Business By The Bay

Maile Collmer, president of northern California chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA) was an introvert growing up and today she is an in-demand speaker and helping people become master networkers and generate a lot of referrals. She encourages people to hang around those who can inspire us to become better. NSA provides great environment for people to become better speakers. NSA hosts various events, podcasts and has an academy to provide excellent support to people who want to maximize their speaking potential. One may contact Maile at https://contracosta.asentiv.com/our-team/

Business owners don't know what they don't know. Small business owners try to wear too many hats and there are areas where they are not good at. For example, financial literacy or tax laws are typically not the focus areas of business owners as most of the energy goes into the products or services they are offering. A conversation with an accounting professional is a must at the start because establishing the right business entity will have a significant financial impact. A good accounting professional should act as a trusted advisor, be truthful and should be willing to connect with the right experts in areas where he or she doesn't specialize in, and should also be a good communicator. Joe loves to discuss the possibilities of Section 1202 and R&D credits with his clients because these are great for eligible businesses. He believes that business owners should focus on doing themselves what they are good at. For rest of the things, hiring the right partners will add lots of value to the business.

When businesses grow fast, many times they don't have a good HR infrastructure in place. People start a business because they love their products or services they are offering, not because they love HR. So things like a good job description, employee handbook, onboarding, performance management, etc. may get neglected. Companies should look into if they are ignoring key HR tasks and even the ones they are doing, are they spending too much of their valuable time on those tasks or not. Outsourcing certain tasks to good HR professionals may save companies lots of problems and can also help employees feel that the management values them. Stacey believes that tenacity, perseverance, consistency and looking for ways to get better help businesses succeed.

Jeff Katz explained various senior living options for the elderly population. Multiple challenges like physical or mental health issues, loneliness or financial costs may make it difficult for seniors to stay in their homes. Independent senior living, assisted living or memory care communities can be good options and it is not easy for seniors or their families to find the right community. A good senior living coach can help through this process. Jeff believes that for a senior living coach or for that matter any business owner to be effective, it is very important to be a good listener and continuously look for building long term relationships.

Rene discussed various aspects of HR. Small and mid-size companies struggle to attract the best talent because they don't have deep pockets to compete with the big companies. Then keeping the employees engaged and retaining them can also be very challenging. Rene suggests that looking for soft skills can widen the candidates pool and then specialized skills can be taught. She suggests that for 100 employees, a company should have a dedicated HR person. For less than that a part-time HR person can be engaged, either in-house or an outsourced professional. It is important to have the right personality as an HR professional who can connect with both the management and the employees. Rene believes that having a mindset of coming up with a creative solution is very important in business because there is always a way to get the job done.

Neil explained that the majority of the seniors fall in bedrooms and bathrooms. Some of the available solutions provide wearable devices that the seniors don't wear in the bedroom and bathroom. Camera based solutions are also not practical because of the privacy issues. Neil's connected home solution offers the following: Neil says that having mentors and the ability to listen actively are big factors that have contributed to his success.

Bryan was a product manager in the tech industry and while recovering from a serious injury, he realized that eating healthy is not easy if you are eating out. Bryan started a restaurant business because he believes that you can be your best self if you are healthy and you can give all the gifts that you have to others if you are healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. Food is the foundation for being healthy and so his restaurant offers hearty meals without using gluten, soy, dairy, peanuts, refined sugar and seed oils. He offered some great suggestions for people who are planning to enter the business world. He said that first think about why you are starting one and when the business would be successful, what your life would be like and is that actually what you want. Secondly, figure out as quickly as possible the most important assumptions if your idea would be successful or not. He also experienced that systems and processes that worked initially may not work when you see a good growth. So having the right leadership with clearly defined roles and outcome is very important.

CPA Chetan Shah says that most of the businesses come to him because they struggle because of not maintaining clean records. They are good at what they do in terms of products or services, but not necessarily in accounting. Not having the right advisory team, especially in the beginning when they are very cost conscious creates a challenging situation. He suggests that it is important to hire an accounting firm that has experience in dealing with in the areas you need help. As an example, a CPA focusing on individual tax returns may not be a right fit to support business accounting. He emphasized that it is critical to plan and know where you want to go.

Debbie Harris mentioned that convenience and marketing of unhealthy food are two big reasons people gain weight. As we are over scheduled, it is natural for us to pick the food that is easily available and unfortunately junk food is marketed well and is very easy to buy. Debbie explained that she got wonderful results for herself and her clients by balancing the hormones. It helps not only getting rid of the weight, but also ensures maintaining the ideal weight. Being aware of the food that works for us and having an accountability partner or mentor help people to stay on track. Debbie believes that her love for people and maintaining balance in life are two big factors that helped her achieve success in life.

