So, when I created this website, BrettSWillardPC.com, I came up with the tagline “Small Business does not have to mean you are on your own.” The genesis for it was somewhat a reflection on when I started my practice in earnest in 1993 after many years in industry. Personal computers were still a significant investment, research and access to information online was through paid services, and scarce in comparison, to the bombardment of information access we have now. And if you wanted to bounce an idea off of a colleague, you had to get through their administrative assistant to schedule an appointment or a call, rather than texting or Messenger’ing them directly. Yes, there were times it felt that I was completely on my own.
The tagline is, instead, better directed to the self-employed person. The one trying to make a business from a hobby, or cobble together skills to do handywork following a layoff, or the corporate employee believing she or he should be in charge of their own destiny. So, swapping out Small Business with Self-Employment provides better focus on the needs of a very large, and ever-growing, number of business owners who feel some days, they really are on their own.
The Missing Offering
A lot of reference material I have read, from accounting trade publications, to staff articles from different internet-based businesses catering to SMB’s (small-to-medium businesses), to self-made and self-proclaimed experts on social marketing, speak on the opportunities to provide “guidance,” “direction” and “professional service” to the growing self-employed population. One offering I have not seen much is to provide “empathy.” Don’t get me wrong. I am in the business to provide guidance, direction and professional service. I also have empathy. Learned and earned empathy. I have worn, and still wear, the same shoes as you, having my own small businesses.
One area in which I have a fair amount of empathy is, surprise, accounting. That is, from the perspective of the non-financial self-employed and small business owner. Were it not for my decades of professional experience in accounting, I might well let the stack of charge receipts continue to collect on the desk, waiting for that rainy day to sit in the office and catch up on the paperwork. Or, I’ll reconcile the bank account after I complete this one last customer invoice. Mmm hmm. I feel your pain. But I also know too well from the experiences of providing “professional service” to others of what awaits when it comes time to file the income tax return, or those pesky sales tax returns. The panicky feeling in the pit of your stomach because your folder of those receipts, those tokens needed to prove you really did spend the money on legitimate business expenses that you could otherwise support if only you had kept a set of books, even a notepad or ledger, are missing. They have to be missing. In that stack of papers over there. Or there. Or was it the stack sitting on the magazines from the last century that you finally threw away.
It’s Not Rocket Science
Accounting, or bookkeeping, is often an after-thought for the self-employed and small business owner. If there is money in the bank, or the coffee can in the backyard, then you must be making a profit. It’s all quasi rocket science anyway. You have more important things to do. Like run your business, put together a quote for a prospect, order more material because you thought you had enough to get the last customer order filled, but didn’t. And your supplier had a price increase since your last purchase, and has your account on prepayment now instead of terms. It will be okay, though. You will just write-off all those things you heard you could on that TV commercial. You’ll get to it all later because right now, you need to get back to running your business. You don’t have time for the accounting.
Not so fast. How well are you really running your business if you don’t have a handle, don’t have control, over the financial health of your business. Whether you are a by the hour graphic artist, or a by the project builder, you are not effectively running your business if you are not also managing the accounting and finances for it. Oh, and the taxes. Can’t forget about the taxes.
“But it’s so complicated, and time consuming!”
It is complicated and time consuming if you don’t stay up with it. There has to be a solid foundation. There has to be ongoing maintenance. Periodically you have to step back and take a look at the whole picture, figure out what it all means, tweak a little here and there. And you have to tell others about it, whether you want to or not, like the taxman. But how is that really any different than the operational side of your business? Well, other than the part of bragging to the taxman. It is not.
But you already knew that. You just don’t want to do the accounting. And you don’t have to. Not all of it.
I thought about plugging for particular accounting software or service solutions at this point. Hopefully, your interest in that will come later. Right now I want to emphasize that I get what you may be experiencing. You have questions and are not sure whom best to ask. Or you think they are silly, not something a CPA wants to spend time answering. The thing is, there are a lot of self-employed and small business owners out there, people just like you, who have the same questions. The same concerns. The same feeling of being on their own, and not the good kind of that feeling.
Everyone’s situation is different. There is not a one size fits all solution. You may not even know what it is you don’t know. But what you do know is you have a business, whether self-employed or a small business owner, you have a business, and sometimes to be on your own and not alone, you have to ask for help.
So, ask away…… I’m listening.
If this Journal Entry resonates with you or someone you know, please feel free to email me at [email protected], or call (469)629-6731, to discuss how we may be of assistance.