March 2007 Virtual Staffing Newsletter - Issue #10 corner

Keep Your Business Up to Date !

This month's newsletter is filled with various tips to help your business run smoothly. Find information on how to handle accounting issues that can bog down your time, what to do to keep up to date with taxes, and how to make a statement with your business logo. Make sure you check out our Small Business Tip of the Month - be aware of the new DST, Daylight Saving Time, schedule and how it can affect your business.

Business Accounting - As a small to medium size business owner, business accounting can be an enigma. Is is better to do it yourself or pay someone else? At what point does it make sense to have someone else take care of payroll?

With the many quality accounting programs available today, you CAN do it yourself ! VSI is happy to help work with you to set up your business with an accounting program such as QuickBooks. We can schedule training sessions to teach you to use your new program and show you how to optimize your accounting to your unique business needs. We can also help you to "catch up" if you are behind on entering data and balancing accounts.

Accounting is not limited to checking and credit card accounts. We can show you how to use reporting to help you get a better view of your business and how to adjust to the changing needs of your customers.

With the addition of payroll features within many accounting programs, you can organize your payroll and withholding taxes. This can save you time by filling in forms required by federal and state agencies. Also, most employees will be happy with the option of direct deposit.

VSI will, of course, be happy to take on any and all of these tasks for you. While you are capable of doing this yourself, consider if you are worth more to your company elsewhere. As the most prominent person in your company, you will find that customers would rather work with you than anyone else, and you can sell your business better than anyone. Fostering those relationships may be a better use of your time than sitting at a desk, and in turn make your company more money.

When thinking of the financial impact of hiring someone to do your accounting, keep in mind that because we are familiar with accounting and the programs to do it, we will work quickly and efficiently. Because we charge on an hourly rate, you may find the cost to be substantially less than you would think. Also, think about additional costs that have been incurred by your company from finance charges and penalties, that would be saved when someone else is making sure accounts are taken care of in a timely manner.

Be Prepared for Tax Time - Many of us are finding ourselves in a rush to get paperwork together and prepare our taxes both for our business and personal finances. With the proper planning, this time of year doesn't have to be scary. While it is best to consult a tax accountant for specifics to your company, as we at VSI are not CPAs, here are some tips to keep you from feeling frazzled this month.

* Talk to your accountant - Being prepared can save you time and money. Make sure you know what paperwork your accountant wants from you. It is better to take the time to organize everything now, than to have to find papers that are missing after your first appointment with your accountant. Also, by presenting your information in an organized manner, you can help your accountant work more efficiently and therefore save yourself money. Even if you are not planning on using an accountant to do your taxes, VSI highly recommends that you have a CPA audit your company finances annually.

Check to make sure you know when taxes are due. Although most of us are familiar with April 15th as tax day, the truth is that there are many factors that dictate your due date, including how you've incorporated your business. Also, there are many other dates throughout the year in regard to taxes, some involving filing forms and others with paying taxes due.

* Make sure your records are up to date - Before you can start your taxes you need to make sure that you have balanced all your financial accounts. If you have a discrepancy with your financial institutions, it is an easier fix now than if you wait and have to make changes to your tax forms later.

Also, have a list of unreimbursed expenses that you have personally paid on behalf of your business. Include items such as phone calls, postage, and business mileage. Talk to your tax advisor to ensure that these items will be deductible for you.

Review your accounts and decide if there are any receivables that you don't think you will be able to collect. It may be a wise decision to write off those accounts and decrease your taxable income.

* Relax - This may not seem possible, but you will work more efficiently if you are not panicking about getting taxes done. If you are behind on getting everything together for tax time, just work steady. Try setting a timer for 15-30 minutes and get as much done as you can in that time. You will be surprised at how much you are able to accomplish. When the timer goes off, take a 10-15 minute break and then start over again. Before long you will have everything done.

Consult your accountant about what to do if you can't be done by the tax due dates. You may be able to file an extension to help give you more time to organize.

* Plan for next year - Now that you have everything done, you can take a deep breath and enjoy a job well done. Then start a plan for next year. By organizing your finances now, you will find next year's taxes so much easier.

