The Scholar of Business

Apple has to be one of the greatest success stories of all time. The beginnings of Apple started with Wozniak assembling a simple built computer machine. It was in the summer of 1971 Wozniak 21 and Jobs 16 were introduced to each other by a mutual friend Bill Fernandez. Wozniak had shown Jobs his simple built computer machine and this impressed Jobs to the point Jobs believed he could sell it for a profit. It was here they would form a strong friendship because they not only shared a passion for computers, but because they were both known as outcasts and for the first time they had a great understanding, admiration and respect for each others abilities, personality and intellect. They would begin the Apple project by selling some of their possessions: Wozniak’s HP scientific calculator and Jobs’ Volkswagen, they raised $1300 and assembled their first prototypes in Jobs bedroom. When the project became too big for the bedroom they moved the project into Jobs family’s garage, it was on a huge wooden work bench that served as their first manufacturing base. The computers were hand built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer club. After selling a number of the machines Apple was established on April 1, 1976 and went public on December 12, 1980.

So the question is how has Apple been able to maintain its great success? Apple has maintained its great success with its ability to understand what the consumer wants before the consumer even knows what they want; Apple effectively creates wants by their constant creative innovation and unique design which is stylish, user friendly and affordable. They have also been able to create a brand in the high technology world just as Chanel has in the fashion world. People can easily recognize an apple whether it’s the I-Pod, the I-Phone, the Mac Air or the I-Pad. It has become a product that defines one’s identity in how they desire to be seen by society that is a person who is highly innovative, intelligent, stylish and apart of the in crowd. This is pure marketing genius.
This marketing genius of Apple has seen this company out perform beyond the business world’s expectations. While so many companies are struggling to break even in the current recession Apple is getting stronger by the day. The last three years has seen Apple’s profits soar, take a look at these figures:

A profit of 8.2 Billion in 2007 followed by a profit of 11.2 Billion in 2008 and most recently a profit of 17.2 Billion in 2009. That is more than a 100% growth in profit from 2007 to 2009- Incredible!
With these profits and Apple’s constant innovation, what will they think of next? My bet is another great innovated product that we never thought we would want or need, but will end up on our wish list.

Thirty years ago, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could easily have been dismissed as a consultancy-led fad or a do-gooding side show, but it looks increasingly like the idea of companies meaning, at least seeming, to be good is here to stay. The lobby of Marks & Spencer’s head office in London is not untypical of the current climate with big corporates. A giant electronic ticker describes progress against what they call ‘Plan A’ – a set of 100 worthy targets that they are committed to achieve over the next five years – help give a better education to 15,000 children in Uganda, save 55,000 tonnes of carbon every year, recycle 48m clothes hangers, convert 20m garment to Fairtrade cotton, the list goes on and to help achieve it every store has a dedicated ‘Plan A’ champion.

M&S is only one of many businesses world-wide keen to promote their good behaviour through their websites, their annual reports, their product marketing and their staff recruitment activity. The pressure from legislators has also increased – the 2006 Companies Act, for example, requires public Companies to report on social and environmental maters and the Economist reports the number of global executives ranking the issue as rating a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ priority rising from 30% three years ago to just under 70% in three years from now. ‘Doing well by doing good’ has become the expected and normal way that large organisations are behaving and, as ever, what is common practice in larger businesses is increasingly being taken up by smaller ones.

We live in an age when “doing” is prized more than “being”. We live frantically busy lives where time is our most precious commodity. The thing most of us yearn for is work/life balance.

Yet when we become overwhelmed by all this “doing” stuff, when we become stressed and need to stop and just “be”, we find it the hardest thing to do. Being with ourselves, resting in ourselves, is very difficult for most of us.

Instead we turn on the TV, plug the iPod into our ears, listen to the radio and distract ourselves from what is happening inside us with a coffee, a beer, glass of wine, chocolate or even a cigarette.

Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that as a way to switch off from a difficult day at work – unless it becomes our habitual way of relaxing and unwinding.

What happens when we “relax” that way all the time, is we lose contact with what is actually happening within our bodies and, in fact, our minds, not to mention our spirit. We become tireder and tireder over time. We wake up each morning still not feeling rejuvenated.

You are now asking: but isn’t that what is supposed to happen? Isn’t that why we have holidays – to rejuvenate ourselves? What if I told you it did not have to be that way.

As a business owner, have you ever:

- Signed a contract or document you hadn’t fully read or understood?
- Had difficulty collecting money from customers or clients?
- Wanted to have a resource for ANY business or legal question?
- Wanted to have access to tax questions that save you money and in the long run increase your revenue.

If you’ve experienced any of these or other business situations, we may be able to help. Protect and grow your business. As your business consultant here are some things you can do on your own or if you don’t have the time being a business owner then, outsource the research to college students who are not being hired by any companies so quickly now days.

The reasoning for outsourcing some jobs, because it can save you a lot of money, when it comes to paying for medical benefits, taxes, all insurances, and man hours. When you outsource your billing or collections, your staff wouldn’t be the one making the calls to collect on money that is owed to you, they can do what you hired them to do without the extra stress on your employee, who later ends up missing work, because their getting sick now. Don’t do that to them just give it to someone else to do, because the fee you pay for their services cost less than two months gross salary(ex.12.50/hr) with benefits. So there you save yourself 5 figures a year there.

Next, leasing office space where you are already leasing or own will increase your revenue also. Have you every thought about buying a home and using the bedrooms as offices to rent out or you use yourself and get the double tax credit on it. Saves you on insurance, it’s just a suggestion.

