Belk on Business

The Hiring Process with Austin McCurdy - Belk on Business - Episode 107   Topics Covered: - Core values and culture  - Employee quality vs. pay  - Hiring from within or outside the company  - Predictive indicators  - Interview process   Austin McCurdy, Owner, Sharper Personnel  austin@sharperprocess.com  https://sharperprocess.com/personnel   Subsc...

Structure and Taxation for Real Estate Investors  - Belk on Business - Episode 106   Ful Active Turnkey Podcast:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itBnrvKVJyc&t=1759s   Subscribe to Belk on Business on these platforms:     Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2Zp6hgj​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​  Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gcWDnFZ​​​​​​​​​​​​   Stitcher: https://bit...

Cutting Costs - Develop a budget with savings plan and follow it. What gets ignored will never be followed. - Evaluate your physical footprint – remote working, use of space, negotiate lower rate, purchase location. - Evaluate staffing needs – how much time are your employees spending on essential vs nonessential activities (use software to track), make good hires (spending more on good employee w...

Paying Myself as the Owner  - Belk on Business - Episode 104   1. What is the entity structure?  Single member LLC/sole proprietor…cannot have payroll, only draws.  Set aside 25-30% minimum for taxes.  Guaranteed payments for multi-member LLC owners or partners of partnership, not payroll. LLCs taxed as S-Corp or S-Corp…owner should be on payroll, distributions as approved...

Getting the Team to Think Like CFOs  - Belk on Business - Episode 103   1. Ask questions that make them think beyond the transactional.  Get them to think with a strategic lens.  Be transparent with numbers so they understand their role in the overall financial picture of the company to create a buy in .    2. Teach them to look for ordinary moments all can learn from...

Eliminating Competition  - Belk on Business - Episode 102   “At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”  -Maya Angelou 1. When you get a hold of people’s emotions, they will flock to you.  people are ruled by their emotions  2. People want to feel positive, happy, and accepted 3. You don’t need the best pro...

Issues In Your Business from a CFO's Perspective- Part 3  - Belk on Business - Episode 101   1) Where to invest cash to increase revenue? - Cost per lead - Invest in infrastructure (point of sale system to increase efficiency) - Invest in developing your people to increase knowledge, efficiency and improve problem solving skills - Sales training 2) Pathway to obtain more money to invest...

Issues In Your Business from a CFO's Perspective- Part 2  - Belk on Business - Episode 100   Issues: 1) Sloppy record keeping 2) Fiscal management 3) Revenue and profit projections 4) When to hire? 5) Where to cut costs? Subscribe on these platforms:    Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2Zp6hgj​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​ .Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gcWDnFZ​​​​​​​​​​​​  Stitcher: https://bi...

Issues In Your Business from a CFO's Perspective- Part 1  - Belk on Business - Episode 99   1) Lack of internal controls - who is providing oversight? 2) Mismatched accounting platform with industry or required output and deliverables 3) Owners loose with handling equity 4) Not securing and protecting intellectual property Subscribe on these platforms:    Apple Podcast: https:/...

CFO Direction in Each Business Phase - Belk on Business - Episode 98   Early – accounting ecosystem, tax compliance, cash forecasting, economics/pro-forma Investment – internal controls and reporting, tax credits and incentives, institutional controls, three-year projections, cash burn and KPIs Cash flow – accounting platform and processes, revenue sourcing (tax implications), liquidity, budg...

What Drives your Compass? - Identity (insecurity) - Security - Power - Leisure - Passion - Purpose - Legacy - Impact How you handle money is a metric to what controls your compass and to your true core values.  Look at how you are allocating your dollars and it will be a picture of what you truly view as important. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Pride drives our need for...

  Organizational Alignment When there is alignment in an organization, the organization has the highest chance to win. Without alignment, even with the best of intentions, the organization will not be capable of implementing their business strategy, will have poor customer attraction and service, poor employee morale, poor corporate culture, and financial underperformance. When individuals an...

Leadership and Impact 1. Making an impact is contingent on having a mission beyond serving customers, building employees and making money. What is the delineator/distinguishing areas of impact the company, employees, clients and network would connect? 2. Making an impact requires alignment. Do we have systems in place to make sure that behavior aligns with purpose and culture? How do we reward ali...

