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Rieva Lesonsky

//Rieva Lesonsky
Rieva Lesonsky

About Rieva Lesonsky

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a custom content and media company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship, and the blog SmallBizDaily.com. She’s a nationally- known speaker, best-selling author, and authority on entrepreneurship, and for more than 30 years, she was the long-time Editorial Director of Entrepreneur magazine. Lesonsky regularly writes about small business for numerous websites and for corporations targeting entrepreneurs.
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The Accountant’s Role in Business Formation

How much do you value your accountant? If you answered “plenty!” then you’re in good company.

According to a survey* by Wasp Barcode Technologies, small business owners ranked accountants as the most important professional to their businesses. Not surprisingly, when asked how familiar the business owners are with accounting functions, most answered in the middle range. Most business owners would never attempt to file their business taxes without the help of an expert accountant, so why wouldn’t you turn to your accountant for help with business formation, too?

Most business owners hire an accountant […]

2019-09-03T05:40:54-08:00May 22nd, 2018|Categories: Startup and Launch|Tags: |

How to Apply for a Trademark Application

Every now and then a trademark application case hits the headlines that makes you cringe at its arrogance (Apple’s fight to stop any sort of apple symbol being used in a logo) or just makes you laugh (Taylor Swift attempting to trademark the phrase “this sick beat”). And then there’s the outright scary—Facebook wanting to stop any business name from using the word “face.”

These are extreme examples, but because brand recognition plays such a vital role in today’s business world, companies have become very aggressive when it comes to protecting their names […]

2019-09-03T05:40:55-08:00May 15th, 2018|Categories: Ongoing Management and Protection|

CPA Burnout is Real: Take These 5 Steps to Push Through

Are you distancing yourself from relationships, feeling a loss of personal accomplishment or just overall suffering from emotional exhaustion? You could be on the dangerous road to CPA burnout.

Whether your accounting firm is just starting out or growing by leaps and bounds, running your own business can be extremely stressful. You may never have imagined that your entrepreneurial dream could turn into an entrepreneurial nightmare, but CPA burnout is real.

Running your own CPA business means being all things to all aspects of your business. Not only are you the boss (the buck […]

2019-09-03T05:40:56-08:00May 8th, 2018|Categories: Ongoing Management and Protection|

How to Use Facebook Live for Business

Despite the reparations Facebook has recently had to make on their reputation due to privacy issues, there’s little doubt most of the platform’s 2.13 billion monthly users will stick around—and that means your business needs to stay on Facebook, too. More than 65 million businesses have a Facebook page and for now, the social media platform can still do a lot for your company.

One popular Facebook tool that helps you attract attention for your business and enables followers to get to know your brand better is

2019-09-03T05:40:57-08:00May 1st, 2018|Categories: Growth and Expansion|Tags: |

Five Ways to Optimize Your Accounting Firm Operations

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you frequently get the urge to change the way you do things and replace them with new systems and fresh ideas. After all, spring is the time for new beginnings, and your accounting firm operations could probably use a bit of a refresh.

As you well know, your operations are the crucial activities of your business, from sales and accounting to marketing and customer service. It’s important for all parts of your operations to balance and support each other. Keep reading to learn how to optimize your accounting […]

2019-09-03T05:40:58-08:00April 24th, 2018|Categories: Ongoing Management and Protection|

What Is a 501c3 and When Do You Need One?

Have you always dreamed of starting a nonprofit organization so you can give back to your community? Maybe you have a charity that’s close to your heart, such as research for autism or helping the homeless, and you’ve always wanted to have the same kind of impact through your own nonprofit.

Whatever your vision, making your nonprofit organization a success starts the same way as any other business—by staying in compliance with government regulations. Your nonprofit organization is accountable to state and federal agencies, including the IRS, which is where 501(c)(3) (also referred […]

2019-09-03T05:40:58-08:00April 17th, 2018|Categories: Startup and Launch|

The CPA’s Guide to Using Accounting Automation

What does accounting automation mean to your accounting business? From one perspective, you might mourn the loss of business related to simple accounting that your clients can now handle on their own thanks to automation. No longer are most business clients in need of basic services such as data entry, basic bookkeeping or preparing simple tax returns.

Here are just a few of the lower value accounting services that accounting automation now enables clients to handle on their own:

  • Maintaining a database of customers and vendors
  • Tracking customers’ accounts
  • Maintaining a database of […]
2019-09-03T05:41:00-08:00April 10th, 2018|Categories: Growth and Expansion|Tags: |

Accounting Service Pricing: Change Your Philosophy to Increase Your Profits

Most small business owners don’t charge enough for their services. Because the competition is so fierce, they typically undervalue what they offer out of fear that if they charge too much, they won’t attract enough clients or the right kinds of clients. But the truth is, the more you strengthen your relationship with your accounting clients and demonstrate your value, the more you can charge for your accounting services.

If your competitors are charging more than you, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll attract more clients by charging less money. More often, […]

2019-09-03T05:41:00-08:00April 3rd, 2018|Categories: Growth and Expansion|Tags: |

March Madness: Small Business and How to Prepare for Victory

There are many reasons the NCAA March Madness tournament is heavily featured in the news and on television screens across the country. It’s exciting to watch and follow the 68 college basketball teams battle and try to eliminate their competition over the three weeks of the tournament. Even fair-weather college sports fans get into the matchups (your employees probably have a bracket pool going). I know in my house, the games are on constantly.

Probably the most exciting part of the matchups is seeing how the lesser-known schools do against the big guys […]

2019-09-03T05:41:02-08:00March 26th, 2018|Categories: Growth and Expansion|

Best Marketing Strategies for Small Business

Whether your business is just starting out, or whether you’re a seasoned veteran, marketing is a must to keep your company thriving. Marketing is crucial in good economic times and bad. And fortunately, the best marketing strategy for small businesses doesn’t have to put you in the red.

Now more than ever, energy, enthusiasm and creativity are the most important factors in whether your marketing works. Here’s a rundown of the best marketing strategies you can try for your business.

Marketing Must-Do’s

When you’re starting a business, you’ve got to let the whole world know […]

2019-09-03T05:41:02-08:00March 22nd, 2018|Categories: Growth and Expansion|