Is there really a best and a worst time to hire an accountant, a bookkeeper and a financial strategist to help you with your business?
There are always best and worst times to hire anyone to help you in your business.
You should have an accountant and a bookkeeper in your back pocket at all times in your business from the very beginning. They can help you grow your business faster and even help you analyze your business deeper than you even thought possible.
Need to know more about the difference between an accountant and a bookkeeper? Check out this article.
What are the Worst Times to Hire an Accountant?
The absolute worst times to hire an accountant is going to be tax time. Accountants are inundated with their current client work during tax time and rarely take on new clients during the months of February through April.
You may be able to find someone that you want to work with during this time, but it's not going to be easy to get in the door because they are super busy.
Yes, tax time is only a few months of the year.
But your business runs all year long and you have 365 days worth of records that need to put into one form for the government to understand that you paid enough money to them.
This means that accountants are busy and work overtime during tax time so that they can analyze their clients' records and make sure they are reporting the most accurate data to the government.
Plus when you are looking to hire an accountant during tax time, you have just done some very poor planning and you won't exactly have the chance to be able to find someone that you feel a connection to, someone who fully understands your business.
With the major shift to so many online businesses over the recent years, there are still a lot of accountants who have NOT made the shift to fully understanding online businesses, their finances and how they work. This also presents an obstacle for you as an online business owner. You need to have someone in your corner who understands online business, specifically your business (not all businesses are the same) and be able to help you classify your transactions correctly.
Also check out: Making Your Business Recordkeeping Easy
When is the Best Time to Hire an Accountant?
The simple answer to this question is anytime outside of tax season.
But the answer you need to hear is when you first start your business.
There are going to be financial questions that come up in your business. And you are going to need to have someone in your business to be able to ask these questions to.
If you have a bookkeeper that works with you regularly, then you will most likely only have to talk to your accountant either quarterly or yearly. But you have an accountant on your team who is there for you.
When you hire an accountant from the beginning, this also gives you a chance to go out and set up meetings with potential accountants so that you can meet them, get a feel for their personal energy and vibe, understand how they do business, how they can help you with your business and whether or not they understand online business.
When are the Worst Times to Hire a Bookkeeper?
The worst time to hire a bookkeeper is when you need your records prepared for your taxes in little to no time; when you need to see what your business money looks like for the past year and it's already March of the next year; or basically anytime you want a rush job on getting your business money stuff in order.
Bookkeepers can work some magic, but analyzing and sorting a year's worth of data overnight, that's not possible.
The quicker you want a job done with a bookkeeper, the more you are going to pay.
Finally take your taxes from frustration, chaos and confusion to calm and organized.
Learn everything you need to know to master your business finances and taxes explained in plain English.
When are the Best Times to Hire a Bookkeeper?
Again, right from the start of your business.
You don't even want to know how many clients have come to me and said they have years, yes plural, of bookkeeping that needs to be done. They didn't know how to do it and were afraid to hire someone to help.
So they just kept going on without having someone on their team to help them with their business money.
Then, they get a letter from the IRS saying they owe money or their taxes haven't been filed.
They can't file their taxes if they don't know what any of their business accounts even look like.
Save yourself the time, the hassle and the stress and hire a bookkeeper from the beginning of your business.
Just like when hiring an accountant, do your research, find someone who has a good vibe and energy and someone who understands your business.
Also make sure you hire a bookkeeper who has an education in accounting, not just someone who decided they were good with numbers and wanted to be a bookkeeper.
What about a financial strategist?
A financial strategist is someone who has an accounting and financial background and can help you dig into your money stuff even deeper in your business.
In order to really get help from your financial strategist, you are going to need to have a bookkeeper so that your business money stuff is all sorted and organized.
When everything is sorted and organized, the financial strategist will be able to take the numbers that you have in your business and help you analyze them even deeper so that you can take your business to the next level quicker.
The best time to hire a financial strategist is after you've been in business for at least a year and have a year's worth of data sorted and organized.
The worst time to hire a financial strategist is before you are making a decent amount of money in your business because there aren't any patterns that can help you scale your business even further.
Also check out: Money Mistakes Every Business Owner Needs to Avoid
The Best and Worst Times to Hire Accountants, Bookkeepers and Financial Strategists
In conclusion, there are best and worst times to hire accountants, bookkeepers and financial strategists in your business.
You should have an accountant and a bookkeeper in your corner from the beginning of your business, even if you think you can't afford them.
If you think you can't afford to have an accountant and a bookkeeper now, wait until you get the letter that you are being audited, then you really won't be able to afford them, but you also can't afford to go without.
But also when you are hiring, make sure you interview your accountants and bookkeepers so that you can understand who they are, how they can help you in your business and get a feel for their energy and vibe.
A financial strategist is someone who can help you scale and grow your business and after a year or more in business is when you are going to want to have one in your corner.
Tell me, do you have an accountant, a bookkeeper and a financial strategist in your business? When are you going to get them to help you?
