One really can’t sit on your laurels forever, no matter how popular you are. So then - having already shown up in some stores, and coming everywhere next month, are reimagined Chips Ahoy! cookies.

Now when is the last time you thought about a Chips Ahoy! cookie? I imagine it has probably been a long time even if you keep them in your pantry all the time. At some point some things become so ubiquitous that they are just there. Their presence becomes comfortable and at that point they no longer take up any space among conscious thoughts.

Getting to this point is obviously a great thing for a product, you gain built-in business by becoming a habit. At the same time, though, that type of omnipresence must also make it difficult to draw in new customers. If you have just always been there, then people think they know what you are, and moving up in someone’s mind becomes difficult.

This type of reimagining that Chips Ahoy! is doing then makes sense. First, one must imagine that in the end the cookie isn’t going to be THAT different. If that were the case, then it would likely be packaged as a new product so as not to lose those who do have the habit of enjoying the original. But then one must also think that making such a move will drive some who have not had their cookies in a while to try it again. For this change is enough to shift thinking of their product to the forefront of someone’s mind.

After all, I am discussing them here. Last week I never imagined this space would be filled with cookie talk.

The lesson here is that it doesn’t always take huge changes to gain some business advantage. Sometimes you just want to frame something in a new way to gain a little extra notice – and hey, maybe after that, your higher cocoa content and Madagascar vanilla extract will even grab some new longtime fans.

Also key is that such moves are difficult to turn into losing propositions. Those who are already avid users of your product will not be turned away for you haven’t done anything monstrous to what they are already enjoying. Instead, you just give yourself a chance for growth.

So if you are a business owner who has been wanting to grow a little without making any drastic changes, sit back, have a cookie, and think of the power of sounding new.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Somehow this year I haven’t been feeling this space with nothing but warnings about how the tax deadline is approaching. At this point, though, I must show up with one since there is less than a month to go before April 15th.

How did that happen?

If you find yourself wondering that, then there are a couple things you can do. The first is obviously to gather all your tax information together and get yourself in a position where the time crunch doesn’t feel too terrible. Unfortunately, though, even if you do that, it may already be too late to guarantee that your return can be finished by April 15. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though.

For the second thing you can do when feeling the calendar has whizzed by is to be aware of the possibility of filing an extension. This is a fairly straightforward process where you can gain yourself an extra six months to file your taxes.

Six months, really?

Yes, really, and that is a significant amount of time that is as long as it feels. Unfortunately, this means that when an extension does come up, it can feel so long that it pushes people right back into further procrastination. This is not something one should immediately fall into, though, for although an extension does give you those extra months to file, it does not give you extra time to pay any taxes you may owe. So while April 15 can pass and the IRS still won’t be expecting your tax return yet, you will begin piling fees and interest on top of what you already owe.

If you happen to be on the other end of equation and are expecting a refund, this would not affect you, but why would you want to wait on getting money that is owed to you? Even if you don’t need it, you can earn some interest on it with it in your hands instead of allowing the government to do so.

Beyond that, even industry articles have to admit that this is a pretty regular tax season, so there is little up in the air that is holding up the tax season. There is not any doom and gloom to be spouting and things to tell you to worry about. The time has come, though, to make the final regular moves for it is now spring, whether your weather feels like it or not, and that means the crunch is on.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Remember not all that long ago when the idea of AI coming into our lives was full of wonders, scares, frights, and worries? Well, that didn’t last long, did it?

In a short time, AI has now become present just about everywhere. And personally, I must admit to being very impressed and more than a little surprised at how well it can perform some tasks. With that being said, however, there are many things that I would not yet be comfortable trusting it with. And certainly, taxes are one of them.

Tax law is complicated due to a lot of push and pull from competing sides and ideologies and is always open to change. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing in itself, but it means you want to be sure that when you have questions, you get correct answers. So that makes it a little disconcerting that TurboTax and H&R Block have added AI chatbots that do not seem to be doing the best job according to a recent article in the Washington Post.

It’s one thing to have some chatbots, say in customer service, that do not give the answers you want. Those you can shrug off and move to another tactic without any loss but a little bit of time. With taxes, though, you could be looking at something could result in a smaller refund, end in someone paying more than they had to, or potentially even open the possibility of an audit.

A tricky piece here is that it is difficult to really address how to handle this. These tax chatbots are being made by trusted providers, so it is not some wild act for someone to believe in it. So how should we travel these waters? Well, I will admit to stealing a bit from the Post article, but what it says about this is simple and makes complete sense – AI is great for when there are no real-life consequences. And there is not even debate here about whether or not this is a real-life situation.

In conclusion, I am not going to be alarmist and say don’t ever use these AI bots to get an answer. I will, however, say that these answers should not be taken as gospel. If you are going to use one, you at least also owe it to yourself to do another search elsewhere and confirm the answer.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Sometimes sayings are heard so often that they lose their meaning. After all, cliches only become so by being said a lot. At the same time, though, they get said that often because of how true they are. So, when you hear that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is … well, that’s probably actually true.

This has occurred to me recently with seeing how cryptocurrency is being used to defraud people. And since even those who are experts in this area often have a difficult time being able to explain to the layperson just how crypto works, it should not be surprising that it is used as part of a scam.

I first saw this when John Oliver took on pig butchering scams during his weekly HBO show. Then I read another story with a headline highlighting nearly $2 billion in fraud, helping to show just how big this is.

What stands out to me about these situations is just how legitimate they seem. These are often being carried out in web and app platforms that look legitimate.  This is not the traditional scam idea of someone calling up threateningly and demanding payment. These play out slower, they come with victims making multiple payments over time to an investing platform, payments that they can even “see” are earning them good money in interest, when instead their money is already gone.

But just as that first cliché held meaning, others can too.

So, if you see any type of investment opportunity that you do not understand – investigate it first. Now granted, in such schemes this is not going to be a foolproof way to avoid it, and that is what makes it so frightening. Any amount of time spent doing so, however, without blindly trusting is time where you have a chance to turn the other way.

Unfortunately, the presence of scams overall is almost becoming a cliché itself and any mention of them feels like it might rapidly be becoming background noise. Pretty much everyone has had to deal with them at this point, and that makes it easier to just kind of accept their existence because you saw one and made it through. They always change, though, and they can always grow. Paying attention will only serve you well.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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