pointofdespo

Monday, April 4, 2011

It’s My sTORI and I’m Sticking to It!

Love her or hate her, Tori Spelling is capitalizing on a little something I call namesake branding. Recently launching an extension of her vast brand, Tori hit another branding home run by naming her new LA clothing store InvenTORI. Brilliant? No question.

After decades of only being known as the daughter of the late Aaron Spelling, and being ridiculed for her non-existing acting skills as virgin Donna while on Beverly Hills 90210 (although as a child of the Saved By the Bell years, I LOVED the dorky Violet Anne Bickerstaff), Tori has launched a mega-empire built on one thing, her name.

So NoTORIous (TV show), Tori & Dean: Inn Love (TV show), sTORI Telling (book), Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (TV show), The Tori Spelling Collection (jewelry), uncharted terriTori (book), InvenTori (clothing store), Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings (TV show).

Tori after Tori, she’s made an impressive namesake brand. Not a Tori Spelling fan? Think this is irrelevant because she’s my shining example? A few other great namesakes:

Gitomer, DUH! A branding king, each of his books and two of his companies are titled “Jeffrey Gitomer’s…” and his other company is BuyGitomer. Creative, smart, call to action. BUY – Gitomer!

Oprah, the queen of America, uses namesake branding too. The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Studios (Oprah backwards), Harpo Productions, Harpo Films, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), O Magazine, O at Home, Oprah and Friends.

Got it?

But Tori isn’t stopping, her next book, celebraTORI releases this coming October. You may not think she is a great actress but she is a smart businesswoman. As a hands-on business owner of several companies, an author of three best-selling books, and appearing on reality TV, she has launched herself into a sTORIland all her own.

You may think there is not much to it. WRONG! Namesake branding is a moneymaking – image creating – story land.

What about your story? Your brand? Your image? Your creative spin? Your smart marketing appeal?

Think about all of the names connected to you. First name, last name, maiden name, middle name, nickname, company name, etc. How creatively congruent have you made your company? Or better yet, why should you take the time to namesake your branding? I’m so happy you asked!

1. It’s personable. Creating a brand around your name means you're creating a brand around YOU! And what’s more personable than a person? Doing business with someone who has poured out his or her heart, soul, and passion into their work is a must! And if they use their name it’s a no-brainer. I want to do business with someone who is committed to their work, their business, their industry, and their success. What bigger commitment can you make than putting your name on it? (Putting a ring on it – but that is usually followed by some kind of name change!)

2. It’s recognizable. The easiest way to get lost in the big business shuffle is to not be recognizable to your customers. Each of your products, services, and marketing efforts must have a consistent thread woven through their name. It all starts there. If you can be creative and consistent with the name, your customers will have immediate recognition of your personal brand.

3. It’s achievable. Capitalizing on your name is the easiest thing you can do. Thanks to your parents, they gave you one; all you have to do is start using it! Be creative, be wild, be out of the box, be different, BUT be uniform. I may work for a company that is not my own – but that didn’t stop me from creating my own brand – Stephanie Melish, the Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista, and it’s worked! If I can make it happen, so can you.

That’s my sTORI and I’m sticking to it!

I’m Stephanie Melish, your Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista. How may I help you help yourself?

Stephanie Melish, one of the few, hand-selected, Gitomer-Certified Speakers is the ONLY Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista in the world! Stephanie trains, sells, and speaks to companies and associations all over the country. To book Stephanie for your next event, visit www.GitomerCertified.com or contact the friendly folks at Buy Gitomer via email or by calling 704-333-1112.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Your Face Won't Lift Itself!

Let’s be honest, it was time for Gitomer to get a face-lift! His weekly e-zine, Sales Caffeine, that is. Doesn’t it look great? Fresh, clean, sharp, modern, branded. After 485 weeks of production, the look of Sales Caffeine finally matches its stellar content. Lesson learned: the package in which the material is delivered is as important as the material itself.

SO…What in your business is in need of a face-lift? Some renergized effort? A creative overhaul? Better branding?

Is it your website, business card, brochure/literature, blog, logo, title, you? There are so many channels in which we communicate with each other, prospects and customers, ALL of which reflect the image of your brand. How are you capitalizing on these opportunities?

There are three key areas that will add to what you are doing now and make it better.

First, get branded! Decide on what your brand is going to be and put it on everything. Creating a brand and sticking with it is key to making your name known and recognized by the people you do business with and more importantly the people you WANT to do business with.

