FRESHviews
ANDREW LOCK: SMALL-BIZ MARKETING
Andrew Lock is a
maverick marketer
and the host of a
weekly Web TV show
that helps small-business owners to get
more done and have
more fun (www.help
mybusiness.com).
Depreciation
write-offs
Don’t give up
OFTEN LIFE DOESN’T go in the direction we
want it to. Does that mean our lives are
doomed and we can’t achieve the success
we dream of? Let’s be realistic: Everybody
fails. Consider the following.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper
editor because “he lacked imagination and
had no good ideas.” Disney went bankrupt
several times before he built Disneyland. In
fact, the proposed park was rejected by the
city of Anaheim, California, on the grounds
that it would only attract “riffraff.”
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was
“too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired
from his first two jobs for being “
nonproductive.” As an inventor, Edison made more than
1,000 unsuccessful attempts to invent the
light bulb. When a reporter asked him how it
felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison said that he
didn’t fail all those times, but that the light
bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.
Albert Einstein did not speak until he
was 4 years old and did not read until he was
7. His parents thought he was “subnormal,”
and one of his teachers described him as
“mentally slow, unsociable and adrift
forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled
from school.
Every cartoon that Charles Schulz,
creator of the comic strip Peanuts, submitted
to the yearbook staff at his high school was
rejected.
After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the
memo from the testing director of MGM, dated
1933, read, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald.
Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo
over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
Decca Records turned down a recording
contract with The Beatles with this fascinat-
ing evaluation: “We don’t like their sound.
Guitar groups are on their way out.”
A friend of mine in the music industry
personally auditioned a singer by the name
of Reg Dwight in the 1960s. He unceremoni-
ously shoved the singer out of his office for
wasting his time. That singer is now better
known as Elton John.
Imagine if these individuals had given up,
believing they were doomed to failure and
would never achieve success. Do you think
they ever felt down and depressed? Sure. But
they didn’t allow a gloomy state to overtake
them, to overpower their desire to succeed. In
every case they did succeed—in a huge way,
far greater than their wildest dreams.
Bad experiences can be viewed as positive
in hindsight. They can be stepping stones
rather than stumbling blocks. It’s your choice.
But be determined to never give up. C
ARTVILLE
More in archives
On Costco.com, enter
“Connection.” At Online Edition,
search “fresh views.”
ANYONE FAMILIAR with musical instruments recognizes Taylor Guitars (www.
taylorguitars.com) as an upscale manufacturer, comparable to C.F. Martin & Co. and
Gibson, both of which have dominated the
acoustic guitar market for more than a
century. In his book Guitar Lessons: A
Life’s Journey Turning Passion into
Business (Wiley, 2011), longtime Costco
member Bob Taylor, co-founder and president of Taylor Guitars, describes how he
and his business partner, Kurt Listug, built
Taylor Guitars over the last 37 years.
The book covers the company’s fledgling years and economic storms; the rise,
decline and reemergence of the acoustic
guitar industry; and how the company
went on to build one of the most popular
acoustic guitar brands in the world.
The wisdom Taylor shares transcends
the guitar industry. The book offers a fresh
perspective on how hard work and perse-
verance can over- come daunting challenges. It will inspire anyone in sales, manufacturing, retail or nearly any form of business. Through anecdotes that blend self-deprecating wit with
hard-learned business acumen, Taylor
reflects on the key experiences and per-
sonal revelations that were pivotal to his
company’s growth.
Business tuning
TODAY, MANY BUSINESSES are
discovering that purchasing equipment,
machinery and other business assets
is more affordable than ever. Thanks
to the “bonus” depreciation write-offs
created by the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and
Job Creation Act of 2010, the cost
of certain capital investments can
now be substantially reduced with the
combined use of incentives and a 100
percent bonus depreciation. However,
this bonus depreciation write-off is
available only for
purchases made
in 2011.
The definition of property
eligible for bonus
depreciation under the 2010 Tax
Relief Act is the
same as under
prior law, only
the percentage
and placed-in-service dates have changed. Businesses
investing in new business property,
machinery and equipment can fully
deduct the cost during the current tax
year, reducing taxable income and
taxes paid.
Last fall’s Small Business Jobs Act
also increased the Section 179, first-year expensing dollar and investment
limits to $500,000 and $2 million,
respectively, for 2010 and 2011. The
Tax Relief Act included a $125,000
dollar limit and a $500,000 investment
limit for the 2012 tax year.
Unlike bonus depreciation that
applies only to “new” property, Section
179 of the tax rules allows a business to
immediately deduct up to $500,000 of
both new and used business property
placed in service during the tax year.
The Section 179 expensing write-off
is reduced, dollar for dollar, by any
property acquisitions in excess of the
$2 million investment ceiling, limiting
the write-off to smaller businesses.
Today, with the help of a tax professional, businesses can reduce their out-of-pocket equipment and business
property expenditures, thanks to the
100 percent federal bonus depreciation,
bigger first-year Section 179 write-offs
and many longer-lived provisions of
the tax laws.—Mark E. Battersby