Lessons from Grandma: 1) Caring 2) Authentic 3) Responsive 4) Affectionate Subscribe on these platforms:    Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2Zp6hgj​​​​​​​​ ​ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gcWDnFZ​​​​​​​​ Stitcher:  https://bit.ly/34aRgO2​​​​​​​​ YouTube: https://youtu.be/lYWoUgp_PnU    #belkonbusiness​​​​​​​​ #joshbelk​​​​​​​​ #podcast​​​​​​​​ #entrepreneur​ #business​

   Growing a Business in 2021 1. Clear goals with organized process for growth 2. Embrace transformation with a resilient corporate culture (trust, inclusivity, purpose, innovation) 3. Focus on sales training, exceptional service, cross selling and leveraging data 4. Pursuit of excellence in three different areas within niche 5. Training programs focused on digital 6. Hire diverse people...

An Overlooked Key to Success - Humility 1. Be humble enough to be wrong and handle rejection - be open minded 2. Be humble enough to accept when a customer seeks other direction/advice - the customer/client’s victory is the end result and should be our victory 3. Be humble enough to ask for forgiveness Subscribe on these platforms:    Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2Zp6hgj ​​​​​​ ​​Spot...

Conversations with Your Accountant (Part 3) 1.  A deeper dive into your KPIs – example: analysis of personnel costs per client/customer 2. Use of network for solutions – example: succession, exit, estate, business, and tax planning – accountants have other professionals to help address needs (attorney, service providers, brokers, tax specialists, business valuation specialist, coaches) 3. Mer...

Conversations with Your Accountant (Part 2) 1. Cash flow – How is your business’s current cash flow? What is burn rate? What cash flow is needed for maintenance and expansion? Cash is the oxygen every business needs to survive. 2. Contracts – do budgets, plans and changes align with language in contracts. Balloon payments, covenant violations, etc. can derail budgets and plans if not aware of lang...

Conversations with Your Accountant (Part 1) 1. Review of financial statements. Owners focus mainly on P&L or metrics that generate emotion. Confuse key process indicators with key performance indicators. Finance team can be good and generate good P&L and balance sheet but usually not the best at interpreting the data for the owner. Having the conversation with you accountant gives you an o...

Leading and Responding in Crisis Genesis 42:1 - Famine in the land (moment of crisis) - Food available in Egypt - Jacob says to his sons “Why are you standing around looking at each other?” - Failure of leadership to plan, teach a logical thinking process and how to respond to crisis Every business will face times of crisis. Jacob, known for being a “go getter” became complacent after the life of...

Staying Relevant with Customers Once you have engaged a client or customer, a business must continue to keep itself in front of the customer and can do this several ways: 1. Be unique – true to your differentiators. When you sold the customer on your and your product or service, there were differentiators that made them chose you. Be more than your customers were expecting and bring something even...

Biden’s Tax Proposals 1. Increased individual tax rate for individual taxpayers with income above $400,000 2. Increased capital gains rate for those with income over $1,000,000 3. Repeal of SALT deduction 4. Death as taxable event 5. Limitations on itemized deductions 6. Phaseout of QBI deduction 7. Payroll tax increase for taxpayers with earnings above $400,000 8. Increased corporate tax rate 9....

Why People Buy 1) Reputation 2) Business Acumen – good judgement quickly 3) Asks Good Questions 4) Differentiators – what sets you apart 5) Listened – seek to understand before being understood 6) Feel Special – pay attention to what is important to them personally 7) Likable Team – feel comfortable with others in the office 8) Agree with Summary (evaluation of problem) 9) Pre meeting planning (sh...

Holding Sales Meetings 1) Initial Rapport 2) Agenda – key points of differentiation 3) Key questions to identify pain points/challenges 4) Confirm pain points/challenges 5) Set second meeting or terms for engagement Key Questions/Discussion Points: 1) Tell us about your business 2) What areas do you excel? 3) Why are you uncomfortable with current provider/solution? 4) What areas of business may r...

Five Areas of Growth 1) Leadership - Ability to connect different talents and perspectives - Ability to question the status quo - Ability to hold one’s self and others accountable - Ability to manage and not avoid risk 2) Technology - Hindsight, insight, foresight, project/workflow management, and communication 3) Talent – right person/right seat 4) Process – a work process and a process for gener...