Two, get fresh! Whatever you put out in the marketplace make sure it is clean, crisp, sharp, fresh, modern. I did not say trendy. Don’t mistake what’s fresh and modern for something that is trendy. The internet and social media are not going anywhere, so don’t think these are trends. Incorporate them into your fresh look. Neon colors were a trend for nail polish last year. Alert: this is a trend. So it’s safe to say, I would not have created a whole business campaign with neon colors. When attempting to freshen up your look, stay with what’s tried and true, but make it your own.

Three, get creative! This is what most people will struggle with. “I’m not creative. I don’t think that way.” To that I respond: WHATEVER! If you aren’t creative, hire someone who is. Creativity is golden in a marketplace of boring, stagnant, complacent companies. Dare to be different, right? Putting a creative spin onto your communication is the easiest way to truly engage your audience.

Branded, Fresh, Creative, Got it? Now get going! Explore your world of communication channels and open your eyes to the possibilities of a face-lift. I promise, you’ll be glad you did.

I’m your Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista. How may I help you, help yourself?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sales and Use Tax for Sales and Marketing People

OK, for the record, I used to be in sales. I've had several careers, and I spent 12 years in sales and sales management. And I now own my own company, which counts as sales too. So I know from where I speak. I'm not just some guy from Accounting trying to make your life miserable.

Well, actually, I am trying to make your life miserable. But that's a side benefit. You see, I've never lost my accounting roots.

There are a few things that you folks need to know about sales tax. First of all, it's a SALES tax. Doesn't that sound like something you that you should be familiar with?

This project is going to take more than one article to cover, so I'm going to start with the most important points, and then add links to additional articles as they get written. I'm sure your accounting people will forward you the link whenever an article pops up. In the meantime, you can subscribe to this blog (see the box on the right at the top of the column) or you can follow me on Twitter. I actually post other stuff besides sales tax on Twitter. Like Dilbert.

Here are the first two points, and they're closely related.

If you have offices, warehouses, property or even people in a state, then you may have to start collecting taxes on stuff you sell and ship there. Even if your people don't live in that state, or maintain an office in that state, you may have "nexus" in that state. You may be required to charge that state's tax on what you deliver there, and follow their rules on what's taxable and not taxable.

This may be disappointing for you because one of the major reasons you're making sales in that state is simply because you always thought you didn't have to charge tax. Bummer. Now you do. You're going to have to start working harder.

Which brings up another problem. What you think is taxable or exempt isn't the way it is there. Every state taxes things differently. For example, let's say you sell computer equipment and you're based in Chicago. You send your sales people and installers up to Wisconsin on a frequent basis, but you don't maintain an office there. That is, unless you consider the passenger seat of your sales rep's car to be her office.

You now have nexus in Wisconsin. Which means that everything you deliver in Wisconsin needs to have Wisconsin tax imposed.

But wait, there's more (salespeople love that term, don't they?).

You know all that service and installation work you do in Wisconsin? You should be charging Wisconsin tax on that too! Wait a minute! You're thinking that repair labor charges and installation charges aren't taxable. They aren't. In Illinois. But you're in Wisconsin now, bub. And they are taxable there. See what I mean about it being different there?

So to recap: you can make your company subject to the jurisdiction of another state by having facilities, people or property in the state. In other words, a physical presence in that state. When this happens, you have nexus in that state. And then you have to collect that state's tax and follow their rules, which are probably completely different from the rules in your state.

Here's another example, then I'll send you on your way.

In most states, contractors pay sales tax on the building materials that go into the job. This is the case in New Jersey. But New Jersey has a "flow-through" exemption. This means that if they're doing a project for a non-profit organization or a government agency, the construction contractor can get an exemption for the sales tax on the materials for that particular job.

But Pennsylvania doesn't have a "flow-through" exemption. And many contractors from New Jersey get jobs in Pennsylvania. And they bid on the jobs assuming that there is a flow-through exemption. They didn't know it's different there. Then they start having materials delivered to the job site in Pennsylvania and discover that it's all taxable! And they have now underbid the job. I hear about this every time I do a seminar in New Jersey. Contractors are getting burned on this all of the time.

Always remember, it's different there.

Ok, you can now go back to making sales. But stay tuned. There will be more articles written just for you (and anyone else who finds them useful)

The Sales Tax Guy
http://salestaxguy.blogspot.com

See the disclaimer - this is for education only. Research these issues thoroughly before making decisions. Remember: there are details we haven't discussed, and every state is different. Here's more information

Get these articles in your inbox - subscribe at http://salestaxguy.blogspot.com

Don't forget our upcoming seminars and webinars.
http://www.salestax-usetax.com/
Picture note: the image above is hosted on Flickr. If you'd like to see more, click on the photo.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Would you like an on-site seminar? Right now!

