Got employees? If you pay wages, you need to file quarterly IRS Form 941 reports to process tax payments and reconcile withholding. Next deadline: July 31.  Don’t sweat it — file the easy way with an online service like FileTaxes.com.  I’ve used this web-based tax filing service for years to process 1099s, W-2s and other tax forms, and it’s been a terrific time-saver…and cheap, too.

Forget firing up your own software, printing forms and then mailing them.  Banish worries about whether your filing meetings regulations.  The FileTaxes service does it for you and provides copies for your records that you can print out or store and access anytime in your online account. All you need to do is enter your summarized payroll data online. 941 Forms are $4.95 each.

One problem:  To get started, you need a PIN from the IRS.  But FileTaxes will arrange for that too once you provide your information online. If you owe money after filing the 941 (less than $2,500), the IRS will debit your business bank account using the bank information you provide via FileTaxes.  You get PDF copies of your filings and email confirmation as well.

Here’s a link to the official IRS 941 filing instructions if you need them.

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Dear Dan – Even though we’re a small company, we’ve always sponsored an annual event for clients and employees. But cost is now a much bigger factor. How can we plan unique events on a budget? - Eventful

Dear Eventful: As the economy struggles, spending on business events has plummeted.  But it’s still possible to host a unique event on a modest budget. Celebrating a new product launch, big sale or other business milestone at a local watering hole can be a nice diversion for employees. And inviting clients, prospects or colleagues to a business meeting at a conference center will get the job done.

But many business event planners these days are looking to low-cost non-traditional venues to spark interest in less-frequent shindigs.  Thanks to some new web resources, meeting organizers for everything from big corporate events to small family reunions are tapping special interest or non-traditional venues such as resorts, campgrounds, ranches, inns, country clubs, museums, and other alternatives to traditional hotel and restaurant locales. Bargains abound right now as these venues compete for business, and some new web solutions are making them easier to find and book. Read the full entry

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Most small U.S. retailers don’t sell or ship globally due to hassles with currency conversions, languages, customs, shipping, customer service and fraud. But what if you could easily hand those hassles off to someone else? Suddenly, vast new sales opportunities open up.  International Checkout is a fast-growing company that makes it easy for e-commerce retailers to sell goods worldwide.  In a single day you can integrate your own website with theirs, offer an “International Checkout” button for overseas buyers, and begin boosting your revenues.

Other overseas selling solutions exist, but small businesses are lining up at International Checkout for a lengthy lineup of benefits:

1. They assume all fraud risk
2. There are no fees to you, the merchant
3. They guarantee payment to you in U.S. dollars (customers settle in their local currency)
4. They provide shipping and fulfillment worldwide (you send the goods to them and they ship overseas)
5. They provide multi-lingual customer service as well as customs clearance

Basically they do it all, and you sit back and collect the cash. This is a small business solution as it should be. Read the full entry

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Dear Dan: I need more bang for the advertising bucks I’m spending in the local newspaper. Should I put more emphasis online? Will that be more cost-effective?  - Marketing More

Dear Marketing More: For the first time, more small businesses are now advertising online than are advertising through traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and cable TV, according to The Kelsey Group, a media research and consulting firm.

Results of Kelsey Group’s latest Local Commerce Monitor study, conducted with research partner ConStat Inc., are stunning. Of the small and medium size businesses surveyed, 77 percent now say they are using digital or online outlets to market their businesses while 69 percent are using traditional media. Read the full entry

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Dear Dan: I’m losing sleep worrying about business conditions and all the things that might go wrong. And the mood at my small company is depressed. How can I step it up a notch?  - Sleepless

Dear Sleepless:  Most small business owners are adept at adapting. By cutting costs, improving productivity, tweaking technology and better managing marketing, they can adjust to economic conditions as they change.

The current “Great Recession,” however, is testing the ability of millions of small businesses to survive, let alone prosper. Once you’ve done everything you can think of to save money and stimulate sales, it might be time to fortify your business for the future by setting a leadership mindset that will help carry you through the tough times.

