The Fremont Group, small business management consulting, Minding my own business workshops, Colorado.

Chambers and Business Groups Looking for Speakers

The Fremont Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing high caliber expertise to small businesses at a price that they can afford. The need for this effort was clearly stated in an August 28, 2010 article in the Minneapolis Star quoting Fred Zimmerman, of the University of St. Thomas:

…some good work is being done by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s “Grow Minnesota” initiative, which works through local chambers and area vocational and technical schools to assess what local companies need to prosper and expand in terms of expertise, marketing and trained workers….We won’t do it with a bunch of bureaucrats flying around handing out training grants. It’s going to be in helping small businesses get bigger.

The Fremont Group identifies small business owners who want to change and then helps them achieve their goals. The founder, Dirk Dieters is also the author of “Minding My Own Business—Creating a Business that Works” and the author of many of the posts on this site. He is available for speaking to groups of small business owners—particularly local Chambers of Commerce. He most commonly speaks upon the theme of the book—the six responsibilities of the small business owner but has also spoken to small business owners on topics such as Creating a Sales System, The Role of Sales Management, Empowering Your Organization, The Ying and Yang of Accountability and Incentives, Controlling your Cash Flow, The Math Behind Profit, Your Business Achieves What You Are Trying to Achieve, and others. Most recently he is the speaker in a seminar series, How to Survive and Thrive in 2011. Mr. Dieters has an undergraduate degree in Business Education, and a law degree both from Michigan State University. He has consulted with over 4,000 small business owners in all 50 states.

He speaks as a volunteer on behalf of The Fremont Group. Through his speaking and through “Minding My Own Business Workshops” presented by Dieters and other volunteers affiliated with The Fremont Group, appropriate owners are identified, affiliated professionals are identified to work with those owners, and the fees of those professionals are subsidized by The Fremont Group. The professionals spend two half-day sessions with the owner to determine an Action Plan to address their specific needs and then establish a long-term, out-sourced management, relationship with the owner and the company. They work within the Code of Ethics which is posted on this site which includes the specific agreement that if the client is not satisfied they don’t have to pay.

Sponsoring chambers or groups are not charged for Mr. Dieters as a speaker, however expenses for engagements outside of the Denver metropolitan area are requested. As a main source of funding for The Fremont Group is the sale of Mr. Dieters’ book, we request that the book be available for sale at the event and Mr. Dieters or TFG affiliates will be available for follow up. Organizations are permitted to charge and use the event as a fundraiser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HDMTDT0jr8&feature=player_embedded

People, Planet, Profit

The Greater Good Academy is an 8-week business development program to train Denver low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs in how to use sustainable and triple bottom line business practices to become more profitable. We emphasize the benefits of including environmental and social factors in how to run your business. By the end of the course, each entrepreneur has completed a triple bottom line business plan that lays out their company’s mission, operations, marketing and related growth strategies.

The Academy serves a wide range of small businesses: retail, product design, consulting, health care, construction, graphic arts, marketing, food/urban agriculture, community development, etc. Whether your company provides an eco-friendly product or service, or seeks to include social and environmental elements into its overall strategy, the Academy will provide you with a 360° understanding of how to scale your business.

Our goal is to help build the next generation of civic-minded businesses.
Through the support of our financial sponsors, including Denver’s Office of Economic Development and the Colorado Enterprise Fund, tuition in the Academy is only $125 to qualified entrepreneurs.

The fall 2010 Academy takes place at the Mi Casa Resource Center (360 Acoma Street, Denver) Tuesday evenings – 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. – from September 21 to November 9. A network of Mentors assists the participants during the program.

For more information, call Richard Eidlin – 303-478-0131 or visit http://www.proggroup.com/greater-good-project.html

Managerial Accounting

Men and women with a limited understanding of accounting started most businesses. Their bookkeeper compiles information for their accountant but the owner knows that the tax return that their CPA prepares is not a true indication of how their business runs. Their accounting produces nothing that they can really use so they ignore it. They become frustrated because they don’t know what they can afford nor when they can afford it. They compensate by tracking some areas—usually sales and relying upon their “gut feel.” The good news is that the more experienced the business owner is, the more likely that his “gut feel” will be correct. The bad news is that the business easily outgrows this method and it is impossible either to delegate this management style or to transition this style to an heir or successor. Sooner or later the small mistakes become big dollars. The owner becomes overworked and less effective. They can’t get away and they can’t get out. They are trapped. They have been set up for failure.

