Why Your Business Needs an Online Presence
Some of your are young enough to embrace social media. Others old enough not to give a rat’s ass. And those who couldn’t care one way or the other. The reality is, we are all online and the internet is becoming as necessary as food, shelter, water, and electricity. Your business should be embracing the online community and here is why.
Some of your are young enough to embrace social media. Others old enough not to give a rat’s ass. And those who couldn’t care one way or the other. The reality is, we are all online and the internet is becoming as necessary as food, shelter, water, and electricity. Your business should be embracing the online community and here is why.
The Rise of Social Media
The internet has changed drastically just in the last 10 years alone! It has never been more important now to showcase your business online than it was then. When was the last time any of you looked in a phone book? How about checked out businesses in the newspaper? Hell, many of us don’t even watch commercials any more with the countless on demand video services. Showcasing yourself online is slowly becoming the only way that people will be able to find you and rightly so! The convenience of whipped out your phone and asking it, “what car mechanics are nearby?” and having it produce immediate results is way faster than it would take trying to locate the information any other way.
What You Can Do and Why You Should Do It
Facebook is the number 1 online social media platform on the planet and is what will create the largest reach for your target audience. Other options include Twitter and Instagram as well. You should also establish yourself on Google Maps and even Yelp, both can provide you with reviews from customers who utilize your service or buy your products and provide you with almost instant feedback for you to use to improve your business.
Another great option is launching a website if you don’t already have one. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve located a business online but wasn’t able to see what they offered due to the lack of them not having a website. Many consumers avoid a business as soon as something stops them in their tracks from obtaining the information they are looking for. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just a description of your business, what you do, and what you offer, and at what prices if applicable. Also provide them with ways to get in touch with you, whether that be through email, phone, and any social media profiles that your business operates.
Many large businesses have staff members that specifically manage the online and social media aspects of a business. It’s that important! But again, you don’t need anything too extraneous. Making sure that customers and clients can find you and are able to get information on what you offer is what’s most important.
Do you have any questions regarding giving your business an online presence? Leave a comment below and we will do our best to answer them!
What to Look for When Choosing a Professional Bookkeeper
Every business needs one: a bookkeeper. Don’t just go out and choose your average run of the mill bookkeeper. We’re here to tell you what qualities you should look for in a professional bookkeeper whether you choose our services or not.
Every business needs one: a bookkeeper. Don’t just go out and just your run of the mill bookkeeper. We’re here to tell you what qualities you should look for in a professional bookkeeper whether you choose our services or not.
The Average Bookkeeper
Most businesses don’t give much thought to how their current books are run, let alone the person that runs them! This is a vital part of your business that is essential to your success. Technology has brought lots of great innovations for small business so why are you still dealing with bookkeepers that:
Are inaccurate, inefficient, and always behind schedule.
Distracting you from other vital areas of your business that need your attention.
Negatively impacting the financial performance of your business.
You should not be dealing with any of these factors and your business deserves a lot better.
What a Professional Bookkeeper Brings to the Table
Virtual bookkeeping is a business model that is just starting to take off and are great for how many advantages and benefits they can bring to a small business. Not all are created equal and the following is what you should be looking for when finding one:
Reliability. You want to be partnered with someone who is actually going to reply to your emails and return your phone calls in a timely fashion.
Well Informed. You want your bookkeeper to not only talk the talk but walk the walk. Being well versed in bookkeeping is one thing but also staying up to date with the most recent software, systems, and cloud based technology.
Organized. A bookkeeper who is detail oriented and obsessive compulsive about keeping data and processes organized is exactly what you want for your business.
Good Communicator. Bookkeepers are typically introverts by nature but a good one will be excited to communicate with you and provide you with up to date information on your business’s performance.
Educated. A great bookkeeper’s learning never truly stops. They will always continue to pursue knowledge and make their processes better.
Understands your Industry. One that operates within a niche or several ones truly understand what your industry entails given they have multiple clients within that same industry. They can spot common practices in your industry and can adapt what works for another business to your own.
Provides the Big Picture. Your success depends on seeing the true cost of how your business operates and a great bookkeeper will help you work towards that goal of better understanding your business and helping to improve your business’s performance.
Handling the books on your own is a recipe for disaster but you don’t want to hand your books to just anyone. Use your judgement and these practices to find the cream of the crop for your business.
Are you looking for a professional bookkeeper? Do you have any specific questions regarding virtual bookkeepers? Leave a comment below and we will do our best to answer them!
Why You Should Focus on Making Your Business Cloud Based
How many of you have a file cabinet filled to the brim with old or even current paperwork? Is your current account software locally stored on one machine? Do you keep important files backed up to an external drive AND securely stored in the cloud?
How many of you have a file cabinet filled to the brim with old or even current paperwork? Is your current account software locally stored on one machine? Do you keep important files backed up to an external drive AND securely stored in the cloud? Many of your business operations can be stored and accessed digitally to reduce the amount of physical paperwork, making your business data easier to access, and create a better workflow for your business operations.
