Image by Casey Serin

One of the things I was excited about when I started my own business was the ability to claim business expenses. In particular, I thought it was going to be great that I could now write off lunch, dinner, coffee, or whatever else.

What I didn’t know at the start is that you can’t just write off whatever you want. Before you get out of hand with restaurant expenses, there are a few things to keep in mind. Here’s a quick list for you.

1.    Business must be a part of it
For any entertainment costs to be written off, you need to be actively conducting business before, during, or afterwards. If you’re not talking about numbers, opportunities, or strategies - it probably doesn’t count as a business expense.

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Image by Arria Belli

Inspiration comes from a lot of places, and one of the best sources is from the words of experts. At CityMax.com, we’ve got a library of books on all sorts of topics, including design, programming, money management, sales, and marketing. More often than not, I’ve walked away from these books with at least one great idea.

If you’re looking for a little insight, here are some of the books our team has found helpful!

The Dream Manager – Matthew Kelly
If you have employees and want to avoid high turnover and low morale, this book will help you create a workplace that fosters teamwork and loyalty.

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Image by denharsh

Spring arrived this past weekend and while snow is actually still falling in some places, its still considered a good time of year to do some cleaning.

While most of us associate spring cleaning with washing the windows and vacuuming under the couch, consider taking some time to tidy up your business too. Not sure where to start? Here are a few ideas.

Match your marketing materials
As your business evolves, so should anything you’re using to promote it. When’s the last time you spruced up your brochures, promotional swag, website, or even business cards?

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Happy Friday! In this week’s Small Business Roundup, you’ll find helpful tips on topics such as finding the right photos for your website, increasing your email subscribers, and even how a 400+ year old Asian war textbook is still relevant in today’s business world.

1) One of the most important keys to making online sales is having professional and relevant images on your site. We have 1000+ images in our free library for you to customize your website with, but what if you’re looking for something a bit more unique? Guaranteed you’ll find something on TJ McCue’s list of 50 Stock Photo Sites for small businesses.

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Looking for some new images for your website? Right now AppSumo (it’s kind of like Groupon but specific to web apps) is offering a great deal well-suited for small business owners.

PixMac, a stock photography website, has put together a package designed specifically for business. Depending on your industry, these images may work well for your website, brochures, ads, etc.

It’s a limited time offer, but for only $25, you get 33 business-focused stock images – regularly valued at $250!

Interested? Check out the deal:
$25 for $250 worth of business stock photos

Image by epSos.de

Tax time is coming up and while many of us use small business tax software and our own brains to figure it all out, you might have hit the point in your business where you’ve decided it’s time to hire a pro to handle your numbers.

Finding the right accountant is just as challenging as hiring the right in-house employee. You need to trust them with some of your most treasured data and you want to feel comfortable doing so.

Here are 5 tips for making sure you are happy with the accountant you choose:

1.    Ask for Referrals

Just like you would ask a friend about their Physiotherapist, Doctor or even Hairdresser, ask business people you trust (and who have good financial records) about who they use to manage their numbers. Consider talking to people in your industry and start generating a list of accountants with great reputations.

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Mistakes happen. We’ve all been in a situation where we carelessly overlooked something and it’s caused an embarrassing situation. While most of these faux pas happen in our personal lives, from time to time it affects business. This morning we received a Change of Legal Name letter for a business we’ve worked with in the past. It’s a nicely written letter on beautiful new letterhead with a funky new logo. The problem with the letter is two-fold:

1. They don’t state anywhere in the letter what the previous name of the business is. Although we’ve now figured it out, it took more than three people to narrow it down.
2. There’s a typo in the URL in the big bolded area where they list their contact information.

Yikes. If you’re sending out a notice like this, you want to make sure it goes out without a hitch and people aren’t left scratching their heads trying to figure out who you are. This letter probably should have been passed around a bit before it left the building.

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You have a great product or service. You’ve taken it to market and it’s doing well. But could it being doing better? Are there steps towards growth that you haven’t yet thought of?

Maybe it’s time to talk to your customers.

They are the people that experience your business firsthand. They’re (mostly) objective and see things from the outside – they have a perspective that you can’t have, no matter how much you think you can.

Here are a few things that you can learn from your customers:

1. The state of your customer service
The impression you leave on a customer can help (or haunt) your business for the rest of its existence. In this day and age of sharing experience and reviews online, a bad customer experience can do a lot to damage your earning potential.

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The internet is the land of opportunity, where anyone can make a quick buck, right?

That’s what we like to think. But time after time people jump online and create a business website without really figuring out how the business is supposed to make money. That is why no matter what your idea, you need a business plan.

A business plan sets you up for success – it makes it much easier to reach your goal of being profitable because you know how you’re going to get there.

To break it down a bit further, here’s what else you get from creating a business plan:

1. Check the viability of your idea
Sometimes ideas sound great in your head, but when you put them down on paper, you start to find holes. Do you have a market? Will you be able to make enough profit? The list goes on. A business plan will help you identify flaws BEFORE you sink your time and money into an idea that might not fly.

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The life of an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint of heart – but for every risk, there is an opportunity for huge gain. The thrill of success is made even better by knowing that it’s YOUR dream being realized. What could be better than being your own boss, running your own small business?

Keep in mind that before you jump in with both feet, it’s important to make sure you can swim. Being prepared and going in with the right attitude and information sets you up for success.

Two years ago, Alexa von Tobel launched LearnVest.com, a website dedicated helping and teaching women to manage their finances. In a recent blog post, Alexa outlines her top tips for starting your own company – and she’s got some great points.

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