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Archive for category: Human Resources

How Turbo-Charging Your Team Benefits Your Business

Blog, Human Resources

How Turbo-Charging Your Team Benefits Your Business

by Stephanie Ordonez | April 6, 2023

Having a passionate, focused team is every business owner’s dream. Whether you’re looking to motivate your crew, hire new personnel, or evaluate existing employees, learning how to understand your staff is a critical part of each process. Connecting with your team by using the appropriate communication styles and understanding their driving forces is important for the success of your business as it is directly affected by the success of your employees.

What is DISC/Turbo-Charge?

A DISC assessment is a behavioral analysis that was developed by Target Training International (TTI) and researchers in the 1980s to help businesses thrive with research-backed assessments. This method of analysis is used to, “Turbo-Charge Any Team,” by evaluating the areas where there are opportunities for growth and improvement within an organization. The DISC assessment analyzes behavior in a way that helps you better understand your employees both professionally and personally. By Turbo-Charging your team, you will gain a roadmap on how to motivate and improve work morale for your employees.

How does the assessment work?

The 20–30-minute DISC assessment looks at a couple behavioral variables including the communication styles and driving forces of each team member taking the assessment. Analyzing those variables helps us understand the best way to interact with other individuals based on their communication styles as well as the best way to identify strengths and weaknesses based on their driving forces. The following four behaviors determine the communication style that each team member uses:

Dominance – determined by the demands the environment puts on an individual.

Influence – determined by the way an individual influences people to their way of thinking.

Steadiness – determined by the pace of the individual’s environment.

Compliance – determined by an individual’s responds to rules and regulations.

Each behavior is approached with a different communication style since each behavior requires certain needs. For example, if you were to interact with an employee or co-worker that is characterized as having dominance behavior, then it would be best not to approach them with a topic that is irrelevant to the issue that is being discussed, as this may disengage them from the conversation altogether. The assessment also looks at 12 driving forces, which originate from the following six motivators:

  1. Knowledge
  2. Utility
  3. Surroundings
  4. Others
  5. Power
  6. Methodologies

Based on these motivators, the assessment subjects will score high or low on the correlating driving forces which can then be used to take a more internal view on why your employees, teammates, and/or future hires make the decisions that they make.

Case Study

The owner of a business that sells and rents large equipment to government agencies found itself wanting to improve employee performance as they expanded in mid-2021. This company, operating since the early 2000s, was a long-term client of the SBDC aware of the DISC Turbo-Charge service.

Over the course of the service, the business utilized 27 DISC/Turbo-Charge assessments. Initially, they focused on having their current staff evaluated – from office assistants to sales managers. This allowed them to learn what drove each of their employees in terms of satisfaction. It also gave them insight into how best to interact with each of their employees. For instance, the assessments found that some employees thrived on personal interaction and conversations, while others wanted to solely focus on data-driven conversations. This allowed the management team to tailor their communication with each of their employees, potentially leading to less frustration.

After the initial assessments were completed, the owner had each of their new hires evaluated. This allowed them to see how they were going to fit into the existing team and where in the company they would be best suited. In some cases, this gave the management team insight into what would make the new hire more successful, such as “XX will do well in this role as long as he has the opportunity to grow with the company and take on more of a leadership position.”

Regarding the DISC/Turbo-Charge service, the client recently shared, “The DISC [information/results] we continue to use. It’s such valuable tool. 15% of our team are risk takers, all others are risk averse. This opened our eyes on how to hire and who to hire and most of us know how to manage them.”

Why is this assessment beneficial for my business?

By connecting with your team on a personal level, business owners tend to create a work environment that retains employees instead of creating a workplace with high turnover. This assessment can be used to evaluate your management team, new hires, and current employees. With the knowledge that is gained through the assessment, business owners can recognize what engages and motivates their team thus creating better dialogue and making better decisions to keep their team happy and focused.

Not only does this organizational development tool help uplift and encourage a team, but it also gives businesses great insight into what makes a team work well and efficiently. Gain business success by keeping your personnel happy with great communication and meaningful work based on their behavior and driving forces. Turbo-Charge your team today to get behind your organization and find out how to come back better than ever.

https://sbdctampabay.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/turbo-charge-your-business-disc.jpg 750 1420 sbdclarry /wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Locked-Host-Logos-Horizontal-USF-Small-e1635274663378.png sbdclarry2023-04-06 11:11:172023-04-07 11:33:37How Turbo-Charging Your Team Benefits Your Business

Deducting Business Expenses

Blog, Finance, Human Resources

Deducting Business Expenses

by Simplice Essou, CPA | November 30, 2022

In this article we will discuss common business expenses that are deductible and a few that most taxpayers do not always think about when it comes to business expenses.

What is deductible?

According to the IRS: “The general rules for deducting business expenses: A business expense must be both ordinary and necessary to be deductible. Business expenses are the costs of carrying on a trade or business, and they are usually deductible if the business is operated to make a profit to be deductible.”

In other words, any expense that is necessary to produce business income is deductible if it is ordinary according to industry practices.

The following expenses are deductible:

Cost of Goods Sold

A manufacturing entity or a retailer that maintains inventory for resale can deduct the cost of goods sold. This cost is calculated by taking the inventory at the beginning of the year, adding the purchases throughout the year and subtracting the end of year inventory.

Salaries and Benefits

A business with employees can deduct the expenses associated with salaries and benefits.

Work-Related Travel Expenses

Expenses incurred for travel for business are deductible. These expenses include airfare, hotels, car rental, food and tips.