Interested in having more than four or five people trained?

Interested in having your people have a more interactive seminar experience?

Then you just might want to have us come to your business and do an on-site, customized seminar for you.

We've reduced our pricing, and included more in that price to make on-sites more attractive. Our fee is only $1200 and that includes customization to your state with a little extra adding and deleting as well. You can't beat that (really, I don't think you can beat that). Travel is extra, of course, but if you're within 8 hours of Chicago, you can even reduce that cost.

Maybe you don't have enough people in your company, but know of another organization in the area that could use some training? If a few companies want to join together to bring us out, we're thrilled.

So make some calls, run the numbers, and bring us out. We'd love to hear from you. Please contact us at jfrazier@gadwall.com or 630-406-5861.

The Sales Tax Guy
http://salestaxguy.blogspot.com
Don't forget our upcoming seminars and webinars.
http://www.salestax-usetax.com/
Picture note: the image above is hosted on Flickr. If you'd like to see more, click on the photo.

Monday, January 31, 2011

FAQ: What if I underpay my taxes?

This question came in over the weekend and I just answered it. I've sanitized it, because it's worth mentioning to those of you who are relatively uninformed about this:

Found your Sales Tax Guy blog while doing some research. I'm hoping you can answer a question for me.

I own a small retail store in New Jersey. I recently discovered that my now former accountant was underpaying the amount of sales tax I owe. We collect the correct amount (8.75%) but it looks like we have been sending about 7.75% to the state every month for the last three years!

Should I just forget about the past shortages (we're paying the correct amount now) and hope that the state doesn't discover the error? How could the state discover the error anyway unless I brought it to their attention?

Doreen, of all of the possible mistakes that you can make, this is dang near the top of the "really bad" list. Have a look these articles.

You need to get professional help from someone who knows their way around sales and use tax. It'll be expensive but not as expensive as the price you'll pay if you ignore this. And New Jersey is broke, so they're even more aggressive about finding unpaid taxes.

They'll find you. It's called a "sales tax audit." And this particularly problem is one they'll probably find in the first hour or so of the audit. Snap.

Find some help.

Jim

This also brings up an issue I've talked about before. While your accountant may be highly knowledgeable at income taxes, there's a good chance that he or she knows virtually nothing about sales and use taxes. But the eventual responsibility will rest with you. So make sure that whoever you take advice from on this topic actually knows something about it. And make sure they're doing it right.

Jim

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Illustrations and Parables: Don't overcharge the tax.

This article is based on a recent story about a retailer who kinda screwed things up. I’m not going to identify them, or give you a link to the original story because I’m going to severely mock them and I don’t need no trouble with no lawyers. Consider this fiction “inspired” by actual events.

1. The store has been overcharging their customers for nine months by 1 percentage point. The correct rate was 7% and the store was charging 8%. No mockery here…this stuff happens.

2. This is not just one store. There are several other stores in the chain. So I’d assume they have competent accounting folks. This, as it turns out, is a big assumption.

3. The extra money wasn’t paid to the state. The error was at the cash register, but they were remitting tax to the state at the correct rate. So they were holding on to all that overcharged tax. The owner wasn’t sure how much was over-collected, but estimated it was a couple of thousand dollars. Wasn’t sure? Does he have accountants, or monkeys with pencils?

4. A customer finally noticed the error (after nine months) and called the store. The assistant manager said there was no error, because the store was in a special taxing district; and that’s why the rate was a point higher than expected.

5. The customer then called the city and found out there was no special taxing district. In other words, the assistant manager was, er…wrong. What a surprise.

6. The customer then called the store again and was told, again, that the store had not made a mistake. Amazing how much trouble those assistant managers can get you in. They’re OK for checking restrooms and time cards, but you really should never let them near the phone. And if a customer calls about the same issue twice, maybe the problem should get escalated. I’ve never done much customer service training, but that seems like an obvious idea.

7. The customer called the local newspaper and they called the store. This time the assistant manager awoke from his stupor and got the owner involved. Within an hour, the owner called the paper, admitted they had made a mistake, had reprogrammed the cash registers, and was pretty embarrassed about it. He guessed that the mistake was when the last rate change had occurred (which makes sense). Amazing what a call to the local media will do.

8. The customer (and me for that matter) can’t understand why it took nine months for anyone to notice this. It seems like there was a general ledger account that had a whole lot of extra cash sitting in it. Heck, I wasn’t the world’s most detailed-oriented controller, but even I would notice that.

