Do you want to avoid making the biggest mistake in bookkeeping? Have a system. A shoebox of receipts is not a system. Notes on an envelope is not a system. An Excel spreadsheet is not a good system, because it doesn’t give you a clear picture of how a business is doing. Use Quickbooks, Outright. [...]
Archive for the ‘small business’ Category
Recommended Reading: The $100 Startup
May 17th, 2012 
Nichelle 
Last week, I went to a book event for Chris Guillebeau’s new book, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future. This book is a great one to read if you a self-employed, a solopreneur, a microbusiness owner. The book is filled with anecdotes, [...]
Intuit’s Go Payment Goes Global
January 10th, 2012 Nichelle Intuit’s GoPayment, a credit card device for small businesses announced plans to go global. GoPayment helps small businesses – and anyone, for that matter, who sells products or services – easily and securely process credit cards payments on the go via smartphone or tablet. GoPayment is a rival to Square which was founded by Twitter founder [...]
Paychex Introduces Two New Products For Small Business Owners
December 28th, 2011 Nichelle Paychex Inc. has recently introduced two new tools that aim at solving certain tax credit related problems for the small and medium businesses (SMBs). The two new products arteSmall Business Tax Credit Estimator and Small Business Tax Credit Package, have been innovated by Paychex Insurance Agency, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex. These tools will [...]
What Are You Deducting? Popular Deductions for 2011
December 21st, 2011 Nichelle Gina Noy is a CPA and a fellow member of New Work City. She has a blog post detailing the most popular tax deductions of 2011. Here’s a few that may be of special interest to the self-employed/freelancer/sole proprietor. 9. Business Startup Costs Startup Costs are “amount paid or incurred for creating an active trade [...]
Small Business Retailer Tips: Ready, Set, Sell
November 22nd, 2011 Nichelle Photo: Caramel Apples At Sweet Revenge Here’s some tips and links for small business retailers this week. Five Foursquare Tactics To Attract Customers How To Work Holiday Craft Shows and Artisan Flea Markets Without Going Nuts Are you an Etsy seller? Etsy just launched an iPhone app to track sales Small Business Saturday is November [...]
Posted in entrepreneurs, small business 
Tags: etsy, foursquare, small business saturday 
No Comments »Small Business Saturday is November 26
November 9th, 2011 Nichelle Have you heard?! Small Business Saturday is November 26. It is a way to support small businesses as you are doing holiday shopping. YouTube has teamed up with American Express to get showcase small business owners’ stories. You can submit you our story by November 15.
Posted in entrepreneurs, small business Tags: november 26, small business, small business saturday No Comments »Ten Challenges For Women Entrepreneurs
August 29th, 2011 Nichelle She Takes On The World surveyed a 1000 women entrepreneurs and they identified the top ten challenges for women entrepreneurs. I think most of these challenges apply to men as well, but some stem from women needing to brag more and have more confidence in their work, product or service. Being afraid to take the [...]
Take Five: Finovate, Manilla, Small Business Advice, Loosecubes, Fab
August 4th, 2011 Nichelle Finovate Fall is coming soon to NYC. Early bird registration ends August 12. I will be there as press this year. Small Business Accounting Advice: The New York Times has published a great guide for entrepreneurs about basic accounting. Bookmark this! Manilla organizes your utility bills, travel reward programs, Hearst magazine subscriptions, credit cards and [...]
Posted in accounting, business advice, personal finance, small business Tags: fab, finovate, manilla 1 Comment »Small Business: From Pop Up Dream To Actual Reality
August 2nd, 2011 Nichelle Yesterday, I read this post on Forbes, “So You Think You Can Cook, Test Your Skills and Open Up A Pop Up Eatery“. It gives some good advice which is very similar to the outline in my cupcake business class but it reads so “easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy”. I especially question the wisdom of this advice: Come up [...]
Online POS Systems
July 26th, 2011 Nichelle I was talking to Matt of Robicellis and he mentioned that he was looking for a good and inexpensive online POS (Point of Sale) system. Yesterday, I did a little research and found a couple that would be good for small businesses. Imonggo: The basic version is free and the premium version is only $30/month. [...]
Daily Candy’s Start Small Go Big Contest
June 13th, 2011 Nichelle Yay! Daily Candy’s Second Annual “Start Small, Go Big Contest ” is now accepting entries. They are looking for entrepreneurs that best fits the business categories (Fashion, Food & Drink, Home, or Beauty). Calling all fledgling designers, budding restaurateurs, and desk jockeys dying to quit their day jobs. Your big break has finally arrived. Enter DailyCandy’s [...]
Posted in small business Tags: daily candy, entrepreneurs, lifestyle business, small business No Comments »Microfinance Conference May 23-24 in New York
May 4th, 2011 Nichelle Microfinance USA is the conference where the nation’s leading microfinance champions exchange ideas and information that set the agenda for the future of the field. Join the conversation with expert practitioners, top investors, and frontline researchers to explore and expand microfinance in the U.S.
Take Five: Betterment, Tax Credits and More
April 4th, 2011 Nichelle Betterment is one of the start-ups that presented at Finovate that I really liked. The New York Daily News talked to Betterment founder Jon Stein about how Betterment makes investing easy. Hospitality is their specialty: Accion is a nonprofit microlender that has seeded small businesses in the food, beverage and hospitality business. The New York [...]
Posted in business advice, investing, personal finance, small business Tags: accion, betterment 1 Comment »Seven Bookkeeping Tips To Save Time And Money
March 29th, 2011 Nichelle A great article from Entrepreneur via Reuters about making bookkeeping less of a headache. Read my annotations in the brackets. 1. Use accounting software such as QuickBooks. Become at least generally familiar with the software: Know how to input checks, reconcile bank accounts, create reports and other data. [Quickbooks is not the only game in town. [...]
