to these companies, they want it to be in safe hands. The popularity of cloud storage services boomed in 2005-2006 when several cloud services popped up. 

Initially, the services were used, assuming they kept the data safe. But, with several breaches reported by the media, this puts a very valid concern into the minds of the people utilizing these services, especially among some of the strongest clients these service providers have. This led to a need for proper auditing of the operations of these vendors.

Challenges

With new clients adopting cloud storage services in the operations of their business, there are new challenges that IT auditors should address. Below are a few examples.

Banking Sector Clients need a perfect security strategy, as any sort of data theft can lead to detrimental results for a bank’s clients and reputation. Thus, auditing of any cloud service provider that has a bank as its client needs to investigate multiple aspects of cloud security from any kind of onsite data, from theft by the employees of the service provider to cyber-attacks that intend to gather bank information such as card details, personal information, etc.

Government Institutions have a lot of personal data such as addresses, tax and income details, contact details, and other information. If this data is not adequately protected, it may lead to problems for a particular region’s people and government.

Medical institutions also possess private data. Medical records and insurance details of regular and emergency patients require suitable security measures from the service providers. There is a need for new approaches to protect customer data, mainly because the security measures employed by cloud service providers are shrouded in mystery.

The Auditing Requirements

The first condition for properly auditing cloud storage services is the audit firm’s independence. External audits represent transparency to a company’s clients better than internal audits. Furthermore, the audit firm should specialize in dealing with cases of cloud security. It should be well acquainted with the primary and complex data security measures that any cloud storage vendor must take to protect consumer data adequately. The standards must meet the legal requirements of the client-vendor relationship, and those measures can ensure success against any sort of threats to data.

However, there is one thing that should be kept in mind. With innovations in cloud computing, IT security firms must adopt emerging approaches in their audit strategy to ensure that sensitive corporate and personal data does not get into the hands of hackers, rogue employees, or anyone else not authorized to view the data. Ensuring the audit meets all current requirements is crucial if vendors want to retain or attract clients, especially corporate clients who are very profitable for cloud hosting companies.

Approaches for Auditing Cloud Storage Services

Now that we know the importance of auditing cloud storage vendors, a question arises about the responsibility of who should conduct the audit. Any audit by the vendor or the client would probably result in a biased, dishonest result. Therefore, the desired option is a third-party storage audit service with the experience, capabilities, and expertise to do the job efficiently. The following aspects and approaches to cloud security must be considered.

• Transparency. This requires agreements between the cloud service provider and client such that the deal highlights the service provider’s policy on data security. Service providers should also make audit results available to clients.
• Encryption. Traditionally, the data owner has control over encryption, but there are chances that the service providers might have the ability to decrypt user data. A possible solution is to use a homomorphic and third-party encryption service.
• Colocation. Although rare, this challenge can be addressed by standardizing and increasing oversight.
• Size and Complexity. This problem arises because of the sheer number of virtual and physical hosts that need to be audited. Until and unless there is a proper oversight mechanism, the auditing process may become rough, lengthy, and time-consuming.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Profitability and profit are often used interchangeably, but these two are not the same. Profit is a financial gain when the sum of revenue surpasses the expenses, costs, and liabilities, including taxes. 

Profitability is the metric used when the magnitude of the business measures a company’s profit. Profitability is a relative term. Profitability can also be described as the ability of a business to generate a profit on an investment according to the resources in business compared to a different amount of investment made. A business yielding a certain amount of profit may not be profitable when its profitability is estimated. 

Sustainable marketing tactics must be used from the start of any marketing campaign. This will ensure a long-lasting and successful business and profitability in the long run. Marketing is an investment tool. Marketing attracts more customers, notes feedback, and responds to customers’ queries and expectations.

Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns include the promotion of a product using different media platforms. The marketing campaign is not just an advertisement; various interactive techniques are used in marketing. Markets with high competition require frequent market campaigns for brand awareness and promotion of sales to sustain profitability.

Marketing Campaign to Maximize Profitability MARKETING

Marketers ensure sustainability in their marketing campaigns by implementing effective marketing strategies that drive profitability for the long term. Marketing strategies are activities in the marketing field to plan and develop market-oriented policies that achieve the goal of a company towards the sale of its product or services. An effective marketing strategy should emphasize attending to profitable customers, not only adding new ones.

