Cloutte & Associates PC

Description

First, you must provide an outstanding product and service. Then, ask your customers for help. Interview your customers about what they really like about your product and the service you provide. What do they especially like about working with you and your company? Ask if they would write what they told you in a letter or if you can write it for them for their approval. Ask if you can tape record or video record your interview. If you make a presentation, request that the audience complete evaluation forms. Some of the comments could be valuable testimonials. Another source of testimonials is a client/customer advisory board. We had a client advisory board for our firm last year. As a warm up, we asked the participants to tell about how they were involved with our firm. They responded with at least a half hour of beautiful testimonials, many of which we incorporated in our firm brochure. (Facilitating client/customer advisory boards is one of the services we offer.) Ask for, collect, and use testimonials for your business and you will see an improvement in your results!.

Our firm's reputation for providing quality service reflects the high standards we demand of ourselves. Our high standards and responsive service spell the difference between our CPA firm and the rest.

Minimizing the tax bite. The tax burden when transitioning a family business can be significant. The challenge is that a family business is not generally a liquid asset, but taxes are typically due when ownership is transferred.

The family dynamic complicates the whole transition because of the relationships and emotions involved. Most people are not comfortable discussing topics such as aging, death, and financial affairs. Comfortable or not, succession planning should be a priority for any family business considering that more than seven out of ten family-owned businesses fail to survive the transition from founder to second generation, typically falling prey either to estate taxes or family discord - or both. Developing and implementing a well-designed succession plan is essential to the survival of a family business from one generation to the next.

While the S corporation's special tax status eliminates double taxation, it lacks the flexibility of an LLC in allocating income to the owners. An LLC may offer several classes of membership interests while an S corporation may only have one class of stock. Any number of individuals or entities may own interests in an LLC. However, ownership interest in an S corporation is limited to no more than 75 shareholders. Also, S corporations cannot be owned by C corporations, other S corporations, many trusts, LLCs, partnerships, or nonresident aliens. Also, LLCs are allowed to have subsidiaries without restriction.

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