By Sherry Lutz Herrington I first learned The Four Stages of Team Development from my teenage son after he returned from Boy Scouts National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT).  At first, I listened to what he reported and thought, “Oh, that’s interesting.”  But then as I started thinking about how it applied to my business, I…

By Sherry Lutz Herrington It’s always fascinated me the differences I see between male and female entrepreneurs and how they run their businesses.  Some things about the differences one might expect, and other things might surprise you. Generally speaking, I see men hide their fears, muscle their way through, and pretend everything is okay.  Lots…

By Sherry Lutz Herrington I love classifying and categorizing things, I guess that’s part of why I love accounting.  It’s all about grouping and organizing.   One thing I like to categorize is people.  I don’t mean this in a racist or demeaning sort of way; I do it as a way of seeing who’s on…

As we come to accept that our world has changed, probably permanently, we’re forced to face the fact that we can no longer count on the future looking like what we expect it to.  In fact, we have no idea what the near future is going to look like.   Will there be another shutdown?  Will…

By Sherry Lutz Herrington It used to be when you heard the acronym PPP you thought of piss-poor-planning.  Lately, it’s come to stand for the Paycheck Protection Program that the SBA has established under the recent CARES Act as part of the COVID-19 recovery plan. I think we should now use PPP to stand for…

By Sherry Lutz Herrington As I sit at home under “stay at home” orders, I think, what an odd time this is. It is so quiet, so calm.  Yes, there’s an underlying sense of fear and foreboding, I think we have adapted well as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation, and as a…

By Sherry Lutz Herrington As we move into unchartered times with the coronavirus disrupting our lives, we will likely see more financial challenges for small businesses over the coming months than we have in the last 10 years.  Unfortunately, as with most pandemics in history, there will likely be a culling of the weakest in…

By Sherry Lutz-Herrington One of my team members brought it to my attention recently that it seems business owners are afraid of payroll.  I thought about it and I think she’s right. We talk a lot about the difference between independent contractors and employees, but we don’t talk about payroll itself. Maybe, as accounting professionals,…

Taking a high-level view of your business early in the year can help you set yourself up for a successful, profitable, and less stressful year. It’s all in the planning. Like good road map, a well-executed plan will take you where you want or need to go. But first, you must make the plan. Although…

Most businesses get beyond the one-woman (or one-man) show size at some point.  Usually sooner than expected.  When you are a solopreneur, it often becomes obvious that in order to grow your business you will need to expand. The question is, do you hire an employee, or do you outsource some of the work? This…