Why a Cloud Based Business is Better
Whether your business is small or large, migrating your files to the cloud is no easy feat. However, given the proper handling and execution to make it happen creates a ton of benefits that your business with thrive from. This is important because:
Storing files in the cloud means they can easily be accessed, shared, and synced across multiple devices.
While a local backup on an external hard drive is great, having a cloud backup of your data means being able to recover that data in the event of a hardware crash or catastrophic mishap.
Many modern versions of programs you already use are now cloud based to be accessed from almost any device from your computer to your tablet and even your smartphone (Quickbooks, Office 365, etc.)
Employees are able to collaborate and share information with cloud hosting such as contributing to documents and effortlessly sharing files.
These advantages are hard to ignore given all of the current and upcoming technology that we have access to.
Other Advantages
Taking your business to the cloud comes with a lot of costs savings. Office expenses decrease the more you obtain and/or create your files digitally. Many vendors offer paperless billing and invoicing and you can do the same from your end. When cloud based software has an update, it is usually very seamless to update and start working with the latest version without interrupting your workflow. The biggest advantage in our opinion is being able to perform operations for your business without being on site. This is very hard to do without cloud based operations in place and can be very beneficial for your business and for yourself to access important files and documents from the comfort of a beach chair.
Factors to Consider
Although this is very advantageous for most businesses, moving to the cloud is not for everyone and it may not be cost effective at the moment either. The old saying can ring true in this situation: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” With that being said, it should be a major consideration for you to pursue but here are some action items to take to see if it’s right for your business:
Does moving to the cloud make sense for your business financially and operationally? Analyzing your current operations and seeing whether or not they would benefit from switching to cloud based services is the first thing you should look at.
Will you have a hard time migrating your current employees to a cloud based system and how intensive will training them on new systems need to be? Your current personnel will play a large factor in determining whether it is a good business move for you. You may have a team that is very flexible and/or is able to adapt quickly and easily or may need to dedicate more time training them or possibly hiring new personnel to handle certain systems.
Managing the security of a cloud based system has different requirements of a local based security system. It has great advantages but investing the time and resources in maintaining login credentials and other types of security access and levels should also be taken into consideration.
Every business is different but we hope we were able to provide you with some insight on how a cloud based business can be beneficial and some of the factors to consider before making any big decisions regarding moving to cloud based services.
This is just a handful of information regarding cloud based services and their advantages. If you have any specific questions, leave a comment below and we will do our best to answer them!
Is Perfectionism Hurting your Business?
You don’t want to hear it and neither do we: nobody is perfect. Perfectionism itself as a pursuit is an impossible task to uphold. You owe it to yourself and your sanity to back off a little. Here at Blue Spirit Bookkeeping, we have been guilty of this COUNTLESS times and want you to know that you are not alone.
You don’t want to hear it and neither do we: nobody is perfect. Perfectionism itself as a pursuit is an impossible task to uphold. You owe it to yourself and your sanity to back off a little. Here at Blue Spirit Bookkeeping, we have been guilty of this COUNTLESS times and want you to know that you are not alone. Here we detail why trying to run a perfect business could be harmful and how you can maintain your sanity.
Perfectionism is holding you back
How many times have you tackled a task and when you finally finished it were disgusted at the amount of time you spent on it? We all have felt this stab before. The truth of the matter is, when we focus too much on the end result rather than the process itself, we can easily fatigue ourselves and make the next task even harder to handle. Mental fatigue is a huge problem for a lot of business owners and individuals who want things a certain way even if some elements are out of their control. You spiral into a frenzy of anxiety when something goes wrong and often times can ruin the rest of your day. This can harm your business’s profitability by costing you time and money while also reducing your reliability. The more mentally fatigued we become, the less efficient our business will run.
You avoid taking risks
Taking risks is a key component that is necessary for almost any business to grow. When you spend all of your time tweaking, rechecking, revising, and second guessing, your are doing yourself and your business a disservice. Mistakes are unavoidable at times despite your most desperate attempts to do otherwise. We are only human and cannot hold ourselves to such a high rate of accountability especially when the only person we are usually trying to please is ourselves. This is also linked to a fear of failure that prevents us from taking those risks that can take our business to the next level.
But what can I do?
First, stop telling yourself that failure is not an option and start telling yourself that failure is a necessary learning experience. Here is some advice that can help you avoid running yourself into the ground:
Stop trying to manage everything yourself. Delegating tasks is important for getting things off your plate that don’t make your business money directly and allow you to spend more time helping your business grow.
When confronted with a roadblock, don’t collapse and raise the white flag. Roadblocks are often very valuable for your business as they mostly arise to present your business with a problem to solve. This help your business run more efficiently once you defeat those obstacles.
Feel the fear and do it anyway. This is one of the most resounding statements we use here at Blue Spirit Bookkeeping and can help motivate you and put things into perspective. Fear will never truly go away so waiting for it to disappear is not an option. Recognizing that it’s there and moving forward will do wonders for your sanity.
