Business Discussions

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community! As Christmas is fast approaching, I decided to share with you tips to consider if you're sending a virtual Business Christmas card or video. If you have not planned on doing this, it is something to consider. Sending a business Christmas card or video shows your client and customer that you value their relationship and plan to be there for them in the long term. Here they are:   A Year in Review In a video, you can briefly go over all the company achievements and milestones and thank the customers for being on the journey. If you are creating a card, the same can apply. Add Christmas background music or appropriate icons or pictures to add to the cards will connect the holiday cheer.   Be Aware of Your Client's religious beliefs If you know a customer who doesn't necessarily celebrate Christmas due to religious beliefs, create a holiday card geared toward holiday themes, such as "Happy Holidays" or "Season Greetings."   Add a pers

It's hard to believe that there are only 10 days left in 2020, it's been quite the year.  But in spite of everything that has happened, we wanted to focus on some of the good things that this year has brought.     So here are some of the best things we have done this year:    ++++++   @Ami_D  The best thing I did this year by far was make the decision to expand our family and adopt a dog. We bought our first house this summer (another great thing!) and finally got to fulfill our dream of adding a canine family member.   We went into the shelter that day “just to look.” We had a short wishlist: An older dog. Good with cats. House trained. In a new house, we didn’t want to take too many risks in destroying it quickly. But, we walked into that shelter and immediately spotted a 6-month-old lab/border collie mix named Skye. She wagged her tail with her whole body, and a picture of her eyes could be next to the dictionary definition of “puppy dog

Hello QuickBooks Community! It is getting close to the most wonderful time of the year! But, before you leave today, I wanted to share this article by SmallBizTrends about holiday sales and marketing tips to finish 2020 strong. Here is what they had to say:   Don't Rule Out In-Store Purchases If You Have a Brick-and-MortarA recent study indicates that 85% of people still prefer to shop in-store, and 59% will support stores that follow safety protocols. This can give you an extra boost in sales once you update customers about the company's guidelines through email or social media. I will admit, I still prefer to shop in-store because I can see, feel, and sometimes get more variety or better deals than what is being sold online.    Weave User-Generate Content Throughout Your Shopping ExperienceRaise of hands, how many of you look at the reviews before purchasing an item? Probably a lot of us, right! It is imperative to encourage customers to add their reviews and testimon

Continuing our journey through 2020, it's impossible to talk about the year without talking about COVID-19 and the changes it has brought in every aspect of our lives.  Today we will take a look at the ways that we responded in Community and highlight some of the content and resources that are still being used.       I vividly remember the day in early March that we were notified that Intuit had made the decision to transition all employees to work from home effective immediately.  It happened late on a Thursday afternoon and I remember everyone slowly packing up their desks and wandering around a little bit in shock just talking to each other about the news and what it might mean.      As a company, we rallied quickly and began pivoting to make sure that we were able to be here for our members and offer as many resources as possible in regards to the quickly shifting business landscape.  Our first efforts included a custom forum

Happy hump day to you! We're half-way through another work week, and I'm back to share another post with you. Today I want to talk about habits. I'll admit I have a bad habit of checking my phone a lot throughout the day, when really there's nothing new to see. A good habit I have adopted is doing a small load of laundry and/or small household chore daily to keep the tasks from piling up and getting overwhelming. Those actions don't really apply to what I'm going to share with you. But as business owners and entrepreneurs, I do think you'll want to start or continue the next few habits I'm about to mention...     Set goals. I think it's safe to say you're a "go-getter." How about a "goal-getter?" Successful entrepreneurs have the habit of setting and reaching goals. Use a planner. I used to buy cute little planners, maybe write a couple of appointments down, then totally forget about it. Nowadays, I use my planner for everything! Work schedules and tasks, various appointme

    Welcome to our end-of-year #AskMeAnything session with the Intuit Champions! These accounting experts are here to help with all of your year-end questions. Closing your books? Filing for taxes? Reporting? This is the place to lay it all down and make sure you're prepared to close the year with confidence.Post your questions here, and the Champions (along with the Intuit team) will answer your questions from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. on December 15th (just 24 hours away from the time of posting). See you then!

