SBA and Yelp Present: Success With Online Reviews

Word-of-mouth can be one of the most powerful forms of advertising, and its free! Word-of-mouth was once considered "front porch talk", but now consumers across the country can share their experiences with thousands of other consumers by reviewing a business online. The U.S. Small Business Administration and Yelp are partnering to help small business owners realize the challenges and opportunities that arise from online reviews. The partnership will provide a series of free educational workshops and webinars. The first of which will be offered tomorrow, Tuesday February 25th at 2:00 pm. Click the following link for easy registration:  Success with Online Reviews Webinar.

Opening a Restaurant? Already have one and need some tips? ......

COMING!  Wednesday, March 12, 2014:

The Myrtle Beach Area Office of the SC Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) will be hosting an industry-specific Forum to exclusively benefit those in or going into the restaurant business.  The event will be held at Coastal Carolina University's campus in Conway, SC.  This organizational chart shows how the event will be structured, and the kinds of sessions that will be available to you. A more reader-friendly version of this chart and more specifics can be found at the links at the bottom of this post.

The Restaurant Business Development Conference focuses on providing information on the following topics: How to Buy/Sell a Restaurant, Financing Your Restaurant, Franchising Facts, Restaurant Best Practices (from area experts), DHEC: New Regulations, Designing a Marketing Plan, Quick Books for Restaurants, Insurance: Where are you exposed, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and Getting Your Business Online. A panel of restaurant experts will also be on available to answer questions from the audience.  Finally, restaurant suppliers will lead sessions discussing Options Beyond the Basics.

The Restaurant Business Development Conference will be held Wednesday, March 12, 2014 in the E. Craig Wall College of Business. Registration is required. To download detailed conference information and register, please visit www.coastal.edu/sbdc/restaurantconf.html and register at http://www.coastal.edu/sbdc/conference.  Breakfast and light snacks are included with registration. Call 843-349-4010, 843-347-6914, or 843-349-5070 if you have any questions.

Securing tax deductions: when documents are lost

In a perfect world everyone would have every receipt from every transaction that resulted in a tax deduction from the past 7 years. However, in reality things happen; people move, get divorced or disaster strikes, resulting in the loss of documentation. 

The tax court case of Powers v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ., Op. 2013-106 paints a similar picture. Ms. Powers was a real-estate agent in Portland, OR where she incurred several unreimbursed employee expenses due to travel. Ms. Power kept adequate records, but lost access to the records after losing her job. 

The IRS originally denied the unreimbursed employee expenses claimed because Ms. Powers did not have the proper documentation. Ms. Powers then decided to take her case to court where the court held that she could claim the deduction because she was able to prove that the logs were accurate by documenting expenses incurred during the travels like gas receipts. 

For more information see The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers Volume 10: Issue 3.

Facebook Marketing Strategies

Okay business owners....was increasing interest/activity on your Facebook page a New Year's Resolution that you just haven't got around to yet? If so, take a look at the marketing strategies chart Social Media Online created.  Key ideas include: featuring a fan of the month, offering a coupon code for fans only, and issuing a fan challenge. See below for more ideas...

2014 Market Outlook

The Small Business Development at Winthrop University invites you to attend the 2014 Market Outlook.  See details and registration information below.

Community & educational development

PRESS RELEASE

The Federal Grants and Loans Directory is now available. Our new and revised
2014 edition contains more than 2800 financial programs, subsidies, scholarships,
grants and loans offered by the US federal government. .........

REMAINDER OF THIS POST DELETED ....... IT WAS SPAM and NOT an appropriate message for this blog.  If you see future messages regarding this "directory," please note that it was NOT posted by the SBDC.  This was posted by someone trying to sell these books that are really nothing more than lists of addresses, which may not even be up-to-date.  

PLEASE NOTE that we are making every attempt to block this user from spamming our blog with this inaccurate information.