Office Administration

Cut company borrowing costs by issuing ‘stock warrants’

With interest rates near historic lows, your company may want to take advantage of the low cost of capital by issuing debt.

Request an itemized invoice

Request an itemized invoice from your attorney when updating your will as part of your estate plan.

Clear 3 hurdles to deduct losses passed through your LLC

If your company creates a side business, you'll definitely want to consider structuring it as a limited liability company (LLC) owned by you.

Don’t mandate direct deposit of employees’ pay

Issue: Some state rules seem to clash with federal rules over whether you can require employees to accept pay via direct deposit. Risk: By following your state law, in...

9 ways to improve collections, speed pay-ups

Making a sale is worthless if you never receive payment. Many companies make the fatal mistake in their collection process of either letting debtors off too easily or...

Save on legal fees; watch for 7 common billing errors

Issue: Invoices from outside attorneys can include expensive mistakes. Risk: Lost money for the company, and lost credibility for you if someone else discovers the...

Sharing pay data can violate antitrust laws

Employees sued 14 major oil companies, claiming that the firms swapped employee salary information to hold down pay levels in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. A...

Distribute meeting minutes promptly

Prepare minutes of a meeting soon after it ends so that attendees receive them within 24 hours.

Defuse a domineering boss

A manager wrote to ask us how to deal with an aggressive boss who interrupts constantly, uses foul language and loves to give quizzes that put people on the defensive.

I’m going to write you up …

Laura learned that one of her employees had said, “Laura is really screwing us. She’s a liar. Let’s go over her head.”

Handling an obstructionist

You know you’ve got a great team when employees act selflessly to make others look good. If they spread credit around and coach each other to improve, then...

When committees spell trouble

Too much talk, not enough action. That’s the danger of relying on committees.

Tighten your writing by cutting out needless qualifiers

Whenever you compose an important memo or e-mail message, review it one last time before you send it.

Lock up deduction for safe-deposit box

Can I deduct the cost of a safe-deposit box?

Sick of junk e-mail?

Beware of responding to the return address to request removal of your e-mail address for future mailings.

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