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.

4 Benefits of Volunteering Your Time to Community Service

Volunteering your time to community service has a beneficial outcome on the community and for you as well. Helping the community and other people offers numerous advantages. For instance, it can help you to know more about yourself and even help you to discover your passion.

The benefits of volunteering your time to community service include:

You will gain valuable life experiences and skills

Whether you volunteer your time at a local health clinic or you build shelters for the homeless, you will gain valuable experiences and develop valuable skills. You can also explore your career interests by volunteering your time.

You will meet interesting people


You can gain insights from the people you are helping, and from your fellow volunteers. Regardless of the caliber of people you're working with, you'll see that they have information and a different approach to issues that can inspire you.

You can get academic credit by volunteering your time

Some schools offer scholastic credit for humanitarian effort through service learning. Speak with your school counselor to find out if your school offers such.

You will have the opportunity to make a difference

When you volunteer your time to community service, the little help you offer can make a big and lasting impact on the community.

Decide on the amount of time you can commit and what really interests you before you volunteer your time.

Stephen Souky is an active member of his local community. He is a volunteer for Grace Fellowship Church, as well as, City Mission of Schenectady; a non-denominational Christian ministry dedicated to serving the poor and the homeless. 

4 Crucial Decisions Entrepreneurs Make

An Entrepreneur is the operations manager, the human resource director, and the marketing manager at the same time. Entrepreneurs are confronted with a lot of choices to make, and some of these choices are more crucial to the success of the business than others. 

1.                   Business finance decisions

Entrepreneurs continually makes a lot of choices when it comes to business finances. For new companies, choices about how to finance the business and the most suitable source of financing are critical. For an existing business, choices about how to manage cash flow and secure resources are equally important. 

2.                   Business structure 

Legitimate business structures incorporate sole proprietorship, partnership, and limited liability corporations. Each of these business structures has their own features and obligations. Structural decisions are long term choices and they entail a great deal of risk. It incorporates decisions about developing new products or getting into strategic alliances. 

3.                   Work force 

An entrepreneur must make decisions about selecting and employing a competent work force. The entrepreneur must set criteria for hiring the most competent workers. Entrepreneurs should also make decisions on job expectations, roles and obligations. Also, the entrepreneur has to determine the remunerations and benefit structures for his workers. 

4.                   Operational decisions 

Entrepreneurs need to make decisions on how they will manage the business. Operational decisions incorporate picking the right suppliers, and the appropriate strategy for distributing and marketing the product. 

These four decisions are crucial to the success of any business. 

Stephen Souky is a Controller at MHC. He is an experienced accounting professional with more than twenty three years of success in a variety of senior level management positions. He is the President of the Niskayuna Girls Basketball Team and AAU programs.

How to Evaluate a Business before Making a Purchase

You need to gather enough information in order to make smart investment choices.

Here are six things you ought to consider when you are evaluating a business:

1.                   The financial statement 

It is very important to check the financial statement of the company. Check the asset reports, profit and loss reports, and any other income statements for the last 3-4 years. 

2.                   The tax record

Check the income tax returns for the past 3-4 years; this will give you an insight of the business’ profitability. 

3.                   Evaluate the assets

Check the plant and the installations to know if they are in good working conditions. Also, conduct a stock valuation to determine the measure of stock available and its present worth. 

4.                   Know the Clients and Suppliers 

Get the database of key clients and suppliers that are vital to the business.

5.                   Find out why the proprietor is selling

It is good to know why the owner of the business is offering to sell, and the number of offers that has been made.

6.                   Check the legal rights and obligations 

Get information about government regulations that apply to the business and whether the business has the necessary license it needs to operate. 

Finally, do not make a purchase until after you have diligently conducted the business evaluation, and you are convinced that the business will have a good return on investments. 

Stephen Souky holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the State University of New York at Fredonia. He has built a successful career on the foundation of strong accounting, team leadership, and communication skills.