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“Sharing Mom’s Madhouse” Author Sharon Ruggieri Book Re-Launch Giveaway !!

by Joanne on June 17, 2013

I am known for my “wit” and sense of humor. So when I read a book that makes me just straight out belly laugh, I know my friends, clients, and blog readers will truly enjoy the same.

My blogging friend Sharon Ruggieri has written such a book. Her book “Sharing Mom’s Madhouse – A Book With Sprinkles Of Truth” is one such book. I compare her writing style to Erma Bombeck. With chapter titles like:

“Is This For Real?”
“Is It Something I Said?”
“It’s all About Me”
“Who Is This Mad Mom”

This book is entertaining and humorous from beginning to end.

To re-launch her book, Sharon is currently running a giveaway for a $100 in paypal cash and a second prize of a $35 Target gift card. Her book is available for 3.99 for the hard copy and 2.99 for the kindle version. The giveaway will end on July 3rd so enter today.

Consider picking up this book for one of your summer reads you will not be sorry!!

Giveaway is co-hosted by Real Army of Moms

You can visit Sharon’s Blog at http://sharon-moms-madhouse.com/

Enter below for your chance to win one of the two prizes she is giving away.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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My First FiloFax Custom Template – Health and Wellness Page

by Joanne on May 31, 2013

Since I started using a daily planner (FiloFax Brand), I have found that I do better with my own custom made templates. The first one I have developed is a “Health and Wellness” Page to better track and ensure I am doing / following the program I wish to follow to improve on my health and wellness.

Here is my video I did to show the details of this page. After the video I have added links to the template so that you can customize this to your hearts desire!! This template is for the A5 size format only, since that is the size I am using. Enjoy.

These are in A5 Size Format Only

MY VERSION OF WELLNESS JOURNAL - Excel Format

MY VERSION OF WELLNESS JOURNAL - PDF Format

BLANK TEMPLATE WELLNESS JOURNAL - Excel Format

BLANK TEMPLATE WELLNESS JOURNAL - PDF Format

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All “About.Me”

by Joanne on February 21, 2013

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One of my social media networking groups started chatting it up a few weeks ago on a great website called www.About.me. If you are in need of an internet presence in general or just looking for another place to posts links to all of your social media accounts this is the site for you.

About.Me is a free website where you can post a picture, bio, social media accounts, and also has an option for someone to email you right from your page. Here is a view of my page.

You have options to change up the background color or image and add many different social media websites to your page. One of the ways I like to use this page is with my face to face networking. I add the link to my page to an Evernote note, and if I find someone that wants to connect with me, I will send them an email from my phone of this Evernote note, so they can go to my about.me page and connect with all of my social media accounts.

Other ideas for how to use about.me :

1. add your about.me website to your business cards, instead of listing all of your social media links on your card.

2. add your about.me website to your email signature, again instead of listing all of your accounts just one link is all you would need.

3. set up an about.me page when you are first starting your business to have an internet presence. This is a place you can direct people to go to in order to contact or connect with you until your website is live.

Do you currently use about.me? I would love to hear how you use it! Please comment below.

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Preparing for The Worst – 3 Tips to Ensure Your Data Is Protected

by Joanne on February 6, 2013

Here are two questions you need to ask yourself…..

If your computer “crashed” right now, would you still be able to operate your business effectively?

If your computer “crashed” right now, how soon can you have a replacement up and running?

Makes you think right? I don’t think anyone wants to go through restoring files and reinstalling software. Following these tips will make your life easier, should Murphy’s Law kick in decide to take out your computer.

1. Keep all your data files in one central location: Knowing ahead of time where are your important files are located will ensure that what ever back up process you are using is actually backing up all the files that need to be backed up.

2. Back up your files: Speaking of backing up…Make sure you have in place a back up system for your files.

Offline backup- using software to create a daily back up of your files

Make sure you actually back up your files to a separate “media” location. You would be surprised how many times I have come across clients that are backing up their important files on to the SAME harddrive as the files are all ready on.
End of month create a back up on a DVD or CD ( depending on the size of all the files you back up) and bring to another location.
Determine a manageable amount of back up versions to keep before overwriting (5 days, 2 weeks, 30 days)
TEST!! test your restore functions to make sure you know how to restore a file(s)

Online Back Up – Many online sites are available for automatic back up

Carbonite.com : Annual fee of $59.00 is extremely reasonable for the amount of time you save knowing your files are backed up constantly thru out the day.
There are others out there, you can google for results, but Carbonite by far has everything you need in online back up.
My tip for Carbonite – make sure you choose all the folders you need backed up. For example I make sure my desktop is backed up so that if you are “lazy” and just save files to your desktop before “filing them” you can be sure they will be backed up.

3. Keep a running list of the software you install along with any CD keys, passwords etc. This way when you need to re-install your software you won’t have to dig around for the software and keys needed to re-installed or register the product. Keep a hard copy of this list in a secure location, because saving it on your computer does no good if that file was not backed up.

