Politically, I consider him a liberal, though he would argue the point, but I digress.

He wanted to know my thoughts about ESPN sports commentator, Stephen A. Smith.

Smith and I travel in the same circles, but he has yet to have the pleasure of meeting me.  I find this amazing since we have actually been at several events at the same time.

But as usual, all things in due season.

My thoughts on Smith are based on my personal observations, conversations with industry insiders and those who have personal relationships with him.

My primary and most important thought on Smith is that he is greatly OVEREXPOSED!  Last time I checked, he was not Jamaican, but yet he has a million jobs.

He has shows on ESPN, YouTube, XM Sirius.  He is constantly being interviewed in one media format or another.

For those who do not know, I make a living by helping high profile people navigate all things media.

Smith’s trajectory is unsustainable and unnecessary.

I am not one to count other people’s money, but if media accounts are accurate, he recently signed a deal with ESPN that made him one of the highest paid individuals in sports media.  Included in his deal is the right to have his own production company and produce outside content that is not owned by ESPN.

This is not an uncommon arrangement with elite entertainers like him, but it is unnecessary.  At this point it is all about ego.  He is definitely not worried about paying his light bills every month.

I have had many clients go down this path and all have been destroyed by the ego associated with drinking from the cup of fortune and fame.

I tell every one of my clients, “Fortune and fame is like soap, the more you use it, the less you have.”

My advice to Smith is to focus on being even better on ESPN and not dilute his talents by being spread too thin.

A few outside projects every now and then is OK, but I see and hear him way too much.  When was the last time you heard the name Lizzo?  She is exhibit A in overexposure and then puuuffffff!

And this idiotic talk about him running for president?  Boy, please!!!

I understand why he is promoting and encouraging this type of speculation, but it will prove to be counter-productive to his brand.

One of the most insidious down sides of social media is that in order to continue to get subscribers, likes, and followers, you must constantly feed the beast!

How do you feed the beast?  Controversy!

You have to constantly engage in petty online fights with high profile people who you have never met or create show topics involving the underbelly of race, homosexuality, or sex.  The bigger you get, the more extreme your behavior must be.

Podcasters Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson are two exceptions to this rule.  They are so genuine and substantive in their content that there is no need for them to play the fool for clicks and likes.  They feed the beast with their substance and it works for them.

If Smith were totally focused on his role with ESPN there would be no need for him to get into public pissing matches with people like former ESPN colleague, Jason Whitlock.

I have never nor will I ever understand how adults can get into a public feud with people that have absolutely no contact with their lives.  All parties come out looking like fools.

But this childish behavior feeds the beast.

Again, I do understand why Smith is encouraging this talk about running for president.  In political circles he is mocked and ridiculed because he is not a well-read person and it shows.

Smith reminds me of people like Jasmine Crockett, LeBron James, Steve Kerr to name a few.  Just because you have a platform to speak from does not mean you need to comment on everything.

Sometimes silence is the loudest statement one can make.

I have heard Smith pontificate on political issues that made me cringe.

Solomon once told me in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

It is not enough for someone like Smith to quote statistics, though sometimes they come in handy.  He needs to be able to demonstrate that he has the understanding to go along with the statistics.

He who knows how will always have a job.  He who knows why will always be his boss.

There is no question that Smith has the how down pat.  He is a very intelligent person, but he needs to do much better on the why part.

He has carved out a niche for himself in media and he should be proud of his accomplishments.  He has worked his butt off and deserves all the accolades and money he can get.

But he must not lose focus on what got him to this point in his career—sports.  Not politics, pop culture, or foreign affairs.

My friend I was having dinner with finally told me why he had a sudden interest in my views of Smith.  For various reasons he assumed that I had a personal relationship with Smith and he trusted me to deliver a discreet message to him.

The top executives at ESPN also think that Smith is doing too much but they are afraid to have this conversation with him because they are terrified of any possible racial implications that could end up in a lawsuit.

This is what America has come to when it comes to race relations.  A major company like ESPN and its white executives are too afraid to have a man-to-man conversation with one of their top employees because he is Black.

Stephen, we have many mutual friends and so I am quite sure this column will somehow get to you.

I do not know if you have surrounded yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear or those who tell you what you need to hear.  Far too often it is the former and not the latter.

My unsolicited advice to you is to get back to your first love—sports journalism.  This social media is going to further damage your brand.  I think you are better than that.

With your production company, I would love to see you do documentaries and in-depth feature reporting.  Social media could be used to compliment this long form of journalism.

This will also make you more valuable to ESPN.

Social media is like the tinkling cymbal or the sounding brass full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

I can easily see you being a billion-dollar enterprise if you get back to your roots and not try to be all things to all men.

Stay thirsty my friend.

Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson

This talented brother is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter; RealRaynardJ; on Gettr: RaynardJackson.

Can also drop him an email at; RaynardJ@ThyBlackMan.com.

Verify the license, bond, and insurance first

In California, any home improvement job over $500 in combined labor and materials must be performed by a licensed contractor. Before you go any further, look up the contractor’s license through the California State License Board (CSLB). It confirms the license is active, shows which work classifications it covers, and flags any disciplinary history. Then confirm they carry a contractor’s bond, general liability insurance, and workers’ compensation for their crew. A reputable contractor will hand this over without hesitation. Anyone who stalls on the basics has told you what you need to know.

Insist on real Los Angeles experience

Los Angeles is not a one-size-fits-all market. Permitting through LADBS, Title 24 energy compliance, and the realities of remodeling older and mid-century homes all require local know-how. A contractor who regularly pulls permits and passes inspections in the city already understands the timelines and requirements that trip up less experienced crews. This matters even more for moisture- and code-sensitive work. A bathroom remodeling project, for instance, involves waterproofing, ventilation, and plumbing that all have to meet code, while kitchen remodeling often touches electrical, gas, and structural elements at once. Local experience is what keeps those moving parts on track. Firms like Denali Builders & Design that work across LA County day in and day out bring exactly that kind of practical, on-the-ground knowledge to a project.

Review the portfolio and call references

Ask to see completed projects that match your scope and style, not just glossy marketing shots. If you’re planning a kitchen, look at finished kitchens. If it’s a bath, look at finished baths. Then ask for references from recent clients and actually call them. Keep your questions pointed: Did the project finish on time and on budget? How were unexpected issues and change orders handled? Would you hire this contractor again? Honest answers to those three questions reveal far more than any photo gallery.

Compare bids on substance, not just price

When estimates come in, don’t default to the lowest number. A bid that’s dramatically cheaper than the rest usually means something is missing, lower-grade materials, an underestimated scope, or costs that will reappear later as change orders. Ask each contractor to itemize the bid into labor, materials, permits, and a contingency allowance. A detailed, transparent estimate reflects a contractor who has genuinely thought the project through. A vague one-line quote reflects the opposite.

Get everything in writing

Never begin work on a verbal agreement. A solid contract should define the full scope, a payment schedule tied to completed milestones, the specific materials and finishes, a projected timeline, and a clear process for pricing and approving changes. In California, the down payment on a home improvement contract is capped by law at 10% of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less. Be cautious of anyone demanding a large sum upfront. Milestone-based payments protect you and keep the project moving toward completion.

Consider a design-build approach for bigger projects

For more involved renovations, a design-build firm handles both the design and the construction under one roof. Keeping the people drawing the plans and the people building them on the same team reduces miscommunication, keeps budgets realistic from the start, and gives you one point of accountability. For projects that combine kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, and structural changes at once, that coordination is often worth more than a slightly lower bid from a contractor who only handles part of the job.

Watch how they communicate

Finally, pay attention to communication before you sign anything. Do they return calls quickly? Do they answer questions clearly instead of deflecting? A remodel can run for weeks or months, and you’ll be in regular contact the entire time. A contractor who communicates well during the bidding stage almost always communicates well during the build, and that steady, honest relationship is what separates a renovation you dread from one you’re glad you did.

Choosing the right remodeling contractor in Los Angeles comes down to verifying credentials, confirming local experience, and partnering with a team that’s transparent at every stage. Vet thoroughly up front, and the rest of the project becomes something you can actually enjoy.

Ready to start your remodel?

If you’re planning a kitchen remodeling or bathroom remodeling project in Los Angeles, partner with a team that brings local experience and clear communication to every job. Reach out to Denali Builders & Design for a consultation and find out how the right contractor can make your renovation a smooth, rewarding experience from start to finish.

Staff Writer; Doug Moore

Yet history also teaches a sobering lesson: While millions have voted for socialism, millions more have ultimately fled from it.

Why?

The answer is not found in campaign slogans or academic theories. It is found in the lived experiences of ordinary people across generations and continents.

Throughout the 20th century, socialist governments emerged across Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Many came to power promising to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality, and place the needs of the people above the interests of the wealthy. In the beginning, those promises often generated enormous enthusiasm. Citizens were told that government planning would be more efficient than free markets, that collective ownership would create fairness, and that centralized control would produce prosperity for all.

The results, however, frequently fell short of the promises.

One recurring problem was the concentration of power. When governments assume responsibility for directing large portions of the economy, political leaders inevitably gain greater control over employment, investment, production and distribution. Over time, this concentration of authority often extends beyond economics into other aspects of society.

