Connect Club - Connecting Women in Business - Colorado » digital printing

CPA/Printing – Colorado

connectclub — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:46:03 +0000

Today’s first speaker was Anna Kay Roche, CPA in Wheat Ridge, CO. Anna
wanted to go over yearend tax strategies and some of
the over looked tax deductions. The yearend tax strategies she covered were
accelerating your expenses – although you cannot prepay some reoccurring
expenses such as interest, rent and lease payments, think about stocking up on
office supplies, postage and other office necessities. Buy or upgrade your
equipment or automobile to claim your Section179 deduction, the rules
surrounding automobiles can be complicated so don’t just assume this deduction
make sure by checking with you tax professional. You can also delay receipt of
income – the law states that if you have the money in your hands – even if you
have not deposited it – it is still income. Hoarding your December collections
and then running it to the bank on the first business day in January is a dead
giveaway to an auditor that you are reporting income in the wrong year. Other
things that Anna wants you to consider – be careful about trying to save income
taxes, you may pay a little one year but then have a major payment the next.
You are better off reporting your income evenly over the years. If you have a
large income bubble you may need for tax planning to minimize the tax burden
for that period. A few of those tax deductions that we all may over look from
tax year to tax are – state sales taxes. There are IRS tax tables that show how
much residents can deduct based on their income and the sales tax rates. If you
purchased an automobile or boat you can add that sales tax you paid to the
amount shown on the IRS table. Another sales tax that often goes unused is for
home building materials – this can be a big ticket item and can make the sales
tax deduction a better deal for you than the income deduction. If you spent
time this year looking for a job – you may be able to itemize some of those
expenses – however only 2% of your adjusted gross income. Some of those
expenses are employment agency fees, cab fare, food, lodging and transportation
if your search takes you away from home overnight, and the costs of printing
your resume or business cards and postage. If that new job forces you to move
you can deduct your moving expenses if you have to move over 50 miles. The last
deduction that Anna spoke to us about was out of pocket charitable deductions –
remember whenever doing something for a charitable organization such as baking
a casserole for an event-all the ingredients are deductible, or if you do a
mailing for your favorite organization-the stamps you purchase are deductible, and
if you give clothing to that local homeless shelter those are deductible as
well. Keep all of your receipts –if your donations are more than 250.00 you
will need to document the receiving agency and document the services you
provided. Keeping all of these items in mind Anna wants us all to be prepared
for the upcoming tax season and if you need help getting a handle on your taxes
give Anna Kay Roche a call!!
Anna Kay Roche, P.C. * Certified Public Accountant * 303.403.0775

Today’s second speaker was Cindi Thordarson of EcoGraphics Printing in
Lakewood, CO. Although EcoGraphics is in the middle of the Children’s
Hospital Colorado Christmas Card Project, which
keeps their office very busy this time of year. There are other clients that
they are trying very hard to keep up with all of the requests. One request,
Cindi brought with her today to explain the complications of printing three
color envelopes. EcoGraphics is a small commercial shop and have two digital
presses along with two small format single color traditional presses and one –
two color Itek 3985 – which will run 2 color tight registration jobs. The issue
with running multiple colored envelopes is that no two envelopes (kind of like
snowflakes) are not created alike. The machine that creates envelopes moves at
amazing speeds which cuts, folds and glues each envelope – so as each envelope
is folded and glued it may be in the machine crooked or just a slightly
different angle creating a slightly different shape. So, as a printer, Cindi
should know that when trying to run three colors – exact registration on
pre-made envelopes will not work. For this job – well – she forgot… So they are
printing the envelopes the correct way, which is running the envelope unfolded
on an 11 x 17 inch sheet of paper where they can get an exact cut and guarantee
that the sheet will hit in the same spot for the third color. They then send
those sheets to an envelope manufacture here in Denver that will convert
envelopes in small quantities. Not the least expensive way to go but it will
get the exact look the customer is looking for. The rest of her talk Cindi
discussed the design of your logo – in these days you can design just about
anything with the aid of computers. Depending on the needs for your business –
whether you will be using letterhead, envelopes and business cards or just
business cards and a couple advertising pieces – you can get as creative as you
want. Just remember that although digital printing has brought the cost of printing
4 color pieces down, it can still be expensive. Cindi doesn’t want to deter us
from doing 4 color projects just take into consideration the cost and use 4
color for a piece that is going to have the most impact with your clients or potential
clients. If you need a piece that creates impact with your clients give Cindi
at EcoGraphics Printing a call and she will work with you and your budget.