Good afternoon, my Community comrades! I hope all is well. I know we already went on a trip to Antigua, but I decided to visit it once more. Although we saw many white sandy beaches while relaxing, sipping Pina Coladas, and the food was amazing, we find another local business owner, Kamoyia Williamson. Kamoyia started her online business in September 2020. She specializes in swimwear and athletic wear. The name of her company is Maxi's Fashion and can be found on Instagram and Whatsapp Business. Here is our interview as she discusses her journey.     What would you like for people to know about your business?I would like the audience to know that we sell cute and affordable swimsuits and athletic wear, ranging from sizes S-2XL. I must also add that the quality is excellent.   What gave you the idea or inspiration to start this business?Since there is a limitation of going to certain places within Antigua, thankfully, the government still allowed locals to go to the beac

    When your clients’ product-based businesses are growing more complex, they may run into disconnected software systems, making it a challenge to see a full picture of how the business is performing.   Would your clients benefit from having an accurate end to end view of their business?  If your client also runs projects, could they benefit by having a detailed view into project profitability at any moment in time? In this Ask the Expert, Vanessa will answer all your questions about Ask expert Vanessa Vasquez questions about QuickBooks Enterprise, and Enterprise’s newest tier - QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond live  December 15, 2020 @ 2pm Pacific, share questions in the comments here, or watch later anytime.      More about Vanessa Vasquez, Vanessa Vasquez Consulting LLC  QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisor  Vanessa Vasquez’s main focus is to help entrepreneurs and accountants succeed by streamlining their small and medium-sized

 Hello QuickBooks Community! Happy Friday! I think it's safe to say, let the Christmas music begin! For this entire week, that's all I been jamming out while decorating the Christmas tree and adding lights to my house. Later today, I will be making hot apple cider for the first time, and I'm super excited. If you have any fantastic recipes, feel free to help a sister out, haha. But enough about me, how are you doing? Today, before you close up shop, I wanted to share this short article by Thrive Global explaining how to get more out of your marketing strategy. The author highlighted four points that I believe will help your business.   Purpose your contentAlthough there are numerous mediums to share your content, getting the same message across can be difficult. The writer advises creating content that is informative and appealing to your target market to sell your ideas.   Outsource low-level marketing strategiesDo be afraid to open to the possibilities of getting help

    Update: The AMA link is live! Visit this thread to ask your questions on Dec 15th from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. PT.    Like clockwork, it’s almost here: the end of the year. With lots to do, organize, track, and file, we know you’re sure to have a question or two to get things in order and start the new year strong.   Join us on December 15th from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. PST for a live AMA session with our local accounting experts, the Intuit Champions! Bring your most pressing questions about all of your year-end tasks, including closing the books, tax filings, reporting, and more.   We’ll post a thread here in the QuickBooks Business Discussions section 24 hours before the AMA, where you can post your questions, and Champions will join live to answer.   We look forward to helping you close your books with confidence!

2020 was quite the year, and as it comes to an end, we are taking a look back at the ways our Community has grown and our proudest moments.    I'll be posting every Thursday from now until the end of the year, each week will have a different focus but all will celebrate the amazing journey you have all taken with us.     Ready?  Lets get started!      The Champions program has deep roots in all of Intuit's community spaces; as long as there has been a community, there have been people who had a passion for helping others, and who gave their time and knowledge to answer questions and offer insight into running a business.   And at its heart, the Champions program is about celebrating these members.     With that in mind, let me introduce you to our inaugural crop of Community Champions: @SteveChase,  @lynda11_2,  @john-pero,  @ParkwayInc,  @Pete_Mc,  and @BigRedConsulting

I am preparing for QBOnline QuickBooks Certified User Online for December 2020.Some questions regarding online proctored QuickBooks Certified User exam: 1. Is there retake exam fees if I failed for the first time? US$ 149 testing fess will be used to cover how many free attempts? 3.Which type of books I can use during the exam if I am taking exams at home, online proctored? 4. How long  the test will be?50 mins or 66 mins? Thank you,

Hello Community! I hope this week has treated you well so far (and continues to do so). Before you head out for the day I wanted to talk about something that may come in handy during the upcoming gift-giving season. What is that you ask? It's a Spending and Savings Plan. Here are some pointers to keep in mind.     A spending and saving plan is very similar to a budget, which is intended to help you outline where income is earned and where expenses are incurred. When this plan is implemented as a tool to help you reach your financial goals, it can be used as a road map of sorts to monitor spending and show you appropriate methods for saving. Sounds like a win-win!   The first and foremost thing to remember when it comes to creating your plan is balance. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you're spending half of your income, and saving the other half. This more commonly means the amount is split in a few different percentages among spending, saving, donating or giving. Ev