History shows that when governments acquire greater power, citizens frequently lose a measure of independence. Economic freedom and political freedom are often more closely connected than many realize. When a person’s livelihood depends heavily upon the state, dissent becomes more difficult and individual choice becomes more limited.

Another lesson history teaches is that incentives matter.

Human beings respond to rewards, risks and opportunities. Free-market systems are far from perfect, but they have consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity. When individuals are allowed to benefit from their hard work, creativity and investment, economies tend to grow.

By contrast, heavily centralized systems often struggle to generate the same level of innovation and efficiency. Bureaucracies can become slow, inflexible and disconnected from local realities. Over time, shortages, inefficiencies and declining productivity have plagued many state-controlled economies.

This does not mean capitalism is without flaws. It clearly is not. Free markets can produce inequality, abuse and economic dislocation. They require regulation, accountability and moral responsibility. But history suggests that replacing markets with extensive government control often creates a different set of problems — problems that can be even more difficult to solve.

Perhaps the most powerful evidence comes from migration patterns.

Throughout modern history, people have overwhelmingly moved toward societies that offered greater economic freedom rather than away from them. From East Germans risking their lives to cross the Berlin Wall to Cubans crossing dangerous waters to Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse, countless individuals have voted with their feet.

This reality deserves careful consideration.

People rarely abandon their homes, families, language and culture without compelling reasons. When citizens repeatedly leave countries governed by socialist systems in search of opportunity elsewhere, it raises important questions about the long-term sustainability of those systems.

The lesson is not that every policy associated with socialism is inherently wrong. Many democratic societies incorporate social safety nets, public health care programs, retirement systems and other forms of government support while maintaining market economies and strong democratic institutions.

The real lesson is about balance.

Successful societies tend to recognize both the strengths and limitations of government. They understand that government has an important role in protecting the vulnerable, enforcing the rule of law, and providing essential public services. At the same time, they recognize that prosperity is often driven by individual initiative, private enterprise, innovation and economic freedom.

As younger generations debate the merits of socialism, they should do so with an appreciation for history rather than romanticized visions of what might be. Good intentions alone do not guarantee good outcomes. Policies must ultimately be judged not by their promises but by their results.

History’s verdict is neither simple nor ideological. It is practical. Again and again, people have demonstrated through their actions that they value freedom, opportunity and the ability to shape their own destinies. When those things become scarce, many eventually seek them elsewhere.

That is perhaps the most enduring lesson history offers: People may be attracted by promises of equality, but they are often willing to travel great distances — and endure great hardship — in pursuit of liberty.

Today, these lessons are becoming part of the American political conversation. With socialist candidates gaining influence in major cities — two examples being the rise of Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C., and the growing prominence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City — voters are once again debating the proper balance between government intervention and individual enterprise.

Supporters see these movements as a response to rising costs, housing shortages and economic inequality. Critics see warning signs that history has presented before. Whatever one’s political perspective, the debate should not be driven by slogans or emotion alone. It should be informed by the experiences of nations that have already traveled this road.

The harsh lessons of history are not that compassion is dangerous or that government has no role to play. Rather, they remind us that concentrated power, diminished economic freedom and excessive dependence on the state often carry consequences that emerge only over time.

America’s future will not be determined by labels such as “capitalist” or “socialist.” It will be determined by whether we preserve the freedom, opportunity, innovation and personal responsibility that have long defined the nation’s success while ensuring that those who struggle are not left behind.

History remains our greatest teacher. The question is whether we are willing to learn from it.

Written by Armstrong Williams

Official website; http://twitter.com/Arightside

It would be hard to find a passage that better reflects this year’s World Cup soccer (OK, OK — “football”) championship, which the U.S. is hosting for the first time since 1994.

But not because the other nations participating in this year’s World Cup are our “enemies.” To the contrary, the reactions of the athletes and fans from other countries who have traveled to and through the U.S. to compete and to cheer on their favorite teams have been nothing short of astounding; in fact, they have taken social media by storm, and Americans by surprise.

Turns out, our guests love America and Americans, and they’re telling us why.

I’ll just mention a few instances.

FIFA has, of course, placed teams in cities where they have access to proper-sized practice fields. In many cases, that has meant college towns. Lawrence, Kansas, for example, home to the University of Kansas, is hosting the Algerian national team and has welcomed them with open arms. The Jayhawks’ marching band learned the Algerian national anthem to welcome the team to the field. Lawrence residents have regularly shown up at the stadium waving Algerian flags and cheering on the players, who reciprocated by inviting local children to practice with them and autographing soccer balls.

