WHAT’S THE SCARIEST THING FACING YOU THIS HALLOWEEN?

This Halloween what is the scariest thing you are facing as small business owner?

1. Is it the economic crisis haunting your business, dogging your every step?
   
   
2. Are you scared of the suddenly tight fisted clients who are not buying?
   
   
3. Has your banker suddenly turned into a mean tight fisted goblin?
   
   
4. Is planning your budget giving you the creeps?
   
   
5. Do you feel like taking a knife and carving out the rot that has set into the economy and bring back the bullish time just as you would do with a pumpkin while designing the good old jack o’ lantern?

Yes, things have turned ugly and businesses are bleeding this Halloween. Businesses are closing down, people are losing jobs, and liquidity has frozen. But my dramatic musings apart, are you getting hysterical in your obsession with the bad times? Or are you planning to trick the ghouls and march ahead to win the battle?

While you bemoan every lost opportunity and focus on a door that has slammed shut, you might miss out on the tiny crack showing you the way out. As a small business owner, you stand a better chance of slaying this evil monster since you can be quicker, faster and are flexible to tide this bad time over. Get innovative, let those creative juices flow.

Which are the core pillars of your business?
It is bookkeeping, accounting, tax and finance?
Is it Technology?
Is it marketing?

Find how you can make these pillars stronger. Find how you can do all tasks associated with the above 3 domains faster without bearing additional costs or hiring new people. Fear is no excuse, being small is also no excuse. You need to stand up and get cranking.

Hire an online bookkeeping and accounting vendor to save 30-50% cost. A professional back office service provider will take care of all your multitude bookkeeping, accounting and tax work at unbelievable hourly rates of as low as 15$. Why would you not want to take benefit of such an opportunity?

If you don’t have a website, don’t you think it’s high time you got one? Did you know you lose out a major chunk of clients who are searching for services/products you offer online? People want to shop online, do you know why? It’s convenient, time saving and saves gas money. Give them that convenience. Hire a website solutions company who also provides option of search engine optimization within the package.

Take benefit of non-conventional, marketing practices like search engine marketing. You can run permission based email campaigns, write newsletters to connect to your clients, provide them opportunity to interact through your blogs. There are so many unexplored features of internet marketing and best of all its mostly free. You only need to devote regular time to do the grunge work. If you don’t have that time, there are SEO professionals ready to do such tedious tasks for you and at flexible affordable budgets to suit your pocket.

This Halloween don’t let the economy scare you. Slay those ghosts and monsters pulling your down and march ahead to a successful future!

Is the liquidity crunch shackling down your business?

The burning question on every business owner’s mind will be the impact of the current economic recession on their business. ML, Lehman Bros., AIG… what darkness awaits in future?

Small businesses, for the most part, are on a strict budget and do not have a lot of expendable capital. Smart tactics one can adopt to wait out and survive the severe downturn cycle in the economy:

• Rethink Existing Business Model: The business model followed during stable or growing economy might not bear the burden of the financial crunch. Check out how you can make the business model leaner. That means cutting out the extra flab and making the business compact and better able to survive the rough tide. A part time CFO/Controller can help you help you overhaul your business model
  
  


• Never Alienate Customers: There is obvious liquidity crisis and budgets are on tight leash. This is actually not the right time to reduce marketing budget drastically. Sit down and plan the areas wherein you can control cost which will not have negative impact on existing customer or for finding new prospects. Your survival depends on steady stream of customers. Shifting from traditional marketing to outsourced internet marketing can probably help your save costs.
  
• Focus More on Revenue Generation Tasks: Try 80:20 principal for your business. Spare 80% of your resources for core revenue generation and outsource bookkeeping, accounting, tax, repetitive SEO work, email marketing work, website tweaking and maintenance etc. Outsource back office support that does not require on hand presence. Time saved will equal to more time for revenue generation tasks.
  
• Increase Business Cash Flow: Get your billing cycles tighter by timely collections. For this bookkeeping and accounting statements needs to be clear and in order. A professional bookkeeping and accounting vendor can help you get your billing cycles in place by sending statements well in advance and making collections procedure smooth.


• Keep Positive Attitude: Economy runs in a cycle. So after this downturn, economy will stabilize and it will have start climbing up. The time gap is uncertain. Small business owners need to keep a positive attitude get disciplined and flexible to manage the downturn.

Entrepreneurs must understand markets in order to fashion business plans and strategies that can be effectively implemented as per the current environment. You will feel more empowered once your business survives and continues to grow beyond this phase.

