Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Turn Key Solutions on LPB for Small Business

When:  March 27, 7:00PM

Where:  LPB

The LPB program “Louisiana Public Square” (http://www.lpb.org/publicsquare) topic will be “Tax Reform 2013” and will feature an interview with John Overton.   John is one of the owners of Turn Key Solutions, Chairman of the Small Business Council of BRAC, Chair-elect of the Leadership Council of the NFIB, and serves on the Small Business Advisory Council, BRAC board of directors and BRAC Executive Committee. 

From the perspective of a small business owner serving other small business across the state and a leader in several small business groups, John sees pros and cons of the Jindal administration’s tax reform package.  Turn Key Solutions’ commitment to the communities we serve is to advocate for the success of fellow small businesses—both in terms of the technology they use and the legislative environment in which businesses operate.  We encourage small business owners to run the numbers on how the package will affect them, and join us in working with our lawmakers to preserve the parts that help small business grow and modify the parts that could be impediments.

Additional airings of the LPB program featuring Turn Key Solutions will be as follows:

03/27/13, 9:00 pm LPB2
03/31/13, 12:00 pm LPB
04/09/13, 9:00 pm LPB2

Friday, March 1, 2013

Advocate for your Success

Turn Key Solutions and Turn Key Health are more than just technology companies.  We’re your advocate for success.  Our core competencies are summed up by our motto, “We make technology work for you!”  However, our commitment to our clients is also demonstrated by our dedication to affecting the legislative environment in which both we and our clients operate. 

With this legislative session getting off to a fast start, there are numerous bills that represent threats and opportunities.  A prime example of both is the Tax Reform package.  Much media ink has been devoted to speculating on what will be in the package and how it will affect various demographics.  Long before the session, the leadership team of Turn Key has been meeting with leaders in the Jindal administration and numerous small business groups to make sure the interests of our clients are protected.  As a partner and the CFO of Turn Key, I also serve as chairman of the Small Business Council (SBC) of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (www.brac.org), a member of the BRAC board’s Executive Committee, chair-elect of the Louisiana Leadership Council of the National Federation of Independent Business (www.nfib.org), and a member of the state's Small Business Advisory Council.  In these roles I work to protect the interests of small business, provide resources to small business, and build coalitions with other business groups to amplify our impact. 

There are numerous provisions of the Tax Reform package that will affect small business.  A few of the positive pieces will centralize tax collection(making it easier for businesses to collect and remit sales tax), eliminate corporate income tax, eliminate inventory tax, and eliminate franchise tax.  Those are all very small business-friendly.  However, there is also a potential down-side in the expansion of sales tax to include many of the services that we provide our clients.  Repair services are already taxable, but we believe that taxing consulting services will add an unnecessary burden on our clients. 

Turn Key has not raised our service rates in many years, despite constant increases in operating cost—especially with the rising costs of the healthcare benefit package we offer our valued employees and the increase in fuel and insurance costs.  Although we are being forced to seriously consider a moderate price increase on some services, we are also evaluating the potential increased tax burden on our clients.  And more importantly we are fighting FOR beneficial legislation and AGAINST harmful legislation.  It’s all a part of our mission to serve YOU, our valued clients and our community. 

If you have concerns about a particular piece of legislation and/or want to know how to make an impact, please contact John Overton at 225-751-4444.