Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.

“There is no victory at bargain basement prices.” – Dwight Eisenhower

Prices are on the rise everywhere right now. What about yours? 

From just a few pennies to outright sticker shock, hiking prices is one of the quickest paths to losing customers. But you’ve got ends to make meet, too. 

Our inflation series continues with one of the most pressing problems for businesses today: How much you need to increase your pricing models – and what to think about before you do. 

Worry and response

Current inflation is 8.6% year over year, a seemingly endless upward direction that worries most businesses. Almost nine out of 10 have told surveys that they’re also already seeing the hit in higher expenses such as supplies and services, some by as much as 50%. Throw in employees probably wanting above-average raises and you’ve got a compound problem. 
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This program allows a lender (such as a bank or credit union) to provide small business owners with a loan that then is "forgiven" when you show that you spent the money on "qualified expenses."

• Loans can be for up to two months of your average monthly payroll costs from the last year plus an additional 25% of that amount. The loan amount is capped at $10 million. AS OF YESTERDAY: The payroll calculation no longer includes 1099 contractors in the formula
• Loans will be forgiven up to the loan amount for a borrower's payroll, rent, mortgage, and utility costs incurred and paid during an eight-week period after a loan is originated.
• Loan forgiveness will be reduced to the extent of a) any reduction in employee headcount during this period (as compared to the prior year), and b) any reduction in pay of an employee by more than 25% (as compared to their prior year compensation). Borrowers that rehire workers will not be penalized for p
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"No man was ever wise by chance." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Sometimes there are things you can fix, and sometimes there are the business problems that you just have to take on the chin.

But golly ... the worst are those that are self-imposed and done in ignorance.

Which is what we're here to help you fix, before it's too late.

Year-end is a great time, simply because of the impending deadline of 12/31 to do something that will serve to fix things for 2019.

Here are a couple examples of the sort of things we should fix, if they apply to you, specifically if your business is set up as an S Corp (or is an LLC operating as such).

An S Corp is a pass-through entity. That means the income and losses of the company pass through to your personal return. The entity itself files a tax return but doesn't actually pay tax (except a state t
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"You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential." -Steve Garvey

Consider the following story...

Alison, a young girl running a lemonade stand,  last summer, in Bountiful, Utah. Pretty typical, right? But this ten-year-old girl was exceptionally bright. She had been watching other ten-year-olds run their lemonade stands with one qualm: they let customers slip away without a sell.

Determined, the girl enacted a new selling strategy. Instead of asking customers, "Would you like any lemonade?" like the other kids did, this girl decided to ask, "Would you like lemonade or a cookie?"

From that po
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To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship." -Patricia Fripp

I know that there are businesses who are doing extremely sophisticated, enterprise-level things with their email marketing. And they are most definitely worth studying.

But I prefer to live in the land of what is actually possible for a small business owner. And if you're like me, you like things simple.

So, I suggest you start by cutting out two bad habits, rooted in some mythology about the email medium:

1) Branded headers and clean graphics make your emails look more "professional".

So I ask you: how do you want your emails to be received? As a "professional" email -- with similar content that can be otherwise fo
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"Tax complexity itself is a kind of tax." - Max Daucus

A, B, C, D, E, F, G ... something, something ... T, C, J and A.

Remember when the alphabet meant singing songs in class? We don't really either...

But now, thanks to those last four letters, it means small income tax rate reductions for individuals, and larger ones for corporations. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was signed on December 22nd, 2017 and brought many new provisions with it.

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