The Isolated Entrepreneur

Today, the US Federal Minimum Wage Law of 2007’s first increase takes effect. This puts the minimum wage at $5.85 per hour.

The other two steps in minimum wage increases take place on:

• July 24, 2008, $6.55 per hour
• July 24, 2009, $7.25 per hour

Note: Your state minimum wage law may be higher than the Federal standard.
Resource: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/

Business.gov has released a new tool to allow businesses to determine what licenses and permits they need.

Along with this tool, the site is a great resource for businesses to determine what they need to do to be compliant with the government.

There is a of buzz about a new report by a new ScanAlert Study called “Digital Window Shopping: The long delay before buying” (get a free copy).

The study says, on average, a consumer takes over 34 hours to make an online buying decision (up from 19 hours in their 2005 study). This is significantly longer than if a customer were buying a product from a brick-and-mortar store.

E-commerce customers do research online before they make purchases. Not only do they do price comparisons, but they also seek out product reviews by experts and people who have purchased the product in the past.

This may account for some of the 60% shopping cart abandonment rate (MarketingSherpa).

Increase Your Competitiveness

• Excellent customer service reduces negative customer reviews. Bad news travels faster than good.
• Quick turnaround from customer ordering to delivery. The major corporations get products into the “mail” within 24 business hours.
• Regularly interact with your sales/customer service representatives to get feedback on what they need to better serve customers.
• Good exchange/return policy.
• Product web pages give information a customer needs to make a decision. Include product dimensions, product awards such as Consumer Reports Ranking, manufacturing warranty, product specifications/details.

Resources:

• ScanAlert study, Digital Window Shopping 2007
• Online Marketing slow to Generate Sales - new ScanAlert Study, WebMetricsGuru, July 10, 2007.
• E-Commerce Customers Today Taking Longer to Buy, StorefrontBacktalk, July 5, 2007.

A revised Federal Minimum Wage Law Poster (July 3, 2007) is available for download.  It must be posted by every employer subject to the Fair Labor Standard’s Act.

Dates for Minimum Wage Increases:

• July 24, 2007, $5.85 per hour
• July 24, 2008, $6.55 per hour
• July 24, 2009, $7.25 per hour

Startup Nation is sponsoring (along with Microsoft, Southwest, and Dell) a competition to find the 100 Best Performing Home-Based Businesses.  The goal is to draw attention to home-based businesses as the way of the future.  Top ten categories include Most Green, Dorm-Based, Yummiest, Grungiest and Most Slacker Friendly.

Competitors, who must complete an online questionnaire, are ranked according to the last three years of financial performance and proof that they are based at home.  Pre-registration is open now.  The actual competition starts July 16th.

The Supreme Court ruled last week in a 5-4 decision that retailers and manufacturers can set minimum price floors if it promotes competition.  This reverses a decision made in 1911 that price floors violated the federal antitrust law.

A price floor is an agreement among companies setting the minimum price a product or service must be sold at.  An example of a price floor is our minimum wage law.

You have probably noticed that your local doctors office now has a computer system in place to maintain patient records.   The system has many benefits for patients including instant access to

• Test results (blood, ultrasound, etc).
• Scanned in images from MRIs, XRays, etc.
• Patient allergies
• Prescription and medical history.

With increased automation comes patients concerns over privacy.  A bi-partisan proposal in the Senate to alleviate these fears.  The act includes

• framework of robust privacy standards.
• requirement to contact people if their personal information becomes compromised.

For more information: http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_releases.cfm

Excerpt from NASE Get Connected E-Newsletter.

The IRS is alerting taxpayers to the latest e-mail scam. The
e-mail, purporting to be from IRS Criminal Investigation,
falsely states that the taxpayer is under a criminal probe
for submitting a false tax return to the California Franchise
Board. The e-mail tries to entice people to click on a link or
open an attachment to learn more about the complaint against them.
The IRS warns that clicking the link or opening the attachment
could give scam artists remote access to your computer.

If you
receive one of these e-mails, forward it to phishing@irs.gov.

Just a friendly reminder. Tomorrow is the deadline for 2nd quarter 2007 estimated taxes. Envelopes must be postmarked June 15, 2007 or you can pay them online or over the phone through the free EFTPS system.

For more information, see the IRS Self Employment Tax webpage and make sure you check the deadlines for your estimated state income and unemployment taxes - if you have them.

Currently, a business which is owned and operated by both the husband and wife must file their taxes as a partnership.

Starting with this tax year, the husband and wife can elect to report incomes or losses as a sole proprietorship in proportion to his and her vested interest in the business.

The husband and wife must be the only sole owners of the business and both must materially participate.

Source: Section 8215, Family Business Tax Simplification of the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007.