Steve Marr.org

The tax code from the IRS encourages debt rather than equity. When a corporation earns money, they pay an income tax on the earnings. If earnings are distributed to shareholders, those dividends are taxed again as personal income. This represents double taxation and discourages dividends to investors.

CNBC recently ran a piece about how workers are becoming increasingly stressed in the workplace.  You can read the story here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100624671.

Today’s workers are stressed from multiple demands. I experience this stress from many clients who feel pressured.  This is why we need to learn to rely upon the Lord every day. We need to ask for guidance about what tasks to undertake, how to plan our week, how to serve customers, and how to meet our employers’ needs.

Recently Walmart and Sears have closed their in store photography centers. In past generations, parents would dress up the family for the annual portrait. Today, few use a professional photographer.

When I was younger, I fancied myself a pretty good amateur photographer. I bought a Nikon 35 millimeter with several lenses. The camera cost around $5,000 in today’s dollars. I took a lot of shots using slide film and printed the best. In the past, taking pictures was costly and required skill to fully utilize the equipment.

Now cameras are cheap, easy to use, and digital. The expense of printing wasted shots is gone; you just delete them. Most of us can take enough pictures to get a few that turn out well. We don’t need to pay $50-$100 for a set of professional pictures.

However, good photography is a skill.  You need to get the lighting right, the people in the right place, and catch the best expressions. Not many people have this skill, and fewer people make a living doing photography. We need to be alert and understand these changes in our industry.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and said, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4, NIV) When the industry we work in is out of shape, we need to be willing to be molded into a different profession or job.

Subscribe to the free Business Proverbs e-mail here: http://bit.ly/ncixc1

Sometimes we consider a sanction to be a penalty for breaking a rule; thus, something negative. However, a sanction may also be positive.  It can also mean that you receive approval to do something. Most people respond better to positive sanctions than to a penalty.

Our trash baskets are a treasure trove for identity thieves and nosy people. Protect yourself with a paper shredder.
Shred all personal, banking and other important documents that you don’t want others to see.

More than one business has encountered the troubling experience in which a competitor rummaged through trash looking for useful information.  Don’t let this happen to you.