Mike Plumlee Financial Advisor

The defining characteristic of 2020 has changed. This has been particularly true for small businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a spate of new regulations about social distancing and personal protective equipment, among other things. It’s taken a lot of effort and investment for small businesses to adapt and keep on moving. For 2021, it’s expected that many of the trends created in 2020 will continue.
Due to COVID-19, more people are working from home than ever before. This has b...

Estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy, as many people assume. Failing to create a thorough plan can leave your assets’ care and the future of your loved ones at risk. This guide shows why it’s important to develop a plan and adjust it over the years.
Do You Need a Will or a Trust?
Today, it’s common practice for people at all economic levels to use both a will and a living trust. The trust is a private document that allows for assets to be passed directly to an individual without going t...

College is tremendously expensive, and there is no end in sight to increases. Smart parents plan for this expense early on, often with a financial advisor. There are several factors involved.
Fee structure
When selecting your financial advisor, be sure to be aware of what the fee structure is. Some charge a percentage (often 1%) of assets. This can add up over time. If you consider yourself savvy, consider selecting a “for fee” financial planner. These professionals bill you for their consult...

As a business owner, you want to keep your employees satisfied to improve retention, but not at the cost of paying more in salaries than your business can afford. Many small business owners don’t realize that they can keep their employees happy without offering raises. The following tips will help you provide things that your staff may find especially appealing.
Encourage Company Pride
As the business owner, you should be looking for ways to help your employees feel as though they’re valued m...

Learning to invest can seem intimidating. But investing can be a key to moving from a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle to one of wealth. And the truth is, it doesn’t take a lot of money to get started when it comes to investing. Today, there are plenty of investment options for people of all income levels and social classes.
Investing means using money to earn more money. Investors put their money into something, like real estate or company stock, hoping to make a return on it. Investing carrie...

Competency in communication is highly essential at the business management level. Good communication facilitates the effective exchange of ideas between the top leadership and low-level employees. Developing communication competency requires a strategic focus on five critical areas.
Enhancing Listening Skills
Listening is a highly essential aspect of communication. For effective communication in the workplace to occur, one party must actively listen. For active listening to occur, the listene...

Finance is a highly technical subject that takes years to learn and fully master. Supplementing your formal education or job experience with these five finance books can help you master the subject faster. That being said, these titles are also a good read for finance enthusiasts who enjoy reading about financial markets and investment products.
The Intelligent Investor
Authored by Benjamin Graham, who is revered as the Father of Value Investing, The Intelligent Investor talks about time-test...

Business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs often focus all of their time and effort on learning the technical skills needed to operate a commercial entity. While skills, such as accounting and bookkeeping, are essential to keep a business running smoothly, not giving soft skills, the proper attention can be a disadvantage to entrepreneurs. Here’s five that you should try to build:
The Ability to Communicate With Others
And it’s not just able to instruct employees or pass on information; stron...

Bookstores are filled with thousands of great books that will help you succeed as a business owner. These books can help you set and achieve your goals, manage your finances, and promote your business. But it’s often hard to choose which book is the right pick for you! The following are just a few of the top business books to check out the next time you are at the library or your local bookstore!
Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill took 13 common habits from prominent men of his...

Companies are starting to loosen the reigns and are allowing their employees to work from home or work remotely. Some companies even advertise their job listings with remote options. But one of the biggest challenges of remote work is staying productive, creative, inspired, and still keeping some type of work-life balance. So how do you make the transition from working in an office to working remotely?
Communication is Key
The key to being able to succeed in any role is communication. But onc...

With the explosion of digital content in the age of the Internet, many businesses and companies have followed in the footsteps of early adopters and begun developing a blog on their websites. There are many reasons why having a blog is a crucial aspect of any business website. Here are some of the most significant and vital considerations for any business that may not yet have a blog on their company website.
A blog at first may not seem like a very impactful resource for a company to put res...

YouTube offers an opportunity for anyone to express themselves and explore the topics that interest them. They also allow you to monetize your videos, but this requires building a brand that attracts a large viewership. The following tips can help you build up a brand that can lead you to success as a YouTube contributor.
Research Your Niche
The first step in building a successful YouTube brand is identifying the topics you want to focus on with your videos. This should be a popular area of i...

It’s happened to all of us. Our best employees have resigned out of nowhere. Not only do you have a brand new set of challenges to tackle, but you have to consider how the departure will affect the rest of your staff. When employees leave, their coworkers start to wonder if they should also be thinking about new career opportunities.
Employee retention should be a top priority at every organization regardless of their size. Creating a successful employee retention strategy will require your o...

Golf is a game of many skills. However, what you do on the green might be the most important of them all. Let’s take a look at some ways to improve your putting.
Scout the Green From the Low Side
It’s a lot easier to understand the texture of a green from the low side. While you’re looking at the same thing either way, this shift in perspective gives you the best read for the putt. Approaching the green from the high side gives an unnatural sense of elevation that could offset the ball.
Work ...

For a small business to get off the ground or to keep operating effectively, a small business loan is often the best course of action. However, it usually isn’t as simple as merely stepping into a bank and applying for one. Therefore, here are some of the steps and suggestions you should take when applying for a small business loan.
Understand Your Reason & How Much You Need
It would seem that a business owner would understand the reason why they need a loan and how much they want to ask for....