Welcome To The Month Of September!

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Welcome to the month of September. I can’t believe that summer will be winding down soon and fall is on the horizon. This month we will take a look at how we can get reenergized within our business and fall in love with it again. We will look at tips and tools to help us to stay focused and motivated. We will also look at one app that we can use to help us to stay organized and give us time back to focus on doing what we love.

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More Reasons Why You Should Use Accounting Software To Track Finances

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The life of an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. The word busy is something that just comes with the territory. Nothing is more frustrating than working yourself to the bone but not having the information you need to make important business decisions. Here are a few more reasons why using an accounting software program like QuickBooks Online to track your hard-earned finances makes financial sense:

• It will arm you with information to determine if you can pay yourself

• It will help you to determine if you can start bringing on team members

• It will help you to pull reports to see if you are on the right track for your annual revenue goals

• It will help you to stay compliant with the taxman

If you have a special spreadsheet that you like to use to track your finances keep on using it BUT also use a professional accounting software system to track your finances so that you can pull reports to help you to make important business decisions. One day you might just decide it is time to ditch the spreadsheet.

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I Have No Idea How Much Money I Made Last Month!!!

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Have you ever said this to yourself?

It is a common mantra among entrepreneurs who are so busy doing the daily work in their business that managing the financial performance of it gets lost in the sauce. This month we are taking a look at why it is important to track your business bookkeeping inside of an accounting software. One of the main reasons is to have the ability to answer the question: How Much Did I Make In My Business?

The best way to get this answer is to keep your books reconciled on a monthly basis. The art of reconciling the books just means grabbing your bank statement and literally matching it line by line item to what is showing in the accounting software. Once everything has been accounted for then you know that your books have been reconciled and can close the month and start fresh in the next month. Now bookkeeping and accounting is way more complex than pulling out a statement to match transactions but doing this aspect of it is necessary to pull reports that answer questions like the one above. 

So if you have no idea how much money you made last month then head over to the reports section in your accounting software and find the profit and loss statement or what it is known as in the accounting world, income statement. The income statement or profit & loss will tell you the story of how much you made by selling your services or products, what you spent on expenses and what was left over. The “what is left over” part will tell you how much you made in your business last month. 

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Welcome To The Month Of August! & It's My Birthday Month:)

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I can’t believe it is August. Where did the time go??? I love this month that is filled with a change in season (depending on where you live) and a start to new beginnings like taking classes or taking a fresh look at your business. 

This month I want to take a practical look at why it is important to have your books in order and tracked within an accounting software like QuickBooks Online. There are many reasons why it is crucial that your business finances are managed in an organized manner outside of just using an Excel spreadsheet that can help you to be more successful within your business.  I think that sometimes we just need to be reminded of the reasons why we are going through all the effort to manage the business bookkeeping in the first place.

It’s August & my birthday month - It is time to get busy!!

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The Month of July Round Up!

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Summer is in full swing. I hope you are taking some time to get out and enjoy it along with some friends. I am trying to get into the season but I might need to work a bit harder. I recently met a friend for lunch at a local eatery that has a pool and she showed up ready to take a dip. I showed up in shorts and a t-shirt with no pool attire in sight.

:)

Such is life!

So, I hope in the midst of the summer fun you are taking time out to work on your business operations. This month I focused on sharing information that can help you to run your business better. The first blog was about workflows and why it is a good idea to have a good system in place to run your business. The benefits of having a seamless process in place to ramp your business up to the next level are so important. Next, I talked about specific tools that you can put into place right now to help run your business better. There are so many shiny objects out there that could help you run your business more efficiently. The key is to not go chase the next new thing but to select tools that solve a specific problem you have in your business and implement the tool.

Summer fun in Las Vegas is here. I hope that implementing some of the information shared in the posts above will help you to get outside and play without worrying if your business is running on all cylinders.

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Tools That Will Make Running Your Business More Efficient

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How do you feel about the idea of getting your business operations organized? Do you feel enthusiastic or overwhelmed? I find the task of getting organized and staying organized is a delicate dance that I do within my business and life every day. I found a quote that is helping me to see how getting organized within my business can have a direct impact.

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” – Anonymous

I can relate to that because it is so true. Ask yourself how much time did you spend today looking for an important email in your inbox or an electronic document on your computer? I am sure it was at least 5 minutes. Now add up all the 5-minute experiences like this for a week or a month and you will begin to see how much time can be wasted and money lost by not being organized. Here are a few tools that can help you get more organized and spend your time on money-making activities.

Receptionist & CRM - It is important to have a tool in place to take care of potential and current customers that will leave them with a professional feeling but won’t break the bank. I recently wrote a post about the CRM tool Zoho and the phone tools Grasshopper and Google voice. Check it out here.