8 STEPS TO EFFICIENT BOOKKEEPING:

Business record management or bookkeeping might be of low priority compared to other revenue generation activities, however regular record management not only makes business reports more sensible, but can prove a real stress relief during tax submission. Here’s what you can do to make record management easy:

1. Maintain separate accounts for business and personal provisions. It is very essential to differentiate the two and it is not simple. Verify and find out legitimate business expenses and which cannot be put under business expenses.
   
   
2. Get receipts or invoices for all business expenses and keep them in a monthly file – at the end of the month attach these to your bank statement, and make sure none are missing. Use this information to enter into you record keeping system or to give to your expert book keeper.
   
   
3. Use a separate credit card for business related expenses. It will be easier for management of records.
   
   
4. Maintain proper order and filing system for all records. It will be waste of time to hunt and search of document before the tax preparation season. Get organized before the start of fiscal year and keep year wise records of all financial and business relevant transactions.
   
   
5. Keep proper documentary record of assets purchased which might include vehicles, equipment, real estate etc relevant for business.
   
   
6. Maintain clear employee compensation records.
   
   
7. Keep your tax records year wise and up to date. It is easiest to keep these broken down by month, and file them in plastic sleeves in a ring binder or in manila folders.
   
   
8. Keep a log of your business travel in your vehicle. Note the kilometer reading on the odometer at the beginning of the financial year and then enter the kilometers by date each time you use the vehicle for a business purpose.

All of the above activities are required to avoid mistakes and penalties when preparing accounts. Set aside few hours every week to maintain systematic records. Like a lot of the administrative business related to running a business, they just require establishing good habits and persistence. But if you apply these rules of good record management now and follow through, it will create a positive difference during tax season and your accounting will be easier all year long.

If you are still very pressed for time, outsource bookkeeping work for as low as 15 to 20$ hourly charges to get the required back office support to get your business organized. Established bookkeeping service providers offer these services online too and you can have access to your data 24x7 from anywhere. This could be easy to maintain and manage.

Do you know how much a BOOKKEEPER will COST you?

While doing some research I came across payscale.com which allows you to make search of salary/compensation basis multiple categories. These are the findings on bookkeeper’s salary.

Role Wise:

Experience Wise:

Type of Company:

The above data are rough estimates basis the information filled during search. But it throws an overall idea of how much it would cost to employ someone to handle your bookkeeping and accounting. Sure was an eye opener. Such high expenses might be out of reach for a small sized firm, but bookkeeping & accounting is too crucial an area to be ignored without detrimental repercussions.

Here’s a smart alternative. Hire Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) provider. They can be a great cost-saving resource right from your basic bookkeeping, accounting to even financial reporting, tax preparation and audit. You can even hire them as your part time CFO services whenever required. It is important to scrutinize all options available and select the best plan for the success of your business.

Does your business need PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING HELP?

Most small business start ups are focused on surviving the initial tough years. As an owner you neither have the time or energy to hire talented skilled employees nor the budget to accommodate them on regular basis. The result is you end up compromising. This means either doing the accounting work yourself whenever you get some time or taking help from somebody you know and trust, usually a relative or a neighbor who does your bookkeeping for you. Even if this person doesn’t have experience in bookkeeping (or very little) but as they are more skilled than you, you thank your lucky stars that you have at least some help for the time being.

Well this is fine as a stop gap arrangement, but have you ever thought that your business has outgrown such green horns handling your accounting work?

As your business expands, so will the complexities involved with a growing business. You need to realize when such a stop gap arrangement of hiring part time help to manage books just won’t work. This means your business is in dire need of professional accountants who can take your business to the next level. A bookkeeper is more focused on basic tasks, while other crucial financial objectives stay neglected.

In such a situation no one is managing cash, or monitoring profitability, or keeping tabs on how to build relationships with lenders and various business vendors. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are ignored which cause irreplaceable damage to business.

Be alert and recognize when you need professional help before it’s too late. If hiring a qualified CFO or controller is not within your budget, don’t worry, relief is available in the form of FAO services. FAO which stands for Financial and Accounting Outsourcing vendors are equipped with various levels of skilled personal to help you manage all your bookkeeping, accounting, financial reporting and tax preparation needs. You can now hire part time CFO or controller services when required at very affordable rates without any compromises on quality. Best part of partnering with a FAO vendor is that they don’t need you to train their staff, no set up costs are involved; there are no additional infrastructural requirements while you have a readymade team at your disposal anytime you need 24x7.

They will automate your processes along with providing much needed controls with the help of financial statements and budgets which are essential tools to help your business expand and prosper. Meanwhile your existing staff/help can be trained to other functional roles much suited to their capabilities while you can also focus all your attention to developmental activities required to grow your business.

Your accounting operations directly impact the profitability and growth of your company. If you don’t feel confident that existing help is poised to take your company to the next level, it’s time to call in a professional FAO services.

Is managing your Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable always a hasty job?

