Worth Their Weight In Gold

As much as I complain about getting my books up to date (proud to say - I finished up about 8 hours before my meeting with the accountant!), I must admit that a good bookkeeping/accountant is absolutely worth their weight in gold.

I originally got my accountant because I wanted someone else to do my business taxes to 1. make sure they were done correctly and 2. have the liability of any mistakes rest with them as opposed to 100% on me.

However, my accountant has turned out to be so much more than simply a tax-filer and I imagine that's probably the case with the majority. What I love about my accountant is that she focuses on small businesses so is able to give me cost-effective recommendations for things like payroll services (another thing I want to outsource and not worry about the liability issue). But she also sees that my business is growing, however slowly, and spent three hours with me yesterday to rework my QuickBooks so that it can now better keep track of the necessary business expenses and tax liabilities as the business grows.

I know I'm going to cringe when the bill finally comes in - but honestly it was probably some of the best money I've spent in a long time. For example, I had no idea I had to send a 1099 to service providers (my PR folks) and file copies of the 1099 and 1096 with the IRS. I simply had no idea that had to be done and it could, ultimately, have gotten me into a lot of trouble.

So my recommendation to entrepreneurs is to go out and find yourself a good accountant who will take the time to walk you through where you are now and help your business grow in the future.