The Wrong Blocks

Recall those wooden baby blocks that were once made in America?A young child is probably the only person in the world who never gets permanently upset when their blocks fall down. The little tikes pick them up again, and keep going on going. Sometimes they knock them down for fun (brainstorming) but they pick them up again, and they keep on building.

This blog is for anyone brand new in owning their own business, or for anyone who just never gives up on themselves or others. Know that things will go wrong. Expect them to go wrong.

That's just business. So what are you going to do about it?Click the title for the full article: "The Wrong Blocks." Be sure to share with a co-worker or business partner who is "perfect."

The Heart of Success is never chiseled from stone.

Cheap Trip Tricks

An Article That Makes More Than Just "Cents."
by cynth'ya lewis reed

Meals on Steals

Taxes Taxes....I've decided to love them as much as they want to love me.

Being in a home based business, people get lied to... A LOT! There's that thing we used to think about "if you don't make any money you can't write nothin' off."

And I'm a blonde white woman with one blue and one green eye wearing a tatoo of Rush Limbaugh on my butt. . . if that's the case.

The truth is that as long as you are IN PURSUIT of a profit, and can document it, you can lose as much money as Amazon.com did in their first 12 years of making zippo profits! (And zippo does not mean cigarette lighters.)

If we don't know what we hand over to our tax professionals, then we all certainly should! Or else it could mean a family loses thousands handing over stuff to people who only work with W2's.

QUIZ YOUR TAX PROFESSIONAL!

Two types of rules:
1. Discussing business during a meal/activity.
2. Associated Entertainment Rule.

GIFTS: 100% deductible
Limit is $25 per TANGIBLE gift, per person, per year. A couple with a business partnership receiving a TANGIBLE gift, the $25 is per couple, not per person!

Gifts of Entertainment are deductible at 50%--No $25 limit with these.
Example: Season tickets to the Indianapolis Colts or Lincoln Center.

Meals: Dutch Treat Rule: The IRS allows you to deduct the meal of the person you pay for. If you do NOT pay for the person's meal, then here's the scenario: If you figure your average lunch out is about $6, and you take out a client to discuss business and both of you pay for your own meals (say at Applebees, and your personal tab is $14, then the IRS allows you to deduct the difference, which is $8 to deduct.) See how many times you eat out, and without a home based business, how much money you throw away every single year for the past 10 years eating out.

If you don't eat out, and you buy about $150 worth of food for your home, and you throw a big travel party, your food is 100% deductible. (This might even apply to appliances like large screen tvs but CHECK WITH YOUR IRS PROFESSIONAL WHO IS A TRUE PROFESSIONAL IN HOME BASED BUSINESS!!)

If your meal is under $75 you do not need a receipt. DOCUMENT IT WITH THE FIVE ELEMENTS: Who, What, Why, Where, and HOW MUCH!

If you write the name of the person and the fact that you asked for a business referral or told them about the Trip of a LifeTime contest, or that next time they need travel, flowers, golf, hunting, romantic getaway, wedding apparel, blue crab, a concert ticket, a cruise--that they check out your site, then DOCUMENT IT!

When traveling, YTB Affiliates can take a standard meal allowance of $35 a day. No need to treat others while away on business. The IRS recogizes your meals and travel as tax deductible.

For a YTB couple filing jointly on their tax returns, if they operate the business in separate spheres of influence from time to time, then the couple who files jointly CAN FILE SEPARATE SCHEDULE C's and split the business expenses as TWO filings.

Types of Expenses for Meals and Entertainment for YTB business owners:

Travel: 100%

Meal Examples: Lunch with customer within 24 hours before, during or after the meal:
50%

If no business is discussed: Zero percent.
What is the definition of business discussed, "Ask for a referral and hand them a card."

Cab fare to the restaurant: 100% deductible
Rental car: 100% deductible
Hotel: 100% deductible
Tickets to a ball game: 50% deductible
Taxi to the game: 100 % deductible
Parking and tolls: 100% deductible

Tickets to a charity golf tournament run by volunteers: 100%
Green fees, carts, food and entertainment while discussing business: 50%

Y'all go on and check out www.TaxUniversity.Webs.Com and look at the schedule.
Might save you a boatload of loot, so you can go on a tax deductible trip...if one knows how (smile.)

