Writing Off Business Startup Costs

One of the benefits of starting a business is the ability to write off your start up costs as business deductions. However, many people feel that too many deductions send up a red “audit” flag to IRS. It can definitely be confusing to try to navigate what you can and cannot write off in regards to your start up costs, but Startup Nation as a great checklist that can get you off on the right foot. Here is an abbreviated version of their list:

• Track your business startup costs – begin at the beginning.
• Track your organizational costs.
• Take an upfront deduction if you qualify.
• Depreciate your initial equipment and furniture.
• Get a tax benefit for merchandise you first bought for yourself.
• Have a lot of startup costs? Put off what you can.

Six Ways to Create Interview Chemistry

Interviewing can be a lot like dating. Think about it – two people meeting, who might not know each other, come together for a meeting out of a common interest in each other. So can approaching a job interview like a date really help you land a new career?

According to Career Builder, there is a quite a bit of overlap between the two. Here are a few tips they offer, that might help you in both arenas:

1. Share commonalities: Discuss your passion for your field or enthusiasm for a new product or service, as well as personal commonalities such as family (i.e., children of the same age), recreational activities, hobbies or interests.
2. L.I.S.T.E.N. attentively: Laser your focus. Investigate and be curious. Silence your tongue -- hold your judgment and open your mind. Take brief notes and take time to formulate your response. Elevate the other person. Note the nonverbal, including your body language and that of your interviewer. It is impossible to connect with others if you don't listen well.
3. R.E.S.P.O.N.D. well: Remember your objective; Engage the interviewer. Share succinctly. Point to benefits. Offer proof. Never drone on. Dedicate yourself to a win-win relationship.
4. Pay attention to the 'howchas': The "howchas" are how you say something (as opposed to what you say). Tone, inflection, body language, attitude and motive combine to make how you say it just as important as what you say. To improve your 'howcha's,' remain deferential, respectfully curious and concerned about the interviewer/company's welfare. Use verbal and body language mirroring to enhance communication, matching aspects of your interviewer's voice, language, mannerisms and body language.
5. Recognize their learning style, whether auditory, visual or kinesthetic/tactile: Offer variety in your interview so that each style is addressed. This might include answering questions for the auditory learners, writing an outline on a whiteboard or showing a PowerPoint demonstration for the visual learners, and engaging the kinesthetic/tactile learners in activities or encouraging them to take more thorough notes.
6. Understand their temperament: Theorists (often seen in executive roles) value impressive training or credentials, and stress vision, logic, innovation, mastery, progress and excellence. Catalysts (often seen in human service roles) value harmony in work relationships and appreciate ideal, meaningful work environments. Stabilizers (often seen in finance and management roles) value factual, reality-based responses in a sequential, detailed fashion. Improvisers (often seen in sales/marketing roles) value action, excitement and variety, and prefer solutions that are practical and effective to help them get what they want.

Contractors Deserve Vacations, Too

This topic is near and dear to my heart – the contractor vacation. When you take the plunge and start working for yourself, you find that you lose a lot of the benefits offered by a more structured workplace. Usually, the first benefit to take a hit is your vacation time.

It’s not like you’re not working as hard as your cubicle-bound peers, so what’s stopping you from having a vacation. No matter the reasons, Monster has a great list of tips to get you out of your basement office and onto a far-off beach.