With my clients I often use this analogy. “Look out of the window. Imagine that you see a young child crossing the street. A speeding car approaches and hits the child—a terrible, terrible tragedy. After you observe this event you sit down and write three letters describing the tragedy. The first letter is to your best friend. The second is to your young child and the last is to your lawyer. Each of the letters is truthful but imagine how each will be different. These letters are the same as your accounting needs.” The only “letter” that the owner currently produces is a letter that the bookkeeper has written to the CPA for the purpose of taxes. This is a very important letter but it does not provide the owner with what he needs to run the business. Most owners recognize this deficiency but simply just don’t know what to do about it. They are getting the wrong letter. Imagine how baffled the young child would be if he received the letter written to the lawyer.

All information produced by a company must meet four criteria: it must be timely, accurate, usable and produced at a minimum cost. Timely means that it must be delivered at a point in that acting upon the information can make a difference. If a football coach covers the scoreboard during the game and then waits until Tuesday to read the paper to find out if he has won or lost, he has not received timely information. As absurd as that sounds, that is exactly how many business owners operate. The term accurate is often misunderstood. In our context accurate means as accurate as is necessary for the purpose of the report. Accountants and bookkeepers put a very high standard upon accuracy that is good—especially for tax purposes, however, all reports do not require that same degree of accuracy. Accountants and software completely overlook the “usable” criteria. Business owners rarely have the same level of sophistication regarding accounting as their CPA and therefore the format of the reports needs to be adjusted. This is particularly true as the reports filter down through the organization. If it is not understood, it is of no value. Lastly the information must be produced at a minimum cost. There is a cost to the production of all information and it is senseless to spend $500 to create a report that generates $100 of profit.

Historical vs Projected

Information provided by your accountant is historical information. Anything that has to be prepared and reviewed in-house, then shipped to the accountant, reviewed and compiled there and then shipped back to the owner has to be historical. Historical information does have its’ place. In looking for trends, identifying where the company has been and in preparing forecasts, historical information can be very useful. However, the value of historical information diminishes in businesses with rapid change. Small businesses can double their sales in a year. They can move into new locations with completely different overhead structures. They can quickly move to different products and customers. In such an environment, historical information becomes just slightly more than an academic pursuit.

The only thing that is really relevant to the business owner is how the company stands in relation to their plan. But most owners don’t even have a plan! Most owners are so sucked into the daily operations (other people’s jobs) that they fail to do their job. Their first job is to plan. This is a constant process. Man plans and God laughs. The plan is not even intended to work, rather it is intended to create benchmarks against which the company’s performance will be measured. The revision of this plan is a constant process, not an annual event. At least monthly, the owner must review his benchmarks and revise the plan. (Obviously from this plan is generated the operational standards for the organization.) The owner projects revenues and cost of sales—by product or department—and establishes overhead.

Every business can be broken into 4-10 key operational variables. These key variables must be projected and tracked weekly. Why weekly? It is the attainment of these results that determines the profit of the company and that is the reason we are in business. The more that one focuses on the result that they wish to achieve, the more likely they are to achieve that result. There are no lasting religions that have people come to church once a year, or once a month, or once a quarter. A weekly focus is exponentially more likely to deliver your result. The timeliness of the information in this instance is more important than the accuracy. You will have a difficult time convincing you bookkeeper of that because their entire orientation is towards accuracy, however the purpose of these “flash reports” is not their accuracy—it is the focus that they create. If a report indicates that a number is out of the range of the owner’s established benchmark, it then is the responsibility of the proper person to identify why and what is being done to correct it. (As scary as it seems to some owners, there are variables that must be tracked daily! But learn to walk before you run.)

Will IPA finally pay?