Now, this is something I think all businesses is doing and that is taking expenses that are suppose to be used in a department that is no more or less money is being used in that department. So instead of the company trips or retreats do something in house or local or maybe help a charity that does something creditable. (It will come back to you if you have faith.) OK, finally as a bonus here are some tax savings you might be able to use even if you know already. This works for the residential that is used as a business or even home based.

CPAs and tax professionals often struggle with how to develop an online marketing campaign. Any accountant advertising strategy will involve optimizing your website and any other media campaigns. Once you have determined your relevant keywords, you need to determine proper keyword placement.

Search engines are the ones that associate a relevant keyword with a webpage. Normally this begins with an examination of coding at the top of the page or the header tag. Make sure that your keywords are included in the title tags, keyword tags and the webpage description. The title of the webpage will show at the top of the web browser, while the description often shows up in the relevant search results. These are normally called meta tags.

Make sure that you don’t clutter up the webpage coding and ensure that the title and descriptions are brief and coherent. The description and title of the page should support each other and be consistent with the page’s content.

The next step is to ensure that your keywords appear often in the text on the page. They should also appear on other aspects of the page content including the descriptive alt tags that support any images and in the headings and subheadings at the top of the page. When it comes to accountant advertising, professionals may differ on the quantity of keyword usage on the page. But at the end of the day, the key is to ensure that your content is reader friendly. If visitors enjoy browsing your site then the search engines will enjoy it as well. Accountant advertising and keyword research should not be as difficult as you may think.

As a farmer you are like a small business professional. You need to sell your agricultural products – crops, soil, livestock, cattle, cows, pigs, dairy, farm machinery and equipment. You need agriculture leads so that you can sell and make a living.

The good news is that it is quite easy to generate agriculture leads via the internet. The number of farms that have their own website is still relatively quite low. If you create a website for your farm you would be a technological leader in the industry. You could get the majority of web searchers that are looking for your products.

Not only could you receive organic search visitors to your site but to receive more sales leads, you could advertise in the sponsored results of search engines. The way it works is that you purchase whatever keywords you want (for example, beef, pork, wheat, cattle, crops, soil, farm equipment, farm machinery) and whenever someone searches those keywords and clicks on your link they are taken to your website and you receive the agriculture leads.

You can hire a website designer to create a professional looking website these days for under $100. To purchase ads on internet search engines is so easy that you can do it yourself (DIY). All the main search engines allow you to purchase ads, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. And, it is so inexpensive that it would cost you a mere pennies each time someone clicks on your ad.

As a farmer you are like a small business professional. You need to sell your agricultural products – crops, soil, livestock, cattle, cows, pigs, dairy, farm machinery and equipment. You need agriculture leads so that you can sell and make a living.

The good news is that it is quite easy to generate agriculture leads via the internet. The number of farms that have their own website is still relatively quite low. If you create a website for your farm you would be a technological leader in the industry. You could get the majority of web searchers that are looking for your products.

Not only could you receive organic search visitors to your site but to receive more sales leads, you could advertise in the sponsored results of search engines. The way it works is that you purchase whatever keywords you want (for example, beef, pork, wheat, cattle, crops, soil, farm equipment, farm machinery) and whenever someone searches those keywords and clicks on your link they are taken to your website and you receive the agriculture leads.

You can hire a website designer to create a professional looking website these days for under $100. To purchase ads on internet search engines is so easy that you can do it yourself (DIY). All the main search engines allow you to purchase ads, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. And, it is so inexpensive that it would cost you a mere pennies each time someone clicks on your ad.

The Law of Large Numbers implies that the more times you play a game, the more likely it is that your net gain, divided by the total amount you have bet, will be close to the game’s expected value. In other words, if a game can be repeated many times, good luck and bad luck tends to wash out. Can this be done with the decisions of technology in the gaming operations? Or running the business?

What happens, though, if the game isn’t going to be repeated over and over? What if the game – purchasing technology, for instance – is played only once or just a few times? That’s when risk aversion comes into play.

Being “risk averse” means that you are willing to pay money to avoid playing a risky game, even when the expected value of the game might be in your favor. Let’s consider the “risk” of investing in technology. Why do a few casino operators are willing to take the option that the other operators are not willing to take with technology? Why don’t some casinos purchase technology unless there are 20 other casinos that have done it, even though those that are leveraging technology are doing well in this current economic slump?

As I visit with both commercial and Native American casino operators, I encounter many who are not willing to calculate the rate of return or use a return on investment (ROI) calculator to justify investing in technology. I can prove on paper how such an investment would result in efficiency gains, lower labor costs and better visibility into casino operations. But, many are uncomfortable with the risk of investing in technology simply because it is a change or because they would be the first on the block to do so.

Stockholders, owners and tribal members want high rate of returns, but use 1970′s technology. Most operators employ generation that has grown up on the X-Box and knows technology inside out, but the C-level management may have an issue turning on a computer.

Many C-level operators cannot answer the questions of how they are using business intelligence tools, what they are doing with their data warehouse, how they are leveraging payroll or business analytics. Would your CFO be able to give you a real-time cash value? Probably not. Many casinos may have educated employees that are stymied because the technology to answer these questions is either not available or not being used.

Most successful businesses in corporate America have learned that when technology is used correctly, real business value is delivered. They have clear insight into business intelligence, have multiple systems integrated, and have full visibility of their data warehouse and business analytics. Most importantly, these companies can measure the ROI of their technology systems and how they contribute to the bottom line.

I suggest that casino operators follow the lead of corporate America and adopt the technology advances that have already been proven to be critical in running a profitable operation.