Aspects of American culture that have amazed and delighted World Cup fans visiting our country include “big box” stores like Costco, Buc-ee’s and Bass Pro Shops, free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, Waffle House, soda machines with dozens of flavor add-ins, free soda refills (and OMG, all the ice), the number of screens at our sports bars, Texas barbecue, Southern sweet tea, biscuits and gravy, the size of college and high school (American) football stadiums, Portillo’s in Chicago, hamburgers (everywhere) and the French Quarter in New Orleans. (They were understandably less thrilled with the heat and humidity in the South and the horrendous thunderstorms and tornados that are endemic to the American Midwest in the summer, but they’ve been troopers about it.)

Other World Cup highlights so far have included the Norway team’s incomparable Viking photo, Scotland fans (the “Tartan Army”) renting a boat in Boston Harbor for a “booze cruise” and drinking the bars in downtown Boston dry, fans from Japan cleaning up stadiums after a game, Dutch revelers singing “Sweet Caroline,” a Dallas pub handing out “World Cup passports” and giving stamps for every game guests watch there, and the Czech national team attending a rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas.

This World Cup is, quite frankly, the best thing to happen to international relations in decades.

Some of the foreign soccer fans visiting the States have posted so frequently that they’ve acquired an enormous fan base here. Tommo from England, Freddy from Germany and Shaun from Scotland have been surprised at the joy and generosity their heartfelt posts have inspired among Americans. But buried within some of these posts is a big reason: They — and others — have acknowledged that much of what they’d previously heard about America was negative. It’s only now that they’ve traveled here and seen things for themselves that they’re realizing what they were told isn’t true.

They aren’t the only ones. Watching, reading and listening to our foreign guests sing our praises has made many of us realize just how much of what we hear about ourselves is negative and false.

Where do we hear this from? The same places the Europeans do: the press, certain politicians and intellectuals harangue us 24/7/365 with their opinions that America is a country founded on “systemic racism” and only prosperous because of “white supremacy”; that Americans are greedy individualists who are racist, sexist and fill-in-the-blank-phobic; that we “hate brown people,” that we’re infected with “toxic masculinity,” and that our national pride is a tool of oppression.

Seeing the robust nationalism of the French, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Japanese, Norwegians, Greeks, Algerians, Scots and countless others while simultaneously being on the receiving end of so many kind and grateful observations from them about our country and our people has been a real eye-opener and a shot in the arm. To be blunt, it’s like having been in an abusive relationship for years with someone who hates you and realizing — finally — that you can get out.

That’s not hyperbole. American institutions dominated by the political Left — which include the media, entertainment industry and academia — have spent the past 50 years telling us how awful we are and that the rest of the world justifiably hates us.

Too many Americans believe that and behave accordingly, with incensed TikToks, constant protests, riots and shrill demands to “tear down” the American economic and political systems and replace them with collectivism that is “less selfish” and “more compassionate.” The rest may not swallow the self-loathing propaganda but have nevertheless felt beaten down, marginalized, silenced and frustrated.

And now: a break in the clouds; a ray of sunlight; a glimpse of the truth; an epiphany that is a shock to the system in the best possible way. Americans are being told by the very people we were assured despised us that our country is beautiful and diverse; that our parks are family-friendly and our athletic facilities are second to none; that our traditions (and yes, we have them) are meaningful and distinctive; that our food is delicious and our restaurants and bars are bountiful; that our superstores are marvels of supply and organization with bathrooms so clean you could eat off the floor; that the workers in our service industries take real pride in excellent service.

And that we as a people are generous, kind, funny, inclusive, helpful, positive, warm and welcoming.

The professional malcontents who’ve built their lucrative careers making us hate ourselves are the selfish ones. Those deceitful frauds — not the citizens of other nations — are the “enemies” of Psalm 23 who are wailing and gnashing their teeth as the Lord shows us — through the eyes of our foreign visitors — that though we are imperfect, we are still good and decent and richly blessed.

It’s time to reject, once and for all, the hollow accusations of the Left, as well as the shackles that come with them. Our nation’s 250th birthday is next month; this World Cup is the best present ever.

Written by Laura Hollis

Official website; http://law.nd.edu/directory/laura-hollis/

By last month, China had cut imports of oil by 3 million barrels a day, the daily consumption of Italy and France combined. China’s economy, meanwhile, hums along.

Americans agonize over how the price of oil affects gas at the pump. Were it not for China, a tank of gas would cost considerably more. “China is Propping Up the World Economy by Importing a Lot Less Oil,” reads a Wall Street Journal headline.

There are several reasons China has been able to cut oil imports, but one is its move away from gas-powered vehicles into electric vehicles. China has also invested heavily in electric-powered high-speed rail, letting travelers replace oil-guzzling short flights and trips in gas-powered cars with train travel. By 2030, China’s EVs could displace 2.7 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.

If the war with Iran is truly over, and it may not be, Americans’ price of oil should be coming down. That’s already started, but economists warn that the decline will be slow.

