32 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 6, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
TAX TIPS
MAINTAINING
CONTROL AS THE
COMPANY GROWS Call Now & End Your Tax Nightmare!
BY JOHN SAVIGNANO, CPA
Controlling things as you grow the company is a challenge for most
small-business owners. Build systems, procedures and checklists so you can
teach everyone how you want things done. Insist on reports and auditing as
control tools. Building up checks and balances and cross-company
incentives helps to get everyone on the same page, watching out for how
things are going. Pay attention when you hear comments.
One of the reasons that so many companies remain small is that business
owners tend to be hands-on and that limits the size to which their
companies can grow. Bigger companies have more to do, more employees to
manage, more customers to see. And that means that as an owner you’ll
have to delegate more.
Consistency makes money in any company. Help to ensure things get
done the way you want by writing it down – procedures. Ask the next person
in line to improve those procedures. Use checklists to learn more about
when and why things go right and go wrong.
As the company grows, one overhead investment you’ll want to make is in
people who make sure things go right. In the early stages of the business, it’s
the owner. Later on the owner has other important roles to fill such as
developing and managing the company’s long-term growth strategies.
Managers, team leaders or people in a separate reporting line need to check
and report.
I know of many business owners who overlooked this crucial checking
function. When they find out there were errors with reporting, managers
were fudging numbers, money was going out the door for the wrong things,
and in some cases, outright theft was rampant. Why wouldn’t an owner put
in place people to proof what’s going on? Because it costs money and owners
are eternal optimists thinking bad things will never happen to them.
Bad stuff can and does happen, all the time. Prevention through auditing
can be hard to justify, because if it’s done right, the problems never show up.
Savvy business owners know this, treat error checking and reporting as costs
of doing business and build that into their overall profit structure in order to
ensure the company stays safe as it grows.
Get everyone on the same team with bonus programs. Reward everyone
based on the company’s profitability. Get all employees involved in keeping
a close eye on everything, fixing problems and looking for ways to
implement best practices.
Teach employees that bonuses ultimately depend on monitoring and
improving what’s going on. Give employees reports to use and education on
what to do with those reports. Emphasize the importance of cutting waste,
dealing with unprofitable accounts, boosting growth with profitable
customers and handling tough employee situations legally and fairly.
Stay in touch by walking around and talking with people. When you get
feedback, pay attention. Celebrate the good stuff. Carefully investigate
complaints, even if they’re about someone you consider part of your insider
team. Deal with problems promptly. Don’t avoid them.
There’s a saying: respect what you inspect. If something is important
enough to do well, make sure you can confirm that it’s done well. This is no
time to hope, only to be disappointed later. Ask everyone around you to pay
attention to details and report in with both good and bad examples so
everyone can work to improve how things are done.
John Savignano is a partner with Savignano Accountants & Advisors
located at 47-46 Vernon Blvd., Second Floor, in Long Island City. If you have
any questions or require additional information, please call John at
718-707-0955.
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Co-Author of the
best selling book
“Breaking the Tax Code”
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Salvatore P. Candela, EA, ATA, ABA
Enrolled Agent - Tax Advisor
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