This is a good time to review your process for taking care of your business' accounting. Be realistic about your time and skills. Would your time be better spent meeting with clients and leaving your accounting to someone else?

Business Logos - Logos are a vital part of any business. They set the tone for a business and when designed right will be effective for years to come. I often use the analogy that you would not walk into a business meeting in a t-shirt and cut offs. A clean, professionally-designed logo is an indicator that a business is a well run organization. In today's competitive marketplace we need all the help we can get.

A logo needs to hold up whether it is used large or reduced down to a very small size. You need both a strong full color and black and white version. Be careful of logos where the name of your company is embedded in small type within a busy graphic. Have your designer show you the logo at a small size to make sure your name is still very legible.

Ask the designer for the logo in following formats: tiff, jpeg and if possible Illustrator .eps. If the graphics person doesn't understand this request, find someone who does. A pro will know and understand the request. There will come a time when having these various formats on hand will save you money.

Once the logo is completed, make SURE you have the designer create 2 CDs for your archives. Designers can move, go out of business, lose files or lose hard drives. Have the designer put all the logo files onto a CD and then ask for a duplicate CD. Always keep one of the CDs as a master filed safely away where it won't get lost. Use the other CD to loan to your printing company etc. when needed. Printing companies can lose CDs. If this happens, have the master CD duplicated and return it to your archive.

- Article by Kathy Walker
Counterpoint Design
303.932.2400
http://www.counterpointdesign.com

Help Wanted ! We are looking for experienced technicians in both the Phoenix and Denver markets. If you know of anyone that is experienced and is looking for a great challenge, please ask them to send their resume and cover letter to jobs@azvsi.com Thank you for your help in finding the right people for our company!

Referrals - Thank you for letting us serve your business. Our success has been based on your satisfaction with our company and your willingness to continue to provide referrals. For this reason we ask, "How likely are you to refer our company to a friend or colleague?" If you don't feel you could recommend us, please let us know how we could better meet your needs. We greatly appreciate you and are hopeful that you will continue to refer new business to us!

Small business tip of the month - The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has changed the start of Daylight Saving Time this year. Remember to set your clocks forward one hour this Sunday (the second Sunday in March) instead of on the first Sunday in April as in the past.

Even if you are not in a location that adheres to DST, you may find that you need to be more aware of the difference in the schedule this year. While many software programs have made updates to account for the new schedule, you may find problems arise if you have not updated your information systems locally.

Please contact VSI or your local IT Support with any questions or concerns about how DST will impact your internal system.

For more information and interesting facts about Daylight Saving Time visit http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html.

February 2007 Virtual Staffing Newsletter - Issue #9

Virtual Human Resources !

With the new year in full swing, we hope you are finding your business booming. You may be feeling the need to hire new employees to help with the extra workload. This can be an overwhelming prospect: how do you find the right person for the job, what paperwork needs to be filled out, and what about payroll and payroll taxes? Partnering with an experienced company that is familiar with these Human Resource questions can be helpful.

What is a virtual staffing person ? As an external HR solution provider, we can provide assistance to you in the following areas:

* Customized candidate screening for searching for the right employees for your organization
* On-boarding process to be used when hiring new employees and bringing them into your organization
* Working with you to write the necessary operations and policy & procedures manuals
* Career development processes to assist you with coaching and managing your employees

Why not do it myself ? Human Resource services should be handled by someone that understands what the requirements are and is focused on doing it correctly. While a large corporation can have dedicated personnel on staff to handle this process, a small or medium sized company just can't be organized the same way. By outsourcing this work to a Trusted Advisor, you keep your attention on the tasks at hand -- your business. Your organization can utilize our existing policy & procedure templates as a starting point rather than creating your own which further saves you time. Our thorough processes are kept up-to-date; meaning they are repeatable, measurable, and predictable. Therefore, allowing the same predictability within your company.

What to look for when selecting an HR partner ? Once you have decided to outsource your HR needs, you should choose a qualified partner. Make sure that the company you use has previous positive experience working with SMBs. Having experience with large corporations is not the best fit as SMBs have unique situations revolving around personnel requirements, budgets, etc.

