National Phone Forum

Everyone’s at Risk – Combating the Increasing Threat of Online Fraud and Identity Theft

Date: August 19, 2009
Cost: FREE
Location: The convenience of your home or office
This IRS phone forum is for:

• Tax professionals
• Attorneys
• Payroll professionals
• Industry partners
• Small business organizations
• Small business owners
• State and local governments

Learn about:

IRS identity protection efforts
Process for reporting tax-related identity theft
Victim assistance
IRS efforts to combat online fraud targeted at taxpayers
How to report phishing schemes targeted at taxpayers

Earn Continuing Professional Education credit

• Enrolled agents receive one CPE credit for a minimum 50-minute participation
from the start of the forum.
• Other tax professionals may receive credit if the phone forum meets your organization’s or state’s CPE requirements.
• To receive credit, register individually and use your PIN.
• Call in using your individual phone line so your attendance can be verified
• Look for your Certificate of Completion by e-mail approximately one week after the forum. If you have met all requirements, you will receive your certificate automatically; there’s no need to follow up.
• If you and others in your office do not require a CPE certificate, please have only one person register on the group’s behalf and use your speaker phone to dial in. This will maximize the number of lines available for other participants and help reduce costs.

Sign up now for the event of your choice

• Select the time that works best for you
Note: Time zones shown are Daylight Saving Time.

Conf Access Code * Eastern * Central * Mountain * Pacific
760853 10 a.m. (E) 9 a.m. (C) 8 a.m. (M) 7 a.m. (P)
648527 1 p.m. (E) Noon (C) 11 a.m. (M) 10 a.m. (P)
353052 4 p.m. (E) 3 p.m. (C) 2 p.m. (M) 1 p.m. (P)

• Register at http://www.attevent.com/. Reservations are limited, so register early.
• You will receive a Personal Identification Number to join the conference.
• If you have never registered with AT&T for a prior phone forum, you will first need to click on create a profile.
• If you require special accommodations, (for example, Braille, large print or interpreter services) please contact Brian Finn at nationalphoneforum@irs.gov.
• You will receive presentation materials by e-mail on the day before the forum. If you do not receive this e-mail by noon the day before the event, please e-mail us at nationalphoneforum@irs.gov to request the materials.

Dial in on August 19, 2009

Toll free: 1-800-683-4564
Toll: 1-913-312-2904

Dial in at least five to ten minutes before the scheduled time. Those who are first to arrive will be assured participation. Once all available lines are taken, no additional participants will be able to join the session.
Enter your access code, then the pound (#) sign.
Enter your PIN, then the pound (#) sign.
Your line will be placed on hold until the conference begins.

A question and answer period will follow the presentation. However, due to the public nature of the call, we will not be able to address specific client issues.

Questions? E-mail nationalphoneforum@irs.gov

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Today those 15 winners were notified and Intuit will be contacting those winners who get the downloads. Five CD copies went in the mail today to those who aren’t getting the download. All winners have been notified by email.

Thanks to everyone who participated by posting on the blog. Those who didn’t win had valuable input to share and we appreciate your time!

Thanks, INTUIT, for giving 15 small businesses the opportunity to improve the way they keep the books!

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In Woodward Oklahoma Charlynn Fowler doesn’t agree. She runs Pixie Dreams Bookstore and sells used books. Almost two years ago she bought a building that was packed full of paperback and hardcover books, most in cardboard boxes. She has turned that into a neatly arranged store full of shelves with books sorted by author and sectioned by topic or area of interest.

Her customers come from two places; walk-in traffic and sales through Amazon on the internet. The times I have been in her store, there is almost always someone browsing the shelves for a book to take home and read. She offers a pretty unique exchange program where readers can bring back the books they have read and get credit towards the next purchase. This has proven to be a resourceful way to keep a dedicated customer base at store front level.

Based on customer feedback, Charlynn’s expansion plans include a dedicated reading area with coffee and tea available for customers who want to spend some browsing time in the store. She has customers from several neighboring towns up to 75 miles away driving in to get a good deal on a book or to get something that is hard to find in regular retail outlet stores.

Charlynn found some rare editions and treasurers as she sorted through the boxes and found the internet the best market for the collector editions. Of course she gets multiple copies of some books. She has a “5 book” rule and then has found an outlet for excess inventory that provides reading material to troops overseas.

Pixie Dreams Bookstore found the niche and filled the need in Woodward and area northwest Oklahoma. I personally like to sit with a real book in hand for some quiet time to read and it appears I am not alone.

