Photo Credit: Hilde Vanstraelen

With the holiday season ending, we're seeing more and more reports of small businesses donating goods and/or services to groups in their communities. An interesting article from the Kansas City Star looks at one small business' effort to donate blankets to a local community agency. 

There are a few things to consider if you are going to make a donation on your small business' behalf:

1. Good or services. Will you donate goods or services? The choice can have tax implications depending on the amount you intend to donate and the manner of the donation. Consult with your accountant to learn the most effective way to choose. Keep in mind that if you decide to donate your own goods there might be a public relations backlash. This happens if you are doing it as more of a marketing campaign than a real donation. For instance, in the article the company supplying the blankets is myubby.com, and they are in the blanket business. 
2. Owner or team effort. Is the owner making the decision or is the whole team. Sometimes it's a good idea to consider bringing your employee's and team member's opinions into the mix. If the organization you're considering donating to doesn't align with their values you might alienate them.
3. Need. You should due your homework and ensure the donation is needed and wanted by the organization you're targeting. An example of not making sure the need exists is with computers. Many schools will decline offers of computers based on age.
4. Cost of delivery. How much is it going to cost to transport the donated goods? If you want to ship items to the military overseas have you considered the cost? It might be easier to cut a check.

Donating, even if it's not during the holidays, is a wonderful idea for small businesses. Make sure you do your homework first so you don't run into issues. 

Photo Credit: Burcin Muftuoglu

Evidently, you can. Even though there are 26.8 million small businesses (Yeah, it's a PDF file. I have no idea why the SBA doesn't release their press releases as HTML files.) in the United States, PNC thinks they have a handle on how the small business owners feel about the economy. They released their report PNC Economic Outlook Survey Fall 2007 today. 

Photo Credit: Vangelis Thomaidis

The United States SBA (Small Business Administration) was formed to help the economy of the country by assisting small businesses. Eevery year the SBA puts out a roadmap for how they will meet their goals for the upcoming year. The 2008 plan was just released, so let's touch on some of the more important parts. 

You need to understand the stated goals of the SBA in this document:

• Outcomes Driven
• Customer Focused
• Employee Enabled
• Accountable, Efficient and Transparent

Yes, they are buzzwords, but they do a good job of explaining them. One would think that a group organized to help small business would focus, so this is heartening.

Photo Credit: Christa Richert

There were two interesting reports released this week concerning small business payroll. Looking at data about payrolls, even if it only represents a small percentage of small business, is important to see trends. In this case, it appears both the trends are positive.

The first report comes from Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), which is one of the larger payroll processing companies.  They publish a report called the The ADP National Employment Report on a regular basis.

Photo Credit: Stephen J. Sullivan

When you start an S corp as a small business, you'll find there are many taxes you need to pay. You might be used to a simple schedule C as a sole proprietor, but the S corp brings the bigger game. 

We're going to review three taxes that you might not be familiar with. It's a shame that alot of S Corp owners run into issues because no one explains to them about the taxes they don't know about.

Here are the three you might not know about:

Unemployment taxes: You might be your only employee, but the state expects you to pay this tax. You cannot draw against it if you lay yourself off, nor can you opt out of this. While it makes sense to pay this tax is you have employees that aren't your family, it makes no sense if you're the only employee.