DAILY SEEDS FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS

This has been an exciting week for me.  I completed creating and launching Daily Seeds for Financial Success.

Boy have I learned a heck of a lot.  I know finances like the back of my hand . . yet when I am learning something new, something I have never done before as an Entrepreneur, it takes forever just to get that new thang accomplished.  Do you find that as well?

First, let me share what Daily Seeds for Financial Success is.  It is a daily inspirational message that you receive 5 days a week and the message is around finances.  One message a day, Monday through Friday.

You receive an inspirational quote, an inquiry posed around (business) finances and then a daily affirmation. The concept, how to encourage, empower and motivate you to work consciously on your finances.  Business or Personal.

I have 28 years of experience in the finance world working with CEO's in privately held companies and I made the decision to start working on achieving my own dreams and get back to being an entrepreneur and support many, many, many CEO's, entrepreneurs and business owners at one time. 

Yet know, as you are reading this if you are not an entrepreneur or business owner YOU are the CEO and CFO of your own life.  So this does apply to you as well.  Just remove "business' from finances and there is only finances.  Treat your life, your finances like a business and you too can achieve success.

Back to the story of the creating part . . . so creating Daily Seeds for Financial Success came about last March though my meditation practice and I started writing messages.  Check . . .

Next I learned about what it would take to launch Daily Seeds for Financial Success . .

Purchase a URL that supports Financial Success ..  √ www.dailyfinancialsuccess.com

Set up hosting for the URL . . √

Set up Word Press . . √

Purchase Optimize Press . . √

Create a Banner for the Opt in page - find a designer . . . √. . Thank you Holly Firth Russell

Find someone on Odesk to set up Opt in page . . √

Create Welcome and thank you videos  . . 5 tapings later . .√

Set up all messages on Aweber and ask for help from Aweber. . √

Start promoting . . . √

These one liners do not even describe the length of dedicated time it took to get through little hurdles.  The point is, when you are committed to your DREAM . . to achieve what you see for your business, you will take all the steps needed to accomplish what you want for you, your business and the world. 

First . . go and subscribe to Daily Seeds for Financial Success so you too may be encouraged, empowered and inspired to move forward with your business and personal finances.

And be inspired to share below what your dream is for your business.  I love hearing each of your unique stories of how you started your business in the entrepreneurial world.   Be proud and celebrate every little success . . it makes our hearts stronger.

Thank you for reading and listening . . I look forward to connecting with you next time.

Warmly -

Debbie Rosenfelt

Chief Heart Officer

BOW TO REVENUE PROJECTIONS

Happy Friday !!  It's been an exciting week . . .

I received a phone call the other night from a client I have been working with since December.  She was so excited . . first she thanked me for asking her the question "when are you implementing?" then she continued to share she signed a new contract with a former client at her new pricing structure.

I am THRILLED for her, to see her achieve her DREAMS.. . and as I shared with her.  . we did the work to create the model, (the motivator), she set the intention of what she wanted, then lead the direction and the path she wanted to go.  The end result, she is tripling her income in 2012.  This is no small feat.  This is HUGE, close to 7 figures HUGE.

How cool is that???

What did we do you ask?  We created revenue projections for 2012. 

First step - we determined her products, prices and units.  Each product had its own separate line on the model, with price and then units by month. In this case the units were hours.  She is a service provider and there are so many hours in a day, so you calculate the number of hours you are willing to work each day, multiply it out by the number of days you work in a week and then how many weeks in a month.  Make sure to adjust for the weeks and months you take off for conferences, vacation and holidays. Yes, you can plan your time off and see the impact right there. No guessing or waiting.  Make sense?

Now it's not only to calculate the numbers, this is used to create a conversation around, how much do I want to spend in a day working with clients, what am I charging, do I want to explore with charging a higher rate?  Do I want to make more money, hmmmm, what will that take? What would that look like?  What is needed so I feel good and confident?

Once you have inserted the criteria, next step is to implement the services, sell the new products and compare actual numbers to projections to confirm you are on target, going way beyond target, or missing the mark totally.

It's about seeing where you have been (past), where you are now (current), and projecting out where you want to go (future).  Revenue projections is one tool for creating a solid, organized financial foundation for your business.

And you know what, this is what I do and I want you to as well. I passionately support YOU the CEO's, entrepreneurs and business owners with achieving your DREAMS through numbers, in a bottom line kind of way, (pun intended) this is for the success of your business and for the success of cash flow.

Get on board with playing, exploring and having fun with creating revenue projections for the dream you hold for your business.  I have the tools for you already mapped out and the 28 years of experience supporting CEO's of privately held companies achieve their PASSIONATE dreams.

Reach out, connect and say Debbie I want to create my revenue projections with you to see my dreams come true. You may reach me at d.rosenfelt@cfomadeeasy.com

Have a great weekend and I look forward to connecting with you next week.

