Over the past few weeks, I have had several conversations with friends and colleagues about estate planning issues. Why is this? Probably because of my age and the fact that the discussions intrigue me.
A few of my boomer friends are dealing with aging parents and their concern for what happens next. There is great sensitivity around how to approach the "it's time to move out of your house because I am afraid something is going to happen to you when I am not here" or "can we discuss what to do with the family cottage before something happens to you or Dad"?. As a result, the conversation gets put on the back burner and it becomes a white elephant in the room.
If you are in the above category, I invite you to do this sooner than later. Start thinking about the best time to start the conversation. It is difficult and yet you will be surprised at how much easier the next conversation will be.
Best time to plant a shade tree is today. So get planting.
Gayle
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
Friday, 14 January, 2011
Strategic Goal for Entrepreneurs-Create a Business Will
Well it is 2011 already and it is time to re-evaluate your wills. Both personal and if you have a business, your business will. And if you do not have one, as Nike would say, just do it.
In today's Globe and Mail, January 14th,business section, there is a great article about the lack of business wills and the mess it makes for the family, the employees and the business. I would encourage you to read it. (find: Lack of ‘business will’ leaves big mess by CATHRYN ATKINSON)
Very timely article for entrepreneurs evaluating their 2011 goals to include a business will and a succession plan for their business. So many business owners I have worked with are so passionate about what they are doing, what they are selling and what they have created, that they forget to and do not allocate time to work on their business to ensure all operational areas have succession planning in place in the event of an unforseen what if life event or they want to sell the business and make money.
Most important strategic goal for this year should be a business will that outlines who will get what and who will be responsible for the business decisions as they come up. However that only speaks to the higher level of legal accountability. The rubber on the road is how will the business will be truly implemented to ensure ongoing financial success for the business. Who, What, Where. Why and How. Only 7% of entrepreneurs have a written plan for succession and 71% of entrepreneurs intend to retire in the next 10 years. Plus the stats on how many people let alone business owners who have wills. Close to 50% do not.
So that will create a tsunami in the business world that ultimately impacts the family, the employees and the customers.
There is a great book to read called The Business Transition Crisis by Wayne Vanwyck.
Start the conversation with your family, your advisors and your business team to get your head into thinking about how to best position your family and business in the event you can't come to work tomorrow.
In today's Globe and Mail, January 14th,business section, there is a great article about the lack of business wills and the mess it makes for the family, the employees and the business. I would encourage you to read it. (find: Lack of ‘business will’ leaves big mess by CATHRYN ATKINSON)
Very timely article for entrepreneurs evaluating their 2011 goals to include a business will and a succession plan for their business. So many business owners I have worked with are so passionate about what they are doing, what they are selling and what they have created, that they forget to and do not allocate time to work on their business to ensure all operational areas have succession planning in place in the event of an unforseen what if life event or they want to sell the business and make money.
Most important strategic goal for this year should be a business will that outlines who will get what and who will be responsible for the business decisions as they come up. However that only speaks to the higher level of legal accountability. The rubber on the road is how will the business will be truly implemented to ensure ongoing financial success for the business. Who, What, Where. Why and How. Only 7% of entrepreneurs have a written plan for succession and 71% of entrepreneurs intend to retire in the next 10 years. Plus the stats on how many people let alone business owners who have wills. Close to 50% do not.
So that will create a tsunami in the business world that ultimately impacts the family, the employees and the customers.
There is a great book to read called The Business Transition Crisis by Wayne Vanwyck.
Start the conversation with your family, your advisors and your business team to get your head into thinking about how to best position your family and business in the event you can't come to work tomorrow.
Wednesday, 4 August, 2010
Business Opportunity for Sale
Dovetail Inc. is Canadian owned and is eight years old. It was established with the creation and development of an organizational stand alone software to provide an easy system to store all vital information and documents digitally. Our research showed that individuals and professionals were looking for an easy way to track, store and access information quickly with a secure portable method. The digital shoebox concept is what has resonated best with accountants, financial advisors, insurance agents and lawyers.
What is the business opportunity? Moving the software from a stand alone program to a web-based environment with an on-going revenue stream. Partnering with organizations that offer value add services to their clients such as Simply Accounting, Microsoft, Google, and so much more. The software dovetailorganizer was developed in Java script with the vision that the next stage of business would be to move it to cloud computing. Software is moving to a service model. Dovetail is set up so that it would be very easy to move it to a web based environment with real potential earnings for someone with marketing and strategy experience to make this a winner.
The software addresses six significant area's of a person's life to co-ordinate and support legal, financial and personal information and documents. The potential for further development would be to separate the sections and offer to clients one or two of the sections such as Personal and Financial. The sale would be to the professional such as an accountant or financial advisor for their clients. The goal would be to upsell the client to buy 1 or more of the remaining sections to support all aspects of their lives.
There have been three versions of dovetail released all pc based. Dovetail Planner 3.0, dovetailorganizer version 3.1 in both English and French and the latest version dovetailorganizer version 3.2 in both Canadian and American English.
