Make marketing better with a brand audit
Make marketing better with a brand audit
Mention the word “audit” to a business owner and you’ll probably get an anxious look. But not all audits are of the tax, financial statement or retirement plan variety. You can audit many areas of your company to help you better manage those functions. Take your brand, for example.
Your business brand is more than just a logo. It’s a distinctive combination of identifiers that represents who you are, what you do and how you operate. As such, a brand can be audited to help you improve your marketing strategies.
Analyze info
There are many ways to conduct a brand audit. The specific steps will depend on factors such as your industry, the size of your company and the popularity of your brand. But most audits have certain things in common.
For starters, they generally rely on information you probably already have on hand or could easily generate. This includes:
Sales data. There are so many ways to track sales; it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers. Nonetheless, a function of your brand audit should be to identify sales-related key performance indicators and trends that relate to branding. Essentially, if sales have slumped, is your brand partly to blame? And if so, why?
Website analytics. Determine whether site traffic is trending upward or downward. Investigate how much time visitors spend on your site and on which pages. Where are they coming from? A strong brand will draw consistent visitors who tend to stick around. A weaker one will often attract accidental visitors who leave quickly.
Social media interactions. The impact of social media on marketing and branding has been enormous. Of course, it can be tough to keep content fresh. But each social media account should provide a wealth of interaction data. Track and analyze this info, if you aren’t already. You can use it to, among other things, assess the strength of your brand.
Ask around
Most brand audits also involve gathering the thoughts and opinions of two major constituencies: customers and employees.
Customers, of course, represent the richest source of insight into brand strength. You could design a survey that posits various questions to customers and prospects about your brand. The data you receive will play a key role in your brand audit. Naturally, customer surveys are tricky. You’ve got to keep it short, clear and easy to complete. Most are now conducted online.
Employees can also tell you things about your brand that you might not know or haven’t thought about. Your sales staff, for instance, could be getting feedback — positive or negative — from customers and prospects. So, an employee survey focused on brand-related issues can be a useful part of an audit.
Two ways to go
With enough research and training, some companies’ marketing departments can devise an in-house brand audit process, execute it and present their recommended actions to leadership. However, it might be quicker and more cost-efficient to engage a marketing consultant to do the audit — if dollars are available, the price is right and you genuinely intend to act on what you learn. Let us help you weigh the costs, risks and advantages of a brand audit.
© 2022
Is your income high enough to owe two extra taxes?
High-income taxpayers face two special taxes — a 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) and a 0.9% additional Medicare tax on wage and self-employment income. Here’s an overview of the taxes and what they may mean for you.
3.8% NIIT
This tax applies, in addition to income tax, on your net investment income. The NIIT only affects taxpayers with adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeding $250,000 for joint filers, $200,000 for single taxpayers and heads of household, and $125,000 for married individuals filing separately.
If your AGI is above the threshold that applies ($250,000, $200,000 or $125,000), the NIIT applies to the lesser of 1) your net investment income for the tax year or 2) the excess of your AGI for the tax year over your threshold amount.
The “net investment income” that’s subject to the NIIT consists of interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents and net gains from property sales. Wage income and income from an active trade or business isn’t included. However, passive business income is subject to the NIIT.
Income that’s exempt from income tax, such as tax-exempt bond interest, is likewise exempt from the NIIT. Thus, switching some taxable investments to tax-exempt bonds can reduce your exposure. Of course, this should be done after taking your income needs and investment considerations into account.
How does the NIIT apply to home sales? If you sell your principal residence, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for joint filers) when figuring your income tax. This excluded gain isn’t subject to the NIIT.
However, gain that exceeds the exclusion limit is subject to the tax. Gain from the sale of a vacation home or other second residence, which doesn’t qualify for the exclusion, is also subject to the NIIT.
Distributions from qualified retirement plans, such as pension plans and IRAs, aren’t subject to the NIIT. However, those distributions may push your AGI over the threshold that would cause other types of income to be subject to the tax.
Additional 0.9% Medicare tax
Some high-wage earners pay an extra 0.9% Medicare tax on part of their wage income, in addition to the 1.45% Medicare tax that all wage earners pay. The 0.9% tax applies to wages in excess of $250,000 for joint filers, $125,000 for a married individuals filing separately and $200,000 for all others. It applies only to employees, not to employers.
Once an employee’s wages reach $200,000 for the year, the employer must begin withholding the additional 0.9% tax. However, this withholding may prove insufficient if the employee has additional wage income from another job or if the employee’s spouse also has wage income. To avoid that result, an employee may request extra income tax withholding by filing a new Form W-4 with the employer.
An extra 0.9% Medicare tax also applies to self-employment income for the tax year in excess of the same amounts for wage earners. This is in addition to the regular 2.9% Medicare tax on all self-employment income. The $250,000, $125,000, and $200,000 thresholds are reduced by the taxpayer's wage income.
Reduce the impact
As you can see, these two taxes may have a significant effect on your tax bill. Contact us to discuss these taxes and how their impact could be reduced.