Work-Related Car Use

A business can deduct business-related car expenses. Business owners can choose between the mileage method and the actual cost method. On July 1, 2022, the IRS increase the mileage rate from 58.5 cents per mile to 62.5 cents per mile.

Business Insurance

Business insurance is a deductible expense. If the business owner has a home office or uses a portion of the home for business, renter’s insurance costs are deductible as business home office write -offs.

Home Office Expense

Business owners often overlook home office expenses. To qualify for a home office deduction, the space used as a work area must be exclusively for business and it has to be use regularly as the principal place for conducting business. Business owners may choose one of the two following methods to determine the deduction amount:

  1. The new method called the Simplified method is pretty straightforward. Under this method owners can deduct $5 per square foot for up to 300 square feet. Therefore, the maximum deduction under the Simplified method is $1,500.
  2. Under the Regular method the calculation considers the ratio of the area used for the business in relation to the square footage of the whole home. This percentage is then applied to the expenses such as rent, interest on the mortgage, and utilities.

Other deductible expenses include expenses for telephone, computer and Internet access, office expenses, and health insurance, just to list a few.

Depreciation

The tax laws allow businesses to depreciate the cost of assets over the life of the assets. For example office furniture can be depreciated over seven years (their useful life) and autos can be depreciated over five years. Therefore, every year the business can deduct a fifth of the cost of the vehicle as depreciation expense. This can result in substantial tax savings.

Another tax saving strategy is to use Section 179 of the tax code that allows for the one-time depreciation of a qualified asset if it is put into service before December 31. For example, a business owner can purchase a piece of equipment for $50,000. If it is purchased and put into service prior to the end of the year, the whole $50,000 can be deducted instead of being deducted over seven years. This strategy can result in substantial tax savings in years where revenue is high.

By keeping good records and knowing what expenses are deductible the business can help reduce their tax bills and keep more money in the business.

Author

Simplice Essou

Simplice Essou, CPA

Certification Consultants, Consultants, Essou, Tampa

Florida SBDC at USF
Specialty: Accounting, Business Planning, Financial Management, Startup

Simplice Essou joined the Florida SBDC at University of South Florida in March 2020 as a business consultant, bringing almost two decades of experience in accounting, finance and entrepreneurship. Essou started and managed an international consulting firm in 2008, specializing in advising African government on issues related to small-to-medium-enterprise development. Previously, he has worked for large corporations, including Bank of America, BP-Amoco, General Electric, and Lehman Brothers. These roles gave him a wide breadth of experience, including the ability to handle forecasting, analyze revenue entries, actively communicate account receivable risks, and lead day-to-day analysis and reporting for credit losses. He earned an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi.

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Carl Hadden Appointed Regional Director of Florida SBDC at USF

Blog, Human Resources, SBDC News

TAMPA, Fl. – The Muma College of Business at University of South Florida announced Carl Hadden, MBA, CME, as the new regional director of the Florida SBDC at University of South Florida. “We are excited to welcome Carl in the role as Regional Director of the Florida SBDC at USF,” GJ de Vreede, PhD, Associate […]

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Employee Retention Becomes Top Priority for Businesses

Blog, Featured News, Human Resources, SBDC News

by Jenee Skipper, SHRM-CP | March 28, 2022 While recruiting the best talent has been a priority for most organizations; one often overlooked task has been retention efforts, at least until now.  Since 2021, workforce shortages are of growing concern for most organizations and a recent report by Paige McAllister of Affinity HR Group revealed […]

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Budgeting Your Small Business for Success

Blog, Featured News, Human Resources

by Corey McCaster | February 19, 2020 It is easy for a business owner to get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of owning a business. Between bills, staffing issues and creating effective marketing strategies to appeal to the masses, some may find themselves living each business day just trying to make it to the […]

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Unsung Causes of Employee Turnover

Blog, Featured News, Human Resources

by Corey McCaster | October 9, 2019 In the current marketplace, business owners are struggling to find good, valuable and loyal employees. When they do find one, they may find it hard to retain them and may not realize why. In this climate, it takes more than wages and benefits to incentivize employees to stay. […]

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Building Your Dream Team

Blog, Featured News, Human Resources

by Carl Hadden | October 8, 2019 When a business owner first opens shop, there is one thing he or she must remember – starting and operating a small business is a team sport. One of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make is attempting to do everything on their own. You can’t do […]

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6 Ways to Find the Right Employee

Blog, Featured News, Human Resources, SBDC News

by Kyle King | August 13, 2019 When a business owner opens up shop, there are several costs that he or she must consider when building their budget. They soon realize that employees are one of the costliest investments they must make. Employee turn-over costs businesses billions of dollars annually. According to the Society for […]

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Is your new hire a W-2 Employee or 1099 Contractor?

Blog, Business Essentials, Featured News, Human Resources

by Corey McCaster | May 21, 2019 Many small business owners may find themselves faced with the dilemma of determining if a new hire is considered a W-2 employee or a 1099 independent contractor. Unfortunately, they often make the wrong decision. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) nearly 3.4 million employees are classified as […]

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Things to Consider When Hiring Your First Employee

Blog, Featured News, Growing Your Business, Human Resources, SBDC News

by Pat Gordon | March 30, 2018 You’ve been through all the initial challenges of opening your own business. You created a business plan, calculated your costs and pricing strategy, and opened a business bank account. You decided on a business name, researched your target markets, created a website and developed your social media strategy. […]

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