The SOHOMike Blog

In past editions of SOHOBE News, I made mention of Square, a device that allows your iOS devices (that’s an iPhone or iPad, by the way) or ‘Droid (that’s an Android OS device) to accept credit card payments by using an inexpensive card reading device. Well, in an obvious attempt to cash in on the name, the Square Card Reader website has appeared. There you can get a square-shaped card reader for popular smartphones. The use of the word “Square” is repeated numerous times in the website copy.

However, this is not Square, the company that started the whole card swiping with smartphone phenomena. This company is LEADERS Merchant Services, an independent company that uses Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, CA to provide their merchant services. Now, I’m sure that LEADERS might be a fine service. But I’m less than enthused by the way that someone navigating the uncharted waters of smartphone readers could sign up to their service mistakenly, when in fact they were looking for the original Square. I can imagine that soon there might be a flood of Square This or Square That websites, all offering some sort of device and plan that would allow you to add card reader services to your mobile device. And that could be a problem.

So, I’m advising my SOHO clients that they should bookmark the original Square website (www.squareup.com). Square.com will redirect to the squareup.com website, by the way.

As surely as the season changes, the chore of dealing with taxes makes its yearly cycle. All Business, a website devoted to SOHO and SMB financial issues, has a great article that I think would be very helpful for my SOHO clients. The Checklist of 27 Tax Deductions for Small Businesses by Amanda Han provides a guide of common business deductions that she feels many business owners miss. While some of the deductions are dependant on your method of accounting (cash or accrual basis in other words), this is certainly a great list to have handy when considering future purchases, as well. For example, as software moves to the SAAS model (that’s Software As A Service, in case you’re wondering), you might be pleased to find out that the costs associated with such a subscription should be fully deductible. My feeling is that this list is a great way to start a conversation with your Accountant or Tax Professional, so that your business can map out a plan for how to best position your expenses for tax purposes.