• Budget for Time Off: It's pretty simple, really. Decide how many weeks of vacation you want to take this year, say six. Subtract the weeks of vacation from 52, which tells you how many weeks are available for generating income, in this case 46. Figure out how much money you need to gross, including vacation expenses, say $100,000. Divide $100,000 by 46, and you know you need to gross $2,174 per week. This scheme may sound simplistic, but if you focus on your goal, you'll be on your way to a guilt-free six weeks of vacation. No need to send me a thank-you note; one of those "wish you were here" postcards will do.
• Make a Personal Commitment: Your clients won't try to persuade you to take a vacation, and your credit cards won't declare a holiday on interest payments just so you can hit the beach. The only way your vacation is going to happen is if you make an appointment right now -- with your family, your traveling companion or yourself -- to get out the calendar and choose dates for your time off.
• Set Clients' Expectations: Many clients assume consultants and contractors are as available as running water, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's up to you to change this perception. The next time you negotiate a contract, let the client know when you'll be taking time off. If the client can't tolerate an interruption in the services you provide, arrange for an associate or subcontractor to cover for you. If either you or your client believes that your client can't cope for a few weeks without your personal attention, it's time to change how you do business.
• Make Travel Reservations: Lots of contractors get this far in the process of vacation planning, but then they never actually plan the vacation. Commit yourself to your time off by actually buying air tickets, reserving a lakeside cabin and putting down a deposit for that hot-air balloon ride. You'll start to feel lighter as soon as you make the calls.
• Create a Countdown Schedule: How, exactly, are you going to get everything done before that three-week vacation in August? Minimize the stress by creating a day-by-day plan that begins tomorrow and ends on the eve of your vacation. Don't let yourself try to shoehorn a month's worth of work into the last week before your time off. In fact, your final week should have the lightest schedule so you can attend to the inevitable last-minute snags.
• Stow Your Portable Tech Gear: Did you think I'd let you sneak your cell phone and laptop into your luggage? No way. If you're on call, you're not really on vacation. Let your clients know that you'll be entirely offline, make arrangements for colleagues to handle emergencies and give yourself a break. You deserve it.

Don't Let Your Job Get Toxic

Everyone goes through ups and downs at their jobs. Sometimes it might even seem that nothing is going your way. However, there is a difference between the occasional workplace blues and your workplace turning you toxic. Not toxic like Toxic Avenger toxic, but toxic in the sense that you are so polluted by your job that you can’t be revived. Everyday is a bad day on the job. You are just showing up for the paycheck. These are signs of toxicity.

Yahoo! has a few tips to avoid turning toxic that you might find helpful. They are:

• Speak up. Talk with your boss (if he or she is not the problem) and engage in a solutions-oriented dialogue. You may not be able to change the company, but you might be able to make your department a much more pleasant place to work.
• Move. Fifteen minutes of yoga or Pilates will reduce stress, increase focus and mental clarity, and improve overall well-being.
• Relax. Massage, meditation and positive visualization will reduce stress, improve circulation, remove toxins from the body, and help you sleep.
• Blow the 5:30 whistle. Don't stay in a toxic workplace any longer than absolutely necessary, and don't take your toxic job home with you. When 5:30 p.m. rolls around, leave.
• Take a break. It's actually smart to take a "mental health day" every now and then. Don't feel guilty for taking a day off to get your life back in balance.
• Get fueled. Proper nutrition is one of your best defenses. Keeping your body fortified helps to boost energy, prevent illness, and minimize the harmful effects of stress.
• Go green. Living plants enhance the air quality of indoor environments, and also have been shown to induce positive energy.
• Breathe. Recycled air in office buildings and enclosed work areas can be very unhealthy. If you have the option of opening windows, let the fresh air in! Otherwise, use air purifiers and natural aromatherapies to lift spirits and freshen the air.
• Color your world. Finally, don't underestimate the psychological impact of color. Surround yourself with greens and blues to create a sense of tranquility.

Five Ways to Get Better Compensation in 2009

As 2008 fades to distant memory and we soldier on through 2009, now is the perfect time to start enacting some of your now-dusty New Year’s Resolutions. One of those resolutions should be to better your standing in your workplace, and by that, I’m referring to your compensation.

Career Builder has a great list to help you achieve this goal. Here is the short list:

1. Prove your worth.
2. Know the market
3. Ask for a six-month review
4. Ask at the right time
5. Think outside the box

What Are You Worth?

No, the title of this post isn’t referring to the existential. It refers to your compensation on the job. Since it is considered taboo to discuss salary specifics with your co-workers, how do you find out if you are being properly compensated?

Monster has listed a few tips to finding out the answer to this question. Here are a few rules, listed in the article, for negotiating your salary.

