Reported by Patricia Amend


Tax Reform;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

If your business is a partnership, S corporation, or personal-service corporation whose tax year does not coincide with the calendar year, the new tax law...  Read story

Advertising;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

If you're paying the full rate for magazine and newspaper advertising, you may be missing out on a deal. In the past year, many publishers have begun neg...  Read story

Law;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Whether or not your business employs foreign-born workers, the new immigration law affects you. Under the law, all employers must verify the identify and...  Read story

Retirement Plans;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Don't make the common mistake of building a long vesting schedule into your company's retirement plan in hopes of discouraging employee turnover. You jus...  Read story

Training;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

No company can grow quickly unless its employees grow with it. So if you're hoping for rapid expansion, you should make sure that your managers are train...  Read story

Receivables;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

If you do business with Fortune 500 companies, you know how hard it is to get them to pay their bills in anything less than 60 days. But slow payment is ...  Read story

Regulation;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Like most federal regulatory agencies, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is feeling the pinch of budget cutbacks. But OSHA's problem may ...  Read story

Finance;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Beware the auditor who insists that you keep your chart of accounts in tax-return sequence or in alphabetical order with no numerical codes. In effect, h...  Read story

Marketing;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Many a vendor combats price resistance by offering reluctant customers a little loan. The tactic can enhance sales, all right, but it generates collectio...  Read story

Insurance;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Jan 1, 1987

Think twice before signing up for one of those "claims-made" liability policies that insurance companies are pushing so aggressively. These are the polic...  Read story

Banking;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

If the local economy is depressed and you're struggling to meet your loan payments, take heart. A little-known accounting standard called FASB 15 may be ...  Read story

Marketing;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

In competing against large companies, it usually pays to know as much as possible about their marketing strategies. You may be able to get some clues from...  Read story

Time Management;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

So you just don't have the time to go through periodicals, looking for the articles and ideas that are important to your business. Maybe you should take a...  Read story

Loophole Of The Month;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

A good loophole is getting harder to find these days, but the Tax Reform Act of 1986 has one for your Christmas stocking. It retains the exemption for "c...  Read story

Compensation;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

Deflation may be forcing you to keep raises in check this year, but there are ways to score points with employees without putting anything extra in their ...  Read story

S Corporations;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

The Tax Reform Act may make converting to S-corporation status more attractive, but act fast, because some of the benefits will disappear at midnight on D...  Read story

Troubleshooting;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

When a company gets into serious financial trouble, it's important to figure out as quickly as possible where the problem lies, especially if it might be ...  Read story

Managing People;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

Most small companies can't afford full-time personnel managers, but in a world of mounting regulation and litigation, neither can they afford to be casual...  Read story

Motivation;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

While incentive pay may motivate managers and other salaried employees, many companies have trouble making it work for hourly people. But E.T.C. Carpet M...  Read story

Employee Education;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Dec 1, 1986

If you think illiteracy is the least of your problems, think again. According to the Business Council for Effective Literacy, more than 27 million U.S. ad...  Read story

Incentive Pay;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

Incentive bonuses can help in getting managers to focus on profitability, but make sure that you use the right measure. Otherwise, you may inadvertently ...  Read story

Strategies;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

When business turns sour, a natural inclination is to protect your market position. Most companies scramble to save cash, even at the expense of developi...  Read story

Inventory Management;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

Just because metals and other commodities are selling at bargain prices, don't make the mistake of loading up on raw materials. Economist Gary Shilling (...  Read story

Marketing;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

If you're looking for new business, you may be ignoring one of your best potential sources: old customers. That's what Michigan-based Van Pelt Corp., a st...  Read story

Bad Credit;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

Reading bankruptcy accouncements may not be your idea of fun, but it could help save your company money if one of your customers goes belly up. Under the...  Read story

Resources;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

A frequent complaint of female business owners is that they don't have access to the same outside advice as men. To help remedy the situation, a business...  Read story

Reference Checking;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

The litigation explosion has made it harder to check references on job applicants, as previous employers grow nervous about possible lawsuits from their e...  Read story

Direct Mail;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

If you're trying to market a product by direct mail, it's important to send your promotional pieces to people who both appreciate its value and have the a...  Read story

Finance;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Nov 1, 1986

The cost of going public is coming down, thanks to the advent of desktop publishing, the new technology that allows you to produce camera-ready copy on a ...  Read story

Managing People;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

Everybody likes to have a hot product, but booming sales can mean long hours and much stress for employees. Most chief executive officers figure they hav...  Read story

Succession;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

Many company owners would sooner sell the business than set up an outside board, but what about one composed almost entirely of your heirs? At Battery &a...  Read story

Risk Management;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

Potentially hazardous chemicals are tools of the trade in tens of thousands of businesses, but most companies treat that fact as a dirty little secret. Th...  Read story

Managing Credit;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

What do you do when your best customers start giving you collection problems? You're reluctant to threaten them, but you can't ignore them. Albany (N.Y.)...  Read story

Training;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

Thinking of setting up an employee training program? You might want to check out the membership directory of the Instructional Systems Association, a tra...  Read story

Exports;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

One of the most common mistakes of small exporters is to leave pricing in the hands of their overseas distributor or sales representative. In one recent ...  Read story

Product Development;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

You can listen to your customers, but you shouldn't always believe them, especially when they're telling you what new products they need. "Customers know...  Read story

Marketing;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

Whenever sales get soft, you can bet that someone in your company will start pushing for a price cut. That's often a bad idea. A price cut may not genera...  Read story

Recruiting;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Oct 1, 1986

If you're looking for bright, young managers, there's one source you probably haven't considered: the nation's elite business schools. It used to be that...  Read story

Finance;

By Reported by Patricia Amend |  Aug 1, 1986

Anyone who lived through the days of 22% short-term-loan interest rates understands the appeal of long-term, fixed-rate debt. Trouble is, it's hard to co...  Read story