Marketers ensure sustainability in their marketing campaigns by carefully planning before launching a campaign. They map the process from the initial promotional method to the final decisive outcome.  

Identify and Focus On Your Target Audience

First of all, use various platforms to identify your target audience. After identifying your target audience, focus on your target audience. Keep in touch with them. Always listen to your target audience. Develop your product or organize the services according to your target audience’s expectations. Your business starts with your customers and ends with them, too.

Develop Marketing Goals

To achieve success, set goals for your marketing campaign and initiate efforts to accomplish them, as setting aims and objectives is essential for effective execution.

Identify Channels for Marketing Campaigns

Plan out the marketing channels you will use for your marketing campaign. Media channels that marketers can use to attract an audience are:

Social media

Websites

Mobile

Email

Search engines

Advertisements

Promotional offers at superstores

Free samples distribution

Approach Your Customers Whenever Possible 

Know when and how you can connect with your customers. Where they hang out, how to approach them, and how to make them feel they are the main focus.

Listen to the Feedback

Always pay attention to the feedback of your potential customers on social media. Respond to queries from people on social media who want to know about your product. Develop your product to meet the needs of customers.

Develop Innovative Marketing Strategies 

Your marketing strategy should be unique and innovative.

Focus on Existing Customers

In making new customers, always remember your existing customers. They are the reason behind your business success so far.

The Market for the Right Reasons

Never try to promote a product for the wrong reasons or for the benefits it does not provide. You will lose your credibility forever.

Measure Results

Analyze and measure the results of marketing by measuring the goals achieved. Not only measure the profits but focus on the profitability ratio of the business before and after implementing a marketing campaign. In most cases, the goals are increased sales and increased net profit.

Conclusion 

Marketers ensure sustainability in their marketing campaigns by carefully planning their campaign from initial promotional methods to the final decisive outcome. Sustainability in marketing ensures building brand image and profitability in the business in the long run.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The experts accountable for choosing staff are typically keen on the capacity to work in gatherings. This is because the outcomes are greatly improved. Consequently, there are proven elements of collaboration that can assess workers, improve their connection, and appoint them to a specific job.

In the elements of cooperation, you can see which individuals have initiative aptitudes, which are successful, and progressively inventive or intelligent. This is imperative because an appropriate working team is framed with various people who share unique skills that can lead a venture forward. We will discuss the absolute best and most fascinating elements.

The System of 5 Thoughts

The first element of collaboration is used for improving innovativeness. It is fundamental, particularly in occupations inside the zones of promoting or design. The best approach is as follows:

In only 5 minutes, each gathering part composes and imparts five unique thoughts to their cohorts. Some might be extreme. However, using a significant methodology, these ideas can turn into something phenomenal. It is a clever dynamic.

Change of Jobs

The change of jobs element is utilized now and then. It ties in with rolling out an improvement of roles in which someone from the group professes to be the supervisor, and another serves as a laborer or representative. The vital thing about this dynamic is that it spins around one or a few issues.

The abilities of every individual from the group will make each “couple” who changes jobs locate an alternate answer for at least one issue, presenting another viewpoint in the scan for arrangements. It will profit both the general population and the gathering.

Conceptualizing

Conceptualizing is a dynamic that organizations, as a rule, initiate when a gathering is stuck before another venture. Nonetheless, it can promote execution, upgrade inventiveness, and boost the confidence of each colleague.

How is this accomplished? Conceptualizing is when everyone in the general population of the gathering shares their thoughts on a specific theme, venture, etc. It does not make a difference whether the opinion is good or bad, as in the principal dynamic we have officially depicted. Interestingly, every thought is legitimate and not belittled, even though it may not be helpful. It favors correspondence, improves the certainty of the gathering, and allows every individual to feel esteemed.

The Unsatisfied Client

The unsatisfied client dynamic is incredible, most importantly, in places expected to give thoughtfulness regarding the open. The advantage of the working gathering of completing this dynamic is that it will enable them to create and improve their passionate administration. At the same time, they utilize their abilities to unravel a troublesome circumstance with a customer.