IPA to finally settle sex-harassment suit against Buffalo Grove business

By Ted Cox | Daily Herald Staff

With a trial days away, Buffalo Grove-based International Profit Associates agreed to a tentative settlement that would end nine years of federal litigation over charges women employees were assaulted, insulted, propositioned for sex and punished if they said no.

“Yeah, I’m glad it’s finally at an end. It’s been a long time,” said Marion Townson of Des Plaines, one of the original women to file a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1998. After an extensive investigation, the EEOC filed suit against IPA in June 2001.

She and others said one of the terms of the settlement is that it can’t be talked about. “I can’t discuss anything,” Townson said. But she sounded content with the terms, saying, “I’m happy there’s a settlement.”

EEOC attorney Diane Smason said she could not comment on a settlement at this time. “If the case does settle,” she added, “I expect it will be in a few weeks.”

The settlement was firm enough to halt the trial, which had begun jury selection, and a status hearing is scheduled for July 27 before U.S. District Court Judge Joan Gottschall.

In court documents, the EEOC charged IPA with “a wide spectrum of severe sexual harassment,” ranging “from demeaning insults to sexual assault, and everything in between.” According to the main complaint: “Women at IPA were regularly propositioned for sex, offered job benefits contingent on the performance of sexual acts (and threatened with negative consequences if they did not agree), and even offered money for sex. More than 40 women reported being sexually assaulted in one manner or another – the behavior complained of consists of everything from slapping, pinching, touching and grabbing to outright attempted rape. Women were regularly subjected to offensive sexual comments in the workplace, including explicit observations regarding their appearance and sexual jokes. Sexually offensive and derogatory language was commonly used by male employees, both in general and directed at female employees. Male employees exposed themselves to female employees. Strippers and prostitutes were hired to perform for male employees’ birthday parties at IPA’s offices during business hours. In short, the EEOC alleges that severe sexual harassment was part of the culture at IPA.”

The suit charged the harassment was “pervasive and existed at all levels and departments of the company,” and that “a great deal of the most abhorrent conduct … was allegedly committed by IPA’s upper-level management.”

It concluded, “Female employees at IPA were objectified and mistreated from the top down, company wide.”

Over the years, IPA attorneys used an almost infinite number of arguments and motions to delay the case, but it finally made it to court this month – resulting in an almost immediate settlement.

IPA, owner John Burgess of North Barrington, and several other Buffalo Grove-based companies he owns – International Tax Advisors Inc., Integrated Business Analysis Inc. and Accountancy Associates LLC – also were sued in April 2009 by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on charges they cheated hundreds of small-business clients by charging for management consulting services the companies failed to provide.

IPA attorneys did not reply to requests for comment.

Story published July 9, 2010 by the Daily Herald and is found at http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=392840

Survive and Thrive Seminars—Do it now!

Too many people wait for the storm to pass instead of learning to dance in the rain.

ABS, IPA, ROI

This is a follow up to a previous post regarding the plagiarism by ABS. We will simply post some facts and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

An ABS analyst/salesperson gave a local business owner a 33-page “analysis” of his business. Virtually all of it was directly copied from “Minding My Own Business” written by the founder of The Fremont Group and available on the right side-bar of this web site.
When questioned the ABS analyst indicated that “he had been trained to do so.”
When the Cease and Desist letter was served on ABS, an attorney with “IPA” in his email responded and copied a company named “ROI”
in his response he indicated two things—that he was instructing his people to stop using the materials and that he would be back in contact before August 13th.
Through an unverifed account, ABS analysts/sales people have not stopped using the materials.
The attorney never bothered to make the promised follow up call.

From this a few things are pretty clear—IPA, ROI, ABS are all the same. There isn’t even a real pretense of being separate companies. In addition they continue to operate in a less than ethical manner. You draw your own conclusions and do as you choose, however the author of “Minding My Own Business” is in the process of drafting letters to warn the Attorney General’s Office of all 50 states of the facts and is preparing to file civil litigation in Federal District Court.

