Paying Someone Else

I'm a very hands-on person with my business. To the extent that it's my hands literally making the products that go out the door. Many would argue that that is not necessarily the best business model but at the end of the day I do love what I'm doing.

As much as I dislike paying other people to do what I believe I can do myself there are two areas I have no qualms paying someone else to oversee. The first is my accountant who I meet with once a year to get my business taxes filed. The rest of the year I keep the books up-to-date. Or let's say I at least get them done before I go in for my accountant meeting every year. But she's the one who knows the intricacy of the tax code, any changes to the tax code, and she makes sure everything gets filed and paid on time. For that I pay her a nice little sum but it's well worth it in my mind.

The other is closely related and that is with the filing of my quarterly employee paperwork. Sadly, once you have employees you have to file quarterly reports with the local gov't even if you get to the point where you don't have any employees. Thanks to the recession, I'm in the 'no employee' zone but still have to file the paperwork even if the paperwork has a big fat zero on it. Truthfully I probably could do the paperwork myself and get it filed but the honest answer is that with everything else on my plate I often forget that the quarterly files are even due until they show up in my mailbox needing my signature and a 44cent stamp. So for the sheer fact of someone else making sure I keep the gov't informed and happy I gladly pay $200/yr. It's worth it to me in terms of peace of mind.

In other news - no word yet from the zoo which I'm taking as not such a great sign since they said I'd hear "early next week" (aka - this week). Figuring since I haven't heard it likely means they've offered the job to someone else and are waiting for that person to confirm before telling everyone else thanks but no thanks. But you know what, if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen and I choose to believe that there's some other great stuff coming down the pipeline.