9. The owner said he’d issue refunds to anyone with receipts (who keeps those for very long?) or who is signed up for the store’s rewards program, which tracks purchases. But the rest of their customers…there shall be no refunds for them.

10. The owner then said he’d donate the remainder to charity. But the state said, “Not so fast, buckaroo.” The law (which is pretty typical in most states) says that, if too much tax is collected, it must be turned over to the state. The state did say that they’ll refund him the money after he refunds it to the customers; if he provides proper documentation. But the state gets the money first, and the excess stays with the state. Here’s a tip for the owner…before you start babbling to the media about a topic (sales tax) for which you obviously don’t have a clue, you might want to do some research. Or call those people with the letters after the end of their names.

OK, enough with the mockery. Here are three pieces of advice for those of you who collect sales and use tax from your customers. And these will be getting added to our best practices webinar as well.

1. Balance!
Every month, someone in accounting should be reconciling the amount of taxes you collect to the amount of taxes you pay. This should be one, relatively easy part of the normal sales tax return preparation. Unless you’re really sloppy, I can’t imagine that this would take more than a few minutes.

There, was that hard? But doing this will avoid these kinds of embarrassing and tough to solve mistakes that will really tick off your customers. And you’ll avoid the press calling your boss. We don’t want that.

2. Double check when the rates change!
Whenever there is a rate change, expect that this kind of thing will happen. So check your sales for the first few days or weeks to make sure that every system (or sales person’s price list, manual, etc.) has been updated with the correct rate change. If you overcollect the tax, refund it immediately. Usually if you do it within the same month, the state doesn’t care.

3. Escalate tax issues quickly
Don’t let non-financial personnel make decisions or talk to customers about sales and use tax. They really don’t know what they’re talking about. And you probably want to get a sales tax pro involved quickly.

Remember, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Don’t let it happen to you.

The Sales Tax Guy
http://salestaxguy.blogspot.com

See the disclaimer - this is for education only. Research these issues thoroughly before making decisions. Remember: there are details we haven't discussed, and every state is different. Here's more information

Get these articles in your inbox - subscribe at http://salestaxguy.blogspot.com

Don't forget our upcoming seminars and webinars.
http://www.salestax-usetax.com/

Picture note: the image above (I’m thinking that’s the assistant manager) is hosted on Flickr. If you'd like to see more, click on the photo.

Nameless Branding

Starbucks is dropping the Starbucks. As the only Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista, I couldn’t pass the opportunity to write about this iconic shift in this company’s branding efforts.

Starbucks released that they have performed a face-lift on their logo and dropped the printed "Starbucks Coffee." GASP! I couldn’t believe it. I thought, "Please don’t change the green color too!" I was relieved to find out that they won’t revert back to the 70’s brown. I mean, green is the new black and it’s staying.

The news of the new Starbucks logo is huge. This is recognition that you have hit the brand jackpot. This is the status. This is where your logo becomes bigger than your name. Your brand has arrived when you can go nameless.

So, are you nameless? Probably not. I’m not - or at least not yet. But isn’t that the ultimate goal of branding? To have an image so prominent that you need no name, need no introduction - only a logo. A golden arch, an apple, or a swoosh.

What are you currently doing to promote your brand? What are you doing to elevate to a level where everyone knows who you are without a name?

Maybe you should try doing what Starbucks has mastered. There are two major factors that have catapulted Starbucks to the nameless level:

1. Be Most Visible. Branding is equivalent to visibility. Starbucks is so visible that they are the butt of many jokes. (Have you seen Shrek 2?) The more someone sees your brand, the more known it becomes. Make yourself or your company (preferably both) seen more than any of your competitors. Brand everything! Put out a consistent image on your emails, website, pens, paper, thank you notes, etc. Also, put your brand out in the community. Sponsor local charity events or networking sessions. Your brand is born when you are seen and scene.

2. Be Consistent. In my opinion, this is the most important aspect of branding. Offering a consistent experience and message to your customers, fans, and even haters builds the blocks of branding. Understanding that no matter how your customers find you, WHAT they find will be the same. Storefront = website = blog = Twitter = Facebook = advertisements = commercials = SAME brand!

Through visibility and consistency, a nameless brand can be built. I’m keeping my name and my title for now, but I’m working toward the day when I’ll have a nameless brand. When will you start building yours?

Want to see the evolution of the nameless Starbucks logo? Find it on my Facebook page.

I’m your Double-Tall, Non-Fat, No-Whip Sales Barista. How may I help you help yourself?