Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 6, 2012

12

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 6, 2012 

BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques


By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA

TEAMBUILDING TAKES TIME

There is an old quote that says, “Rome wasn’t built 
in a day,” which is great. But I think “Everyday 
they worked on building Rome” should be added 
to that quote.

- 17 year old, Patrick Brennan

 (empoweryourhealth.org; Empower Magazine, Vol 2, Issue 3)

Every significant accomplishment is the 
result of teamwork. The latest new invention 
that seemingly emerges from the efforts of a 
single individual is made possible by existing 
knowledge, materials and techniques that have 
been derived from the teamwork of others at 
some point. From the Great Pyramids in Egypt, 
to a local ribbon cutting to mark the beginning of 
construction on a new building, the coordinated 
effort of interdependent teams is required.

 Building a team takes time. The acknowledged 
interdependence and mutual work toward a 
common goal is what distinguishes a team from 
a group. Individuals who are effective on a team 
are able to suspend personal agenda and commit 
to the common purpose as the priority. Every 
team has one main captain, the primary leader, 
who bears the responsibility for the overall 
direction of the team as well as ensuring that each 
member has the training and support needed to 
be successful in their respective roles. Based on 
the size of the team, it is common to have other 
leaders with responsibilities for a specific set of 
tasks or the management of other team members.

 In order for a team to function in the best manner, 
teambuilding is paramount. Organizational 
Development is the academic field that deals with 
the theory, study and practice of teambuilding. 
Teambuilding may occur as a result of both 
formal and informal processes. Establishing and 
maintaining a healthy team environment requires 
a foundation of trust, which requires authenticity 
from team leaders. Team members determine 
a leader’s level of authenticity by observing and 
experiencing whether what a leader says is aligned 
with what a leader does – in other words, does the 
leader tell the truth.

 It is not always feasible for the leader to share 
details that may need to remain confidential, 
or information that is not necessary for team 
members to perform their respective tasks. 
However, being perceived as dishonest or 
withholding information that should be shared 
with the team is a guaranteed way to undermine 
trust. 
When teambuilding is done right, it creates an 
environment where positive communication, 
problem solving and the ability to work closely 
toward a common purpose define the team. 
This type of team always results in varying levels 
of self-development by individual members. 
As members build their knowledge, skills 
and confidence during the course of working 
together, it strengthens the team’s ability to better 
acknowledge, address and resolve differences 
that come with all human interaction. Building a 
strong team makes complex and challenging tasks 
easier, because individual members understand 
that success for the team as a whole is the ultimate 
measuring stick.


IDEAS FOR A BLOG

A blog is a great addition to your on-line 
presence. There are many advantage to 
integrating a blog into your web site. The 
main benefit is that it brings in fresh content 
to your website, which the search engines 
love. If you don’t have time to write a blog, 
you might consider doing a simple photo 
blog with good key-word “cutlines.” 

Think of building a system for all of your 
on-line tools including your blog. Here are 
three (3) things you can do with your blog to 
feed it into your overall social media system:

Auto-feed your blog to your social media

Twitterfeed.com is a great tool that allows 
you to automatically feed your blog posts 
into Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Once 
you publish a blog, it will automatically 
post on these platforms. It is a great way 
to distribute your blog to your built-in 
audience. Not everyone will subscribe to 
your blog and check it frequently. Feeding 
it allows you to create a multi-pronged 
distribution channel and increase your 
reach.

Use blog content in email marketing 
campaigns

If you are using an email marketing tool 
like Constant Contact, you can easily 
insert blog content into your emails. It will 
automatically pull in the copy and truncate 
it to about five (5) lines of copy, with a link 
back to your blog/website to “read more.” 
Constant Contact has made it easy to pull in 
blog content. Look for the “Insert” button, 
then select “blog content.” It will bring up a 
list of all the blogs you have created and you 
can choose which to use. If you are creating 
newsletters in Constant Contact, your own 
blog is a great source for content. 

Schedule 

The other benefit of a blog is that you can 
schedule your posts. If you take the time to 
write your blogs in advance and you set up 
a system to automatically feed your social 
media sites, internet marketing starts to 
become efficient and easy. 