• Don't be greedy. Seek a win-win agreement with a new employer. This cements good relations for you and the interviewer, and could save you from a lost offer if you hold out for the maximum.
• When an employer asks for your salary requirements in an ad or on a job application, indicate that you are negotiable. If you're asked to provide current salary, respond with, "Will discuss during interview.
• Never initiate salary discussions in an interview. Wait for the interviewer to bring the subject up, even if it's postponed to a second interview.
• Avoid explicit comparisons to your current salary. You're negotiating the strengths you'll bring to the new position, not past salary.
• Always assume the offer is negotiable.
• Never accept an offer at the interview. Express your strong interest, but state that you always evaluate important decisions carefully. Negotiate a date when you'll contact the interviewer with your decision.
• Discuss benefits separately from salary. Your list of benefits can include insurance, tuition reimbursement, relocation payments, stock options, bonuses and outplacement upon termination.

Eight Steps to Managing Your Business' Money

It takes more than a great idea and hard work to make your startup succeed. It can be easy to get so wrapped up in the actual work that you forget about managing your business’ money. This can lead to big – sometimes catastrophic – problems for your company.

Startup Nation has conveniently listed at eight, easy ways to manage your business’s money. Here is the abbreviated list:

1. Forecast Your Future – Cash In, Cash Out
2. Rationalize Your Revenue: Know Your Cost of Sales
3. Cut Your Expenses
4. Track Your Money Efficiently
5. Give Credit to Your Credit
6. Find Your Funding, But Be Ready
7. Choose Your Bank Wisely
8. Tame Your Taxes

Favorite TV Workplaces

Don’t get enough workplace humor in your eight hour workday? Or have you ever had a situation in the office that you thought was right out of the show the Office? Career Builder has listed a few television workplaces that they love – or love to hate.

1. “Mad Men” (Sterling-Cooper advertising agency)
2. “The Office” (Dunder-Mifflin paper sales)
3. “Ugly Betty” (Mode fashion magazine)
4. “Sunset Tan” (Sunset Tan tanning salon)
5. “Reno 911” (Nevada sheriff’s department)

While these are good, I’m surprised not to see a “Murphy Brown” reference. Anyone else? What other’s TV workplaces are missing?

Five Salary Secrets Your Company Won't Tell You

Have you ever wondered what dictates you getting a raise? HotJobs has listed five secrets that your company won’t tell you.

1. For most companies, 3.9% is the average budget increase for salaries.
2. Your employer (or future employer) may not know the current salary averages.
3. Most managers have a short memory.
4. Your manager probably has little influence over your salary.
5. Threatening to quit can result in a big wage increase (but it’s risky).

Great Resource for Non-Profit Organizations

Need help starting and/or running your non-profit organization? If so, About.com has a great resource for anything you might need - big or small.

And if you are looking for recruiting solutions for your organization, please let us help you.

Five Ideas to Cut the Cost of Your Commute

Though gas prices, for the time being, seem to be falling off – there is still ample reasons to try to cut the cost of your commute. Career Builder has listed five ways to help slash fuel expenses.

• Make ‘travel buddies’
• Tap internal resources
• Spread the word
• Evaluate a compressed workweek
• Make a case for telecommuting

MetaTech Non-Profit Program

MetaTech is pleased to announce that we will now be offering our industry-standard recruiting program to non-profit organizations at a discounted price. For $2,500, MetaTech can streamline your recruiting pipeline and staff your organization with smart, dedicated, and compassionate employees.

MetaTech is proud to give back to the community and would love to help you help others. Please contact us today!

The Best States for Jobs

With today’s recession, some places in the U.S. are more prone to feeling the full impact of a sinking job market.

However, Career Builder has put together a few states that have and will most likely remain strong. These rankings are based on unemployment rate, population, and mean annual wage. The top 15 states are:

1. South Dakota
2. Idaho
3. Wyoming
4. Nebraska
5. Utah
6. Hawaii
7. North Dakota
8. Virginia
9. Montana
10. New Hampshire
11. New Mexico
12. Delaware
13. Maryland
14. Iowa
15. Vermont

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope 2009 proves to be a happy and prosperous year for everyone!