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Hiring should be done at the right time (... obviously). But when is the right time to hire new employees? 

Here are a couple of questions to answer to help determine if now is the right time to bring on additional talent:

1.    Am I, my department managers, or staff working too many hours that it is affecting their quality of life?
2.    Are my customers being serviced the way I want them to be?
3.    Do you we have enough people to support this new client/project?
4.    Am I anticipating someone...

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Skoda Minotti, a CPA, business and financial advisory firm, has been named a recipient of The Plain Dealer’s second annual Top Workplaces 2011 award, for the second year in a row. This honor was given to 132 companies, nonprofits and agencies in northeast Ohio companies this year, based strictly on survey results of their employees.

Survey results were gathered using an independent workplace consultant. Employees were asked to indicate, on a seven-point scale, how much they...

• New Law Extends Favorable Capital Gain Rules
• How to Help Pay for College Education
• The Wrap-up for Wrap Fees
• Aurum Capital Markets Summary
• Repeal of Expanded 1099 Requirements
• Audio Book Club
• College Planning
• Advisor Insights Video Archive
• Delivering on the Promise

Accounting and Tax Ramifications of Issuing Stock Options

 Click here to view Part 1 of our series and learn more about the stock option landscape.

To give you more perspective, first let us review the accounting treatment for the issuance of stock options (rest easy - this will not be too painful). When stock options are issued, an expense must be recorded based on the value of the option. A stock option’s value is derived from a variety of factors, two of which are the value of the stock as of...

As a kid, baseball and football trading cards were my life. I would absorb the stats on the back of each card and rattle them off at school like it was a homework assignment. I have boxes and boxes of cards that I accumulated over the years, as I am sure that may of you do (if your mom hasn’t tried to throw them away yet). What do baseball cards have to do with the value of your business? More than you think.

Magazines such as Tuff Stuff and Beckett quote estimated prices for nearly every sports...

Sports Sponsorships – Inside the Lines

With the economic downturn hitting the sports world just as hard as any other business – just ask the hometown Cleveland Indians – teams are looking to squeeze out any extra bit of possible revenue.

Walk into any professional sports stadium today and you’ll immediately be bombarded by advertising in a variety of different formats. In fact, it might seem that you see ads everywhere except for on the field. That is, unless you attend certain NFL training...

Shortly after being drafted, Lebron James signed a seven-year, $90 million endorsement deal with Nike. In 2006, Tiger Woods earned $20 million from Nike for promoting their golf division and that deal was just one small portion of their $1.7 billion advertising budget – that year, they spent $476 million on endorsements.  And, in 2009, Catherine Zeta-Jones will earn $20 million for encouraging us to undergo a mobile makeover with T-Mobile. 

Considering society’s fascination with celebrities,...

"Pay-Per-Click," or PPC,” is a method of online advertising that's measurable, flexible and very fast. PPC ads are paid listings that appear above and to the right of the free listings on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. To be listed in a search engine’s PPC’s results you pay/bid in an auction like manner. With PPC you only pay for the ads that are clicked on, so in addition to being able to quickly, measure the effectiveness of your ad, you can also track and justify your results...

A business valuation is a just a business valuation – isn’t it? This would be akin to saying that a steak is just a steak when, in fact, there are ribeyes, strips, sirloins, and filets (just to name a few). Likewise, business valuations come in two distinct “flavors” – conclusions of value and calculations of value.

As of January 1, 2008, valuation analysts who hold either the Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) credential supported by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts or...

Ever wondered why car manufacturers abandoned the descriptive car names of the good ole’ days such as Rabbit, Monte Carlo or Imperial in favor of the seemingly random assortment of letters and numbers such as the DTS, CLK or the G6-GXP?

According to this article, the trend originally began with luxury car manufacturers in the 1970s that found it easier and less expensive to advertise and build the name of one brand with various model numbers rather than multiple model names.

This naming...

“Corporate Vigilance in Desperate Times” was the title of a presentation I made to a group of corporate controllers on behalf of the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants.

It’s hard not to pick up a newspaper these days and see dismal economic results. The next article discusses employee layoffs. “Happy Days Are Here Again” will not be heard on your car radio on the way home. And once home, chances are that you don’t want to look at your stock portfolio or 401k statement that came in the...

If you’re like just about every other business professional these days, sales are down, new business efforts are up and it’s time for you to get out…and start networking.  I know what you’re thinking.  I hate networking.  I’m painfully uncomfortable talking to a bunch of people I don’t know.  I don’t know what events to attend …etc.  I get it.  For most of us networking is as unnatural as a palm tree on the shores of Lake Erie, but the reality of the times is this:  You have to start doing...

Hello, and welcome to the first blog entry from the Skoda Minotti Real Estate and Construction Group!  We are excited to roll-out our new website, and will periodically bring you up-to-date on recent events, changes in market conditions, educational opportunities, tax-savings tips… anything that can help you in your real estate or construction business.  We strive to connect you and your business contacts to our real estate and construction world.

We encourage you to browse through our Real...