Here are just a few of the letters to the editor printed in the December 2009 issue of Home Business Magazine. (This previous issue is off the newsstands, and it is available for purchase by clicking the "Subscribe" channel on this web site and then clicking on "Previous Issue ".)

Knowing What Skills Each Person on a Financial Team Has

While your Sept./Oct. article "Setting Up Simple Financial Management" contained some good advice on an important topic, I was surprised to read in it "if you need extra help, you might want to hire a CPA or a bookkeeper." The author seems to indicate that these are fairly interchangeable positions and either can be used to prepare business tax returns. A bookkeeper is not a tax preparer but rather a person who handles the record keeping for a business. Although only 3 states currently require that tax preparers be certified, not everyone who hangs out a tax preparer shingle is qualified to correctly prepare tax returns in the way most advantageous to the business owner. Some CPAs are tax experts, but many know little about taxes since they specialize in performing corporate audits, preparing financial statements, or doing other kinds of non-tax work. Enrolled agents (EAs) are the 90,000 tax preparers nationwide who have been tested and licensed by the IRS (the only tax preparers that the IRS licenses.) It's important that a business owner know what skills and knowledge each person on their financial team has in order to best utilize that person and to not have unrealistic expectations of the tasks that person can complete.

Jan Zobel EA, www.JanZtax.com
Author of “Minding Her Own Business: the Self-Employed Woman's Guide to taxes and Recordkeeping”

From the Editor: It’s more important than ever, in difficult economic times, to have sound financial advice that car really measure your business profitability. You can’t get that from day to day cash flow, which is what absorbs most home business owners.
 

Managers: Don't Let Your Emotions Control You

Everyone is in a rush these days. There are projects to start, deadlines to
meet, conferences to attend. On top of everything else, many companies are
working with fewer resources. A person might even be doing the work of two
or even three people. All of these changes and the added stress of the economy have everyone feeling a bit on edge. Even if you can't control the economy or the ups and downs of the workplace, you can control your emotions.
Shari Frisinger, Emotional Intelligence certified corporate trainer,
consultant, speaker, and author of "Light Bulb Communications"

From the Editor: This reminds me of something I learned in business school. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is more important than IQ, when correlating each to success in business.

Leaders Can Lose Their Edge

Whether the economic times are flourishing or floundering, many leaders get
stuck: they don't take time to stop and reflect on what they're doing.
Because there's so much for them to do, and they have so much responsibility
and accountability on their shoulders, they're constantly striving to
deliver results. However, this non-stop action only feeds the underlying problem — that there's no alignment between what's important to them and what's important to their company. As a result, they feel unfulfilled, stressed out, anxious, and yearning for something different. They simply forget to focus on
themselves.
Joelle K. Jay, Ph.D., executive coach and president of Pillar Consulting
Author of "The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership”

From the Editor: Every home business owner has to be a leader, because they must influence people who do not work directly for them. Part of leadership development is self-awareness, and that can only come from spending time focusing on yourself.