Thus, Donald Trump’s long crusade against electrified vehicles and promotion of gas-powered ones is hard to explain other than his personal ties with the oil industry. The U.S. is producing more fossil fuel, but much of it is being exported to other countries willing to pay a lot for it. Get this: If Americans want more of their fuel to stay home, they’ll have to pay more for it.

Trump hollers that Americans must drill-drill-drill to cushion themselves from the cost of foreign energy. And so what did he do first day back in office? He ordered the Energy Department to restart exports of American-produced natural gas. He also supports exporting U.S. oil, branding it as “energy dominance.”

Other than environmentalists, and bless you all, Americans tend not to care what powers their cars. Electricity, gasoline, whale oil … Buyers of cars or trucks generally prefer whichever option is cheaper. Happily, the energy source that does least damage to the planet is now the less expensive one.

True, it costs more to make electric vehicles than gas-powered ones. However — and this is a big however — the cost to operate EVs is a lot less. And the more gasoline costs, the better the electric car deal becomes.

A Chevy Equinox EV costs about $35,000, but the price for the gas-powered version of the compact SUV is $30,000. But if an Equinox owner in, say, Iowa drives about 11,000 miles a year — the American average — over 10 years, they will be spending nearly $10,000 more to power the gas SUV than the electric one.

We get it. If you must have a new Chevy Equinox right now and can’t spare an extra $5,000, then the gas version may be regarded as a necessary purchase. What happens 10 or 15 years down the road can be worried about later.

Electricity prices had also been going up, but nowhere near as much as oil prices. That’s because power plants use energy sources other than oil, including hydro, wind, solar and nuclear, in addition to natural gas.

But those who can plan for their economic future should be onto it. And so are countries that do planning, such as China. The U.S. tried under President Joe Biden to electrify the economy, but Trump has undermined almost all that progress. What’s promoting American consumers’ new interest in electric vehicles is the high price of gasoline.

If this country had made the kind of advances China has, we wouldn’t be caring so much about what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. On some things, China knows better.

Written by Froma Harrop

Official website; https://twitter.com/FromaHarrop

The data have never left much question. The answer is economic growth. Nonetheless, many development economists have spent decades arguing that growth isn’t enough or as important as development aid. The French report is simply a radical expression of a popular view. So, it’s worth reviewing the evidence again.

Stated plainly, every country that has gotten richer overall has also reduced poverty. More importantly, no poor country has ever achieved decent living standards without first getting genuinely richer. Obviously, wealth and basic human wellbeing move together, but the relationship is so reliable that it’s more like a physical law than a social-science finding.

People in poverty have little access to food, clean water, decent shelter, basic medical care and schooling. Adequate amounts do not exist in nature; they must be produced. As an economy grows, it produces more of these things. This enables more growth which, in turn, lifts the masses out of poverty.

Two centuries ago, roughly three-quarters of the world could not afford more than tiny living spaces, enough food to avoid malnutrition and some minimum heating capacity. Since then, the share of people in this type of poverty has fallen dramatically. The reason is an explosion in production that began with the Industrial Revolution and has yet to stop.

Unfortunately, the belief that economic growth in poor countries benefits richer residents and bypasses the needy remains commonplace. A large body of economic literature shows that this is nonsense. For instance, the work of World Bank economists David Dollar and Aart Kraay and others finds that when average incomes rise, the incomes of the poorest 20% of a population rise at essentially the same rate. In other words, growth is not systematically biased against the poor.

Further, even in the worst cases where growth skews toward elites, the impact on wellbeing in poor countries is too powerful to ignore. In a recent Substack post, development economist Lant Pritchett showed that elite-skewed growth in Ethiopia does four times more to improve basic human wellbeing — clean water, child survival, schooling — than uniform growth in Denmark. Denmark has already achieved those basics. Ethiopia has not.

As such, the most important question for poor countries is not who gains most from growth. It is whether growth happens at all. The countries that are home to most of the world’s remaining extreme poor — places like Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Malawi and Burundi — have not grown for decades. Our World in Data’s Max Rosen points out that Madagascar’s GDP per capita today is roughly the same as it was in 1950.

The reason isn’t a lack of development aid. These are among the world’s most aid-dependent economies. The DRC has received tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid over decades and $1.3 billion in 2024 from the U.S. alone. In past years, Mozambique received as much as half of its government budget from foreign aid. These countries have been the focus of development programs, nongovernmental organization activity, World Bank projects, bilateral donor attention and charitable intervention for generations.

Countries don’t get stuck in extreme poverty because the world has ignored them. They get stuck because they do not produce. And they do not produce because the institutional conditions that make production possible — secure property rights, the rule of law, open markets, protection from predatory government — are largely absent. Countries ranking at or near the bottom of economic freedom indexes are also the poorest. Those that liberalize experience across-the-board income increases.

