You probably already received a notice from Multnomah County regarding upcoming changes for the 2008 tax year, and if you actually read it - congratulations!  You are probably among the 5 to 10% that actually read these type of notices - most of whom are probably accountants.  Since most people rate tax law updates right [...]

In Oregon, and most of the rest of the United States, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) is the most popular entity for a new business. The LLC has quickly become the most popular because of the numerous advantages it has over a Corporation, Partnership or a Sole Proprietor. In most instances, a small [...]

The Portland City Council voted yesterday to remove the exemptions of real estate agents from the city’s business license. There is also talk about removing a similar exemption from insurance agents.
Also changed was requiring new businesses to pay a $100 registration fee.
I haven’t read the text of the new provisions so I’m not sure what [...]

How cheating on your taxes can impact business sale price Portland Business Broker Thoughts
Yet another reason why you should be honest. Small understatements in revenue can have tremendous impacts on future valuations of your company.
Office in Home Depreciation PDX CPA: Tax & Accounting Advice for Portland Small Businesses
The potential pitfalls of depreciating your [...]

It is often the overlooked, mundane facts of life that give us the biggest problems in the end.   A friend of mine nearly saw the destruction of his business this past weekend not because of the failure of his business model or weaking credit markets.  His landlord notified him that his lease would be terminated [...]

If you have a small business in the Portland area and you have a blog or any other type of syndicated content, send me your feed.  I already have a ton of small business feeds but I don’t have anywhere near all of them.  Please email me your feed at info@portlandsmallbusiness.com

Thanks for stopping by.  We are still in the midst of remodeling and aren’t quite ready for prime time.  All of the sites functionality should work (email us if it doesn’t) but we still need to clean up the look and feel of the site.  Feel free to sniff around and comment on anything.  The [...]

Welcome to the third version of PortlandSmallBusiness.com. The new site is not yet perfect but we are working on it. We’ve moved from a drupal based site to a wordpress based one. Drupal is more powerful and adaptable but really more than we needed.
The change came about as a result of the [...]

There are too many networking sites out there to belong to them all. I’ve recently pared down the sites I use to LinkedIn, Upcoming and Twitter. I use LinkedIn much as everyone else; as an online resume and rolodex. Upcoming and Twitter I use primarily for this site.
I quit BizNik, Plaxo, [...]

April was a bad month for businesses in the US.
More businesses filed for bankruptcy in April, 2008, than in any month since new bankruptcy laws took effect in 2005, according to a company that tracks federal court filings.

Of course this doesn’t include businesses that shut their doors and didn’t file for bankruptcy. I’m starting [...]