For this, one individual in the gathering acts as a disappointed client while someone else portrays the employee. It is imperative to break down how the acting employee deals with their feelings and settle the contention. This dynamic will enable every person to do their part so that others will learn different approaches to managing troublesome customers.

Under Strain

This fifth of the dynamic elements of a collaboration comprises the goals of a puzzle, for instance, a few working gatherings. The objective is to explain the situation as quickly as time permits. Therefore, there must be great correspondence and association to abstain from wasting time.

This powerful element enables you to figure out how to oversee worry in a manner that does not obstruct the gathering yet enables you to locate a speedy arrangement. It will produce great practice, allowing groups to work more efficiently with a time-constrictive task.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Cloud computing has revolutionized the technology for small companies by allowing access to various skills that generally only more prominent companies could afford. Through a web browser and an internet connection, small corporations can enter services and software based on their needs and pay accordingly for their usage. An example of this can be utility services. By joining the “Cloud,” a business can access everything – from customer relationship management systems to data backup.

It portrays a grid of remote computers to store, process, and manage applications and data. The in-house IT infrastructure burden is shifted onto the cloud service supplier by permitting an organization’s IT operations to be outsourced to another company.

The demand for cloud services can be categorized into infrastructure, platforms, and software. Companies can select between hybrid, private, or public cloud deployment, subject to their security concerns and needs.

A cloud provider’s services generally comprise a system with stringent security protocols, routine maintenance, and repairs for an acceptable fee (either per bandwidth or per user). Since its inception, cloud computing has had some significant implications. However, its capacity to bring productivity and profitability is the most effective benefit. Most businesses use the cloud for data backup.

Lower Expenses and Costs

Cloud-based services are an excellent way to save money in many places, such as server maintenance, power, upgrade expenses, and software licensing. More than half of small and medium-sized businesses use cloud computing to decrease costs. Instead of spending money on hardware maintenance, which usually goes unused, subscribing to services and software at a small monthly fee will help these small companies stretch their budgets further.

Along with the ability to expand to fulfill high demands, the cloud will also allow businesses to scale down through their slower periods. Examples include using less storage space or removing users to save the business money.

How do you find out how much you have saved? The process of bookkeeping is recognized and well-defined in the field of business and accounting. Bookkeeping will help you provide all the necessary and relevant information from which all your accounts are formulated. This makes it remarkably simple to access all essential information.

Being Connected Anywhere

The cloud permits employees to stay connected regardless of where they are located. Employees could work from home, at a prospect’s head office, or on a plane. Employees in different areas can cooperate without sharing calendars, e-mail attachments, and task lists.

Employees can get their hands on all applications and business files needed to stay productive if there is an internet connection. Companies can access relevant data or inquire about the company’s operations at any time of the day on just about any device with an internet connection. This is a major advantage for companies with remote workers.

Employees can also link and communicate with their boss and staff through instant messaging. They can even arrange for spontaneous meetings with the help of robust audio, web conferencing, and video services. Thanks to cloud-based services, including vendors and customers in these meetings is now possible. Due to these facilities of improved information sharing, companies can react more swiftly to business opportunities.

Better Reliability

Cloud-based services are more reliable than services delivered on-premises, particularly if the hardware or servers are aging. In addition, cloud service providers’ experienced and dedicated IT staff can resolve problems much faster than a company with limited IT resources.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The success of minor to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is often viewed as an indicator of overall economic health. Moreover, businesses with less than 250 employees may be more straightforward to manage than multinational companies with thousands of employees—consequently, the matters of scale result in a different mix of challenges. However, businesses face many peculiar challenges with implementing human resources (HR) systems and policies in an SME.

The issue prevails because, unlike large organizations, SMEs tend to take HR issues and concerns for granted and ignore them either partially or fully. They only take action when matters peak; thus, the scenario becomes out of their control. Moreover, HR matters are more complicated than accounting matters, which can be rectified by scrutinizing and correcting the bookkeeping issues.

Consequently, small to medium-sized enterprises must adopt the best HR practices and procedures to accomplish their company goals and business objectives. You do not need huge funds as long as you have the right people at the right seats, putting processes in place at the right time. Here are some of the typical HR issues prevailing with SMEs.

