Things to do before December 31st

• Look at your Profit & Loss report. Where do you stand? If you have a larger than expected profit, are there any major purchases you should make now that can be depreciated? Make sure you have the cash. Talk to your accountant if you are not clear of the depreciation rules or see this article by CCH.
• Verify loan accounts and clean up if necessary.
• Verify your 1099 information is setup properly in your accounting system. If you don’t have proper information from each vendor, ask them for it now, then create a form to use every year. Need help making this happen in QuickBooks? Just ask us.

(More on our website)

After January 1st

• Reconcile all accounts – bank and credit cards – in your accounting system.
• Verify you’ve made all entries in Petty Cash. If you made the purchases last year, make sure to use that date.
• Verify you’ve made all entries for items you’ve paid for with personal funds.

We often focus on the year end tasks surrounding our small business. Getting yourself ready is just as important and probably even more beneficial in the long run. In a small business, our personal lives are so tied to the business that the overlapping areas are often gray. Here are 10 tasks you can do to get prepared.

1. Write a family holiday letter, summarizing the major events for the year. People really do like to know what you’re up to. Keep it light and fun and only about a page or two long. This also provides a history for your family files of what happened this year. Put a copy in your family scrap book.
2. Start or update a blessings log (or whatever means something to you, like accomplishments or thanks). Just seeing a positive list of what you’ve managed to do should reduce any focus on the negatives.
3. Get your family budget in order. Decide what major home improvement or decorating projects you want to do. Decide what vacations you will go on. Having a money plan is so important!
4. Choose your intentions or goals for the upcoming year. What do you personally want to accomplish? Type them up and assign dates you’d like to aim for. I go one step further and choose a theme for the year. It is my “Year of ”. This helps to keeps me focused and is easy to remember. Some previous years have been titled “Year of MY choices” and “Year I Become a Writer”.
5. Create or reassess your personal mission or purpose statement.

My favorite technology tool of 2005 is my Dymo LabelWriter printer. I just LOVE it! It’s perfect for printing one label at a time. The best part is, I can type as large as I want and it will automatically size the font to fit the label. No more typing out a long name and printing it on a full sheet of Avery labels only to find the name ran off the label. Plus, you really shouldn’t be running partial sheets of labels through your printer multiple times. This is a true time saver and helps me stay organized (my writing is not the neatest). Anyone on our network can also print to it plus Outlook, Word, ACT! and QuickBooks all have interfaces that save keystrokes. I think every office and even most homes should have one.

Click here for more information on Dymo's website. Prices range from $110 - $210, depending on your need for speed or dual tapes. Think about your needs. If you frequently print both shipping and file folder labels, you’ll appreciate a Twin Turbo model. It’s new this year. I have the 330 model which works fine for my small office. You can get a good deal on a refurbished model on the Dymo website. See a printer at most office supply and computer stores.

• The U.S. Postal Service will raise key rates on January 8, 2006, lifting the price of a first class letter to 39¢ for the first ounce and to 24¢ for each additional ounce and all postcards. Priority Mail will go to $4.05 for up to one pound. Best to get your stock of 1¢ and 2¢ stamps now to meet the new price and to avoid the crowds at post offices. Tip: We buy our stamps online at www.usps.com for just a $1.00 fee. Saves a lot of time and they arrive in the mail about 5-7 days later, sometimes sooner.
• Going on a vacation over the holidays? Use my free Vacation Preparation Checklist to help you save time and forego the stress of getting ready. Modify it to fit your needs. Why do I have something like this on my site? Because it is simple tools like this checklist, that help us be more productive.
• A new report from UK firm British Design Innovation confirmed that the common practice by design agencies to give free sales pitches is costing an average of 12% in lost man-hours a year or $65,000. This is based on the premise that 56% of the firms employ five or less people. Do you give free sales pitches? If so, what is your closing ratio? If you are the company being pitched, consider saving everyone’s time, including your own, by preparing a simple Request for Proposal (RFP). We did this last month for a client looking to outsource HR services and find help preparing for a move.
• If you didn’t catch my October newsletter article about a wonderful new online service called SendOutCards, consider reading it here (http ://www.c4gp.com/sendoutcards.html). In under 30 minutes, I mailed out over 70 Thanksgiving cards to clients. Really, this new service did! I exported the contact information from ACT!, imported the list into SendOutCards, picked my card, typed a personal note that will be printed on each one and pressed “send”. SendOutCards.com printed and mailed my cards the same day! All for less than the cost of a store bought card. If you’d like to try out this service, just send me an email so I can set you up with a free gift account. Make someone’s day – send them a card!