The top ten resolutions made every year rarely change. Making goals that are achievable, both in business and personal lives, give people a better chance for success. When setting your own personal goals, consider picking one - or three at the most, to allow you to focus on what's most important to you.

There's more to managing small business payroll than writing checks and handing them out to employees on time. You need to keep accurate records, calculate and pay payroll taxes, and communicate effectively with employees. Many small business owners are finding that they can simplify the process by using an outsourced payroll provider to manage the entire process cost-effectively and efficiently.

Everyone needs a break from what they do every day to relax and get re-energized. A great way to run your business while on vacation is to have someone you trust manage your business while you’re away. You don’t have to close-up shop or constantly stay connected to your business to have a successful break.

Staying on top of each state's reporting requirements for new employees is an ongoing assignment. Below is a state by state contact list to help you find the appropriate agency contacts for new hire information. These contacts can assist you regarding that particular state's rules and regulations.

While your income statement and balance sheet are important indicators of health, equally important is your cash flow statement. Cash is what keeps your business functioning.

Learn why having a Board of Directors for your business can have a great impact on business operations.

Want to start your own business but concerned it will consume all your free time? Check out these ideas to help you balance work and play while remaining a successful business owner.

3 simple ideas for improving the feedback you receive from your customers by Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy.

Learn what to do with those pesky, but valuable customer complaints from Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy.

Expert customer service advice from Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy.

Link to your state's website for more information on filing sales tax in your state.

Your business may have already been impacted by the spring and summer outbreaks of 2009 H1N1 influenza. The CDC anticipates more communities may be affected and/or more severely affected this fall and winter than were in the spring and summer of 2009. The

Choosing a business partner is one of the most important parts of starting a partnership-based business. Here's what to think about to ensure you make the right choice.

Do you need a W-2? Maybe a W-4? They are all here, along with that they're exactly for.

Almost all employers are required to carry Workers’ Compensation insurance coverage, however the specific details can vary by state. There are number of issues related to workers’ compensation coverage that are either unknown to most, or easily misunderstood. Here are five tips that will better help you manage your workers’ compensation insurance...

The federal generation-skipping transfer tax is an extremely complicated system meant to fill what was once a gap between the federal estate tax and the federal gift tax, which were meant to levy tax on substantial wealth transferred between generations.

If you are interested in passing along your business or other possessions at death to individuals or organizations of your choosing, the process of estate planning will give you greater certainty that your wishes will be carried out in a way that maximizes the amounts going to the objects of your bounty and minimizes the amount that will be lost to taxes and estate settlement costs.

There is an election that the executor of your estate can make regarding the time at which property included in your gross estate will be valued: the date of death (the usual valuation date), or a date that is six months after the date of death (the alternate valuation date). For example, if a catastrophe hits your business and it's worth much less six months after your death than it was on the date of death, it may be worthwhile to use the later date.

Property must be valued at its fair market value for purposes of the estate tax. In turn, fair market value normally is determined by a property's "highest and best use," that is, the use which would make the property the most valuable. This is true even if the property currently is not being employed in its highest and best use. For example, if the deceased was using a gold bar as a paperweight, you'd have to base its value on the price of gold per ounce, not on the going rate for heavy paperweights.

Generally, any estate tax owed by a descendant's estate must be paid within nine months of the decedent's date of death. However, if more than 35 percent of the decedent's adjusted gross estate is an interest in closely held business, including a farm, the executor may be able to elect to extend the time for paying the portion of the estate tax that is attributable to the closely held business.

A power of appointment gives the holder of the power (usually the trustee of a trust) the right to appoint or give away property, usually the property held by the trust. The power may be limited by the trust document. A special power of appointment (one that a power holder cannot exercise in his or her own favor, meaning that the power holder can't get the property out of the trust and into his or her own hands free and clear) is often teamed up with a marital deduction transfer to obtain tax savings.

Since lifetime gifts and transfers at death are added together for purposes of the unified transfer taxes, which have the same top tax rate of 40 percent, how can it be that lifetime gifts can save you transfer taxes? Two reasons: first, the gift tax annual exclusion, and second, the fact that any appreciation in property value that occurs after the transfer is not taxable to the decedent's estate.

If you're trying to reduce the amount of your wealth that will be subject to the federal unified transfer tax by making lifetime gifts, giving away a life insurance policy can be a good idea. Life insurance is an example of an asset that can be expected to greatly appreciate in value. It may be worth relatively little while you are alive (particularly if it's term insurance, which has no cash value), but once you die, its value balloons.

Trusts are extremely valuable estate planning tools. They are extensively used in connection with property held for minors, life insurance, marital deduction bequests, and charitable transfers.

While the marital deduction under the estate and gift tax excludes from your federal taxable estate only the value of property transferred to your spouse, the "unified credit" (now called the "applicable credit amount") serves to exclude from estate taxation lifetime gifts and transfers at death of up to $5 million ($5.25 million, as adjusted for inflation, for those dying in 2013). This exclusion from estate taxation applies regardless of who receives the gifts and transfers. Also, after 2010, a surviving spouse may be able to take advantage of the unused portion of the estate tax exclusion of a deceased spouse, thus increasing the available exclusion.