Warmly -

Debbie Rosenfelt

Chief Heart Officer

CFO 411 - WA Dept of Revenue Audit - Are You Prepared for an Audit?

Last weekend I began preparing for an audit that was scheduled for Tuesday with the WA State Dept of Revenue.  This was for the gym business my son owns, also my business partner.  I was told by John Hamilton, the auditor the business was randomly chosen for this audit.  There are times that businesses are manually chosen.  In this case we were just one of the computer sample test businesses chosen.

I was told the audit is to make sure we paid WA State use tax on all assets purchased for use in the business as well as confirm we are paying the correct tax on memberships, products, and services, such as personal training, tanning, etc.

The audit began with the first month of business which was February 2008 through the first quarter 2012.

I was ready.  I audited all the monthly reports before the auditor did to make sure we were taking the promo referral fees as a deduction for excise and sales tax, water sales deducted from retail sales and sales tax was being paid correctly. 

In addition Iwas informed he would review all the purchase of assets of the business to make sure use tax was paid.  I trusted we handled it properly.

The findings . . . we did not pay sales tax on four asset items.  The asset purchases were on items made outside the state of WA.  We will receive an assessment around the end of June and the gym will owe approximately $2k in use tax from 2008 from assets purchased.  All other sales tax testing was in good order.

This was a good experience, I learned a lot and the audit went smoothly.  I had all the receipts for the asset purchases that showed what we did pay sales tax on and what we did not. I presented them to John, he checked it off his list, or wrote a comment "use tax owed".

The lesson  . .

1). Create a solid organized financial foundation so when you receive a letter from the state or IRS you will be prepared immediately for the audit and you will be able to show your receipts.

2.) Make sure to have all of your asset receipts on file, titled and organized by year.  Electronically or paper.  This will provide the support you need when they ask for the receipts.

3.) Organize all of your invoice and sales receipts by month, by year.

4.) Keep all Dept of Revenue reports and payments by year in a folder.

5.) Audit your records or have your bookkeeper audit your records and review them quarterly.  Less surprises along the way.

6.) Do not panic . . the auditor is there to perform their job, they are just like you and I .. human and need to get the work done.  In my case the audit was quite pleasant and I asked questions and learned a lot.  The audit is based on the rules of the state legislature that was voted in by your representatives.

7.) make sure you have cash stashed in the savings for times when you owe past tax so you do not have to scramble to figure out how you are going to pay the tax bill.

Are you ready for an audit?  Use the above tips to set yourself up for success.

Questions, comments, leave them below or e-mail me at d.rosenfelt@cfomadeeasy.com.

Warmly -

Debbie Rosenfelt

Chief Heart Officer

The ABC's of the Heart of Your Business Finances

Let's keep this easy. 
What do you need to get started on the heart of your business finances?

Awareness - Make a decision to consciously learn and understand the heart of your finances.

Build Confidence - Create new daily habits to embrace the heart of your finances. 

Clarity - When we are clear about what we want we can create a plan to manifest our financial goals for our business. When we have a good plan there is no way to fail.

What do you need to get started?

Debbie Rosenfelt
Chief Heart Officer

Compassionate support that transforms financial frustration into financial power.

CALL TO ACTION - 2011 1099'S DUE JAN 31, 2012

Happy Monday.  . it's a day for working on 1099's.

Earlier in the month I mentioned there are some changes for issuing 1099's in 2011 and 2012.  Scroll down to the earlier blog post.

THE NEW 411 FOR REPORTING 2011 1099's

Today, I am working on issuing 1099's to my vendors who my business paid more than $600 to by check.  U. S. tax law requires all businesses to file a 1099 for any contractor.

The United States tax form 1099, is used to claim multiple types of income other than wages, salaries, and tips. It’s technically known as an “information return.”

So if your business paid more than $600 to a person in business for themselves, a contractor or company, you too will need to obtain W-9's and issue a 1099.

What is a W-9 - below is a link for the form with instructions.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf

Creating a 1099 is very easy.  You can create them online using Turbo Tax.  I went to Office max and purchased the software.  However, you can actually purchase the software online, download it and process your 1099's very easily.  Below is the link.

http://turbotax.intuit.com/small-business-taxes/business.jsp

I am very PASSIONATE about finances and I LOVE supporting you organize the heart of your business.

if you have any questions or need help, leave me a comment or you may e-mail me atd.rosenfelt@cfomadeeasy.com.

Debbie Rosenfelt

Chief Heart Officer

FINANCE GYM 101

I have this morning ritual that supports me for my day.  I quietly get up at 4:45am, put my workout clothes on, brush my teeth, take my daily vitamins with "Fired up", (it's an orange flavored powder with vitamin B) and since my hubby is still sleeping, silently read the Four Agreements 'Gratitude Prayer' fill my water bottle and then off to the gym.

