Time keeps on slippin’ into the future

Happy Year of the Dragon! After a month filled with school breaks, ice storms, sub-zero temperatures, and overlapping flu / COVID / randoviruses winding their post-holiday way through our homes and schools, maybe you’re feeling like February should be the new January.

The first week in February is also when most New Year’s resolutions begin to fall off or fail. Yikes!

Let’s keep you on track. Below are five management to-dos for February. If you have questions or need help on any of these, join me on Thursday for our live monthly AMA. (More info below.) 

Review your 2023 close. If you keep your own books, complete your close no later than February 15. If you use a bookkeeper or accountant and haven’t yet received your close, follow up with them for an ETA and to ask what they might need from you. (Hint: it’s probably the “Ask My Accountant” category.) Once your 2023 books are closed, go into your accounting system and click into the line item categories to check for accuracy. Provide any interest earned on your company accounts or credit card rebates received. Aim to complete your review and have your books updated by the third week in February.

Renew your business license and check state and local registrations. From villages to large cities, most places now require home- and remote-based businesses to obtain an annual business license. Some even charge local taxes. Renewals are mostly commonly required in the first quarter of the year.

In the City of Los Angeles, if you earned at least $300 in self-employment income, you need a license. The same requirement applies if you conducted business in Los Angeles for seven days, regardless of where you’re located globally. You must register and pay your gross receipts tax (or claim up to a $300,000 exemption) by February 29. 

If you want support in tracking your state registrations, set up a free company record with our partners at CorpNet to receive compliance reminders. Their team of lawyers and paralegals can also help you with your filings. Here’s their summary of annual report filing deadlines by state. 

Organize your 2023 tax filings. Resist the temptation to fling your inbound tax documents into a mystery pile. As these arrive, save or scan these into your cloud storage. When you’re ready, upload the whole folder to your accountant’s secure document portal. For a step-by-step guide to organizing your tax documents, check out my recent LinkedIn post.

Schedule your tax prep meeting or file for an extension. If you had a down year, wouldn’t it be great to have some extra capital in Q1? If you’re eligible for a tax refund, get organized now to file your taxes by the March 15 or April 15 deadlines. If it just isn’t happening this year, ask your accountant to file an extension. You’re still responsible for any estimated taxes due by April 15, but your tax filing date will be extended by up to six months. 

Consider whether to convert your LLC to S-corp taxation. In any given year, you can choose by March 15 to have your LLC taxed as an S-corp. You’ll file a request with the IRS, register as an employer with your state, and hire yourself. If you’re considering S-corp status, check out my blog post on S-corp compliance requirements and considerations based on your location. 

Need help? Have questions? Join this month’s Ask Me Anything. Each month, I go live for up to an hour, just for the folks on this list. Join us tomorrow, February 8, at 10 AM Pacific, using this link. (We’ll send you a reminder ahead of time, too.) If you can’t make it, submit your question here. We’ll send the replay link in next week’s email.

Media Kit 

It’s the economy.  Last week, the Federal Reserve announced that it won’t cut interest rates in March, but plans up to three cuts this year. If you want to better understand what’s happening in the US economy, check out this concise 60 Minutes interview with Fed chair Jerome Powell on YouTube.

Let’s talk brain fog. It might not just be the winter gray that’s making you feel sleepy and fuzzy. If you’re a woman in your late 30s to mid 50s, changing hormone levels might be impacting your focus. On February 10, learn more at a virtual seminar on nutrition, exercise, and wellness in perimenopause and menopause with my friend Dr. Jaiden Cole-Miskel. The cost is $15. Register here.  

It’s official: jerks perform worse. Following my blog post, I was excited to see a long read in the Wall Street Journal, “You don’t have to be a jerk to succeed,” citing academic studies that back it up. This 14-year study by UC Berkeley researchers says toxic and disagreeable people usually fail over their careers due to poor personal relationships. Creative fields are the apparent exception, where “disagreeableness” can be interpreted as innovative genius. Hmm.

New: The Impactful Founder’s Toolkit

Did January get past you? Reset your 2024 strategy during this week’s celebration of Lunar New Year. If you’re ready to refocus, I’ve combined three resources into “The Impactful Founder’s Toolkit.” It includes a recorded strategy workshop to help you define what you want from your company and your job, a companion workbook, and a second video on 2024 planning.

These resources were previously available only in paid engagements and are valued at over $1,000. Download your toolkit here.