Using Social Media For Your Company

Inc Magazine has published the following article at: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/07/how-to-make-a-social-media-marketing-strategy.html?partner=newsletter_Success

4 Ways to Master Social Media Marketing

Real-world examples of employing the best tactics to engage, enthrall, and expand your customer base online (without looking like a jerk).

By Michael Mothner | Jul 30, 2010

More than one in six marriages over the past three years were the result of relationships begun online, a recent study on social media and dating behavior found. When so many people are turning to the Internet to find soul mates, you can rest assured they are looking online for everything else – from their next pair of Oakleys to a new optometrist – and if you are a business seeking customers, you are well-advised to look online, too. You’ve heard it before: Social media is no longer an option; it’s a necessity.

Nielsen recently published a study stating that 79 percent of large corporations are leveraging social media to engage their audience, and they are using innovative ways to build buzz, establish relationships, foster communication, improve products, and cultivate long-term brand awareness and consumer trust.

It doesen’t matter whether you’re a seasoned producer of award-winning viral campaigns or are just learning how to create a Facebook profile. The beauty of social media is that you don’t need experience; you only need to learn a few basic rules. Social media is not so much a new idea as it is a way to communicate ideas, and the nature of a good idea hasn’t changed. The same marketing principles from 50 years ago apply today; they are simply communicated in a different way.

Creating a Social Media Strategy: How to Approach a Building an Online Campaign

Social media is ultimately about relationships. It should be viewed as a two-way street. As a brand, you aren’t there to promote a product, you are there to communicate and relate. If you approach social media with sales as your end goal, your audience will notice and, most likely, you will be ignored.

On the other hand, if you offer your audience something of value, and your message is genuine, aka you aren’t faking it, consumers are inclined to listen. Offer users engaging content, helpful information, streamlined customer service, or incentives like discounts and free gifts consistently, and you have the makings of a healthy long-term relationship with a brand ambassador willing to sing your praises to the world.

From that point on, as long as you pull your weight by keeping your message consistent, authentic and meaningful, consumers tend to stay loyal and express that in revenue generated over time and positive word-of-mouth expressed among their peers. That’s the real return on social media.

Dig Deeper: How to Use Social Media for B2B Marketing

Creating a Social Media Strategy: The Companies Behind Four Great Social-Media Promotions

The basic principles behind a successful social-media campaign – engaging content and authenticity – apply whether you are launching a celebrity-driven viral campaign or a simple online contest to drive website traffic. Designing the campaign, from concept to content to delivery, is where you can be creative; to design a good one requires careful analysis of your goals and your target audience’s behavior in order to deliver a message that engages in the most effective and interesting way possible.

Still, even with so many variables, most successful social media campaigns are modeled after prototypes that employ proven promotional tactics and conventional marketing psychology. The challenge is not so much in the concept, but rather in its execution.

Seem complicated? In the following real-world examples, we will explore how you can win in the social media marketing game – no matter what you are selling and to whom.

1. Raise brand awareness by hosting an online game or contest.

When trendy women’s shoe designer Naughty Monkey approached my consulting company Wpromote, there was already a positive buzz surrounding the brand. Their shoes peppered fashion magazines. However, Naughty Monkey had only a limited reach, so capitalizing on the existing buzz by building a social media presence made perfect sense.

The concept was simple. In a “Where have your Naughty Monkey’s Been?” contest, users were asked to submit pictures of themselves in interesting locations wearing their Naughty Monkey shoes. Users voted for their favorite pictures and the winners received a year’s supply of Naughty Monkey shoes.

The result? Thousands of new Facebook fans, tens of thousands of engaged users, an established social-media presence, and the creation of many valuable brand evangelists for the up-and-coming fashion footwear label.

2. Drive valuable traffic to your social network with a free giveaway.

If designing and executing an online game or contest seems daunting, you can always go back to basics and appeal to a universal human truth: People love free stuff.

When ScanDigital, my online photo scanning and video digitization service, wanted to build a fan base and drive user engagement via Facebook, we used its monthly newsletter to promote a simple game akin to the bar classic Photo Hunt. In the newsletter, two subtly different pictures were featured, and the first groups of users who identified and posted the differences on Facebook received a $25 ScanDigital gift card.ScanDigital acquired more Facebook fans than ever before – or since.