Project Management - There are so many reasons why using a good project management tool is an important piece of running your business. Simply put it saves you time and that will save you money. Check out this post I wrote describing what to look for and a few tools that might be useful for you to check out.

Professional Employer Organization - Well this isn’t really a tool but more of a resource that will help you to manage your team (if you are in a growth stage) in a cost-effective way. According to Investopedia, a PEO is an external company that handles your business’s administrative, financial, and human resources (HR) needs.” Check out their list of the top 7 best PEO Services for 2021 to start your research.

Not having a systemized way to run your business can create a lot of headaches. I hope that you will check out some of the tools above to move you toward success on your workflow journey.

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Why Is It Important To Have A Good Systems Workflow In Place?

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Having a good system to run your business operations can make or break you. Picture this: Your business is busy and customers are coming out of the woodwork to buy your services. This is great. It is time for them to pay and you offer a variety of methods for your customers to pay including cash. Your customer pays you in cash and you put the money in your pocket and wave goodbye.

What is wrong with this picture you might ask?

It is great that you sold a service to a customer that wanted to buy it. What isn’t great is that you put the money in your pocket and didn’t have a system to record the payment in your accounting software or track the sale by giving your customer a sales receipt.

Why do I need to have a system in place you might ask?

If you want to know how many customers bought your services, what is a hot seller vs. a dud, how much money you made, and also make sure you keep the taxman happy then a system for capturing all this information is paramount.

In my post last week, I discussed that a workflow is an organized system that is created to handle your business operations. Most people know this as S.O.Ps or standard operating procedures. Creating procedures to handle each area of your business will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that you are able to measure and track information that is important to you. Next week we will look at tools that will help you to systemize different areas within your business.

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Welcome To The Month of July!

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July holiday with your friends & family. The month of July is here and we are going to take a deep dive into all things related to workflows. What is a workflow? According to Kissflow, “A workflow process is a series of sequential tasks that are carried out based on user-defined rules or conditions, to execute a business process. It is a collection of data, rules, and tasks that need to be completed to achieve a certain business outcome.”

That was a mouthful!

Do you have an organized system in place to handle your business operations? If not now is a good time to start thinking about what that system will look like under the following areas:

• Accounting

• HR

• Marketing

• Business Development

• Daily Business Operations

This month we will take a look at the reason why having a workflow in place is so important, easy steps we can take to get us on the right track and what the ending resulting will feel like. Buckle up and let’s go on a workflow journey.

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The Month of June Round Up & Happy Early 4th of July!

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I can’t believe the end of the month is here. It really did go by fast. I hope you had a chance to crush some of your business goals this month. This month we took a look at how to build a great financial foundation within your business using the chart of accounts, how to get the most out of QuickBooks Online by following their predetermined workflows. I also shared how it is important to just breathe and take stock of your business goals journey and if you are having success reaching them.

The year is officially halfway over and as business owners, we have a lot to be grateful for as we reflect on what it means to be an American this 4th of July. We have the opportunity to build something out of nothing in the greatest country on the planet. Are you taking advantage of all the opportunities before you? Now is a good time to take stock, pause and enjoy time with your family this 4th of July!

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Breathe~

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As we roll into summer and close out the first half of the year it is a great time to pause and take stock of your business goals.

Are you on track to reaching them?

If not then take a look at a blog post I wrote on 3 practical steps to help you reach your goals. I hope this helps to get you back on track.

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Follow The Rules Of The Road!!

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The key to building a solid foundation for your business finances is to follow the rules of the road. In the blog post last week we took a look at the chart of accounts in relation to building a solid foundation for your business finances. This week we will take a look at workflows in QBO. First, I need to ask the question:

Are you a rule breaker or rule follower?

 I know that I am equal parts rulebreaker & part rule follower:) 

When it comes to using QuickBooks Online I am definitely a rule follower. In order to ensure that you are getting the most out of the software, it is important to follow their predetermined workflows. One area that I see a lot of “rule-breaking” around is not using the workflow for receiving payments. The scenario can go something like this: your customers pay you and then you receive the payment and deposit the funds into your checking account within QuickBooks Online. 

This Is Great:)

You provided the service and your customer paid you. It sounds like everything is working okay UNTIL you try to reconcile your account and the money you deposited to your bank in real life isn’t matching what is showing in QuickBooks Online.

What Is Going On Here?

