I recently had the chance to hear from some other women about the hardest financial lessons they’ve learned through running their businesses. One of the women I spoke to listed not hiring a bookkeeper from the start as her number one mistake.  

The Mistake

When she started her business, this woman decided not to hire a bookkeeper right away. She had a vague plan to address it eventually – she knew she could either do it herself, or hire someone when her income was higher. However, when it came time for taxes, she had a big mess on her hands. She had to hire a professional to clean it up on a short timeline in order to pay taxes, and that emergency help was costly. She also missed out on having a complete understanding of her business that year, because she couldn’t look at her numbers clearly. Because of this, she missed all sorts of important analytics, like what sold best, when it sold, etc.

The Solution

After this fiasco, the best thing to do is to hire a professional to come in regularly. Even if it’s once a month or once every two weeks, knowing someone else is coming in can keep you accountable to your books. A good bookkeeper also finds and shares any financial insights they catch. This is an invaluable but often understated aspect of bookkeeping services. Understanding where your profit comes from, where your operating expenses go, and any other money-related patterns in your business can help you make better business decisions in the long run. If you’re interested in more on this topic, I recommend my articles “How to Get the Most Value From Your Bookkeeper“ and “Know What Your Numbers Are Telling You.”

Finally, once you hire a professional, instead of just taking your best guess yourself, you may find you’re more relaxed about the state of your business. The value of feeling at peace with money is not to be understated.

I hope you found this helpful! I’m doing a series on financial lessons learned from business in honor of Financial Planning month, so stay tuned. And if you enjoy these thoughts, I wrote a lot more about planning and financial lessons in this month’s newsletter. Read it here and subscribe if you wish – you can unsubscribe any time.

Angela

Image Source: Steve Johnson