Economist Vincent Geloso’s research finds that economic freedom is one of the strongest predictors of who escapes persistent poverty and who stays trapped. Colin Doran and Thomas Stratmann have found much the same. The mechanism is straightforward: Property rights give people an incentive to produce. Lower regulatory barriers let businesses form and labor move toward opportunity. Freedom from predatory government encourages long-term investment. Remove these conditions and countries stagnate, no matter how much aid they get.

Growth is both necessary and sufficient. No country has escaped poverty without it. Every country that has achieved higher GDP per capita has also achieved high levels of basic human wellbeing. Targeted aid can be useful at the margin, but it’s no substitute. Although many supposed poverty fighters are blind to this reality, serious policymakers shouldn’t be.

Written by Veronique de Rugy

Official website; http://twitter.com/veroderugy

Tax season brings these details into sharper focus because every figure must be organized, supported, and ready for review. For many growing brands, handling this work internally can take time away from planning, operations, and customer experience. Tax preparation outsourcing gives businesses a more structured way to manage tax-related documentation and preparation. 

It helps organize financial records so owners can stay focused on growing the brand. Let’s look at why this approach is becoming relevant for beauty and fitness businesses. 

5 Reasons Beauty and Fitness Brands Need Tax Preparation Outsourcing

Beauty and fitness brands handle fast-moving sales, campaigns, and customer demand. A structured tax process can help owners manage these records with better clarity. 

    1. Manage Multiple Income Streams

Beauty and fitness brands often earn through several channels. A beauty brand may manage product sales, treatment packages, subscriptions, gift cards, retail partnerships, and promotional campaigns. 

A fitness brand may handle membership plans, digital programs, product sales, merchandise, wellness packages, and recurring customer payments. Each income stream needs proper classification during tax preparation. 

When service revenue, product sales, and recurring payments mix, review work can take longer. Tax preparation outsourcing helps organize these categories with a clearer process. It supports cleaner reporting and gives accountants better context while reviewing business activity.

     2. Payroll, Tips, and Contractor Payments Need Careful Tracking

Beauty and fitness brands often work with mixed team structures. They may work with full-time employees, commission-based teams, consultants, creators, trainers, product specialists, and independent professionals.

Each arrangement creates different payment records. Payroll, commissions, reimbursements, contractor payments, and incentive payouts need clear documentation throughout the year.

Tax preparation outsourcing can support a more organized workflow for these details. It helps teams collect payment summaries, staff records, and supporting documents in one place.

     3. Busy Seasons Can Overlap With Tax Deadlines

Beauty and fitness brands often experience demand spikes during specific months. Beauty brands may see stronger sales around holidays, weddings, seasonal launches, and gifting periods. Fitness brands may see higher demand around New Year, summer, and wellness-focused campaigns.

Tax season can arrive while teams already manage campaigns, customer demand, inventory planning, and daily operations. Owners may need to review reports, collect receipts, track payroll details, and answer tax questions together.

Tax preparation outsourcing helps create a defined support process during these demanding periods. Experienced professionals can help organize records, prepare working files, and manage document requirements.

     4. Expenses Need Proper Documentation

Beauty and fitness brands usually manage several business expenses. These may include rent, utilities, insurance, supplies, product inputs, packaging, equipment, software, uniforms, and marketing costs.

Every expense needs reliable support before accountants can review it properly. Invoices, receipts, vendor records, and payment confirmations help create a stronger preparation base.

Tax preparation outsourcing can help arrange these documents into clear categories. It can also help identify missing records early, giving teams enough time to collect them before filing season.

     5. Growth Can Make Tax Preparation More Detailed

A growing beauty or fitness brand may manage records with a small internal team at first. Growth changes that process quickly. New locations, sales channels, added staff, more vendors, and larger customer volumes can create extra reporting needs.

Each channel or business unit may have separate revenue reports, payroll details, sales records, expenses, and operating patterns. Tax preparation outsourcing helps standardize how records are collected and reviewed.

It can support consistent workflows for sales reports, payroll summaries, expense files, and supporting documents. This helps owners prepare for filing with better control.

Key Tax Preparation Services Beauty and Fitness Brands Should Consider

Choosing the right outsourcing support starts with understanding which services can match your business structure, systems, and growth plans.

     1. Individual and Business Return Preparation Support

Beauty and fitness brands may operate as sole proprietorships, partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, S corporations, or C corporations. A tax preparation partner should be able to work with the right return type and organize the records needed for review. 

     2. Account Finalization and Financial Statement Support

Year-end tax work depends on complete and accurate financial records. Support with account finalization and financial statements can help create a clearer base for filing. 