Absence or Lack of HR Department in SMEs

Most small businesses and medium-sized enterprises have no HR departments, mainly because they perceive that having a fully functional HR department is an additional cost. Hence, in the absence of an HR department, workers tend to solve workplace issues themselves, which can result in chaos and problems among the workers. Therefore, they are often vulnerable to concerns affecting their morale and job motivation.

Managing Talent

Lack of talent management is another big issue prevailing in SMEs, which ultimately affects the following HR processes.

Recruitment

The HR process begins with recruiting the ideal candidate for a position. Remember, the quality of the individuals you hire will eventually determine their success or failure in the long term. SMEs typically start recruiting referrals, their relatives and people they know, or individuals related to shareholders. This is okay as long as merit is the basis for people’s employment.

However, SMEs typically prefer relatives and friends, assuming that they are easy to deal with and willing to work for them at a lower rate. However, the downside of this practice is that the hired friends and relatives often lack the requisite skills and expertise, which can cost a lot to the company in the long run. Moreover, family-owned small businesses usually have no formal recruitment process, mainly acquired by succession or inheritance.

Training and Development

In today’s developed business societies and with the current market scenario, organizations should acquire an adequate pool of skilled and experienced employees. Therefore, large companies demonstrate concrete efforts to hire intelligent and skilled people and upscale their abilities and potential by making them go through various training and development programs. However, SMEs often tend not to rely on external training and development programs because of budget constraints. Therefore, they conduct on-the-job or in-house training, which often produces lower results or provides no training.

Reward and Remuneration & Performance Appraisals

Reward and remuneration are other essential HR aspects that all organizations, regardless of size and nature, should effectively use to motivate their employees. They must have a transparent and dependable system of setting the salaries for their staff. However, many SMEs either have a vaguely structured reward and remuneration system and performance appraisals or none.

This is primarily because other structures like a job description, competency framework, and values for the different roles are not well-defined. Moreover, small business owners or managers are mostly busy or are not well trained to handle more than average ‘performance.’ Most SMEs are not too focused on scale and growth to tackle appraisal processes.

Talent Retention

Retaining competent employees at the junior level is often a big challenge for SMEs. This junior-level mainly consists of workers with functional skills like electricians, field salespersons, etc. This class is significantly mobile and rarely available in job shifts recurrently; it may even quit working without giving prior notice. The unexpected loss of employees sometimes affects SMEs, especially during the seasonal days.

Moreover, vague role definitions, lack of career prospects, or any perceived unfairness in the remuneration or appraisal system can trigger thoughts of attrition among workers. HR managers should be aware of employees’ engagement at all levels of the enterprise and their retention drivers.

Maintaining the Spirit of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Culture

Bursting with excitement, aspirations, expectations, and immense potential, SMEs, in their starting days, often cater to a business culture that is fun, fast-moving, innovative, and entrepreneurial. Such a culture comprises young, energetic team members who show excellent coordination and dedication, work closely with each other, and frequently interact with their seniors and business founders. However, SMEs lose such spirit as the business grows and matures. Therefore, due to conventional ways of business management, they often fail to grow further. In fact, at some point, sustaining in the competitive market becomes a challenge.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Attempting to set up a brand, adjusting to coordinate or surpass the competitors, and keeping your business profitable are tests regardless of how long you have been in business.

Be as it may, for new and young business people, some one-of-a-kind challenges are tough to overcome.

Abandoning Another Profession – The Primary Startup Task

If the entrepreneur is willing to commit to starting and supporting the progression of a new business, it will be almost impossible to deal with another profession simultaneously. Dealing with the early stages of a business on the sidelines, on weeknights and weekends, in combination with your 9-5 job, is still doable, albeit barely. However, if you want your business to grow and flourish, this cannot happen. Thus, one of the primary startup tasks for an entrepreneur is to indulge in the new business full-time.

Leaving a promising, enduring long-haul opportunity for something capricious is frightening – particularly if you have never maintained a business. Shockingly, there is no simple approach to address this. Thoroughly consider your choice sensibly, and do not overlook your impulses.