This morning my trainer had me work on new core exercises that I have never done before.  One exercise was using a HUGE yellow ball, where I lie on it, place one leg up over my knee and balance on the one leg that is on the floor, holding position.  Now when I saw my trainer do it, it looked easy, peasy and simple. 

OH MY LORD - NO.  I could not balance on one leg for more than 5 seconds. Switched to the other leg, the more difficult side . . Uggghhhhh.  However round two, I was able to balance a couple seconds longer.

Inside my head I was thinking, "you're not trying hard enough." "if Rhonda can do it, why can't you."  I was getting frustrated with myself.  Then that little voice in my head said, gosh, you work out every day,  "why can't you do this simple exercise?" 

After the workout, Rhonda praised me and acknowledged how far I got with each core exercise and then preceded to say "these are advanced core exercises."

I felt a little better inside, yet immediately thought, I need to practice more to build my core muscles.  "I want to get this."

So then I thought I have to share this with my community and how it applies to "the heart of your business"  Your business finances are the core muscle that communicates to you when your business is on track.  Our core mucles are what hold us upright, and the core muscle of your business, finances is what is able to hold your business strong and grow. Such as revenue, profit, and cash.  Creating a solid organized foundation is about building a muscle.

A solid organized financial foundation is like our bodies, a communication tool.  It guides you to tell you what is needed.  Build revenue, increase prices, and/or decrease expenses to increase the bottom line.

I have learned it takes time and persistence to learn a new exercise, build strength in my core.  DARN IT . . .There is no magic pill for results to magically appear to build body strength or brain smarts with business finances.

What can you do? . . be gentle with YOU.  . with patience and persistence.  Practice, practice, practice each day, as if you are going to the gym of finance, and take baby steps.  Challenge yourself to learn something new every day. This finance stuff can get so serious and stuffy, so have some fun with it.

Each step you take is a success.  And share your successes each day with someone, a friend, mastermind colleague, even me, I would LOVE to celebrate with you . d.rosenfelt@cfomadeeasy.com. and acknowledge out loud to yourself.

So, I ask, what is to be tickled with the heart of your business?

And I can't let you go without a homework assignment.  . . for today  -  Create two colorful 2012 folders, with your favorite picture on it or colorful design.  . have some fun and be creative.  One for income receipts and the second for expense receipts.   

Here's to a colorful, sparkly, solid organized financial foundation.

Warmly - Your Chief Heart Officer - Debbie Rosenfelt

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY

You have heard this before, right?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

So here we are, six days into 2012.  The truth is that every minute of every day is an opportunity to "begin again".  It is filled with new opportunities to think differently and to be different.  You don't have to repeat the past.  Stop.  . . right now . . YES, right now and take a deep breath.

So I ask . . what do you need?  What do you need right now to say ok . . I am going to do this.  I am committed to organizing my business finances.

Steps I have shared so far to get you on the road, keep personal finances and business finances separate.  Open a business checking and savings account. Apply for a credit card in your business name.

A word of caution, DO NOT, comingle personal funds with business funds.  It leaves room for the IRS to disallow an expense for your business if you are even audited.

Next step, separate income receipts, and expense receipts.  Income is the revenue your business earns and the expenses are what you spend money on to maintain your business.

Now let's get your revenue and expenses organized.

Find and setup a system that is easy to use and maintain.  Setting up a system properly is the key to keeping it simple and easy. 

I use and recommend QuickBooks, it is easy and a simple system.  Yes, there are other simple systems, you just have to find one that works best for you and that will provide support.  Support is key.

Step one setup for QuickBooks -

Start by creating the chart of accounts for your business.  A chart of accounts is like a story book of the financial events that occur in your business. 

The benefit of of having a Chart of Accounts is tracking revenue and expenses.  You will learn and see which products and services are generating the most or least revenue and expenses tell you where you are spending the least and most of money on your business.

Example - If your business has several different products or services, you can set up the Chart of Accounts to reflect as much detail as you want.

Let me give you a couple of samples from businesses that I work with -

Retail business - cards, clothing, gifts, jewelry.

Gym business - Memberships, Single, joint, family, tanning, Key cards, etc.

Service business that offers products, coaching, product #1, product #2, etc.

Your easy homework assignment - create a list of products and or services that you offer and that you want to track.  We will use this information for creating a chart of accountsfor your business.

Next week, I will cover examples of expenses. 

One last tip for today - when you create a deposit, photo copy the deposit slip and checks to keep track of all money coming in.

The benefit, having the backup/support for each deposit allows you to go back and see the actual deposit if your account does not balance at the end of the month. 

Repeat after me "Cash is KING" and you want to track cash accurately.

Have a PASSIONATE filled weekend and I will connect with you next week.