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Kenny and Dayna Wederski live in Woodward Oklahoma and opened Competition Sports, LLC, their new sporting goods store in January. They spent about four months in the planning stages before the doors opened. Some of the important steps they took to get to that successful opening included

• Writing the plan for the business
• Developing the financial plan and budget
• Securing the store front and allowing time for renovations
• Making contacts with the vendors before they needed the products
• Arranging for funding in increments they could afford
• Setting up inventory levels and reorder levels

Kenny and Dayna came to the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center for assistance and got some good information on the start up steps to take; determining a name for the business, forming a legal structure and getting the licenses and permits required to operate. Their counselor continued to work with them as they followed the path to the opening of the business.

Kenny is working towards getting certified to be a golf instructor in addition to the work he does now in customizing golf clubs. They found the two to four hour drive to the nearest sporting goods store that offers the same quality merchandise and more importantly the level of customer service they will provide was a great motivator to start this business. Shops in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the biggest metropolitan areas of the state, have nothing on this Woodward Oklahoma business!

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Take Charge of Your Community Within the past couple of weeks, we have received two great stories from community leaders telling about the positive things happening in their hometowns. Each involves a powerful Can Do Spirit.

Estherville, IA You spoke at our chamber banquet in Estherville, Iowa about five years ago in our new community complex. Remember? That spirit you felt at that time is alive and well today! Today, the national economy is in a recession. But in Estherville, we just opened two new industries (25 new jobs), will open two new retail stores in the next few days and weeks, opened a new coffee shop and have several new business prospects. Wow! Sure, we’ve had some layoffs by local industries. We do our best to assist with that but we don’t let the negative dictate how we operate here. We completed a 10-year strategic plan last year and now have more than a 100 volunteers working on the nine overall goals and 38 specific strategies identified to get us started. We raised $100,000 in 100-days to get folks started. In the next few years, I believe we will re-open a local downhill ski facility, develop a new ATV trails park, develop a new RV camp ground, develop a new moto-cross riding and racing facility, expand our trails system and much more. Lyle Hevern, Mayor, 24th year
reposted from Jack Shultz Boomtown Newsletter.

I re-post this from Jack’s newsletter because it really hit home to me. Before my move to Oklahoma 33 years ago, Estherville Iowa was a second home to me. I lived in neighboring Minnesota and Estherville was a short drive that I made often. I still have many friends in that area and in fact, two of my now grown sons live 12 miles from Estherville. I understand from them that employment is getting a little tough there and this article makes me feel a little more positive about their future ability to stay employed. Raising $100,000 in a rural farm community is no small feat, not to mention they did it in 100 days.

So what can we learn from Estherville Iowa?

• They have a plan for 10 years strategic devlopment
• They have over 100 volunteers working together
• They have identified goals with specific strategies

And, most important they have a positive, can-do attitude!

The re-opening of the downhill ski slope and additional development plans will be a plus for the whole rural area. Kudos to Mayor Lyle Hevern!

• Think outside the box. It is not always the brochure or the printed map or the billboard that gets new visitors to my attraction or event.
• Know what I want to promote
• Decide who I want to tell my story and where I want it told.
• Find a few experts and let them tell others.
• Get everyone involved in the process; feel the importance of the tour.

A recent invitation to Hutchinson Kansas gave me a new perspective on tourism promotion. Forget about the traditional flyers, brochures, press releases and radio spots. Invite a BLOGGER to come to your location and show them around. Do they have to be travel bloggers? Not always. In Hutchinson bloggers were invited and came from Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas and of course Kansas. Not just “travel bloggers” but a mix of interested people who just love to write and share what they know and see and learn with others. This is the think outside the box theory times 8 or 10. This is the “decide who will tell my story” and this is “finding those experts who want to tell others”. The invitation included lodging and meals, which was a real treat for the bloggers.

Know what you want them to see and where you want to take them

In this case the Hutchinson folks had a plan. The group was diverse not only in where they came from, but a mix of male and female, young and old with a common twitter connection. We visited the Cosmosphere and the Underground Salt Mine Museum. We saw a beautifully restored Fox Theater; we experienced Third Thursday downtown Hutchinson. We toured the Amish community of Yoder and visited Indian Creek Bison Ranch. We were fed very well and enjoyed stimulating atmosphere at the Airport Steak House and Carl’s Bar & Grill. Armstrong’s Loft was a personal favorite, a great place to end our Hutchinson visit with Amish pie. All of the “providers” knew their role; friendly, accommodating and informative.

Allow time for blogging!