Financing – Key Startup Task

Entrepreneurs with experience running a business may have problems with startup capital. However, they do have a couple of benefits over the newcomers. They may have a pool of capital from a business they already sold or a constant flow of income they can use to support another business’s revenue. Furthermore, bookkeeping know-how is necessary, and prospective entrepreneurs should ensure it is in their lockers. Adequate financing is one of the fundamental startup tasks for ensuring smooth business operations.

Regardless of the possibility that their first business went under, they have likely made investment contacts and customer associations essential to provide them a leg in another endeavor. As a new business person, it is a beginning without any preparation. This implies that networking must be conducted on a massive and thorough scale while considering all your conceivable funding alternatives before deciding on one. Networking is another critical startup task that must be catered to by an entrepreneur.

Team Building

This is particularly hard if a prospective entrepreneur has never run or dealt with a group. Yet, regardless of the possibility that you have management experience, selecting the right combination of individuals in a team can be pretty complicated and problematic. It is insufficient to discover applicants who fill certain parts.

It would help if you considered their cost to the business, their cultural fit, and how they will function as a major aspect of your general team. Such contemplations are extraordinarily hard when you are under the weight of filling those positions as quickly as time permits. An entrepreneur must conduct efficient team-building measures as a primary startup task.

Being the Visionary

As the originator of the startup, the entrepreneur will be relied upon to think of ideas. When a competitor comes up, it will be the entrepreneur’s duty to think of a reaction plan. At a point when the team hits a seemingly obstructive impediment, the entrepreneur must concoct an option for an ultimate breakthrough. Interpreting the business’s financial situation is key to understanding the business’s position. Therefore, bookkeeping is an essential function that must be conducted diligently by the business.

There is also the requirement of on-the-spot inventive intuition, which ought to be a confusing expression. Yet, businesspeople infrequently have the advantage of time. The less experience you have, the heavier it will be for you.

Managing the Obscure

To what extent will your business exist? How productive will your business be? Will clients like your product? Will you have the capacity to give yourself a relentless paycheck? None of these inquiries have a strong, dependable answer, even in startups that are formed considering extraordinary ideas with all resources at their disposal.

That dark factor implies your job security will dive, and many of your long-term plans will stay in transition as new improvements develop. Managing this instability is one of the hardest parts of growing as an entrepreneur. Bookkeeping is a strategic function of the business that can help remove these gray areas to some extent.

Policy Making

It is enjoyable to be the supervisor until you need to authorize something. At some point or another, the entrepreneur will need to consider the business’s standards, from thethe number of vacations your laborers get to the right policy when documenting a complaint about a colleague. These subtle elements are not amusing to make and are not enjoyable to consider, yet they are fundamental to each business.

Basic Leadership

Believe it or not, this is likely the most unpleasant test on this rundown. New business people are compelled to settle on several daily choices, from enormous, organization-affecting decisions to minor, hour-influencing ones. Decision fatigue is a genuine phenomenon; most new business people will encounter it if they are not set up for the new stress level.

If entrepreneurs can work past these significant obstructions by efficiently managing crucial startup tasks, they will be well on their way to becoming business visionaries.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Settling tax debt isn’t easy; you need somewhere to begin. Agencies explain the complicated process and recommend not to start without consulting a professional. However, deciding between an agreement for installment or an offer in compromise isn’t as complex as it may seem. After learning the details of both processes, taxpayers can usually decide what works best for them. Each process has its pros and cons.

Offer in Compromise

Advantages

One of the main reasons people choose an Offer in Compromise as a settlement option is the completion of their tax liability. The entire tax debt is paid once the IRS accepts the offer and payment is made in full. There is no hassle of keeping up with monthly installments.

If your tax debt is secured through the IRS with a lien on a property you own, the Offer in Compromise can clear that up. All you need to do is file a lien withdrawal. This may be a solid reason to pursue an Offer In Compromise. However, the importance of this reason varies from individual to individual, depending on their financial situation.

Even if your Offer in Compromise is rejected, you can still pursue an installment agreement. If the IRS accepts your Offer in Compromise, you would have to pay less than your total debt, which might seem attractive to some people.

