A Failed Business Strategy Tale for Owners
Most college basketball fans know when March madness happens and they plan for it. Every year. Do you know what else happens every spring? No, not spring training, but that does happen. The March 15 S-corp and partnership filing deadline for 2023 taxes. And about two months from the filing deadline for every other kind of business. Have you started preparing your filing documents and filling out forms? I have a hard deadline to get your paperwork and deposit in.
Have you reserved time to get that taken care of by someone who knows exactly how to handle all of that? Very few face-to-face slots are left, and for businesses that means a review. Paperwork should be dropped off or placed into the secure portal ~Contact.FirstName~, but get on it (ASAP):
And yet another deadline fast approaching is the March 22 ERC withdrawal deadline. The IRS has given directions on how to file for Voluntary Repayment.
If someone else filed for you, it’s worth it for you to skim those 7 warning signs on the IRS’s website. The withdrawal option is only available until March 22, then no more, and anyone with a false claim will face more serious penalties once that passes.
Make the most of that time by looking over yours.
Because we are at the beginning of the new year optimism is high, and you might feel more time luxury than usual (generally speaking) I want to encourage you to invest in yourself, and your business.
Good business strategy and planning does NOT come in a neat, plastic wrapper. It often takes some exploratory digging to get to the right solution.
Karen S. Durda, EA’s
“Real World” Business Strategy Note
A Tale of Failed Business Strategy and Planning
“You can do anything, but not everything.” – David Allen
An uncle of R.U. Darby caught gold fever back in the gold rush days, setting off West with dreams of striking it rich.
He claimed his spot and got to work, shovel in hand. After weeks of tough labor, his efforts were rewarded with the discovery of gold. But to get that gold out, he needed machinery. So, he went back home, rallied support from family and friends, and managed to fund the necessary equipment.
With machinery in place, Darby and his uncle mined their first batch of ore and sent it off, only to discover they’d hit one of the richest veins in Colorado. They were on the brink of massive profits, just a few shipments away from clearing their debts.
But then, the gold vanished. Despite their desperate attempts to find it again, they came up empty-handed. Defeated, they sold everything for scraps and headed home.
The man who bought their machinery consulted a mining engineer. The engineer revealed that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with fault lines. His research found that the vein would probably be found just a few feet from where the men stopped drilling.
And that is exactly what happened. This “junk” man found gold just three feet from the original drilling and went on to make millions from that mine, all because he recognized the value of seeking expert advice.
The lesson I want to leave with you today: ask for help when you’re stuck. Don’t quit. Darby’s uncle and Darby himself learned this the hard way. The true gold, it turns out, wasn’t just in the earth but in the wisdom they failed to seek.
What business problem has you stuck with? I might be able to help provide strategy and planning, and if not, I might know someone else who would be a good fit.