Take a breather! We perform our best when we’ve had rest and sleep. Making sure that you take care of yourself will provide your business with someone who can get the job done. We perform less efficiently when fatigued and taking the time to tend to the one who is responsible for running the business should be priority.
If you experience this and want to share your thoughts and feelings or have any questions for us that may help, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer them!
Business Bank Accounts and Why You Need One
Do you have a business bank account? If not, why not?!?! Stop everything that you are doing. If you don’t have a business bank account you need to attend to this matter sooner rather than later. We’re here to tell you why having a business bank account is so important NO MATTER THE SIZE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
Do you have a business bank account? If not, why not?!?! Stop everything that you are doing. If you don’t have a business bank account you need to attend to this matter sooner rather than later. We’re here to tell you why having a business bank account is so important NO MATTER THE SIZE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
Stop using your personal account
Mixing personal and business expenses is a recipe for disaster. Not only does it make bookkeeping that much harder but it also causes issues when reconciling these accounts as well. Financial reports can easily become a mess when utilizing this practice. Personal and business expenses are separate for a reason and you owe it to yourself not to create your own confusion. Even if you have been doing it for years, I know many of you have been spending more time separating these expenses than you would like.
Open a business bank account yesterday
This is something you should rectify at your earliest convenience. Do you research between local and national branches and find the one that best fits your business and your business needs. Not all banks are created equal and you should go for the one that will provide you with the most support and features to run your business more efficiently.
Recognizing transactions becomes simpler
It sounds like a “duh” kind of moment but when you look at a bank feed and know that every single transaction is a business expense, it makes your job a hell of a lot easier. Even if you forget to provide a receipt to your bookkeeping professional, they will be able to recognize it on the bank feed and touch base with you about said transaction. Making sure to recognize every expense in your business is key to understanding how your business is performing financially.
Credit Card Incentives
Many banks and credit card providers have cards specifically for businesses and you more often than not need a business account in place in order to get one. Building credit for your business this way usually yields more incentives as those credit cards have features specific to the business realm. You will also be able to more easily qualify for certain business loans when your business has been building credit rather than basing it on your personal credit score.
Your business size doesn’t matter
Even if you are just starting a business, getting off on the right foot will do wonders for your sanity. You may think you don’t do enough transactions to qualify for a business account. While that may be true with certain banks, that is not the standard. Not all banks have the same minimums or even the same requirements.
Get a business bank account! If you have any particular questions about business bank accounts, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Things You Didn't Know Were Business Expenses
All the way from that large fixed asset down to the smallest paper clip there are many things business owners aren’t aware they should be placing on their books as business expenses. Here is a list of the commonly forgotten ones.
All the way from that large fixed asset down to the smallest paper clip there are many things business owners aren’t aware they should be placing on their books as business expenses. Here is a list of the commonly forgotten ones.
Vehicle Expenses
If you are a business that constantly visits a customer on location, you will want to keep track of your vehicle expenses. This can be tricky if you also use your vehicle for personal use. We have two recommended methods. First, if the vehicle is used for personal use you would take the IRS Standard Mileage Rate rather than the actual expenses as it can become a nightmare to split which portion of those expenses are personal and which ones are business. It is a lot easier to track your mileage for the business use portion of your vehicle instead. Second, if your vehicle is used exclusively for business, track every expense on that vehicle. Come tax time, you will compare your actual expenses vs the IRS Standard Mileage Rate and see which deduction is higher and take that one. There are specific rules regarding business use of a vehicle but we will save those for another day.
Home Office Expenses
Do you run your business out of a home office? Did you know that the portion of space in your home that you use for business is tax deductible? Or that a portion of the utilities count as expenses for your business? This is something to discuss in detail with your bookkeeping professional and give them the details about your home office to determine what you can expense.
Professional Services
If you are a client of Blue Spirit Bookkeeping have I got good news for you. Every penny that you pay for our services is a business expense for you! This also includes other professional services such attorneys, consultants, and the like.
Office Expenses
Yes, we know this one is not new or shocking news but we want to bring something to light about this. At what level of detail do you look at your office expenses? How many times have you used a staple or a paper clip but didn’t deduct it? Every stroke of a pen, highlighted sentence, and shredded document is part of a business expense. If you make a trip to store to purchase a $2 pad of sticky notes, you better be providing that receipt to your bookkeeping professional and deducting it!
Independent Contractor Labor
If you are one of our clients, you most likely work with 1099-MISC independent contractors to help you complete work in your business. Every cent you pay them is an expense and if you pay out more than $600 to that individual, you need to issue them a 1099-MISC at the end of the year. This is a service that we can provide and help track for your business!
Bank Charges
This one is commonly missed because many businesses believe this is just common practice for a bank to collect these. However, they are business expenses for you. If your bank charges any maintenance fees, those are expenses. If you have a merchant account and they collect fees, those are expenses. If they provide you with POS hardware and charge a monthly fee for that, those are expenses as well.
Education
Did you at any point attend a class, seminar, or workshop to improve your skills related to your business? Did you have to obtain a license or certification to operate your business? You know what I’m talking about if you’re a real estate agent. Yes, all of those are expenses.