If you’ve been filing paper tax returns for years or you simply let your accountant handle the whole thing, preparing and filing your return online this year may intrigue you. Should you do it?

If you’re like most captains of small businesses, you don’t pay much attention to managing your energy costs. You probably delegate that to an office manager or someone in accounting. What you may not realize is that energy costs often comprise about a third of the average small business’s expenses.

The Small Business Administration has announced new regulations and measures intended to help small businesses secure more federal government contracts while improving transparency and accountability.

Are you telling your investors everything they need to know about your company? If not, you’re among the many small businesses that keep investors in the dark …and not necessarily on purpose.

With prices falling, you should pay less for telecom costs these days. But you might actually be spending more than your competitors and not know it. To find out, benchmark your telecom costs against other small businesses in your industry.

Brazilian equipment supplier Semco has grown an average 27.5 percent a year for 14 years, despite wild fluctuations in Brazil’s economy. The reason: Semco’s radical use of participative management. Of the employees’ 3,000 votes, CEO Ricardo Semler gets only one.

When William Nuti left his job as Cisco Systems’ senior vice president in 2002 to take the helm of Symbol Technologies, board members warned him that he’d be facing “issues.” But it was much worse than that.

What do you do with company vehicles coming off their leases? Many employers now sell them to employees, a move that’s trending upward thanks to some attractive financial benefits and a new breed of technology to help manage the process.

If your small business operates more than one vehicle, chances are that you now (or will eventually) spend too much time managing the related maintenance and paperwork. An increasingly smart solution: Look into fleet-management services, which are no longer just for big businesses thanks to technology advances.

Hugh Panero did not give up. The chief executive at XM Satellite Radio spent two years recruiting investors to support his plan for becoming the world’s largest subscription radio service. He nearly saw it slip away when the backers set a make-or-break deadline.

The earlier you face a crisis and make difficult corrections, the better. Just ask Robert Hass, who took over as CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. in 1989.

You can learn some lessons by applying evolution theories to business: theories such as the Red Queen Principle and “punctuated equilibrium,” which offer glimpses into the future.

Bobby Jindal has a leader’s credentials. At 20, he graduated from Brown University. At 24, he headed Louisiana’s health department. Now, at 33, he’s only the second Indian-American ever to be elected to Congress. So, what can you learn from Bobby Jindal? Just this: He gets things done.

When Jim Copeland served as CEO of Deloitte & Touche, now part of an international professional services firm, the people he worked with respected him for his trustworthiness. Why?

In 1820, about 70 percent of the U.S. population lived and worked on farms. Then came Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper and modern agriculture. So, how did McCormick change the face of agriculture in America?

This finally may be the year Congress authorizes association health plans, a move that could lower health insurance premium costs for small business owners.

Illinois Budget Director John Filan was appointed in 2003 to whack back the state’s $5 billion budget shortfall, and he’s done it without raising broad-based taxes. Instead, he shrank the number of state agencies by nearly a third, from 66 to 46, holding the number of state employees at 1970s levels. The operational cost of government has gone down, while education grants have gone up, and the state consolidated 22 data centers to five.

We all love the whole right brain/left brain thing, but it’s too simplistic for reality. The truth: Accountants can be creative, too. Take Samuel Insull. This “starched English bean-counter” who took care of finances, personnel, mergers and day-to-day business for Thomas Edison, was one of the few people who saw what electric power could do.

Gain a new perspective on how your organization really operates

Sherry Turner, Chicago, wanted to apply for a newly created position in her organization that combined three jobs and offered more management duties than her existing admin job did.

In her first year with her current employer, Lancaster, Mass., admin Jocelyn Rodgers received a 36 percent hourly pay increase. The next year, her pay rose another 20 percent.

When switching business insurers, don't just weigh coverage and cost. Also check out the insurers' claims-filing procedures.

If you have one employee who does all your company's purchasing, look for hints that he or she is skimming off the top or receiving kickbacks from vendors.

With the economy heating up, the Federal Reserve has indicated it will increase interest rates soon. But how much, and when?