BUSINESS BOOKSHELF

A look at what we're reading and recommending this month.

This book guides the reader through a variety of tax laws and explains basic financial matters and concepts through examples. It’s easy to read and specifically written for new business owners who are taking at crack at navigating these sometimes rough waters. The book is a good tool to have as a general reference tool and can help small business owners get it together when tax time approaches. The glossary and appendices are a nice touch.

If you’ve been looking for a guide to help you reconcile a bank statement or calculate estimated tax payments, this could be the book for you. The book was written specifically for female small business owners. It assumes no prior tax knowledge and begins with the very basics of starting a business, hiring employees and working with independent contractors. The author believes that anyone, no matter how unfamiliar with or afraid of numbers, can learn to take charge of his or her finances. Zobel’s book includes information on deductible expenses, a list of records the IRS wants business owners to have and how to record and report business expenses.

The author runs her tax preparation and consultation business that specializes in self-employed persons. As an Enrolled Agent (a tax professional licensed by the IRS), Zobel has prepared more than 10,000 tax returns for small business owners and has represented numerous taxpayers in audits during her more than 20 years of experience. Zobel is a recipient of the Small Business Administrations’ Accountant Advocate of the Year Award and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

THE COMPANY WE KEEP
By John Abrams
(Chelsea Green, $25)

There is a revolution going on in corporate America and social entrepreneurship is leading the way. Rejecting the myth that short–term profits are the only indicator of business health and wealth, John Abrams shows how building a company to meet the triple bottom line of profits for people (employees and owners), community, and the environment can be a successful business plan as well. Part entrepreneurial business plan, part guide to democratizing the workplace, this book shares the eight cornerstones on which the author´s South Mountain Company has built its business:

• cultivating workplace democracy
• challenging growth
• balancing multiple bottom lines
• celebrating the spirit of craft
• committing to the business of place
• advancing people conservation
• practicing community entrepreneurism
• thinking like cathedral builders.

The author is cofounder of South Mountain Company, a building company on Martha´s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Articles about his business have appeared in Fine Homebuilding, custom Home, and Environmental Building News. The author chairs the Martha´s Vineyard Affordable Housing Fund and is vice–chair of the island´s Island Housing Trust, two nonprofits dedicated to solving the community´s affordable housing crisis.

In an age where many people believe bigger is always better and money is the only bottom line, this book offers inspiration for those who choose to focus on passion, compassion, community, the environment and quality craftsmanship.

HOW WE GOT HERE
By Andy Kessler
(HarperCollins, $14.95)

This book is subtitled, "a slightly irreverent history of technology and markets," and is a perfect book for those of you who enjoy reading about history and technology and how it affects the economy–today and tomorrow. For us, the book is a page–turner and you won’t be able to put it down. From early inventors, discussions of logic and memory to the Industrial Revolution and Fool´s Gold all the way up to communications, codes, software, networks and the power generation, the author takes us on an informative and journey of invention, government intervention and entrepreneurship all swirled into one satisfying read.

New technology changes the way we do business. Innovation, capital and the stock market: if these words sound exciting to you, this book is a thrill ride. This is the book the author wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. This book connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today.

Andy Kessler is a former hedge fund manager and Wall Street analyst. He wrote "Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape From the Stock Market Grinder" as well as "Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt For The Big Score." You can learn more about the author by visiting his website at: www.AndyKessler.com.

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