In a similar promotion, VeeV Vodka, an acaí berry-infused spirit, found a creative way to make use of extra canvas tote bags sitting around their office. Rather than stuff the bags in a storage closet, VeeV used the bags as prizes in a contest designed to drive user engagement on Facebook.

To win a tote bag, users were asked to post pictures of themselves drinking VeeV on the brand’s Facebook page, a relatively easy request considering the number of drinking photos on Facebook. Needless to say, the canvas tote bags went like hotcakes, and brand awareness increased exponentially. The cost? A less cluttered office for the folks at VeeV.

3. Grow consumer loyalty by giving consumers a stake in your brand.

When Vitamin Water decided to launch a new flavor, it ditched the focus groups and branding experts and turned to social networks. Throughout the summer of 2009, Vitamin Water engaged and grew its Facebook fan base by soliciting ideas from users regarding the name and packaging for the new flavor.

More than one million fans participated in the contest, and celebrities were engaged via video clips to spur interest. In the end, when “Connect,” the new Vitamin Water flavor, hit the shelves, there were a million potential buyers on the market far more likely to pick up a bottle than they had been before interacting with the contest.

4. Build brand equity by aligning with a higher purpose.

It feels good to do good, and if you can inspire others to follow suit, even better. Toms Shoes has made it its mission to give a pair of shoes to a child in a developing nation for every pair sold. To maximize its contribution, Toms.com prompts users who buy shoes online to share news of their purchase on Facebook when the sale is complete.

It’s not surprising that Toms’s messaging strategy works as well as it does. When I buy a book from Amazon or add a movie to my Netflix queue, I have little interest in alerting the people in my life. If you ask me to alert them about something charitable I’ve done, my interest piques.

When I purchase a pair of Toms online, not only do I want to brag about my good deed, I also want to encourage friends to follow suit. Toms wins by making it easy for me, and anyone else, to do just that.

Dig Deeper: How to Write a Social Media Policy

Creating a Social Media Strategy: Tying It All Together

When we sit down with executives of large companies and the topic of social media comes up, a collective groan ensues. What if they don’t like our product? What about damage control? We need to control our message! And so on.
What’s the bottom line for brands worried about getting social media wrong? The train is leaving the station with or without you. Conversations about your brand are going to happen, regardless of whether you choose to take part. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Embrace the conversation and engage.

Even if you take nothing else from this article, allow me to leave you with this: when it comes to social media, remember the golden rule. If you would be put off by a promotional tactic, your audience probably wouldn’t like it, and if you find something so exciting you want to share it with all your friends, there’s a good chance your audience will, too. Use common sense, and remember that social media networks mirror how we interact in the real world.

Similar social rules apply. In other words, don’t be a jerk.

The Fremont Group Business Operating System™

Your computer has an operating system. It is the combination of software that allows other programs to run and makes a worthless pile of plastic and metal morph into an efficient tool. it is time that your business also had an operating system. Starting in 2004 The Fremont Group has been in the process of developing a Business Operating System. As of August 1st the clients of The Fremont Group can purchase an operating system for their business. The system includes a team of professionals—some part of The Fremont Group, some who are not—who guide you in every aspect of your business. For a flat monthly fee you receive:

Up to 40 hours per month of time from the TFG Professional (eight sessions per month) where the following is completed:
The development of a full, usable Business Plan to keep your business focused
The development and use of a cash flow forecasting system
Development of a budget and monthly review of financial results and benchmarks from the Business Plan
On-going mentoring, coaching, of key staff—including yourself
Training for software implementation
Development of a sales system and training of sales staff
Development of Employee manual, job descriptions, reviews and other HR services
CRM and Operational software for full business use
Addition of a trained and managed, part-time Outside Sales person working on expenses and commission only (when possible)
Increased internet exposure to sales and marketing with the potential of referral fees for the referral of work to other trades or companies
Implementation of a “sales system” that includes world-class customer service through significantly increased information flow
Monthly analysis by a CPA of your financial statements for review with your TFG Professional
An annual review of your tax strategies with recommendations
An annual review of your insurance coverage with recommendations
Free legal document review by a local attorney
Free access to training seminars on numerous business topics
Free telephone consultation with a local attorney on virtually all business topics
Free one letter per year from a local attorney regarding virtually any business issue
Up to 10 initial collection letters per month from a local attorney
HR management software
And other services

All for considerably less than you would pay for an assistant general manager—or for one-day of consulting from some of the high-priced, high-pressure national consulting firms! All programs are customized to your company and priced to match the size of your company!