The problem is that the predetermined workflow was skipped and as a result confusion and frustration have taken hold. The proper workflow is to receive payments against the invoice and select the “deposit to” account undeposited funds. Next, the deposit that you made at your bank will show up in the bank feed and there will be a match that shows that you are good to go. In contrast, when the workflow is skipped then the funds you deposited into the checking account will not match what is shown in the bank feed because they are not grouped together which is how you made the deposit at your bank in real life.

I am a free-spirit and rule-breaker on something like eating more sweets than I need to. :)

But when it comes to QuickBooks Online following the rules is best because it can help you to build a solid foundation for your business finances and avoid frustration. 

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Are Your Business Finances Built on a Solid Foundation?

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As business owners we all want to make money and have the information we need to see if we are not doing so well. The ability to pull reports to make financial decisions about your business is one of the most important resources you have at your disposal. The information is only as good as the data that is in your accounting software. I am sure you are familiar with the terms “garbage in & garbage out.” This can happen if you don’t have the correct foundation set up in your QuickBooks Online software.

 I like to look at it this way

When you want to make a delicious sandwich what is the most important thing you must have first? 

Good Bread!!

If you have wimpy bread or cheap bread that doesn’t match the type of sandwich you are trying to make then it will be an epic fail and you will probably go to your favorite sandwich shop to buy the sandwich you want. But if you start with a delicious baguette or a good focaccia roll then you are on your way to building something quite yummy. Much in the same way this is how it works with building a solid foundation for your books in QuickBooks Online. The first step to building a solid foundation is to set up the chart of accounts correctly according to:

• Your entity type

• Your particular industry

• Your tax return (which goes back to your entity type:)

If you set up the chart of accounts according to the items above and use best practices then you are on your way to creating a solid accounting foundation for your business that will allow you to run reports and make sound financial decisions. It all starts with the “bread” for your books which is the chart of accounts. 

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Welcome To The Month Of June!

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June is here and summer is around the corner. I love this time of year filled with cookouts and outdoor fun. The summer season here in Vegas is always a good time to discover a new adventure and has something for everyone. 

It is a time to have fun and create lasting memories.

This month I want to take a look at the lasting memory you are creating in your business as it relates to your finances. Are you achieving your revenue goals? Do you know how much you're making? Are your books telling you the information you need to run your business better?

As entrepreneurs we all started our business based on a dream of living “The Dream” which is a life filled with doing what we love, creating fun memories with our family & friends and of course making money. You can have all of these things IF the right foundation is in place. This month we will take a deeper look at what this means.

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The Month Of May Round Up!

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The month of May is almost over and it was filled with festive events like Mother’s Day (which I hope was enjoyable for you:) and one of my favorite holidays that is coming up; Memorial Day.

I hope you are making time to go outside and enjoy the nice weather wherever you live in the world. This month I started taking a deep dive into marketing and different facets of it. I talked about how to market your business which took a stab at defining marketing along with various steps to take to deliver your marketing message. Finally, I discussed how to identify your target market.

Marketing is the secret sauce to keeping a business in business. If your revenues are starting to decrease in your business you can bet that there is a lack of marketing that is taking place. As you relax and fire up the BBQ pit this weekend for Memorial Day take a few minutes to read over the two blog posts that I created just for you. I hope they help you along your marketing journey.

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How To Identify Your Target Market

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When the topic of marketing comes up the next thing that follows is people telling you that you have to identify your target market. We have all heard the old adage by Meredith Hill and countless others, “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” So how do you identify your target market? The best way to answer that question is to start with defining what is a target market? It sounds complex and highly technical but it boils down to selecting who is the ideal customer that you want to sell your service or product to.

Investopedia states that “A target market refers to a group of customers to whom a company wants to sell its products or services, and to whom it directs its marketing efforts.” In addition, “Consumers who make up a target market share similar characteristics including geography, buying power, demographics, and incomes.” The process of identifying your target market is a critical step in developing your marketing strategy for your business. Marketing campaign efforts can get expensive if you don’t have a clear understanding of who your services or products will appeal to and where those folks might congregate online.

How To Identify Your Target Market

Here are a few steps that will help you to identify your target market:

• Determine what problem you are trying to solve with your product or service

• Brainstorm what type of people would be most attracted to what your selling

• Choose who you would most like to work with

• Do Market Research

• Check out the competition to see who they are targeting to get some ideas flowing

• Create your marketing message

• Test it out

This list could go on forever but the main idea is to get started on the journey. I hope that these tips will help you to identify your target market and to start sharing your product or services with those who value it.

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How To Market Your Business?

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The idea of marketing for your business can be confusing and overwhelming. If you are busy with the day-to-day operations of running your business but your revenue is not reflecting your efforts then the most likely culprit is lack of marketing.

What Exactly Is Marketing?