As your business grows you may find that it is more cost effective to hire a full time HR person. Will the company you are considering be willing to work with you on a plan to transition the HR process back in house if you choose to? You don't want to become stuck in a process that ties you to one company.

Make sure that the company you choose can create a process tailored to your specific organization and industry. Your company is unique, and you don't want to settle for a cookie cutter approach to such important processes as HR.

What are the benefits of VSI's candidate screening process ? We are not just executive recruiting -- instead we have a unique approach for finding and keeping the right people. VSI collaborates with you to develop a job description and staff expectations. This partnership will help develop an understanding of what qualities you need in a prospective employee; we often have suggestions based on past experiences with similar positions in your specific industry that you may not have thought about. We then post the job openings and receive resumes from potential candidates. The candidates will be asked to complete a candidate screening questionnaire that has been customized for this specific role. Based on answers to the questionnaire, we will conduct phone and onsite interviews as necessary. Once a final decision has been made, VSI follows up with ALL candidates -- accept and decline -- everyone will receive a response.

What are the benefits of VSI's employee on-boarding process ? After a qualified candidate has been chosen, VSI will continue to work with your organization to ensure that the hiring transition is effortless. We will formulate a customized offer letter that describes the expectations and benefits that are being offered to your new employee. We provide a personalized application to the new employee and ensure all paperwork is completed fully -- including a background check. VSI then walks through staff expectations, answers candidates questions, and ensures that all necessary paperwork and policy documents are signed. A 30 / 60 / 90 day and 1 year appraisal process is developed based on your expectations for your new employee and specific industry standards. Finally, we setup the new employee into the payroll process; this can be done in-house or out-sourced to VSI (see next month's newsletter for more information on VSI's payroll and accounting services).

How can VSI help develop an Operations / Policy and Procedures Manual ? We conduct several interviews to gather details about your process and organization. Our findings are documented and a draft manual is sent to you for clarification. Based on the additional details supplied, we create another draft manual. Final modifications are made and a final document is put together. Over the years as your company procedures evolve, we will refine the Operations / Policy and Procedures Manual accordingly.

Referrals Thank you for letting us serve your business. Our success has been based on your satisfaction with our company and your willingness to continue to provide referrals. For this reason we ask, "How likely are you to refer our company to a friend or colleague?" If you don't feel you could recommend us, please let us know how we could better meet your needs. We greatly appreciate you and are hopeful that you’ll continue to refer new business to us!

Small business tip of the month Software manufactures, like Microsoft, QuickBooks, etc. bombard us with messages to update to the newest version in order to have the best functionality. However, PLEASE consider the ramifications of these updates. Some changes that are made by an update to one program, may cause another program to stop working. Consider making a system backup prior to any software installs or updates. This will allow you to revert to an older version of software if you experience any compatibility problems.

Please call VSI or your current IT support company with any questions you may have.

December 2006 Virtual Staffing Newsletter -Issue #8

Protect Your Customers!

Are you in compliance with FACTA Document Disposal Rules? The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACTA) added new settings to the federal Fair Crediting Report (FCRA, 15 USC 1681 et seq.), intended primarily to help consumers fight the growing crime of identity theft. Accuracy, privacy, limits on information sharing, and new customer rights to disclosure are included in the FACTA (Pub. L. 108-159, 111 Stat 1952). What does this mean to you? Essentially, you are required to properly dispose of information in consumer reports and records to protect against "unauthorized access to or use of this informatoin."

You may think you don't need to worry about this. Howerever, among those affected by the rules are:

• Lenders
• Employees
• Landlords
• Mortage Brokers
• Automobile Dealers
• Attorneys or Private Investigators
• Individuals who obtain a credit report on prospective nannies, contractors, or tenants

How can you show compliance with the FACTA rules? According to the FTC, proper disposal of information derived from a consumer report is flexible. This allows your organization or you as an individual to put procedures in place that can take into consideration how sensitive the information is and the costs and benefits of different disposal methods. Still, it is important to take steps to prove that you are working to protect your customer's information.

