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Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Hello [Firstname],
In this month’s edition of the GrowthForce E-News, we give you some tips on keeping track of business via CEO Dashboard Reports. We also pose some questions every non-profit board member needs to ask and give guidelines to maintaining a positive attitude during tough times. Enjoy this edition of the GrowthForce E-News, but remember to let the competition slow down this summer, but not you. DASHBOARDS STEER SMALL BUSINESSES QUICKBOOKS TIP Back ups in Multi-User Mode At GrowthForce, we recommend that clients backup their data as often as they can afford to lose
data. If they can afford to lose a week’s worth of data, then they should back up once at the end of the week. If that is too risky a scenario, then they need to back up more often. With QuickBooks a problem occurs when a company has multiple users they all have to log off to run a back up. Not so with the new 9.0 editions of QuickBooks. Now when a business is in the multi-user mode, they can back up at anytime of day without logging out and interrupting the workflow. Margaret Gow, GrowthForce senior systems manager, says the change is a result of QuickBooks transition to more mid-market business users. Larger business need to back up their data two to three times a day. “If you ever hesitated to back up data because it would be a disruption to your business, it’s worth buying the new QuickBooks edition,” states Gow. She notes that all 2009 versions, Enterprise Solutions, Pro and Premier, now have the multi user back up feature. Click here if you would like more information about back ups. FREE UNITED WAY RESOURCESThe United Way of Greater Houston recently conducted a board development training program for a GrowthForce client: Village Learning & Achievement Center. At the seminar, we heard some surprising facts about the non-profit sector. The business category grew 27 percent from 1995 to 2005. Texas ranks third, after California and New York, in states with the most non-profits. In Harris County alone, there are an estimated 10,000 non-profit organizations. Ronnie Hagerty, Assistant Vice President Community Relations for United Way, led the discussion and offered us a Quiz about duties as members of a board. To view the the quiz, click here. United Way is a Foundation Center member, offering both print and online Foundation Collection directories in their libraries. They have a large reference collection that can be shared electronically, or checked out on loan from their library. VISTAGE TIPLast month, we introduced a business tips by Vistage in this column – the world’s largest CEO peer group. This month’s tip from Vistage is titled, How to Prepare for the Recovery: Prospering in the New Business Landscape. Click here to read the article. Vistage is an organization of CEOs who help each another make better decisions, achieve better results for their businesses and enhance their lives.. Click here for information about Vistage. HOUSTON CPA SOCIETY PRESENTS SCHOLARSHIPS Four area high school seniors were presented scholarships by the Northeast Satellite of the Houston CPA Society. Each student received a certificate and letter notifying them of a $750 scholarship funded by local CPAs contributing to the society's CPAs Helping Schools initiative. The annual scholarship program is for high school seniors interested in an accounting career. "There is currently high demand for accounting professionals, but a shortage of students entering the field," said Stephen King, GrowthForce CEO and Northeast Satellite chair. "The CPA Society sponsors these scholarships to encourage more students to select a career in accounting."
King (top, left) and Houston CPA Society Executive Director Nancy Rutledge (top, right) award the accounting scholarships. Winners were: from Kingwood High School (standing, from left) Michael Micheletti and Ryan Price and (seated, left) Natalie Wilson along with Valerie Phillips from Atascocita High School. . |
As we begin the summer we have the tendency to want to slow down and take a break. We have been conditioned since grade school that summer is time off from work. But that attitude is not healthy in the business world, especially in these tough economic times. Instead, we suggest you look at summer as a time to take a step back and work on your business, not just in your business.
We all have dashboards to help us drive our cars. Those instruments and control panels on the dashboard help us to make decisions when operating our vehicles. GrowthForce has applied the same concept to running small businesses. We have developed a series of graphs, that we call dashboards, that trend data over time to help management make better business decisions. To read more about how dashboards help GrowthForce clients drive their businesses, 
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New Referral Program At GrowthForce, our best compliment is a business referral. We encourage our friends who understand the value of GrowthForce, to recommend us to their business associates. To show our appreciation from now until July 31st we will pay up to $500 for a referral which results in a new GrowthForce client: $100 for a qualified lead and $400 for a contracted client. To make a referral simply, Click here. New Non-Profit Resource
Sales Seminar Recap The Texas Society of CPAs held its annual leadership conference in Dallas and one of the speakers was Mike Lipkin of Environics. Mike spoke about the ten laws of sales and service and how to apply them to your business. This powerful presentation provides strong guidance to leaders of all organizations and provides a great primer on sales and customer service best practices. click here for Living Above the Line the Power Point from the seminar. Upcoming Events: Advanced QuickBooks Training Clinic Taught by GrowthForce Senior Manager of Accounting Systems Margaret F. Gow, CPA* Thurs., June 18, 2009 This course picks up where the beginner course left off, giving you a more indepth look into working in QuickBooks. In the 4 hour course each attendee will learn how to tackle their biggest problems when working with QuickBooks. The cost is just $150 per person. Register soon, there is a 6 person limit. QuickBooks Training Class Taught by GrowthForce Senior Manager of Accounting Systems Wed., July 22, 2009 This introduction to the QuickBooks system offers everything a novice user of QuickBooks needs to know to get started. You’ll learn about creating Lists – Chart of Account, Items, Centers; bank account and balance sheet activities; selling and paying for goods and services; reporting results, tracking time, designing forms and letters. The cost is just $299 per person. Discounts are available for multiple attendees from one company. Each attendee will receive a comprehensive QB training procedure guide. Association for Accounting and Marketing Houston Chapter Speaker - Fritz Koehler Tues., July 7, 2009 Click here to register, or to get more information. How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Your Office Manager Tues., July 14, 2009
* GrowthForce is not a CPA firm. |
GrowthForce has built up such a large non-profit business clientele that we have decided to
designate a full-time staff member to the not-for-profit segment. We would like to introduce Michal Johnson, GrowthForce non-profit business development manager. Michal will work with non-profit organizations to identify their needs for outsourced controller and bookkeeping services such as audit support, board development and executive director and office reports.