Version 3.1 and 3.2 were developed and programmed in java script with the ultimate potential of moving this stand alone application to a web-based service with easy accessibility by the client/customer and with an ongoing revenue stream.
The approved Canadian and American registrations for Trademarks include the ability to move the stand alone storage software to a web-based interactive storage environment. We also have trademarks for the tagline and logo "your digital safety deposit box".
The website www.dovetailorganizer.com is an education site with videos of how to use the software, tutorials, FAQ's, testimonials,an e-commerce store and a client database.
If you are wanting to take an established turn key operation with future business potential with huge revenue opportunities,and are serious in finding out more, please contact gayle@dovetailorganizer.com
What is the business opportunity? Moving the software from a stand alone program to a web-based environment with an on-going revenue stream. Partnering with organizations that offer value add services to their clients such as Simply Accounting, Microsoft, Google, and so much more. The software dovetailorganizer was developed in Java script with the vision that the next stage of business would be to move it to cloud computing. Software is moving to a service model. Dovetail is set up so that it would be very easy to move it to a web based environment with real potential earnings for someone with marketing and strategy experience to make this a winner.
The software addresses six significant area's of a person's life to co-ordinate and support legal, financial and personal information and documents. The potential for further development would be to separate the sections and offer to clients one or two of the sections such as Personal and Financial. The sale would be to the professional such as an accountant or financial advisor for their clients. The goal would be to upsell the client to buy 1 or more of the remaining sections to support all aspects of their lives.
There have been three versions of dovetail released all pc based. Dovetail Planner 3.0, dovetailorganizer version 3.1 in both English and French and the latest version dovetailorganizer version 3.2 in both Canadian and American English.
Version 3.1 and 3.2 were developed and programmed in java script with the ultimate potential of moving this stand alone application to a web-based service with easy accessibility by the client/customer and with an ongoing revenue stream.
The approved Canadian and American registrations for Trademarks include the ability to move the stand alone storage software to a web-based interactive storage environment. We also have trademarks for the tagline and logo "your digital safety deposit box".
The website www.dovetailorganizer.com is an education site with videos of how to use the software, tutorials, FAQ's, testimonials,an e-commerce store and a client database.
If you are wanting to take an established turn key operation with future business potential with huge revenue opportunities,and are serious in finding out more, please contact gayle@dovetailorganizer.com
Friday, 5 February, 2010
Practical tips for Windows 7 and dovetail organizer clients
Listening to the news this week about the breakdown in the Toyota communication trail of customers concerns and issues relating to their cars, we thought it would be timely to proactively address what are we going to do about the new Windows 7 release as it relates to compatability with dovetail organizer software.
As many of you might know the software has been upgraded by three different versions over the past few years in response to new releases of Microsoft programs. Our latest upgrade has been with Vista which our programmers are still working on dealing with the bugs inherent in the Vista program.
We also released last year 2009, a U.S. version of the dovetail organizer software and also opened up an office located in Florida.
Presently the dovetail organizer version 3.2 has been tested on Windows XP and Vista platforms.
For those of you who have upgraded to Windows 7, we understand a few of the features in dovetail do not behave as well as they should. We recommend first of all, if you have a dovetail organizer completed, print out a full copy of your completed dovetail package. Secondly, save the file using the selective export feature to a secure read only file of your dovetail information. You will have to give it a username and password so that it can be opened on any pc computer to view.
If you have any questions on how to do this, visit the home page of http://www.dovetailorganizer.com to view the demonstration with tutorials on each aspect of the software including the selective export feature.
For the majority of our clients, the main purpose of using this product has been for estate planning purposes and being prepared with knowing all of your information has been located, discussed, updated when needed, and all together in one spot for easy sharing with family, executors, and professional advisors.
As we get closer to having a patch or upgrade dealing with Windows 7, we will let you know. In the meantime, thank you for being a loyal dovetail user and keep using it.
Best Regards, Gayle
As many of you might know the software has been upgraded by three different versions over the past few years in response to new releases of Microsoft programs. Our latest upgrade has been with Vista which our programmers are still working on dealing with the bugs inherent in the Vista program.
We also released last year 2009, a U.S. version of the dovetail organizer software and also opened up an office located in Florida.
Presently the dovetail organizer version 3.2 has been tested on Windows XP and Vista platforms.
For those of you who have upgraded to Windows 7, we understand a few of the features in dovetail do not behave as well as they should. We recommend first of all, if you have a dovetail organizer completed, print out a full copy of your completed dovetail package. Secondly, save the file using the selective export feature to a secure read only file of your dovetail information. You will have to give it a username and password so that it can be opened on any pc computer to view.
If you have any questions on how to do this, visit the home page of http://www.dovetailorganizer.com to view the demonstration with tutorials on each aspect of the software including the selective export feature.