Here are some suggestions to help you comply with the FACTA rule:

1. Burn or Shred Papers - Make sure that any consumer information is destroyed so that it can not be read or reconstructed. You may consider outsourcing the destruction as sometimes using the office shredder is not enough.
2. Destroy Electronic Files - Any electronic files or media (including backup copies) that are not being used and will not need to be accessed, need to be professionally destroyed or erased so that they can not be read or recreated.
3. Protect Information that Can Not be Destroyed - Obviously, not all consumer information you have can be or should be destroyed. For the data you need to access or keep for an extended period of time due to regulatory and compliance issues, you can take steps to protect your customers and employees. 1. Make sure files are password protected and encrypted, 2. Have a firewall, 3. Run anti-malware programs, 4. Have secure data backup procedures. For more information on protecting your information systems, view our June 2006 and August 2006 Newsletters.
4. Use a Document Destruction Contractor - An easy way to provide proof of proper disposoal of consumer information, is to hire a document destruction contractor. We recommend ShredPro to our customers. ShredPro provides a secure recepticle to place your sensitive material and visits your site on a routine schedule to destroy all materials in that bin. You can feel secure that your costumers' and employeees' information is safe.

Fun Holiday Gift Ideas! Now that we are in the middle of the gift giving frenzy, you may be looking for an extra fun special gift for someone. There are some obvious choices like an ipod, digital camera, or the PS3, but I want to point out some less obvious, but very fun options.

1. Virtual Laser Keyboard - This cell phone size device connects to your PDA, phone, tablet pc, ect via a BlueTooth or serial connection and projects a full size keyboard image onto your worksplace. You type just as you would with a regular keyboard and based on your finger placement your keystrokes are recognized.
2. Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300 featuring OminiLink TM - This is THE universal remote to have. It may not be the prettiest remote you have every seen, but in can do everything except wash the dishes. Monster Cable has put together a controller that can control all of your electronic devices including your ipod and lighting system in your home. It works at up to 130 foot distance even through walls. The joke at my home is that you need to leave your driver's license with me to use my current remote; with this new one, I may ask for a security deposit.
3. WinePod - Although not for your casual wine drinker, The WinePod gives the enthusiast the great opportunity of making really good wine at home. The unit combines fermenting, pressing, and ageing. The companion software guides and manages your winemaking process, as well as allowing you to upload your information to other WinePod users and view their notes. The manufacturer even works with vineyards to allow you to purchase high quality produce directly from them.
4. Sonic Impact VIDEO-55 - If you use your ipod for more than music, you will love the Sonice Impact VIDEO-55. It acts as speakers and carrying case for you ipod, but the real reason for it is the 7 in. video screen. The larger screen allows for easy viewing of your pictures and the 4 hour battery playing time lets you watch full length movies. With the included AC adapter and remote, it makes an excellent addition to your desk or kitchen.
5. HP Pavillion Slimline s7600e Series - This award winning machine, combines functionality with small footprint size. Although it is only one third of the size of the traditional HP tower, it has all the abilities of a full size machine. When properly configured, it can run the new Windows Vista, as well as Home, Media, or Pro. The 9 in 1 memory card reader makes transferring music, video, and pictures easy; and with the optional HP DVD writer with HP's innovative LightScribe technology, you can burn professional-looking labels directly onto LightScribe-enabled media. The real fun comes with the ability to personalize your new computer. HP Skins lets you show your personality and brighten up the traditional look of your pc.
   
   Referrals - Thank you for letting us serve your business. Our success has been based on your satisfaction with our company and your willingness to continue to provide referrals. For this reason ask, "How likely are you to refer out company to a friend or colleague?" If you don't feel you could recommend us, please let us know how we could better meet your needs. We greatly appreciate you and are hopeful that you will continue to refer new business to us!
   
   Small business tip of the month - You know not to download files emailed to you from people you are not familiar with, but remember that even people you know and want to help you can inadvertently pass on bad information. Whenever you receive an email and want to know, "Is that true?" visit Truth or Fiction. Most of the e-rumors that are forwarded on are harmless, but some ask you to delete files as a means to protect your computer system. Oftentimes the instructions included in these emails will cause damages ranging from minor inconveniences to major information loss.