Stephen Souky - Practical Tips to Building A Healthy Family Relationship

Stephen Souky grew up enjoying being around his family and believes that in today’s busy world, parents need to be ingenious in building a healthy family relationship. Family time is fun, essential and vital to a healthy family relationship. But how do you find the time to spend with your kids when you have a busy job. Here are some practical tips you can use to build a healthy family relationship.

Family Meals
One of the best ways you can spend time building your family relationship is by sitting down and having your meals as a family. Of course if you cannot do it morning and night, you might want to do it for at least one meal. Turn off the television and sit with the family and enjoy a meal together. The time spent at the dining table will help build a healthy family relationship. Talk to each other at the table, and avoid talking about work, but speak about anything else that the kids can join in.

Play Together
While you might not be able to do this every day, schedule the weekend for family time and play with your kids. If you kids like playing baseball or football, get them together and play a game of baseball or football. Show them a couple of tips and help them better their game. A good idea would be to go bowling with your kids on a Saturday afternoon, or do something that they like. There is nothing more important than spending time with your family.

Dump Technology
Technology has taken up a major portion of our lives, and we seem to be too dependent on technology. A good idea would be to turn off your electronic devices, phones, tablets, etc. and spend time chatting with your family. It would surprise you how much you can learn just by spending time talking with them.

Stephen Souky a resident of Niskayuna enjoys spending time with his family.
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Stephen Souky - Important Things Your Business Plan Should Have

Creating an effective business plan is paramount to the success of your plan. Without a plan, you will have trouble executing your plan and seeing it come to fruition. If you cannot see where you are going, there is no way you will get there. Stephen Souky is an experienced accountant with twenty years’ experience in the field. Here are some important things your business plan should have.

Contents

The first thing you will need to do is create a content list for your business plan with details of the name of the company, address, phone number, including all contact information. You will also need to have a roadmap for the whole document together with the appendix of supporting documents.

Executive Summary

Your business plan should have an executive summary listing your propositions, and how the company can make money by executing your plan. The executive plan should be to the point.

Market Opportunity

You will need to explain your target market and what opportunities and threats exist. You will need to explain how you plan to deal with these issues.

Industry Analysis

Get real industry analysis to see what competition you could be up against. Who your competitors are and how much market share they control.

Operational Plan

You will need to be specific on the operational structure of your plan, how you intend to go about it with production, licensing, advertising, marketing, sales, cost structure, etc.

Financial Projection

Your plan will need to include the total investment cost and the expected return over the next couple of years.

Stephen Souky has over 20+ years experience in accounting and strategic planning.

Stephen Souky - Tips for Last-Minute Tax Filers

Sometimes it just seems that income tax filing time has come too quickly. If you have been busy with your business or work, you probably didn’t realize that it was time for you to submit your income tax returns. Stephen Souky is experienced in accounting and knows the importance of making sure you file your income tax papers in time. However, if you are late with your filing, there are a couple of things you can do.

Get an Extension

The first thing is not to delay your filing, but if you do not have the time to submit your taxes in time, you might want to take the services of a professional and ask for more time. If you file form 4868, you will be allowed to time until October 15 to file your income tax returns. However, you will still need to estimate how much you owe the tax department and send it in by April 15.

File Your Taxes for Free

The IRS Free File program allows you to file you tax returns for free. The program works with commercial tax software companies and offers free online income tax filing tools for taxpayers who earned less than $58,000 in the previous year. If you earn more than this amount, you will not qualify for the free tax filing program.

Free Tax Help

You can make use of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for free tax filing assistance. If your income is relatively low, you can avail of this program to file your returns. However, if you plan to use the VITA program, you should do so before April 15.

Stephen Souky recommends starting early so that you are not caught up in the last-minute rush to file your returns.
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Stephen Souky - Why Corporates Should Get Involved in Community Service

Stephen Souky believes that community service could be just as beneficial to a business as it is to individuals. Over the last several years, there has been a growing interest in corporations and businesses in the area of community service, or corporate social responsibility (CSR). The interest originates from the community, employees, customers and job seekers. For individuals, community service and philanthropy can have a significant impact on their lives, even improving their health.

Job Seekers and Community Service 

Over the last couple of years, job seekers have begun to take an interest in a company’s CSR policy before applying for or accepting a job. In the corporate world, this could mean getting the best-qualified candidates to work for you based on your CSR policy. People are looking for companies that have a keen interest in the community. According to a study conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 86% of generation Y applicants said that they would resign from their jobs at a company if the CSR projects started to decline. Studies have shown that volunteerism in the workplace is making a huge impact on employee retention and recruitment, and this will only become more prominent as generation Y moves up the corporate ladder.

Employees and Community Service

Many businesses and corporations have adopted a CSR policy and have created various opportunities to get their staff involved in community service projects. The kind of community service organized by the company makes the employees feel proud about working there and making a difference in the community. Volunteering for community service helps promote and build a positive culture in the company and greatly influences teamwork in the workplace. The greater the number of volunteers, the bigger the impact a company can make in the community. Volunteering for community service helps employees gain additional skills that can be used outside the workplace. 

HP is a great example of how volunteerism can boost job satisfaction. The company’s work with “A Billion+ Change” has led to over 1.6 million hours or volunteer work, and employee job satisfaction had risen from 60% to 70% in a matter of two years. 

Customers and Community Service

With the increase in the use of social media, customer perception has a massive impact on a company’s brand. People aren’t just taking into account the products and services provided by a company, but also what community service the company is involved in. A classic example of a company that works with customers is The Walt Disney Company. It has a great reputation for working together and giving back to the community. Philanthropy and volunteerism have always been part of its company policy and culture, and the company has showed true interest in helping people improve their lives. 

Stephen Souky is an experienced accountant and the President of the Niskayuna Girls Travel Basketball Team.