The Christmas tree has been secured in its box for another year, the tinsel has been taken down and the colored lights are already a fading memory.  Yes, the holidays are over, and it’s time to get serious about your marketing for 2016. Right?

Well, not so fast. For smart marketing people, the holidays are never over. Even though the major ones like Christmas and New Years have passed, there are still plenty of smaller ones throughout the year. Each one of these presents an opportunity for creative marketing.

When you’re a small business owner at tax time, the bottom line is that you want that bottom line to be as small as possible. Here are some tips that can lower your tax liability this year:

• Health insurance. If you're self-employed, you’re allowed to deduct 100% of your health insurance costs covering yourself, your spouse, your dependents, and any of your children under the age of 27 at the end of the tax year. This deduction goes on the 1040, line 29.

As a business owner, you may attend seminars on how to move your product, watch videos on leadership, or listen to audio books on the Zen of being a Mom & Pop shop—but do you know where to find the resources for when and how to file Form 1099-Misc?

Often business owners think they know all there is to know about the 1099 Misc, and sum it up with “I only have to file one if a worker earns over $600.” While that is true, 1099s also need to be issued when you’re paying attorneys over $600, and paying rents to property owners for business space. You can read all about these other items in the 1099-Misc instructions on IRS.gov at your leisure, but for now let’s take a look at the form as far as your workers are concerned.

As you stare at the sinister stacks of papers piled up on your dining room table, you wonder: how long would it take me to locate my car title, the warranty on my air conditioner, and all the papers I’ll need to support my 2015 tax return?

How do you keep track of your important documents? Are they properly filed and labeled or are they sitting there like Mount Everest daring you to tackle them? While each of us has our own way of organizing our paperwork, it's not uncommon to be confused as to what papers we should keep and how long we should keep them. Here's a guide to help you decide what to save and what can meet its end in your shredder:

There’s a knock on your door. You walk past the leftover confetti on the floor from your New Year’s Eve party the night before, past the Christmas lights still blinking serenely on the mantle and go see who it is. In the back of your mind you already have an idea. As you turn the knob and open the door, you’re not really surprised. After all, you’ve been planning this visit for months.  

Yes, 2016 has come to see you. Are you ready for it?

We are always working to add more functionality to help make your membership site the best it can be. To that end, we are excited to share two important announcements with you today.

NEW! JoomFuse V2.1 is ready
The latest version of JoomFuse has 4 major upgrades:

1. Support for short-codes to display Infusionsoft contact information on your site.
2. Added support for API goals in addition to the existing tag setting on JoomFuse success or failure
3. Support for JomSocial 4.1.x
4. Support for and the introduction of JF Portal!
5. Additionally, we have made some internal improvements (like data-type mapping) and fixed some bugs.

 There's more...

A quick review: The first four critical mistakes we discussed last month are: 1 - Not enough value. 2 - Complicated user interface. 3 - Poor user experience. 4 - Bad customer service. Now on to the next 3 which are related to your content…

5 - Not enough content

This relates to number 1 in the last article but deserves to be identified as a critical mistake on its own.

There are lots of ways to not offer enough value that do not have to do with content, but it’s impossible to give enough value if your content is thin, especially if the member is paying for the privilege of accessing your site.

Ok, if you have been following along with this article series, you now know ( a ) why you need a membership site, ( b ) several different ways to set them up, and ( c ) some real-world case studies on how other people are using their membership site.

Hopefully, you have taken my suggestions and have created (or are creating) a membership site for your ‘herd’ of followers. If you have, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

In this fourth article in our membership series, we’ll dig deeper and begin discussing common critical mistakes to avoid.

Featured Resource this week -

FuseDesk helps you and your team WOW your customers with great service. Happy Customers stay with you longer, spend more, and spread the good word about your business.

FuseDesk was built for Your Business, Your Support Team, and Your Customers. With FuseDesk, it’s easy to get the key insights into how well your team is doing, delightful for the support team to use, and fast for customers to get care.

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

Featured Resource this week -

JoomFuse has changed the rules of membership management. . . forever.

Joomla! + Infusionsoft = JoomFuse! JoomFuse integrates your Joomla! website with your Infusionsoft to content access and membership status, hands-free for you!

Manage infinite levels of paid (or free) membership using JoomFuse to integrate the automation of Infusionsoft with the power of Joomla. You control who gets access to what content... and when. JoomFuse manages access and action triggers for you, driven by Infusionsoft tags. No more duct-taping third-party software programs to try to get what you need to manage your membership (subscription) programs. Now you can sleep at night knowing it's taken care of for you.

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

Yes, your membership site can make you more of the expert! All things being equal, people buy from who they know, like and trust. Use your membership site to increase your authority and therefore your level of perceived trust.

Increasing Authority

My mentor Dan Kennedy councils that as your reputation grows you move from charging for what you do to charging for who you are. Charging for who you are can command much higher fees. Well known marketer Frank Kern said last year, “Positioning, most importantly positioning yourself as an authority, is the single most important thing you can do increase your perceived value to the market place.”
 

Note: This article launches our January tax series and is intended to be generally informative. You should always consult your tax professional or attorney for questions specific to your own situation.

“One of these things is not like the others...”

Many of us remember this song from shows like Sesame Street or maybe from one of our elementary school teachers. And it is usually accompanied by a pile of triangles, squares and circles in different colors for us to sort out. Like those shapes and colors, businesses come in different shapes and sizes, too. There are several basic ways businesses are organized.

Four mistakes impacting your bottom line: Parts 1 & 2 of this mini-series related to the site itself and the content contained within. Now let’s look at 4 mistakes that sabotage monetizing your site…

While not all membership sites require users to pay for access, having a paid membership site is a great source of recurring revenue. if you are going to charge for access, you must avoid these critical mistakes.

8 - No automation

Does the thought of using social media for your business make you feel like an awkward teenager starting high school again? Will I be popular?  What if no one likes me? Is there a solution that won't make my face break out?

Social media is a lot like high school in some ways. Choosing the right activities and the right friends, building your reputation, being your true self—these things can make a difference to your status just like they did in school. If you're planning your social media platforms for the coming year, here are some things you need to take into consideration.

“Without promotion, something terrible happens....Nothing!” --P. T. Barnum

In Barnum's day, advertising meant word of mouth and newspapers. Neither of these was very expensive at the time— unless you were Barnum. The American showman at one time had 26 journalists on his payroll. His belief was that advertising should not be done “sparingly and grudgingly,” and freely admitted that most of his success was due to the press.