IRS Reporting Requirements When Selling or Closing a Business

The following article is found at: http://www.allbusiness.com/buying-exiting-businesses/selling-a-business/2975496-1.html

Corporations and other business entities can cease operations for many reasons and in a number of ways. In all cases there is far more to it than simply locking your doors. When a business is terminated, or its legal status changes, there are typical reporting requirements that must be met.

Here is a helpful guide to what to do when selling or closing a business:

Selling Your Business

When a business is bought or sold, both the buyer and seller of business assets must report to the IRS the allocation of the sales price and other business assets. IRS Form 8594 (Asset Acquisition Statement Under Section 1060) can be used to provide this information. Form 8594 should also be attached to the buyer and seller’s federal income tax return for that year.

The IRS treats each asset as being sold separately in order to determine a gain or loss. Sold assets have multiple classifications, such as capital assets, depreciable business property, real business property, or property held for sale to customers — e.g., inventory or stock in trade. The sale of capital assets results in capital gain or loss. The sale of real or depreciable business property held longer than one year also results in gain or loss. Inventory sales result in ordinary income or loss.

When sold, “partnership” and “joint venture” interests are treated as capital assets. The part of any gain or loss from unrealized receivables or inventory items will be treated as ordinary gain or loss. Corporation interests, meanwhile, are represented by stock certificates and usually result in capital gain or loss.

Because corporations generally recognize gain or loss when liquidating their assets, these gains and losses must be reported. Gain or loss is also generally recognized on a liquidating distribution of assets, as if the corporation sold the assets to the distributee at fair market value. These gains and loss, too, must be reported. In certain cases in which the distributee is a corporation in control of the distributing corporation, the distribution may not be taxable.

Closing Your Business

When closing your business you must file a final IRS Form 941 return for the last quarter in which wages are paid. If you have employees, you must file the final employment tax returns, in addition to making final federal tax deposits of these taxes. If you continue to pay wages or other compensation for quarters following the closing of your business, you must also file returns for those quarters.

The annual tax return for a partnership, corporation, S corporation, limited liability company, or trust includes check boxes near the top front page just below the entity information. For the tax year in which your business ceases to exist, check the box that indicates this tax return is a final return. If there are Schedule K-1s, repeat the same procedure on the Schedule K-1.

You will also need to file returns to report disposing of business property, reporting the exchange of like-kind property, and/or changing the form of your business. Following is a list of typical reporting actions to take when closing a business, depending on your type of business structure:

File final employment tax form

Report information from W-2s issued

Report capital gains or losses

Report partner’s/shareholder’s shares

Report information from 1099s issued

Report corporate dissolution or liquidation

Report business asset sales

Report the sale or exchange of property used in your trade or business

Minding My Own Business Workshops

The Fremont Group sponsors workshops for small business owners who are committed to change. They are one-on-one sessions with a professional trained in presenting the principles of “Minding My Own Business” by Dirk Dieters. The book examines the six responsibilities of a small business owner. At the workshop you and your professional evaluate how well you are performing those six responsibilities. The workshops are completely confidential. They may be held upon your premises, in our offices or at a local hotel. Most people find it best to get out of their offices for the three hours so that they can completely concentrate on the workshop. Each attendee receives their workshop materials and a copy of “Minding My Own Business.” The results are guaranteed—if you don’t leave the workshop with something that you can implement you don’t pay!

You determine the amount you wish to donate to The Fremont Group. The recommended donation for the workshop is $250—some people give less; most people give more. 303 338 9300

The Fremont Group