For the majority of our clients, the main purpose of using this product has been for estate planning purposes and being prepared with knowing all of your information has been located, discussed, updated when needed, and all together in one spot for easy sharing with family, executors, and professional advisors.
As we get closer to having a patch or upgrade dealing with Windows 7, we will let you know. In the meantime, thank you for being a loyal dovetail user and keep using it.
Best Regards, Gayle
Monday, 7 December, 2009
Holiday Gift Idea from dovetail organizer
Dear Friends, Colleagues and Valued Clients
Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and many graces in the New Year.
As we approach the holiday season, it is always a good time for reflection. My husband and I just spent two weeks on a trekking holiday in Thailand and Laos. It was a really great experience and it also was a good reality check on what is really important.
80% of the people in Thailand are Buddhists. What I gathered is that one of their core beliefs is modelled on the theory of doing good work and doing good deeds for others.
How refreshing to be exposed to this type of lifestyle and fundamental core values that are practiced. And children feel very responsible for looking after the well being of their parents as they age.
Coming home made me realize how much we have and how our focus is on materialistic goods and accomplishments. It is time to reassess. I am sure I am not alone.
For this Christmas, if you haven't finished all of your shopping yet, consider dovetail organizer as the perfect gift for boomers or for their parents. So many times we talk about taking the time to get our life information together or to have a conversation with a partner or a parent, and it just doesn't happen. Something else gets in the way. Use this Christmas time to start those conversations and to really understand what is important and what legacies we want to leave. Do it for your family and who knows what interesting information you will stumble across. What a great way to spend time with adult children.
For month of December, 2009, Special includes: CD Version (CDN) of the software, Christmas wrapped along with 512 memory stick (gift with purchase) for $47.77 including taxes and shipping within Canada.
Put some security in your stocking or someone you care about. Call us at 1.888.920.3683 to place your order. All orders received by December 16th will be delivered by Christmas.
All the best to you and your family this holiday season.
From the Dovetail team.
http://www.dovetailorganizer.com
Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and many graces in the New Year.
As we approach the holiday season, it is always a good time for reflection. My husband and I just spent two weeks on a trekking holiday in Thailand and Laos. It was a really great experience and it also was a good reality check on what is really important.
80% of the people in Thailand are Buddhists. What I gathered is that one of their core beliefs is modelled on the theory of doing good work and doing good deeds for others.
How refreshing to be exposed to this type of lifestyle and fundamental core values that are practiced. And children feel very responsible for looking after the well being of their parents as they age.
Coming home made me realize how much we have and how our focus is on materialistic goods and accomplishments. It is time to reassess. I am sure I am not alone.
For this Christmas, if you haven't finished all of your shopping yet, consider dovetail organizer as the perfect gift for boomers or for their parents. So many times we talk about taking the time to get our life information together or to have a conversation with a partner or a parent, and it just doesn't happen. Something else gets in the way. Use this Christmas time to start those conversations and to really understand what is important and what legacies we want to leave. Do it for your family and who knows what interesting information you will stumble across. What a great way to spend time with adult children.
For month of December, 2009, Special includes: CD Version (CDN) of the software, Christmas wrapped along with 512 memory stick (gift with purchase) for $47.77 including taxes and shipping within Canada.
Put some security in your stocking or someone you care about. Call us at 1.888.920.3683 to place your order. All orders received by December 16th will be delivered by Christmas.
All the best to you and your family this holiday season.
From the Dovetail team.
http://www.dovetailorganizer.com
Thursday, 22 October, 2009
Estate Planning Testimonial from a happy dovetail organizer client.
When we hear good things from our customers, we want to record them. That is exactly what I did this week with a happy dovetail organizer client. A woman named Evelyn. Evelyn is a savvy highly educated and engaged woman who purchased dovetail a few years ago. I had a chance to visit her to sort out some technical questions she had and while I was with her, she showed me what she has stored in her dovetail. What really interested me was how much she loves the software and how easy it has been for her to use it. Evelyn has used the Estate section to scan in all of her parents birth and death notices, newspaper clippings, information on the castle in Ireland that has family significance, and tons of pictures that are such artifacts that tell the story of her and her husbands family tree. Quite honestly, it was awesome to see her so engaged and so pleased with our product. It was exactly why I started this process to begin with. A communication tool that allows the users to track and store all the inportant life information they want to share with others. For Evelyn, it was a system that allowed her and her husband to consolidate their information including financial, legal, estate and medical history. Each of their children will receive a copy of their completed dovetail information. As Evelyn put it, she now has peace of mind knowing it is all together and will be the go to file, when she or her husband or children need it. And Evelyn, bless her heart, was receptive to a video. My first attempt at using a flip video and I would have to say, it is as easy as they say. The uploading to YouTube was not as easy. Kinda cool to learn something new. So check out MultiDovetail on YouTube to view our video. This will be the first of many to come. Once I get the hang of it. Thank you Evelyn for sharing your dovetail story. Gayle www.dovetailorganizer.com
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