Cindi Thordarson * EcoGraphics Printing
* 303.238.7791 * cindiecographicsprintingcom * www.ecographicsprinting.com

Promotional Products/Travel Agency – Colorado

connectclub — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:27:30 +0000

Our first speaker today was Linda Schafer of GL Specialties
in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Linda had just returned from a Sample Show with the
new products for this coming year. The main topic of the show, however, was QR
Codes and Social Media Marketing. They spoke about how the QR Codes are
actually failing because many of the codes are sending people to sites that
don’t draw in the customer with an poorly designed website that are not updated
enough with relevant or current information. When using these QR Codes you need
to be updating your website as often as possible with new information and offer
special deals or sales. This way your cliental will want to check out your site
and take action on either the information you provide or to take advantage of
the offer that you post. This is something very important for those of us that
are thinking about using this new form of Social Media!
Linda had lots of products to show us that she saw at the show, but first she
wanted to discuss quickly was a recent experience with a client. This had to do
with colors – she was working with a client that uses teal or Pantone color 321
for her logo – in the printing and promotional industry there are 20,000 kinds
of teal ~ and when ordering promotional products using a specific Pantone color
can cost you upwards of 50.00 to 150.00 depending on the color or you can use
the companies standard color which are either free or as cheap as 25.00. When
choosing a color for printing on a promotional product keep this in mind as
there are 300,000 variations of blue and over 350,000 variations of red, so if
you can go with the companies standard color chart you may not be right on with
your corporation’s colors but you should be able to get it close.
The first item that Linda showed us were the large variety of water bottles –
they can range in price for the standard water bottle which costs .79 each to
the high end insulated or metal styles that can cost up to 8.00 each. Water
bottles come in so many styles now that you can really pick and choose the
product that is just right for you. The latest craze is the t-shirt and
baseball hat combo – Linda has a Colorado company that offers this promotional
item and you can get 1 or 1,000,000, with the use of digital printing for the
t-shirts the price has been almost cut in half and the month turn-around time
can now be as little as 3 days. The introduction of digital printing into the
promotional products industry has been a huge bonus for those ordering product.
Linda passed around many products that she picked up and the Sample Show – the
last was a variety of mouse pads that just get more entertaining with colors
and shapes each year.
The resources that Linda Schafer can offer her clients with her years of
experience, knowledge about the products she offers and the hundreds of vendors
she can work with either here in the United States or abroad – allows her to
give the best product and the best price for any promotional product that you
need.
Linda Schafer * GL Specialties * 303.456.9035 * glspecadglspecialtiescom (glspecadglspecialtiescom) * www.glspecialties.com

Juli Parrott of Table Mountain Travel in Lakewood, Colorado
was today’s second speaker – Juli took her time to discuss the “Serendipity of
Travel”. This is when you travel off the beaten path such as small ship
cruising, rent a canal boat or hotel barge, self-drive or rent a house. All of
these offer you an opportunity to really experience the area you are visiting
at a slower pace. Juli just recently got back from a trip to Southern France. She
stayed in Dordogne, in the Bordeaux region, off the beaten track which allows
for a slower paced vacation. The area is ripe with history being the area in
which the 100 Years War happened and has a variety of both French and British
castles along with prehistoric caves with painting. Juli visited 3 of these
caves – the first being Font de Gaumme, which is a real cave and they allow
nothing from the outside world in. The Lascaux Caves which the tours now take
place in a replica cave to allow the preservation of the real site which was
slow being ruined by tourist. The last Pech Merle – being Juli’s favorite –
these cave paintings are around 25,000 years old and showed the spotted horse
that was not thought to have existed before humans domesticated the horse. Remember
when you are traveling off the beaten track that lunch can take 2 hours – with
something as simple as a ham sandwich, so plan well for your tours and the
hours that your sites are open. While traveling through the region Juli visited
the British castle Castelnaud a place where they spent to much time not
allowing a lot of time for the French 100 Years War castle Beynac. Juli’s group
also canoed the Dordogne River to the castles and had a picnic lunch on the
way. Her trip cost was approximately 1200.00 per person that includes the house
rental and car for 10 days. The visit was a trip that Juli thought was one of
her best to France and one she will remember forever. If you want to plan a
trip that will be with you for a lifetime give Juli from Table Mountain Travel
a call!
Juli Parrott * Table Mountain Travel * 303.277.1580
* www.tablemountaintravel.com * julitablemountaintravelcom

