Most of us don’t think about “ethics” in our business. We have policies and we expect our employees to be honest. If they violate the policies or are not honest, they could lose their jobs. An interesting question, though, is whether you actually would fire any given person for violating the policies or acting dishonestly. ... View Article
Our FOCUS event this month will highlight the impact of the new tax law changes for your business. I cannot speak with any authority on that topic, but, in my opinion, the tax changes simply highlight the importance of strong financial stewardship of your business. We spend a lot of time as business owners focused... View Article
In 2014, my family had a once in a lifetime opportunity to live abroad for a couple of years. When my husband first presented this idea, my immediate response was, “Yes!”. Following that first reaction, we had numerous discussions of how this change would impact Equinox. At that time, I felt I had a good... View Article
As we wrap up the year, I’m trying to stay focused on the important planning tasks for 2018. I’ve been learning about and have begun implementing a program over the past year based on the book “Scaling Up” by Verne Harnish. The program’s core pillars are People, Strategy, Execution and Cash with each pillar leading... View Article
An essential part of the work we do at Equinox is helping clients to understand the risks inherent in their business and proactively plan to protect against those risks. I have written before on how to think about the tools available to business owners to insulate risk including the use of contracts, insurance, and the... View Article
Your business is doing well – it’s moving along, growing, expanding to serve new clients and markets. You have a professional services team – a business law attorney, CPA, insurance broker, and banker – and contact them when you feel you need their help with something. Sometimes your instinct tells you that you probably should... View Article
Planning for next year is daunting. Each year, we know it’s time to create that budget, think about what we’ll do differently, and make sure we’ve got the processes and people lined up to do what needs to be done. But planning doesn’t have to be all at once. Some things have a year-end deadline,... View Article
On July 17, 2017, USCIS released a revised version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. If this sounds familiar, it is. The last update to the Form 1-9 was in November of 2016. The easiest way to differentiate the new version from the recent update is to look at the version date in the lower left-hand corner.... View Article
As of July 5, 2017, Washington State became the latest to join a small group of states mandating paid family and medical leave for residents. The effect this will have on employers and employees alike is bound to be great, and it is important to understand the impact of the new regulations. Below we will... View Article