According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Well, that is a mouth full. The key thing to take away from that definition is that marketing includes creating a process to communicate the benefits of your services or products to your customers that provide value to them. The next question is how do you carry out your marketing?

There are a variety of steps that you can take to deliver your marketing message. Over the course of the next few weeks I will take a look at the following areas as suggested by Small Business.WA.Gov.AU:

• Do Market Research

• Identify Your Target Market

• Identify your USP

• Create your business brand

• Select your marketing strategies

• Create your goals & budget

• Take care of your loyal customers

• Monitor and look at your effectiveness

Marketing is essential for any business to survive. The day-to-day operations of running a small business can take precedence over drilling into the intricacies of how to apply marketing techniques to your business. Although it can be time-consuming it is essential for growing your business. I hope the steps above are a starting point for you on your marketing journey.

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Welcome To The Month Of May!

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I love the month of May! It kicks off the beginning of the summer season and the weather isn’t too hot here in Las Vegas. This month I want to take a look at the concept of marketing for your business. I want to take a deep dive into tools and resources we can all use to reach more customers to share what we do.

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The Month of April Round Up!

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This month was all about the Benjamin’s so to speak. Specifically, I shared information about the three primary financial statements: the Balance Sheet, The P&L, and The Statement of Cash Flows. I explained what each statement means and why you should care. As a business owner, it is important to know what you own, owe and what the equity is in your business. Additionally, the P&L can help you to understand what you sold, what you spent, and if you made money. Finally, the statement of cash flows can help you get a 360 view of where the cash traveled within your business. The key to business success is using financial statements to help you to run your business better and make sound business decisions.

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Where Is My Money? I Made Money But I Don't See The Cash In My Bank Account!

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Have you ever felt like this guy? You work hard month after month and at the end of the month, you have more month than money? If so you are not alone. I shared in last week’s post that cash flow is the reason that 82% of small businesses fail. That is a pretty high percentage. There is a way to stay abreast of what is going on with your cash flow and that is taking a look each month at your statement of cash flows.

What Is The Statement of Cash Flows?

According to Investopedia, “A cash flow statement is a financial statement that summarizes the amount of cash and cash equivalents entering and leaving a company. The cash flow statement measures how well a company manages its cash position, meaning how well the company generates cash to pay its debt obligations and fund its operating expenses.” That is it in a nutshell.

What Is On the Statement of Cash Flows?

The statement is comprised of:

• Cash From Operating Activities - These are the core services or products offered to customers that generate cash for the business. Additionally, it includes any uses of cash from the business operations. It also includes changes in cash that can be attributed to accounts receivable, depreciation, accounts payable, and inventory.

• Cash From Investing Activities - These are all the uses of cash and sources from business investments.

• Cash From Financing Activities - This includes money from investors or banks, distributions, and the repayment of debts.

Why You Should Care?

The goal of the statement of cash flows is to ensure that the majority of your cash is coming from operations and it is positive. There are many stakeholders who might be interested in this information including investors, and even potential employees who want to make sure you have a solid cash position that will lead to growth in the future. It helps you to know where your money went. For example, if your bank account has one number and your income statement has another number the statement of cash flows will help you to see where the money “flowed” within your business and answer the question of “Where Is My Money?”Moreover, the statement of cash flow can help you to create a budget for the future and give you peace of mind to know that you are not on the brink of insolvency.

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What Is On A P&L ?

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As business owners, we can be so busy with taking care of our customers and managing our team that taking time to “mind our business financially” can take a backseat. This is dangerous. According to Preferred CFO in conjunction with research done by U.S. Bank 82% of businesses fail due to poor cash flow management. This links directly back to reviewing the P&L regularly to assess how your business is doing in the areas of revenue, expenses, and profitability.

Why You Should Know What Is On The P&L?

The P&L helps you to measure how much you are making versus what you are spending. It also helps you when you need third-party financing. It can also help you with recognizing and analyzing what is selling well and what isn’t.

What Is On A P&L?

The P&L or Income Statement is comprised of:

The revenue or top-line number: This is the total income received from all sales.

The expenses: This is the total amount of money the business spent on operating costs and costs of goods.

The net profit or bottom line number: This is the total of what is left over after subtracting expenses from revenue.

This is a basic description of what is on the P&L and can be more elaborate depending on the type of business.

The P&L is a key financial statement along with the Balance Sheet report. It is used to assess the financial health of your business, measure what goods or services are profitable, is needed for third-party stakeholders like banks, and explains how much money is being spent on expenses. In the end, it explains how much profit you made for all your efforts. It is necessary to review this report along with the Balance Sheet regularly so that you can stay on top of your business financial health and be able to make good business decisions.

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