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Four Facts About Bartering Via irs.gov

by Joanne on February 6, 2013

In today’s economy, small business owners sometimes look to the oldest form of commerce – the exchange of goods and services, or bartering. The IRS wants to remind small business owners that the fair market value of property or services received through barter is taxable income.

Bartering is the trading of one product or service for another. Usually there is no exchange of cash. However, the fair market value of the goods and services exchanged must be reported as income by both parties.

Here are four facts about bartering that the IRS wants small business owners to be aware of:

Barter Exchange A barter exchange functions primarily as the organizer of a marketplace where members buy and sell products and services among themselves. Whether this activity operates out of a physical office or is internet based, a barter exchange is generally required to issue Form 1099-B, Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, annually to their clients or members and to the IRS.
Barter Income Barter dollars or trade dollars are identical to real dollars for tax reporting. If you conduct any direct barter – barter for another’s products or services – you will have to report the fair market value of the products or services you received on your tax return.
Taxes Income from bartering is taxable in the year it is performed. Bartering may result in liabilities for income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax, or excise tax. Your barter activities may result in ordinary business income, capital gains or capital losses, or you may have a nondeductible personal loss.
Reporting The rules for reporting barter transactions may vary depending on which form of bartering takes place. Generally, you report this type of business income on Form 1040, Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business, or other business returns such as Form 1065 for Partnerships, Form 1120 for Corporations, or Form 1120-S for Small Business Corporations.

For more information see the Bartering Tax Center in the Business section at http://www.irs.gov.

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It’s About Time : Mobile App for Quickbooks Time Keeping

by Joanne on February 1, 2013

For those small business owners that a struggling with keeping accurate track of their billable and non-billable time you can now take your time on the road with you with this simple app.

Here is a link to

http://www.appbrain.com/app/its-about-time/com.rds.itsabouttime

This app comes in handy when you are on the road, or are looking to have a timer while you are performing services. Its About Time uses your lists from QuickBooks ( it walks you thru importing them) so you choose your client, your item/service, employee name, and a section to detail out what services you are performing. You can also choose to manually enter your start and stop times, or force a time length, or lastly it offers a timer feature.

The only downside I can see for this app is it is currently only available for Android.

I will be posting set up videos for this app in the near future so check back soon!!

By far this is one of my most used apps on my phone (you guessed it, I have an android phone!!)

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Free Picture in Picture Software

by Joanne on January 23, 2013

Check out my latest video on using a picture in picture picture for your youtube videos. I show you where I found this free software, that I use in conjunction with TechSmiths Jing software… to record a picture in picture for more personal youtube or training videos.

In this video I used Jing software to record the screen, but I have since found Snagit to be a better software and totally worth the investment in purchasing this software. Snagit allows you to do screen captures as well and video, and come with a really easy to use editor for editing and adding finishing touches to your screen captures.

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Can You Deduct Donated Services?

by Joanne on January 11, 2013

Can I deduct time spent volunteering?

Can I deduct time donated to charity?

I get these questions several times every tax season from small business owners that are in the service industry and decide to donate their time to a worthy cause.

One would think that if I donate my time I should be able to deduct my normal per hour rate that I would have made if this work would have been done for a “true client”. Most business owners look at the situation as that I “would have” made $1000 if I billed a client for that 10 hours of my time, and since I am losing out on that revenue, shouldn’t I be able to get a tax deduction for it? Unfortunately you are probably not going to like my answer to the question.

The answer to this question is NO for the time and services part of the donation, and YES for any out of pocket expenses incurred or mileage driven for the charitable purpose.

Let me explain:

While your time is valuable in your business, when you donate your time, you have not reported the “income earned” from those services / time therefore you can not take a deduction for them. So in the above example, because the $1000 of income was not earned, received as a payment on and deposited into your business checking account, you would not be able to deduct the “loss of income”. Even if you did decide to some how report this income thru a journal entry, the out come would be a wash and therefor not necessary for the added bookkeeping.

However, if you incurred any out of pocket costs (for example any supplies etc) you can deduct those costs as long as you have a receipt for them and you have documented what charitable organization it was purchased for. In addition you can also deduct 14 cents per mile for any charitable miles your drove as part of your volunteering. This rate is for the 2012 and 2013 tax years.

Final note > Please remember that the organization your are volunteering for MUST be a registered charitable organization under IRS code section 501(3)c in order for you to be able to deduct your out of pocket cost and your mileage.

Most importantly should you have any questions or concerns you should reach out to your tax professional. They are there to assist you with your questions and concerns.

Do you have any tax or accounting questions? Please comment below and I may use your question in a future blog post!!

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How to Fix the Annoying QuickBooks Invoice Sequence Issue

by Joanne on October 25, 2012

Here is a video I did walking you thru how to fix the annoying QuickBooks Invoice Sequence issue. If you have ever had an issue with not being able to go into invoicing and have the correct “next” invoice number.. this is your answer!!!