Hello QuickBooks Community!!!! We are back again with another small business interview, but this time we will be taking a road trip to Pensacola, Florida. Here we can find the beautiful white sandy Pensacola Beach, a lot of history and adventures but also Harry Stanley III. A local entrepreneur with his marketing company called Spire Marketing. Just a brief history, he started this business in March of 2019 with the aim of helping small business owners from website creations to logos and so much more. I highly encourage you to check out his website and Instagram page @Spire_Marketing for more information about his business and services. Without further ado, here's how the interview went.   What is your business about?   Spire Marketing was created to help small business owners take their business ideas and turn them into a reality. From creating a website and logo to identifying your target market and developing a marketing strategy, Spire Marketing has you covered! &nb

Did you know that the average American spends about $1000 a year during the holidays?   It's easy to let control of your budget slip a bit this time of year, but if you are anything like us, you are probably looking for a few ways to keep costs down this holiday season.      Here are some of the ways that the team are keeping an eye on spending this year:   ++++++   @LisaNullar  I have a few different ways that I monitor my holiday budget, but my biggest change came a few years ago when I switched over to only buying presents for my immediate family (mom and sister,) and for the kids in my life - generally a mix of cousin's children and my friends' kids who I see the most.   This helped keep my holiday budget smaller, and let me focus on presents for the ones who still get that huge thrill of opening presents on Christmas day.      Instead of presents, I usually invite my friends out to lunch/brunch sometime in December,

"You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them." -Michael Jordan   Happy Friday, Community friends! The quote I mentioned above is pretty motivational for life in general, but today I wanted you to think of it in the context of pitching your product. Specifically to a retail store. I read an article from uschamber.com  about how to pull off a successful sales pitch. Here are some points they listed:   The benefits and challenges of pitching big retailersGetting your product on the shelves of bigger retail stores doesn’t just happen. There's a lot of work and complexity behind these arrangements and negotiations. If you haven't considered this path before, here are a few smart reasons to start pitching your product to a retailer:• Greater sales volume. The more stores and area your product is covered in, sales are guaranteed to increase.• Customers can see and experience your product in person. Having your product displayed in a physical location i

Happy Wednesday, QuickBooks Community, and yes, we can finally say Christmas is making her way down the aisle. In the spirit of Christmas and gift-giving, we should always remind employees how much of a gift they are to the company. In my opinion, most businesses are successful when employers take the time to appreciate their employees. Something as simple as giving a gift card, sponsoring breakfast or dinner goes a long way or developing their skill-set. Today, I would like to share with you ways to encourage your employees.     Trust them with more responsibilities.You can encourage employees by giving them more tasks at hand. It shows them that you believe in them and trusts that they would do a fantastic job. Even if they make a mistake, which we are all humans, still encourage them. Also, verbally saying I trust you to do this builds up their confidence.    Share their accomplishments and abilities with others.When someone spoke about you and mentioned how gre

  Good afternoon Community!  I chatted with a good friend of mine, Hannah Sowards, who recently made one of her most favorite hobbies into a business. In June of this year, Hannah started @Hfotos. She offers a variety of photography sessions consisting of family portraits, headshots, engagements, weddings, and so much more. Here's how our conversation went...   • What would you like for people to know about your business?  This business was formed on the difference, and beauty’s each individual.  It’s @HFotos’ goal to catch that uniqueness in a way that will make them fall in love with their self.   • Do you have a certain daily routine that sets you up for success? If yes, what is it?  Everyday I do my research for different poses, different locations, and create a playlist for the shoots I have coming up.  For example, if I have a couple shoot, I’ll play music that the couple likes to ease their nerves and help set the vibe. &nb

  Since 2012, the first Tuesday in December has been recognized as "Giving Tuesday," a global movement that encourages people to do good things for their communities and the world.  Traditionally the day is celebrated by donations to charitable groups, but there are almost limitless ways to join the movement.    If you aren't familiar with Giving Tuesday, this post will offer some resources and things to keep in mind as you participate.       Donating money The Giving Tuesday website has a list of resources to help you find the perfect organization to donate to.   I personally tend to use the Charity Navigator site as it lets you search by name, region, or keyword, but any site in the resource list will help you find a nonprofit group to donate to.         Pro Tip: Check to see if your employer offers donation matching, if they do you can make even more of an impact with your donation dollars!     Donating