Most business owners don't know the health of the business because they are not maintaining and monitoring the financial statements in a timely manner. It is hard to 'do it yourself'' because most of the time is spent on running the business. So it is better to have a good accounting professional helping the business. It is also important to find an accounting professional you can trust and it happens if the values are aligned. Shamal also suggested that it is important to hire well, both in-house and outsourced.

Joanthan Pop spoke about how from having a Music and Education major in college, he became a wealth management advisor. He sees that many of the successful business owners need help when it comes to retention of key employees and tax optimization strategies. He mentioned that if a business owner is looking for a good financial advisor, it is important to make sure the advisor acts as a fiduciary, is in the same space (for example specializes in working with businesses and not just focusing on investments) and is a good connector who has a solid partner network because one person or a team of advisors cannot be experts in every field. He also highlighted that having a written business plan is critical in making sure there are no blind spots and the business can continue to grow in the right direction.

Deborah Finestone spoke about her journey from being a journalist to starting her social media marketing company. She talked about her group training program, which is to help small business owners and non-profits who are not in a position to hire an expensive marketing agency. She says that quite often such organizations assign the social media marketing role to a young employee thinking that he or she has been active on personal social media and is comfortable with the various platforms. Being an active social media user doesn't mean that the person is also good at marketing strategies. As an example, one has to know the expectations from the social media marketing efforts - brand awareness, coming across as an expert, providing information, becoming likeable to the target market by sharing personal stories, etc. She suggested thinking about what the target market likes and creating content accordingly. Then analyze what types of posts are gaining traction and then consistently engage with your followers.

Creating compelling visual narratives can feel like a difficult skill to master. Mark Bullock shared his experiences and how he being an introvert with no desire to be in front of a camera has created thousands of videos. Following are some of the valuable suggestions he made: https://videosocials.net/

JJ spoke about retirement solutions available to small business owners. He said that the California state mandate requires businesses with five or more employees to offer a retirement plan, else they will be fined. However, in spite of being a cost in terms of time and/or money, it also allows businesses to attract talent because offering good benefits to employees shows that they care about the employees. Also, there is a Federal credit available for the first three years to compensate for the cost incurred in setting up a new retirement plan. JJ suggests that there are many options available and it is important for the business owners to give time to come on a quick call and evaluate the benefits of going with a private company like Human Interest and compare it with the CalSavers state plan.

Al Arias outlined various strategies for saving on taxes, emphasizing an integrated approach to tax planning. This involves creating multiple business entities to enable business owners to minimize their effective federal income tax, typically falling within the 12 to 20 percent range. Through the strategic use of trusts and the structuring of business entities, business owners can achieve federal income tax free exit. For instance, Al loves separating the marketing function of a business into a distinct entity, say a C-Corporation. When properly configured, this separation helps avoid the affiliated ownership rules and leads to significant tax savings.

COBRA compliance: Yvonne described the COBRA compliance requirements and also the best practices for the employers. Do you have 20+ employees with group health plans? If yes, then Yvonne mentioned that there are federal and state penalties for non-compliance. Beyond the fines, non-compliance can lead to civil penalties that may make your company liable for medical payments, legal fees, and more. She suggests that the best time to discuss implementation of COBRA plan is at the time of setting up a group health plan because waiting till a qualifying event happens would result in panic for the business.

Are you struggling to keep up with the growth that is taking place in your company? Are you closing your books within 7 days or are you really behind with your accounting? Brit Summerill made some very good suggestions regarding best accounting practices and he recommends small businesses to operate with an exit in mind.

Dr. Shree Nanguneri explains his method to remove or reduce the 3 Ds - defects, delays and deviations from organizations. His team uses the socratic approach to not only fix the problems of his clients, but also train them how to handle issues on their own. They convert defects into delights, delays into 'just in time' and deviations into dollars. Dr. Nanguneri says that one of his keys to success has been having the right mentors.

Hiring the best talent is challenging, especially in industries where supply is less than the demand. Jason suggested that an employer needs to feed the hiring funnel and then have an efficient process to screen, interview and hire the right candidates. An employer needs to generate interest among job seekers, validate the opening, convince the candidates that the company is a great place to work and then close it.

Doug Kennedy emphasized on the importance of keeping an end goal in mind when we are starting the business journey. He said that businesses either grow or shrink. The tools and the people that achieved initial success may not be enough to continue on the growth path. Getting the right help becomes critical and Doug said that the 2GO advisory group offers solutions for executives for all lines of management.