Printing/Financial Planning – Colorado

connectclub — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:17:46 +0000

Our first speaker today was Cindi Thordarson from Ecographics Printing in Lakewood, Colorado. Cindi spoke today about the variety of services that Ecographics Printing offers – such as wire-o binding – a similar but cheaper alternative to spiral binding, wire-o is similar to the plastic comb binding but being that they are made of metal they last longer than the plastic combs, which will become dry and brittle over time. Cindi had a variety of samples of wire-o bound books and manuals that Ecographics Printing have done over the years – including one that they put together for a training program where the customer wanted to have a pocket in the back, where their clients could put their notes and papers that they received throughout the training. Ecographics Printing also offer perfect binding, which is how paperback books are put together. Cindi also passed around samples of books that they have done for a variety of clients. The next item she showed us were pocket folders – Ecographics Printing has done many of these over the years in a variety of styles, including folders with expanded pockets and spines – Cindi did mention that on the expanded pockets you might consider limiting this to a quarter inch, the folders over that don’t hold up as well and can get damaged just in packaging. Cindi also showed us a three ring binder that they do for a school education program, with a silk screened cover and spine although they do not produce these in-house they work with a wholesaler here in Colorado. If there any part of your project that Ecographics Printing can’t produce in their shop they work with manufacturers in Colorado to support the local industry. Through the many changes in the industry – Cindi states that Ecographics Printing has worked to keep up the digital age and yet in keeping with their roots kept 2 small offset printing presses to maintain the clients that want offset printing – yes there are a few of those left. They are also now moving into the sign business – where Cindi’s business partner started, we can now offer signs in most any format you need – from the simple metal sign to hang over the door to the big lighted box signs that we see in every strip mall around town. Ecographics Printing can take you from design to completion including permitting with your local municipality. So if you need any help with design and implementation of your marketing plan Ecographics Printing certainly could help you with all of it!

Cindi Thordarson * Ecographics Printing * cindiecographicsprintingcom (cindiecographicsprintingcom) * 303.238.7791

Our second speaker today was Pam Thomas of Thrivent Financial Services in Lakewood, Colorado. Pam spoke to us today about IRA’s and whether or not you should convert you traditional IRA to a Roth. The main benefit of a Roth IRA is that you have already paid taxes on the money so you will not be taxed on the growth or withdrawal. This year would be a good year to do a conversion as they have removed the income cap of 100,000.00 and for 2010 only, Pam tells us that you can pay the taxes in two different ways – either the whole bill in 2010 or you can pay half in 2011 and the other half in 2012, this will help with the tax hit if you are converting a large amount. This year you also have the opportunity to revert back to a traditional IRA with out any penalties - you may want to do this if the value of your Roth IRA drops significantly. Pam also remarked that when converting to a Roth you can open as many accounts as you want so you can revert back easily without mixing your funds. What accounts can be converted – Traditional IRA, 401K, 403B, 457 and inherited 401K, but not an inherited IRA or educational IRA. Who should convert to a Roth? You may want to consider converting if you are planning to pass it on to you children, with a Roth it passes on without taxes, if you are going to be in a lower tax rate in retirement, and if you want to shelter your income now and offset your taxable income. You have up until April 15th to re-characterize your IRA – something very serious to think about! Pam also want to briefly cover the New Credit Card Rules put in place by the Federal Reserve. Number 1: they must notify you 45 days in advance of any rate change. Number 2: your due date must remain the same day of the month. Number 3: they must mail 21 days before the bill is due. Number 4: any payment over the minimum payment must go to pay off the high interest rate balance. Number 5: until the age of 21 the credit limit is 500.00. Pam at Thrivent Financial Services has a lot experience dealing with financial planning and if you need some one to guide you through your retirement planning, you should give her a call!

Pam Thomas * Thrivent Financial Services * www.thrivent.com * 303.962.6265