Accounts receivable and accounts payable (AP/AR) is about business credit. Credit makes the business world go ‘round. The vast majority of businesses cannot get by as all-cash operation. If you give credit to your customers, you have to track your accounts receivable, managing and collecting the money owed to your business by your customers. Having accounts receivable means you need to track invoices and credit notes issued to your customers and deduct payments they make. You also need to make miscellaneous adjustments, such as interest charges on overdue accounts, charge back for not sufficient funds checks, and so forth.

Accounts payable, on the other hand, involves managing what your business owes to others. AP can mean all your short-term payment liabilities, including payroll and taxes, trade payables, normal business expenses such as raw materials, products for resale, and services.

Managing accounts involves a comprehensive spectrum of transaction processing and administration handling along with keeping tabs on too many papers like invoices, bills, documents etc. However change is possible with more and more control and coordination leading to a shift in resources responsibilities from mere clerical to more analytical level. Generally it’s a month end panic or tax season panic when small business owners suddenly go on spring cleaning session to tackle all the bills, invoices and miscellaneous business documents to make sense out of them. This will lead to chaos, increased risks and missed opportunities.

As a small business owner you are more focused on strategies to grow your business rather than spend time doing routine things like managing your accounts receivables and payables. But is a very important part of your business. You do need to pay your bills on time if you want to have good relationship with vendors and you do need to keep track of who all owe you money. What if you want to do all this without hiring bookkeeping or an accountant?

Outsourcing Accounting and outsourcing bookkeeping is a cost-effective option for small to mid-sized business owners.

Major benefits from outsourcing back office bookkeeping and accounting tasks:

1. Save enormous amount of time and costs
2. Analysis of reports generated by outsourcing partner of historical patterns of spending and receivables shows the trouble spots to avoid in future
3. Benefit from the significant increase in process efficiency, profitability and financial control

Hiring the right Finance Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) partner will ensure that your accounting systems and processes are smoothly managed to increase profitability. Timely reports will ensure well informed decisions are made to increase ROI. Outsourcing provides an opportunity towards successful conversion of transaction management, documents management, eliminating duplication leading to increased efficiency and productivity gaining an edge over competitors.

Quick Accounting Tips for Small Business Owners

Those business owners who lack formal information in accounting might lack the required flare to maintain proper books and would consider bookkeeping least desired task to undertake. They would rather spend time developing their product line or growing their client base but accounting is the radar which will indicate where your business is heading.



Few tips that can help small business owners:

1. Accounting is more than just numbers: Accounting is not just numbers on how much money you made or spent. If understood carefully, accounting is an important tool to identify trends in sales and expenditures, it even highlights the problem areas and helps in making right decisions to boost profitability index. Changing the way you view and realizing the importance of accounting will make it more desirable activity to be undertaken regularly.
   
   
2. Regular and Meticulous records: Once you understand the importance of accounting services for business growth, you will be encouraged to maintain regular and meticulous records. No matter how weak or strong your understanding of accounting rules and principles might be, it is very essential to maintain meticulous and timely records. It can act as a life saver incase documented proof is required to solve disputes with regards to finances.
   
   
3. Understand the Basic Concept: Accounting is peppered with jargons and fancy terminology. Don’t get disheartened if you do not understand all of them. Spare some time to get accustomed to the basic concepts. Take professional help if required. But educate yourself to understand the basic concept to avoid costly mistakes.
   
   
4. Keep your personal and business accounts separate: It is a very bad idea to mix your personal account with business. Keep them totally separate. Even if you are the sole owner of the business and it is all your money, still it is a good idea to keep the personal and business transactions and records totally separate. This will help during filing tax returns and planning your budgets and forecasts. These all are including in tax services.
   
   
5. Maintain Consistency: It is important to maintain consistency on the accounting methodology followed. It will give totally wrong picture if accounting methodologies are changed frequently. Taking professional help is advisable at predetermined intervals to review your books and rule out possibilities of inconsistency and maintain accuracy.
   
   
6. Purchase Accounting Software: Try using small business friendly accounting software available in the market to save time and increase accuracy. Some of the popular softwares available are QuickBooks, Peachtree, Microsoft Office Accounting Professional etc. Enroll for seminars or research online to learn more on how to use such software to your business advantage.
   
   
7. Hire Professional Help in time: As your business grows, the financial issues become more complex and time consuming. Learn to recognize when you need help and hire professionals to take over such tasks so that you can concentrate on doing what you know best.

A business owner can never afford to turn a complete blind eye even if a trusted professional is hired to take over the accounting tasks. Always ask for regular updates, reports and understand the basics so that nobody can take you for a ride. It is after all your money and business. It is essential to train and develop instincts to spot trouble or frauds heads on before it’s too late.