Disadvantages

Rejection is why an Offer in Compromise isn’t seen as a dependable option. The IRS often rejects applications because of the financials of the applying individual. Several applications are turned down because many tax relief agencies send applications even if they know they have zero chance of being accepted.

Liquidation of Assets

The IRS might expect you to liquidate your assets to come close to the amount you owe. They can also file a federal tax lien against your property while your Offer In Compromise status remains pending. If you already have liens, it might not be a big issue. It also isn’t very common, but can be a possibility. 

Installment Agreement

Advantages

The benefits of installment agreements usually come where the disadvantages of the offer-in-compromise end. The first big advantage of an Installment Agreement is, usually, not having to liquidate your assets. Plus, the monthly installments in this plan can be extremely low. The total amount you end up paying can even be lower than what you owe currently, as debt that ages to more than ten years becomes uncollectible. You can check out the particular dates for the Collection Statute Expiration.

Another advantage of an Installment Agreement is the acceptance rate. It is much easier to get a Partial Pay Installment Agreement accepted than it is to get an accepted Offer in Compromise.

Disadvantages

The IRS can review your financial situation every 24 months in the Partial Pay Installment Agreement. Acquisition of new assets and boosts in income can lead to the IRS increasing your monthly payments.

The second disadvantage of the Partial Pay Installment Agreement is the presence of tax liens. The IRS won’t lift those liens as they do in the Offer in Compromise. Moreover, the existence of liens can affect your ability to obtain loans.

Filing Process

The forms to file an Offer In Compromise and Partial Pay Installment Agreement differ. However, the required information is pretty much the same. The IRS will require full disclosure of income, assets, and expenses in each tax debt settlement method. However, in the Offer in Compromise, there is only a one-time disclosure compared to the Partial Pay Installment Agreement, where disclosure is scheduled every two years.

Conclusion

The IRS prefers that people with tax debt apply for a Partial Pay Installment Agreement rather than an Offer in Compromise. The reason for this is the ability of the IRS to collect more of the tax debt because they expect the person to be in a better financial situation in the future. The recommended route is to consult a professional bookkeeper or CPA about your financial status. Try to file for an Offer In Compromise if the professional recommends it. If you don’t file an Offer in Compromise or if it is rejected, you can file for a Partial Pay Installment Agreement.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

With the rise of multiple small, medium, and large-scale cloud storage service providers, cloud security has become a concern among the customers of these organizations. Of course, whenever a user hands over data to these companies, they want it to be in safe hands. The popularity of cloud storage services boomed in 2005-2006 when several cloud services popped up.

Initially, the services were used with the assumption that they kept the data safe. But, with several breaches reported by the media, this put a very valid concern into the minds of the people utilizing these services, especially among some of the strongest clients these service providers have. This led to a need for proper auditing of the operations of these vendors.

Challenges

With new clients adopting cloud storage services in the operations of their business, there are new challenges that IT auditors should address. Below are a few examples.

Banking Sector Clients need a perfect security strategy, as any sort of data theft can lead to detrimental results for a bank’s clients and reputation. Thus, auditing of any cloud service provider that has a bank as its client needs to look into multiple aspects of cloud security from any kind of onsite data, from theft by the employees of the service provider to cyber-attacks that intend to gather bank information such as card details, personal information.

Government Institutions have a lot of personal data such as addresses, tax and income details, contact details, and other information. If this data is not adequately protected, it may lead to all kinds of problems for both the people and the government of a particular region.

Medical institutions also possess private data. Medical records and insurance details of regular and emergency patients require suitable security measures from the service providers. New approaches are needed to protect customer data, mainly because the security measures employed by cloud service providers are shrouded in mystery.

The Auditing Requirements

The first condition for proper auditing of cloud storage services is the audit firm’s independence. External audits represent transparency to a company’s clients better than internal audits. Furthermore, the audit firm should specialize in dealing with cases of cloud security and should be well acquainted with the primary and complex data security measures that any cloud storage vendor has to take in order to adequately protect consumer data. The measures must meet the legal requirements of the client-vendor relationship, and those measures can ensure success against any sort of threats to data.