  With the holiday retail apocalypse upon us, many employers -- especially those in customer-facing businesses and in retail -- will be hiring temporary employees to get their companies through this crazy time of year. Hiring new people isn’t always an easy undertaking. There are job ads to place, interviews to conduct, onboarding and training to oversee, payroll updates … the list goes on. We understand the irony of taking on all the extra work of hiring new employees in order to lighten your workload by … yep, hiring new people.   We’re here to help with some quick tips for hiring high-quality temporary help over the the next few months so you can have a jolly holiday and a happy New Year!   1. Good help doesn't have to be hard to find   You may be tempted to go cheap on the job listing fees since you’re hiring temporary workers, but know that you will attract high quality employees if you spend a little cash to find them. An ad placed with a site like ZipR

Welcome to the Talk About Your Business segment! As we approach Thanksgiving tomorrow, I found it fitting to ask a few family members what they have been thankful for in 2020 despite all the changing environment and share it with you. Here's what they had to say:   Joshua, my little cousin,  mentioned how he is thankful for his mother because she makes the best food. Of course, he would say something like this because he loves his food.   Adreana, my other cousin, mentioned that she is thankful for her sister. The reason being,  whenever she is sad, her sister comforts her and plays with her. Also, when she gets in trouble, her sister is always there to defend her.   My aunty expressed that she is thankful for even being alive today. She mentioned that she is grateful for her husband, who gives her literally everything she needs. And mostly her family, for being a strong support system, especially during her health issues.   My sister explained how she is

  When asked, Desiree will tell you that she "makes custom made crafts, for loved ones, special events and home", but that is really just part of the story. In a world where more and more businesses are trying to focus in on a specific market, Desiree is more of a generalist. Her niche is that she doesn't have a niche. She will design and make everything from wooden signs to banners and party decorations and even wedding decor, all customized for you. Business Name: DEZigns Where can you find it: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DesireesDEZigns Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/desireesdezigns/ Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/desireesdezigns/   How did DEZigns get started? I have always been crafty, and I enjoy making things with my hands. It started with friends or family seeing something they liked and asking me if I could make it for them. My usual response was "I don't know how yet, but I can figure it out!"  And as I started trying to recrea

    It's an understatement to say that getting paid is important to a small business owner because it's super important! We count on our revenue to keep the whole operation afloat, to pay bills and to pay employees and ourselves.    So, how do you process payments from your customers? Do you use Square, PayPal, Apple or Google Pay, Venmo, Elavon, checks, or something else? What would you recommend using to someone just starting out in your business?   Let us know in the comments below...

We've reached the time of the year where the holiday season is coming in fast and time is becoming a more and more valuable - and rare - commodity.  So we thought we'd check-in and see what everyone's tips and tricks are for multi-tasking.       ++++++ @CoreyDenis1 In a digital world, there is often a misconception that digital tools enable massive amounts of multi-tasking, because so many tools (or tabs & windows) can be opened and utilized simultaneously.   The hard truth about multitasking is that there’s no such thing. Dividing focus is not focus, it’s a method of ongoing distraction and can result in a lesser quality of work across tasks rather than the highest quality work, focused on one outcome.   To do my best work, I focus on priorities, one at a time. Much like Ami, I use the Pomodoro method to organize my time. One of the most used apps on my phone is an app which sets my Pomodoro Method timer: 50 minutes of focus, 10 minutes to get u

Hey there, friends! It's your weekly Friday edition of the Business Discussion page. I hope you've had a great week so far, and I wanted to finished up this workday before switching over to weekend mode with an article I read earlier. This post was shared on Forbes.com and discusses three things to know before turning your passion project into a full-time commitment. Let's break it down...   Details Matter There are so many details and aspects that go into starting a business. Thinking about them all before diving in can be crucial to your success. However, I believe most entrepreneurs would admit there are a few things they didn't think about when starting their business. Product and/or a service to sell and location, whether it be physical or online are given, but there's more. "For starters, entrepreneurs have to think about their financial goals and how to fund their business. How much will you need to start the business? How will you secure those funds? How much w