If bloggers had a single complaint it was not enough “down time” to write! We photographed everything we saw, we shot mini video clips from cameras and phones and promptly posted those as we toured. The twitter line was steaming and thousands of followers knew what we were doing almost instantly. The city of Hutchinson Kansas got a massive amount of tweet time in two days. And all of the posted comments were included in the package deal and the best part is that those comments continue in a steady stream almost a week after the event.

Most important, what did this trip do for me that will also benefit Hutchinson? http://okiejontheroad.blogspot.com/ yep, I realized that I travel a lot and that I just might have some things to share with others. so OkieJ is going to be sharing travel fun from a new blog. Feel free to drop by!

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On Monday, March 16, President Obama announced that the US Treasury Department will commit up to $15 billion to get the small business lending market flowing again.

o These dollars will be focused primarily on community banks, credit unions and other small lenders – the local partners for so many of our Main Street businesses, small manufacturers, high-tech startups and others in the cities and towns across this country.

o Treasury’s effort, designed with significant input from SBA, will unlock the small business loan market by purchasing existing and new loans made by banks, freeing up more capital so these banks can restart lending to local small businesses.

Beginning today, the SBA will:

• Temporarily raise guarantees to up to 90 percent on SBA’s 7(a) loan program, through calendar year 2009, or until the funds are exhausted. This increase in guarantee levels will help provide banks with the greater confidence they need to extend credit during the current recession, will mean more capital available to small business owners around the country.
• Temporarily eliminate fees for borrowers on SBA 7(a) loans and for both borrowers and lenders on 504 Certified Development Company loans, through calendar year 2009, or until the funds are exhausted. This will mean more capital available to small businesses at a lower cost. The fee elimination is retroactive to February 17, the day the Recovery Act was signed. SBA is developing a mechanism for refunding fees paid on loans since then.

Denied Joke
— Sanford P. Blank
My wife received a credit-card application in the mail that she had not requested. She didn’t want it, but I did. So I crossed off my wife’s name on the form, entered my own and returned the application.

Why? The woman told me their files showed that I had previously applied for a card and had been denied.

So maybe this guy was better off in the long run not doing business with this company. Sometimes we accept credit card offers we don’t need and may not even use. Having an abundance of available credit is not always a good thing. If, for instance, you are applying for a business loan; while your credit score is good, there may be some risk involved for the lender and he may not be comfortable with that available credit. If you use that credit and incur the debt it may hamper your ability to service the loan debt.

Give some thought to those credit card applications before you send them in.
• Do you really need that credit?
• How will using it affect your cash flow when it comes time to repay?
• Can you get better interest rate elsewhere?
• Are the terms good for the long haul, because you will make minimum payments, no matter what you plan for now?

Good Credit is one of the most valuable assets of a small business owner. Treat it like you would your most valuable tangible posessions, keep it under lock and key and protect it well.

Fences in Your Mind
Excerpt from Five Star Life
By Betty Mahalik
I’ve watched the movie Chicken Run at least a half-dozen times. Just beneath the surface of its simplistic look and story line lie a number of wonderful messages told by a bunch of Claymation chickens trying to break out of their chicken-wire world to escape their fate at the chopping block. Their freedom leader, a feisty little hen named Ginger, comments profoundly in one scene: “The fences are all in your mind.” She reminds her fellow chickens (and us), that bigger than the physical fences they’re surrounded by are the mental fences that hold them captive.
It’s been a good reminder for me on those occasions when I’ve been dealing with my own mental fences…those created by self-doubt, uncertainty, fear. Can you relate? Where have you fenced yourself in mentally in recent days or weeks? Perhaps your mental fence is procrastination, a deadening habit that keeps you stuck. Maybe yours, like mine, is related to self-doubt, and the on-going internal noise it produces that keeps you immobilized. Perhaps yours is the belief that you don’t deserve success, so you sabotage yourself to avoid having to find out how successful you could be. There are a million variations of the theme, but the result is still the same: we stay stuck like the chickens in the movie.

Last fall at our ASBDC national conference in Chicago Corporate Turnaround made a presentation on this subject. They have since made their simple do it yourself guide available to SBDC’s across the nation so that we can help our clients manage debt. I found their guide easy to understand and follow, with specific calculation guides. The Arizona SBDC has posted on their blog with links that include the guide and video tutorial.
I KNOW I have clients who need this help. I just hope I can reach them.

Businesses that provided or were tied to legal services, support activities for mining, oil and gas extraction, religious organizations, personal care services, insurance carriers, and bars all saw profit margins of above seven percent, too.

So if I were looking to start a new small business in this economy, I think I would visit Anita Campbell’s web site and take a good look at her list. And, as Doug points out in his article, those same categories would be a good place to look for new customers; after all, they are making a profit in their businesses and may actually have some disposable income!