© 2022
Year-end tax planning ideas for your small business
Now that Labor Day has passed, it’s a good time to think about making moves that may help lower your small business taxes for this year and next. The standard year-end approach of deferring income and accelerating deductions to minimize taxes will likely produce the best results for most businesses, as will bunching deductible expenses into this year or next to maximize their tax value.
If you expect to be in a higher tax bracket next year, opposite strategies may produce better results. For example, you could pull income into 2022 to be taxed at lower rates and defer deductible expenses until 2023, when they can be claimed to offset higher-taxed income.
Here are some other ideas that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end.
QBI deduction
Taxpayers other than corporations may be entitled to a deduction of up to 20% of their qualified business income (QBI). For 2022, if taxable income exceeds $340,100 for married couples filing jointly (half that amount for others), the deduction may be limited based on: whether the taxpayer is engaged in a service-type business (such as law, health, or consulting), the amount of W-2 wages paid by the business, and/or the unadjusted basis of qualified property (such as machinery and equipment) held by the business. The limitations are phased in.
Taxpayers may be able to salvage some or all of the QBI deduction by deferring income or accelerating deductions to keep income under the dollar thresholds (or be subject to a smaller deduction phaseout). You also may be able to increase the deduction by increasing W-2 wages before year-end. The rules are complex, so consult us before acting.
Cash vs. accrual accounting
More small businesses are able to use the cash (rather than the accrual) method of accounting for federal tax purposes than were allowed to do so in previous years. To qualify as a small business under current law, a taxpayer must (among other requirements) satisfy a gross receipts test. For 2022, it’s satisfied if, during a three-year testing period, average annual gross receipts don’t exceed $27 million. Not that long ago, it was only $5 million. Cash method taxpayers may find it easier to defer income by holding off billings until next year, paying bills early or making certain prepayments.
Section 179 deduction
Consider making expenditures that qualify for the Section 179 expensing option. For 2022, the expensing limit is $1.08 million, and the investment ceiling limit is $2.7 million. Expensing is generally available for most depreciable property (other than buildings), including equipment, off-the-shelf computer software, interior improvements to a building, HVAC, and security systems.
The high dollar ceilings mean that many small- and medium-sized businesses will be able to currently deduct most or all of their outlays for machinery and equipment. What’s more, the deduction isn’t prorated for the time an asset is in service during the year. Just place the eligible property in service by the last days of 2022, and you can claim a full deduction for the year.
Bonus depreciation
Businesses also can generally claim a 100% bonus first-year depreciation deduction for qualified improvement property and machinery and equipment bought new or used, if purchased and placed in service this year. Again, the full write-off is available even if qualifying assets are in service for only a few days in 2022.
Consult with us for more ideas
These are just some year-end strategies that may help you save taxes. Contact us to tailor a plan that works for you.
© 2022
Want to see into the future? Delve deeper into forecasting
For a company to be truly successful, its ownership needs to attempt the impossible: see into the future. Forecasting key metrics — such as sales demand, receivables, payables and working capital — can help you manage overhead, offer competitive prices and keep your business on firm financial footing.
Although financial statements are often the starting point for forecasts, you’ll need to do more than just multiply last year’s numbers by a projected growth rate in today’s uncertain marketplace. Here are some tips to consider.
Pick your time frame
Forecasting is generally more accurate in the short term. The longer the period, the more likely it is that customer demand or market trends will change.
Quantitative methods, which rely on historical data, are typically the most accurate. However, they don’t work well for long-term predictions. If you’re planning to forecast over several years, try qualitative forecasting methods, which rely on expert opinions instead of company-specific data.
Define your demand
Weather, sales promotions, safety concerns and other factors can cause sales to fluctuate. For example, if you sell ski supplies and apparel, chances are good your sales tend to dip in the summer.
If demand for your products or services varies, consider forecasting with a quantitative method. One example is “time-series decomposition,” which examines historical data and allows you to adjust for market trends, seasonal trends and business cycles.
You also might want to invest in forecasting software. These solutions allow you to plug other variables into the equation, such as the short-term buying plans of key customers.
Assess your data
Quantitative forecasting techniques require varying amounts of historical information. For instance, you’ll need about three years of data to use “exponential smoothing,” a simple yet fairly accurate method that compares historical averages with current demand.
If you want to forecast for something you don’t have data for, such as a new product or service, you might use qualitative forecasting. Alternatively, you could base your forecast on historical data for a similar product or service in your lineup.
Get intensive for inventory
If you operate a business with extensive inventory, forecasting is particularly critical. As you’ve likely learned over time, you’ve got to establish accurate methods of counting inventory and adjust levels as appropriate to best manage cash flow.
For peak accuracy, take the average of multiple forecasting methods. To optimize inventory levels, consider forecasting demand by individual products as well as by geographic location.
Craft your crystal ball
The optimal forecasting approach for any business will depend on multiple factors, such as its industry and customer base. Contact us to discuss the forecasting practices that make the most sense for your company.
© 2022