How Soon Does a New Business Need a Bookkeeper?

So you’ve started a new business or will be in the near future.

It seems like there are a million things to do:

• Figure out the business’s legal structure and register it as necessary
• Apply for an EIN from the IRS
• Open the business bank account
• Create a website
• Develop a marketing plan to get customers

And depending on the industry, probably a dozen other things on top of that.

It makes sense that in the midst of all this, hiring a bookkeeper is the last thing on your mind.

The books will just take care of themselves, right?

Or heck, you’ll just handle it yourself. How hard could it be anyway?

After all, you don’t need a bookkeeper to handle your personal finances — why should your business be any different?

Yeah, I’m here to let you know, the books won’t take care of themselves.

Why Your Business Needs a Bookkeeper From Day 1

Imagine this: It’s the start of the new tax year and you start gathering all your records to send to your CPA.

Firstly, if your records aren’t organized, your CPA is very likely going to charge more to comb through everything and categorize them appropriately.

Wait, that random charge back in April — what was that for again? Is it tax deductible? If you wait until tax time to figure it out, you may be leaving money on the table in the form of extra taxes.

But it goes so much deeper than that. Now imagine you’ve just finished your first quarter in business and you’d like to know how you’re doing. You can see how much cash is in your bank account, but did you actually make a profit? Is the business growing month-by-month or quarter-by-quarter?

And as you finish your second quarter, did you do better or worse? Are there any unnecessary expenses that are absorbing most of your cashflow? Can you afford to take on new expenses that would help your business grow?

As things start to grow, other, more complex questions present themselves. What if you could see profitability by product or service? How about by location or sales channel?

Some of these questions might not even occur to you just because you might not know what’s even possible.

But data is power. The more accurate, organized data you have about your financials, the more questions you can ask and get useful answers.

Having this data from day 1 could literally change the trajectory of your business. You’d be well-informed from the start and know exactly what your situation is at all times.

I’ll Just Do It Myself

“OK, that’d be pretty useful,” you say. “But I’ll just sign up for QuickBooks Online and do it all myself.”

Let me tell you something I learned in my own time in business.

If you want something done and aren’t entirely sure how to do it yourself, pay the experts to do it for you.

You’ll have the confidence that it’ll be done well, and won’t require anymore of your time, so you can do the things that you actually enjoy, are good at, and which bring your business greater profits.

Sure, there can be budget constraints. But for the important things, it’s worth spending a bit more to make sure it’s done right the first time. Otherwise, it can actually cost more in the long-run.

When I needed a logo for Possible Promise Financial, I didn’t try to do it myself (that’d be a disaster anyway considering my blindness). I paid someone to do it for me. Of course I sat down with him and made sure he understood my vision and what I was looking for. But once he got it, I knew it was just a matter of time before we got the perfect logo.

When I registered the LLC, sure I could have looked up everything I needed to do it myself. But then I’d be wondering whether I really did everything properly, or did I miss some important step that would come back to bite me later on?

So I paid to have it done for me. And I’m glad I did.

Did you get into business to learn bookkeeping? Do you really have the time to learn all the ins and outs of it?

Or do you think it’d be more economical in the long-term to pay someone with the expertise to do it all for you, so it’s done right from the start?

If you’re starting a business or just recently launched and would like to know your books are in good hands, let’s chat. I offer free consultations to explore how bookkeeping could help your business. Just click below to schedule some time on my calendar.

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