“Great leadership is everything” in running a business, says Quint Studer, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Results That Last” (Wiley, 2007). “All other elements of success flow from it. Your leadership must be top-notch. If it isn’t, you may not be around five years from now.”

So what – exactly – can you do to get through the recession?   Here are seven steps that will help fortify your business for the future: Read the full entry

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Here at What Works for Business, we’re always hunting for new web-based resources that can help your small business grow and prosper. If those resources are free — as many are — so much the better. Along comes newly-launched Freesourcing.org (itself a free service) that provides a first-of-its-kind searchable online directory of only the truly free web-based business resources.  This is good.

The Freesourcing site (in beta) is bare bones, but skips the frills (not to mention the annoying pop-ups and paid ads) in favor of function, letting you easily find helpful freebies from what promises to be a growing list of options. You can search the directory using common terms, or click on one of the 14 categories such as analytics, CRM, marketing or software to reveal a list of offerings with a brief description and user ratings.

Absent from the list are all of those “temporarily-free” and “not-quite-totally-free” resources that are really just marketing come-ons. The site’s professed mission is to “Provide businesses with easy, clutter-free access to the best free web-based resources.” And so far it seems to deliver just that.

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Dear Dan: I’m old-school when it comes to manners, and some of the behavior I see from my employees is disappointing. They are otherwise good workers, but is there a way to create my own standards?  - Old School Manners

Dear Old School:  There’s much to be said for harmony in the workplace. When employees get along – with customers and clients as well as each other – your business prospers.  But people often do little things that you wish they wouldn’t, such as rough language, poor cell phone etiquette or over-the-top political arguments. Many business owners are reluctant to try and control such behavior when employee performance is otherwise good.

But if you assume there’s nothing you can do, think again, says Quint Studer, author of Wall Street Journal bestseller Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top (Wiley). You can legislate good behavior-and what’s more, most employees will be glad you did. Read the full entry

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Dear Dan: We’ve cut costs, lowered prices and accelerated our marketing. But there still seem to be so many things that can run off track. What are some common small business mistakes we should look out for?  — Worried

Dear Worried:  From blockbuster bankruptcies to broken banks and blows to business bottom lines, today’s economic news is like a bad dream. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) says the current recession has already been harder on small business profits than any other time in the past 35 years.

Record numbers of small businesses surveyed for the latest NFIB Optimism Index reported a decline in earnings. Most (60 percent) say that’s a result of slower sales, while others blame lower selling prices. About 31 percent of small business owners say they are cutting prices, while only 13 percent have raised them. The cuts in average selling prices by small companies are happening at a record pace.

Conditions remain precarious for millions of business owners. Despite the impression that most businesses buckle under the weight of a single calamity, however, the path to ruin is often paved by a series of small missteps. We become blind to chains of mistakes that ultimately lead to disaster.  Here are some moves that can help you avoid the kinds of missteps that by themselves aren’t life threatening, but taken together can sink a struggling business: Read the full entry

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Dear Dan: My young nephew just started a business and says he’s been promoting it successfully in different “social media” online. Is exploring social media as a marketing tool really worth the bother? - Social Wonderer

Dear Social Wonderer:  In today’s stomach-wrenching economy, more businesses than ever before are finding ways to build their customer base and boost revenues — even while slashing their ad spending. What’s their magic recipe for success in the face of financial adversity? Read the full entry

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Dear Dan: We pay our seasonal help minimum wage. That’s already been raised each of the last two years by the Federal government. Now I hear it’s going up again, which seems like bad timing. Is this right?  - Worried Employer

Dear Worried:

Back in 2007, the Federal government passed a minimum wage increase to be implemented in three steps, ending with an increase to $7.25 per hour (from $6.55) effective July 24, 2009.  Many small businesses employ workers at minimum wage – especially during the summer when they use seasonal and student help. If your business employs workers at minimum wage it’s critical to know the rules.  Read the full entry

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