That's it for me for a minute.
cynth'ya

Drop Out Logic

Question to ask ourselves:

If ignorance is bliss, and knowledge is power, which one makes the most "cents?"

Click DROP OUT KNOWLEDGE for the answer.

Social Networks: Don't Facebook Me To Death

Facebook. Plaxo. Tagged. Ryze. LinkedIn. Twiddle-dee-Twitter, and a host of others that fill up my mailbox with invitations from well wishing friends always amazes me. If I could trade them in for $5 a piece I could produce my own bailout program for the common wo/man. I still say the government owes me and my friends $240,000 plus interest. Whatever! We live another day.

Although picky by nature (or upbringing or whatever you want to call it-like my choice of shrimp and lobster over a bologna and cheese sandwich, as long as it's in the budget--there are so many places to choose to chum-up with people who we don't mind sharing not some, but ALL of our business.

Good Lord are we all THAT starved for techno-attention? But like anything else, all this social networking doesn't have to be a bad thing. But excess in anything (even cheesecake) doesn't serve the best purpose.

Social Networking is like going to the mall. Have you ever been to a foreign country, like Las Vegas (yep I said Vegas and I dare their mayor to make a hissy fit of it...it's a free country) there is always someone lurking--oh, excuse me--"at the right place and time" with the deal of the century. But just because they look friends and give you that Pepsodent grin like Bob on the Enzyte commercials doesn't mean you have to give them the time of day!

Do-est we forget-eth the first law of social networking? Don't throw up your services and businesses in a stranger's face unless they ASK for it?

Oh yes, I've been guilty like so many. It's sort of like telling a baby that it's not okay to run around naked...unless that baby is at home and protected. Then there were the streakers of the 70s whom we all got a eyeful of (a delightful eyeful) and broke laws just for the sake of baring the buttcheeks because hey, you only live once. So we have to watch our networks and our friends as if they were products offered by a street vendor by:

1. Check the quality of the content.
2. Make sure that the cover matches the content.
(That's right kids, don't dare lie on a resume'--it's called a c-r-i-m-e? Get it?)
3. If the performance doesn't speak for it self, there is nothing anyone can say to sway the buyer one way or the other. The product is what it is, which brings us back to "the social-ness of network-worthiness."

I don't know how you or others may see it, but personally, it's always an admiration that goes thru my spirit when I see people who go after the thing that fits them. Far too many folks in the world trying to squeeze into boxes that are not meant for them to squeeze into. Sort of like saying to the all important baby toe "Okay, today you're going to learn to be the big toe!" Ain't gon' happen. Facebook is a place where we can all be ourselves, and I'm certainly not chasing after anyone or anything....except my own dreams. Those who think they see a fit, come on along and have a ball networking.

After all, even the groundhog has a job and that critter only works 1 day a year just to tell us if we'll have to wait longer on Springtime. (Ground hog sure has a smooth gig, doesn't it?) LOL

Anyway have a splendid day, don't overwork, even 24 hours give a break to the next 24 as opposed to 48 multi-tasked hours at the same time. Much love, happy val's day memories. Besides, anyone that says in a job description "must be good at multi-tasking" is asking for a slave that doesn't complain about doing too much work for too little pay, and won't pay for your mental health care once you break down.

Life is like money. It comes, it goes. Enjoy it both ways.
That's my rap y'all. . .blessin's,

cynth'ya
www.goteamspectrum.com

broken miRRor

70,000 plus families are in the blood red flow of a massive recession. Things are MUCH worse overseas. We are a land where we know HOW to bounce back. But maybe that's lost because we as a society expect INSTANT change.

Change that lasts is never instant. Change that lasts never comes sitting on ones hands. And change that sticks and stays means someone made a decision to change forever, for the better--no matter what it takes.

Article: broken miRRor.
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