     3. Multi-state and Local Filing Coordination

Brands operating across multiple locations or channels may need added coordination for filing requirements. The right partner can help arrange federal, state, and local records in a structured way. 

     4. Technology-friendly Workflows

Beauty and fitness brands often use accounting, payroll, booking, sales, and customer management systems. The outsourcing process should work smoothly with these platforms to make data collection easier. 

     5. Quality Checks, Security, and Clear Pricing

Tax preparation involves sensitive financial information, so the process should be secure and well defined. Look for quality checks, clear timelines, transparent pricing, and proper control over shared data. 

Make Tax Preparation Easier for Growing Brands 

Beauty and fitness brands need tax preparation support that understands service operations, team structures, customer demand, and multi-stream revenue. A structured process can help owners manage records, reporting, documentation, and coordination with greater confidence. 

It can also help accountants review cleaner information and spend more time on meaningful guidance. The right partner should offer skilled tax professionals, secure workflows, smooth system integration, transparent pricing, and quality-focused support. 

Outsourcing partners like Befree can help beauty and fitness businesses create a more organized approach to tax season. With the right support, owners can keep financial preparation aligned with daily operations, customer experience, and long-term growth.

Staff Writer; Larry Harris

This was the message President Donald Trump broadcast to the world via his Truth Social platform on Sunday to announce the supposed end of the war with Iran. In the days since, MAGA-world has worked overtime not only to celebrate the deal to end all deals, but also to push every White House talking point they can muster.

There are just a few problems.

First, no one knows what’s in this miraculous deal that was apparently signed online like an iTunes user agreement. And yet we are currently being told to guzzle down a particularly suspicious-looking sausage, as a suspicious-looking chef looks down on us grinning from ear to ear. “What is in this sausage?” we ask with trepidation, to which the chef responds, “You must scoff it down, thank me, tell me how it’s the best sausage you’ve ever tasted, and ask me for another helping before I tell you what’s in it.”

Second, it’s not even a deal; it’s a “Memorandum of Understanding” that agrees to future deals down the road. Yippee! So really, it’s a deal to make a deal, likely in return for even more concessions to keep Iran coming back to the table as Trump desperately pursues his insatiable fetish for deals.

Third, the White House “Talking Points” on the matter demonstrate how absurd all of this is:

1) Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. President Trump drew that line and enforced it when no other president would.

2) President Trump ended the fighting on every front, including Lebanon. No forever war.

3) The Strait of Hormuz is open again, free of charge. A fifth of the world’s oil flows through it. That means relief at the pump and the grocery store.

4) Iran’s rewards come from its own unfrozen money, not from American taxpayers, and only after it performs. No nuclear weapon, no full relief. Iran earns it or gets nothing.

5) Obama never even got a signed document. President Trump did, from strength, after dismantling Iran’s program.

How things have changed from the president who demanded regime change and unconditional surrender just weeks ago.

And all of this is without even mentioning Trump’s abject disrespect and dishonor of its one true ally in the region and this war: Israel.

But in reality, it doesn’t even matter what is in this deal. Even if the deal included Iran’s promise to massage Trump’s feet every single night. Why? Because every possible point of agreement hinges on the utterly worthless word of Iran, a country that has demonstrated nothing but its untrustworthiness for decades.

But because it’s Trump who got this deal — and a signed deal, nonetheless, as if that means anything — we are supposed to take to the streets in celebration. That means lauding Trump for “ending the fighting on every front” — even though fighting will inevitably continue in Lebanon — and for opening of the Strait of Hormuz, even though the fighting could only end because Trump started it, and even though the Strait of Hormuz could only open because it was closed after Trump started bombing Iran.

Does the arsonist suddenly get to claim credit when they sort of put out their own fire?

And if this really was all about gas prices — “relief at the pump and the grocery store” — why do any of this in the first place? Surely we could have just saved the time and not gone to war with Iran if cheaper gas and cheaper food were the goal?

No, what has really happened here is simple. Trump did what I still believe to be the right thing, but in the wrong way, without making his case to the American people, and with the patience of a 5-year-old child on Christmas Eve. Now, he wants out, at any cost. So don’t be fooled by the drooling hacks who will spew his talking points. We’re back to where we started: sending cash to Iran in exchange for a pinky promise from the world’s greatest supporter of Islamic terrorism.

Written by Ian Haworth

Official website; https://twitter.com/ighaworth

The name “Trump” is carved on government buildings, straight out of North Korea. Trump appointees whose appointments are conditioned on their agreement to debase themselves by refusing to admit that former President Joe Biden, and not President Donald Trump, won the 2020 election. The blatant disregard of federal law requiring the Trump administration to turn over all documents relating to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking enterprise, so as to conceal investigative files that reference Trump. The president stayed up all night publishing social media posts that range from puerile to psychotic.

