ACN Opportunity’s Value Proposition For Customers and Independent Business Owners

A worldwide income generation opportunity is ACN, the world’s largest direct seller of essential home and business services. The value proposition of an MLM business like ACN is broken down into two components: the value it offers to its customers and the value it promises to its independent representatives.

For Customers:

  1. Product Offerings: ACN often provides a range of services that may include phone service, internet, wireless services, and sometimes even energy solutions. These are services that people use daily, which creates an ongoing demand.

  2. Competitive Pricing: ACN offers competitively priced services compared to traditional providers, possibly saving customers money on their monthly bills.

  3. Personalized Customer Service: Because the services are sold through individual representatives, customers might receive more personalized customer service and attention compared to dealing with large corporations.

For Independent Business Owners (IBOs):

  1. Income Opportunity: ACN promises an opportunity to earn income in the form of commissions from direct sales of services to customers, as well as bonuses and residuals based on the sales of other representatives they recruit into the business. All of this can be done online through individual IBO e-com stores.

  2. Entrepreneurship: Joining ACN allows individuals to start their own business with a lower startup cost compared to traditional businesses, which might appeal to those wanting to become entrepreneurs.

  3. Flexibility: ACN offers the flexibility to work on your own time and balance work with personal life, which can be attractive to people looking for a part-time opportunity or those who cannot take up full-time jobs.

  4. Support and Training: ACN provides training and support to its IBOs, giving them the tools and knowledge needed to sell their services and build their team successfully.

  5. Community: Becoming an ACN IBO means joining a community of other representatives, which can offer a sense of belonging and encouragement for your success.

ERC – Employee Retention Credit Valuable Benefit For US Business Owners

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the IRS update.

As a business owner, you are constantly seeking ways to optimize your operations and improve profitability. One often overlooked opportunity is the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). Introduced as part of the CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ERC is a valuable tax credit that provides financial relief and incentives for businesses. In this article, we will delve into the details of the Employee Retention Credit and explain how it can benefit your business.

What is the Employee Retention Credit?

The Employee Retention Credit is a refundable tax credit designed to encourage businesses to retain their employees during challenging times. It aims to provide financial assistance to businesses adversely affected by COVID-19 by helping them cover a portion of their payroll costs. Initially available for 2020, the ERC has been extended through 2021, offering an extended window for businesses to take advantage of this benefit.

Who is eligible?

To qualify for the Employee Retention Credit, businesses must meet certain criteria. This credit is available to employers, regardless of size, who experienced one of two scenarios:

  1. A significant decline in gross receipts: Businesses that faced a decline of 50% or more in gross receipts compared to the same quarter in the prior year are eligible for the ERC.
  2. Partial or complete suspension of operations: Businesses that were partially or fully suspended by government orders due to COVID-19 during any quarter can also claim the ERC.

Benefits of the Employee Retention Credit:

  1. Financial Relief: The ERC offers a significant financial boost by allowing eligible businesses to receive a tax credit of up to 70% of qualified wages paid to employees, up to $10,000 per employee per quarter. This credit can be used to offset payroll taxes, and any excess can be refunded.
  2. Retaining Skilled Workforce: By providing a financial incentive to keep employees on the payroll, the ERC helps businesses retain valuable talent. This is especially crucial during uncertain times when skilled employees may be hard to replace.
  3. Cash Flow Improvement: The ERC can have a positive impact on your business’s cash flow. If your business qualifies for the credit, you can retain a portion of the payroll taxes that would otherwise be remitted to the government, allowing you to allocate those funds towards other operational expenses.
  4. Multiple Credits: It’s important to note that businesses who received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans are also eligible for the Employee Retention Credit. This means you can potentially benefit from both programs, maximizing your financial relief.

How to claim the Employee Retention Credit

To claim the Employee Retention Credit, eligible businesses must report their qualified wages and the related credit on their employment tax returns (typically Form 941). The credit is then used to reduce the employer’s portion of Social Security taxes. If the credit exceeds the payroll taxes owed, the excess can be refunded to the business.

What All of This Means For A Business

The Employee Retention Credit is a valuable benefit for businesses, offering financial relief and incentives to retain employees during challenging times. By understanding the eligibility criteria and the potential benefits, business owners can take advantage of this credit to improve their cash flow, retain skilled employees, and maximize their financial resources. It is advisable to consult with an expert at filing ERC to ensure compliance and to maximize the benefits provided by the ERC.

 

Note: The IRS is going after unscrupulous ERC filings. The above-described opportunity for legitimate filing is legitimate and businesses may still seek to file for periods that have not yet expired. See the link below for details.

