Small Business Management Tips: Time For A Company Checkup

Summer is a time for pool parties, vacations and down time, right? For small business owners, it can mean a chance to evaluate your business and assess your mid-year status.

Financial experts often suggest that summer is an excellent time to sit down and examine if your company is meeting its goals, and whether you have enough cash to cover tax payments. This is also a good time to make an equipment inventory, in order to determine if you’ll be making future purchases, and other capital spending for the second half of the year.

Here are some other small business management tips to consider during the summer months:

• Find out if you are making or losing money. If you are on the losing end this time of year, recognize it and begin making changes now.
• Realize that as a self-employed company owner, you may not be paying enough estimated tax. You don’t want to overpay or underpay. If you don’t pay enough estimated tax, you’ll be faced with a whopper of a bill next April.
• Reexamine what you hope your company achieves in the upcoming months, and reevaulate your strategic planning strategies.
• When you evaluate your capital spending, especially when it comes to purchasing new equipment, consult with your accountant regarding any opportunities to save on taxes. Small businesses can save by claiming certain expenses, like computers, vehicles and office furniture, by the Section 179 deduction. This allows small businesses to deduct upfront $125,000 in equipment bought and put into service during 2007 rather than  depreciate it over a period of years.
• Consider retirement plans. Speak with your financial professional now about this topic. Experts say that you have until Oct. 1 to develop a SIMPLE plan, which is a Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees. Or you can have a Simplified Employee Pensions (SEPs) plan.
• Consider your software and whether you need upgrades or completely different ones. This is a good time to adopt new programs if you so choose.
• Environmental changes. If you are considering redesigning, rebuilding or adjusting your office space, summer is also a good time to do this. While employees are on vacation, you can renovate without too much disturbance or decrease in productivity.

Summer is a great time to rejueinate your body, in the form of vacations, and to rejuvenate your business, in the form of evaluations and assessments.