About MJ: MJ and her brother David own 
HUTdogs, a creative services business that 
specializes in Social Media Education for 
business owners. Join their conversation on 
Facebook and get good tips and tricks about 
social media, www.facebook.com/hutdogs.

HUTdogs will be offering a “Getting Started 
with Constant Contact” demonstration 
on October 17th at the Arcadia Chamber 
of Commerce. Sign up for their upcoming 
classes and presentations at: www.hutdogs.
com/workshops/schedule

OMG! Did you know………………..?

By Patricia Richardson, M.B.A QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor

 
QuickBooks Question: I was listening in on a conversation with Certified 
QuickBooks ProAdvisors via their LinkedIn Group, so here is the question….

 
ENTERING SALES RECEIPTS FOR SALE OF INVENTORY 
ITEMS AT A SHOW. 

 
I have a client who sells inventory items at local shows. We would like to enter her 
show sales on one Sales Receipt at the end of the show using the inventory items 
that were sold. The problem is some of the sales are cash, some credit cards. We would like to be able to 
separate these so we can match deposits to those that we download from the bank. During the show she 
tracks total inventory but not by payment type, so we can’t enter one Sales Receipt for credit card purchases 
and one for cash purchases. Any suggestions?

 No problem. First, create the sales receipt, post the sales to the correct items, then setup a couple of new 
items for “Cash Sales” and “Credit Card Sales” and map them to the bank account. Your sales receipt will 
total $.00 because after posting your show sales to the correct inventory item, you will use your new cash 
and credit card sales items to subtract the deposited amount from the total sales. It will look like this:

Hats sales

$150.00

Shoes sales

$325.00

Sub Total

$475.00

Cash

-100.00

Credit Card

-375.00

Total

$ .00





If you have not yet filed your 2011 personal income tax returns the drop dead date is October 15, 
2012. The IRS has set up a “Fresh Start Penalty Relief” initiative that you might be interested to know 
about. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic the national average unemployment rate in August 
was 8.1% while in California the rate was still highest at 10.6%. So if you are one of the 10.6% of 
Californians unemployed wage earners you will want to know more about this Initiative.

According to the IRS the Fresh Start Penalty Relief Initiative provides eligible taxpayers with a six-
month extension of time to fully pay 2011 taxes. Interest will run on the 2011 taxes from April 15, 
2012 until the tax is paid but no “failure-to-pay penalties” will be incurred if tax, interest and any 
other penalties are paid by October 15, 2012.

To be eligible your 2011 tax liability must be less than $50,000, your adjusted gross income must 
be less than, $100,000 ($200,000 if married filing jointly), and you or your spouse (if married filing 
jointly) must be a:

1. Wage earner who has been unemployed at least 30 consecutive days between January 1, 2011 
and April 15, 2012: or
2. Self-employed individual whose 2011 business income decreased 25% or more due to the 
economy (as compared to your 2010 business income).


Ask your accountant how to apply or see IRS form 1127-A Application for Extension of Time for 
Payment of Income taxes for 2011 Due to Undue Hardship.

New workshops:

During the month of October on Friday’s between 9:00am and 9:30am I am hosting an online QuickBooks Q&A 
forum. Email the registration form from my website and I will send you the info you need to tune in. Have your 
questions ready it is a great time to stump the trainer. Also during the month of November look for Saturday 
QuickBooks workshops. It will be a BYOL (bring your own laptop) workshop. Patricia Richardson the owner of 
Monrovia Computerized Business Service and is a local accountant, educator and trainer working to help business 
owners realize their business mission and vision by empowering them with tools and training in areas that may 
not be their core competency. For additional information, patti@qbworkshop.com or www.QBworkShop.com 


Beware: Mapping your items correctly will be very important so 
that you can reconcile your bank account. If you have similar 
questions please join me for an online question and answer 
session on Friday mornings at www.QBworkShop.com.

What else is happening this month?

It’s pretty hard to believe it is October already, so it is time to 
be thinking about end of third quarter reporting and before 
you know it year-end will be upon us. Hopefully you have been 
producing monthly financial statements so that you will not be 
surprised come tax time. This is one area where you need to be 
proactive and now is the time to get your financial house in order 
so that you can make sure your tax plan is on target.