IRS Employee Retention Credit compliance effort tops $1 billion threshold since fall; Voluntary Disclosure Program suspended after March 22, special withdrawal program remains open as audits, investigations intensify | Internal Revenue Service

Making Money From Home – MLM

The start your own business work for yourself industry commonly recognized as MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) opportunities is a great way to work from home. I am a fan of opportunities that provide training, support, and a true path to profitability because of being able to market a product or service that is truly essential. Two opportunities that interest me are these, Essential Home Services, and GotBackUp

The first “M” in MLM stands for multi, that’s because there are multiple ways to get paid from multiple products in most cases.

The “L” in MLM stands for level again signifying the multiple ways to earn money through the many levels of other independent business owners within your line who you can help build successful businesses of their own. In turn you earn a small commission off of their business product sales.

The final “M” in MLM stands for marketing, which yes has to do with sales. Most people don’t like “selling” because to them it may seem insincere. But it’s interesting that most people at the same time like “buying” since economies around the world are based on consumption from both consumers and other businesses who buy billions of dollars worth of things every year.

So how can you make money from home in the MLM business model? First you have to get over any preconceived bias you have against selling products or services, to others including your friends. Just make sure that what you have to offer them is really valuable. Also unfortunately many of your friends will need to get over their preconceived bias against you selling them things, even though they need and already buy them from someone else not named you. The next thing you have to do is learn from the training given by the company offering the products or services of the MLM that you choose to work with. You’ll need to learn the proper business owner mindset which differs from the employee mindset that most of us have possessed from the earliest point in our working lives.

You see business owners don’t look for someone to pay them for their time but instead look for someone to pay them for the value they offer. Sometimes it takes a while for business owners to teach their prospective customers the value of the products and services they have to offer. Teaching is the biggest part of selling because when it comes down to it selling really is teaching. Part of the mindset also has to be when to recognize that a particular prospective customer is not the right fit for the product or services being offered by you, and that that’s okay.

With belief in your business model, your business products and services offered, and with proper support from the MLM company, you can make your MLM opportunity successful. It may take more time than you first anticipated, but if it’s a worthwhile opportunity your persistence in doing the right things for success over and over will pay off.

Also, if MLM isn’t for you there are other ways to make money from home.

You Can Be “Old”(er) Without Being Ancient

Software Development Journeys Taken

Remember when computers lived in a big air-conditioned room all by themselves and the only connection to them was via a computer terminal sitting on each office worker’s desk? You probably don’t, but I do, and that doesn’t make me “ancient”. It gives me a perspective on how advancements in technology have made all of our lives easier (admittedly in some cases it’s more complex).

Although I remember the good old days of the mainframe computer I revel in today’s modern technology where most of us carry a device in our pocket (or purse) that has more computing power than the mini computers that used to sit in a dedicated room all by themselves.

One thing that hasn’t changed when it comes to computer technology is that to make computing valuable still takes software to run it.  Software development is still necessary today and the development mode and technology makes development somewhat easier. In addition to simple “code editors” we now have “studios” that connect the development environment for seamless design, coding, data sourcing, testing, and implementation.

The term full stack in use today to describes the ability of a developer to integrate back-end software to a data source and present information to a front-end user is not a new concept to old school software developers. Back in the day all of us developed using the full-stack and had to know best practice optimizations for database design, data retrieval, and data presentation. The studio tools today make it easier than ever from a developers point of view.

Today is a great time to not be silo-ed into a narrow range of technological knowledge. The challenge of understanding business data, how it’s stored, and determining the best way of presenting it in a way that turns data to knowledge, knowledge to information, information to insight, insight to solutions is a great journey. I have found that this process and methodology is transferable to other areas of business such as Marketing.

Translation To Marketing

Defining business objectives, marketing objectives, and a strategy to accomplish both; then devising the metrics (KPI) to measure the effectiveness of the chosen marketing strategy is a process that I find fascinating! My familiarity with technology, and experience past and present helps me as a developer and as a marketer. This post is just an introduction to why I am excited to embrace new challenges, and how all of my experience enhances my endeavors to provide software development as well as marketing expertise, depending on which is needed, to help make your business grow should you wish to hire me.

Feel free to contact me regarding future ways we can work together.

 

Never “Fake It Till You Make It”

“Fake it till you make it” use to be a sales slogan used by beginners. There is a new way of selling that is genuine and opposite of what bad sales people were known for doing, thus making the “new” way comfortable to do.

Old way … “close a sale”. New way … “open a relationship”.

Relating to people so as to get to know what they really need or want better enables you to see if you can help them with what you have to offer.

Have a good product to offer, one that solves a real problem/need, and then find people that have the problem/need that your product solves and become the helper they seek instead of the sales person they try to avoid.

That’s what I look for in a business and it’s how I run my business. If you’re that way too and want to start your own business then check out any business shown on this site.

If you already own a business and are looking for a partner/helper to improve the online marketing for your business then please fill out the contact form at my agency Crossroads Social Media.

If you’d like to start a low cost business of your own then check out one of these opportunities.