However, there is one thing that should be kept in mind. With innovations in cloud computing, IT security firms have to adopt emerging approaches in their audit strategy to ensure that sensitive corporate and personal data does not get into the hands of hackers, rogue employees, or anyone else not authorized to view the data. Ensuring the audit meets all current requirements is crucial if vendors want to retain or attract clients, especially corporate clients who are very profitable for cloud hosting companies.

Approaches for Auditing Cloud Storage Services

Now that we know the importance of auditing cloud storage vendors, a question arises about the responsibility of who should conduct the audit. Any audit by the vendor or the client would probably result in a biased, dishonest result. Therefore, the desirable option is a third-party storage audit service with the experience, capabilities, and expertise to do the job efficiently. The following aspects and approaches to cloud security must be considered.

Transparency. This requires agreements between the cloud service provider and client such that the deal highlights the service provider’s policy on data security. Service providers should also make audit results available to clients.

Encryption. Traditionally, the data owner has control over encryption, but there are chances that the service providers might have the ability to decrypt user data. A possible solution is using a homomorphic and third-party encryption service.

Colocation. Although rare, this challenge can be addressed by standardizing and increasing oversight.

Size and Complexity. This problem arises because of the sheer number of virtual and physical hosts that need to be audited. Until and without a proper oversight mechanism, the auditing process may become rough, lengthy, and time-consuming.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Your work life can get much easier with cloud storage. Because of cloud storage, users can access data and information from anywhere with just internet access. A law firm can help a lawyer answer their client’s question quickly while the other lawyer waits in the courtroom to represent the other client. Cloud storage is an online model in which data is stored on numerous distributed servers on the network, provided for use by customers, mainly by a third party. Data is stored and processed in one giant virtual server known as cloud data storage from the client’s point of view.

Suppose you are tired of running between work and home with a flash drive, always carrying a laptop with the correct files, and want your important files to be accessible to you or your team on any computer or mobile device. In that case, cloud storage can come to your rescue. Law firms use cloud storage to save information and client data while managing all their work in the best way possible.

Cloud storage offers several advantages to users:

1. It allows convenient access to data from any computer with an internet connection, enhancing flexibility and productivity.
2. Cloud storage ensures data security, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or loss. Even in the event of hardware failures, there’s a high probability of data safety, thanks to redundant systems and backups implemented by cloud providers.
3. Clients benefit from a pay-as-you-go model, where they only pay for the storage they use, eliminating the need for large upfront investments.
4. Users are relieved from the burden of acquiring, supporting, and maintaining their data storage infrastructure, reducing total maintenance costs.

The responsibility for procedures like data reservation and integrity preservation lies with the cloud provider, freeing the client from these tasks and allowing them to focus on their core business activities.

Through cloud storage, we can easily store data with the ease of access anytime, anywhere. It is purchased as a service and provided on demand, which allows you to get the required amount of storage with payment after use. Cloud storage eliminates the need to buy and manage your storage infrastructure, increases flexibility, and provides global scaling and the ability to deliver data to any place at any time. 

Cloud storage has made it relatively easy to store all data and access it whenever you want. Many law firms have started using cloud storage because they can securely store all the data and information their clients can access anytime.

Cloud storage providers create and maintain an infrastructure to manage resources, security, and reliability, making data available for applications worldwide.

Importance of Cloud Storage Usage in Law Firms

Data storage in the cloud allows law firms to fundamentally review three aspects of their activities: the total cost of ownership, time to deployment, and information management.

The Total Cost of Ownership

Because of cloud storage, you do not need to purchase equipment, allocate resources for storage, or spend money on something that “someday will come in handy.” You can add or remove resources on-demand, quickly change performance and storage time, and pay only for the resources used. Data that is not used can be automatically moved to more economical levels by rules that are easy to control. This allows for economies of large volumes.

Time to Deployment

Cloud storage allows IT professionals to quickly allocate the necessary space to store data exactly when required. As a result, IT professionals can focus on solving complex application-related problems, not on managing storage systems. 

Information Management

Centralized storage in the cloud creates vast opportunities. Using life cycle management policies in cloud storage, you can solve essential tasks related to information management, including automatic leveling or data locking for compliance purposes.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.