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Unravel Your Competitors’ Secrets with Mystery Shopping

Every business has competitors of one sort or another, and in many industries, it’s crucial to know what your competition is offering their customers. The good news is you can often find out what your competition is up to, and this is where mystery shoppers come into play. A mystery shopper is a person who is hired to visit and shop your competitors for the purposes of sharing information about their experience. Mystery shopping is one way to collect input so you can complete a Competitive Analysis Read more [...]
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How to Make Accountability Work

Almost every successful business owner craves accountability. We’re wired to respond to crises and to help others, sometimes before we help ourselves. Entrepreneurs are excellent in running their day-to-day businesses, but some need more accountability to meet internal deadlines and long-term goals. Let’s take a look at how we can increase our accountability. Setting Goals and Deadlines The first step to being accountable is to have something you want to achieve, and this means setting Read more [...]
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ESG and Small Businesses

Pick up just about any public company’s most recent annual report, and you’ll find a section on ESG. ESG stands for Environment, Social, and Governance, and the trend of not only considering, but also measuring a company’s sustainability performance on ESG issues has become key. A new generation of investors is driving this movement as they become more discerning when selecting companies to invest in. While ESG is still predominately a large company issue, small companies can benefit from Read more [...]
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Do You Need to File Schedules K-2 & K-3? A Look at Requirements, Exceptions/Relief, Filing Issues

Starting with the 2021 tax year, IRS forms K-2 and K-3 are new schedules that may need to be included with 1065 (Partnerships), 1120S (S Corporations), or 8865 (Certain Foreign Partnerships) filings. These are all pass-through entity filings that include Schedule K-1, which reports a partner’s or shareholder’s share of the entity’s profits, losses, deductions, and credits for the year, and the K-2/K-3 schedules are an extension of that. Specifically, these forms go into greater detail regarding Read more [...]
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How to Write a Refund Policy

A refund policy defines the processes and rules for when customers want their money back and want to return the products or services they purchased from you. It’s often required by your credit card or shopping cart company as part of maintaining PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance. Plus, it’s just a good, fair business practice to post one. As a business owner, you can set your own refund rules. The important thing is that they are communicated clearly to the customer in advance of their Read more [...]