Then there’s Iran. The president has variously claimed that we are at war, that we were never at war, that the war we were in is over, and that the war that we were never in will be resumed within hours unless Iran “behaves.” By last count, he had announced that the United States had reached a “deal” with Iran 39 times, each time preceding the proclamation within hours if not minutes that if Iran did not agree to the deal, it had supposedly already agreed to it was Going To Be In Big Trouble.

He has already made announcements too numerous to tabulate that he was going to “hit” Iran VERY HARD within hours, followed by the announcement that he had changed his mind, because someone in Pakistan had asked him to, or because the Knicks had won a playoff game, or because the moon was in the Seventh House, or something.

As of this writing, the “deal” that Trump is so desperately seeking so he can flood the airwaves with false claims that we have “won” would leave Iran, which Democratic and Republican presidents alike have consistently labeled a profound threat to our national security and global stability, fully capable of doing everything it was more than capable of doing four months ago: using proxies to launch genocidal attacks, occupying other countries, bludgeoning our Middle Eastern allies with ballistic missiles, controlling the Strait of Hormuz and ultimately acquiring nuclear weapons.

There can hardly be anyone who believes a word the American president says. None of our European allies do; they regard him, quite simply, as a clinically narcissistic, hugely troubled charlatan. America is already paying a dear price for our shattered reputation, and we will continue paying it for a very long time.

For its part, the Democratic Party offers up a growing assortment of demagogues and nonsense-spewers that leave many Democrats themselves dubious that their own party is ready for prime time. Their hopes to take control of the Senate seem to hinge on a serial dissembler in Maine who long sported a Nazi tattoo, lied about it and, according to one of the numerous former girlfriends who have provided credible accounts of his toxic misogyny, described it as a self-reminder of how “evil” America is.

The party features an expanding list of leading candidates for Congress who have either denied Hamas’ genocidal slaughter of Jews in October 2023 or affirmatively celebrated it. Its most popular social media influencer has declared that America “got what it deserved” when al-Qaeda murdered 3000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

It’s not that the European democracies are perfect. Far from it. But with the election of Donald Trump twice, it’s indulgence of a presidency deeply anti-American in so many ways and its output of politicians in both parties happy to promote hateful, unhinged narratives to garner followings, America seems at a genuine low point.

Which is why the most genuine thing Americans traveling abroad have to say these days is “I’m sorry.”

Written by Jeff Robbins

Official website; https://x.com/jeffreysrobbins

So, what potential problems stand between platform providers and earning the trust of would-be players, and how are the best operators overcoming them?

The Threats are Real

Because of how widespread online gaming has become, it’s an attractive target to cybercriminals. That means every platform, from the biggest multiplayer server to the smallest iGaming operator, has the potential to suffer a breach that exposes customers’ details and decimates trust.

Moreover, this state of affairs is widely known and discussed in the media. So even if players aren’t clued in on the exact nature of the threats they face, they’re aware that risks exist in some form. As such, earning trust is an ongoing process that all operators have to commit to.

Regulations Matter

Since the legalization of iGaming in Canada and Ontario’s proactive stance on regulating and licensing operators to provide casino services domestically, there’s a lot more base-level trust in this particular niche of the online gaming market. It’s an example of how having a solid regulatory base for an industry can give operators a head start, as long as they’re on the ball with compliance.

A Canadian provider of online slots has an automatic level of trust from players because it must comply with local regulations to operate lawfully. If this same approach were adopted and publicized in other parts of the market, platform providers would have fewer issues convincing people that their trust is not misplaced

Setbacks are Inevitable

Experts in cybersecurity agree that there’s no way to completely guarantee that a gaming service will avoid the attentions of malicious actors or that breach attempts will be preventable indefinitely. As such, it’s better for operators to plan for worst-case scenarios with the expectation that they will come to pass, sooner or later.

A brand reputation built on trust can be quickly eroded by a mishap, as mentioned. However, when something does go wrong, damage mitigation relies on how quickly an online gaming service can identify the issue, fix it, and demonstrate that the level of exposure was limited by its swift action.

This really is an industry in which customer trust can make or break businesses overnight, and where one company’s carelessness can tarnish many other brands, whether or not they’re guilty of the same slip-ups. Canada’s regulators have done a good job of establishing reasons for consumers to trust online gaming solutions, although there’s also a debate about whether the rush to embrace iGaming, in particular, has led to gaps in the rules. Time will tell, and in the interim, it’s important for players to be discerning about which providers they choose while also understanding their responsibilities for safe play from day to day.

Staff Writer; Carl Stewart