Should you hire a bookkeeper? Or should you just keep doing your own business bookkeeping (even though you really don't have the time or even knowledge about what you are doing to keep doing your own)?
And if you are really honest with yourself, doing your own bookkeeping for your business just stresses you out!
It's not something you even really have the mental capacity to do right now.
Let alone something you don't even want to do.
So that is why you really should hire a bookkeeper to help you in your business.
But when you do hire a bookkeeper, what can you expect to happen?
Your bookkeeper is going to request access to all of your financial means in your business.
Bookkeeping can't be done without access to your financial information in your business. Your bookkeeper is going to need access to your bank account (you should be able to create an account for read only access through your bank). Plus anything else you use: credit card, PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc. to spend and receive money in your business.
Trust is going to be a big thing that comes up here because you are giving someone else access to your money.
I always include a clause in my contracts about the ethics of having access to your money, as well as verbally telling all of my clients that I don't care that much about your money to do anything with it. I have my own money available to me. And this may be something you do with any bookkeeper that you hire.
But also think about this, you give access to your virtual assistant to set up your payment methods and sales pages, etc. This is something that you are going to have to give to your bookkeeper as well.
The only other option for not giving your bookkeeper access to your banking information is for you to make sure that it all downloads to your bookkeeping program (Freshbooks, Quickbooks, etc), keeping the login information up to date in those programs, and downloading the monthly transaction detail for your bookkeeper every month. (If you do this, then you might as well do the bookkeeping yourself!)
The point of hiring a bookkeeper is to make the financial aspects of your business easier for you.
You won't have to rush to prepare the right documents for tax time.
Tax time is stressful enough.
But every year, there are so many entrepreneurs who wait until tax time to get everything together to file their tax return.
This just makes me want to bang my head against the wall for so many reasons.
If you don't have the time or knowledge to do your bookkeeping yourself, then hire someone who can help you.
And make sure you hire someone to work with you all year long to keep up with your bookkeeping, don't look to hire someone in January, February or even March of the year you need to file your tax return. (It will end up costing you more than it does to keep up with it all year long.)
Not only does having your bookkeeping get done regularly lessen your stress level, but it also provides you with tools to review and analyze your own business and your business finances on a regular basis.
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.
You'll be in a better position to analyze your business finances regularly.
As a business owner, you should be analyzing your business finances - both what comes in and what goes out.
When you hire a bookkeeper, you can now analyze your money even easier because the reports are prepared for you. This makes these reports easy to look at and analyze.
Plus, you can also have your bookkeeper help you analyze the reports and ask your bookkeeper financial questions to help you in your business too.
If you regularly analyze your business finances, you will start to notice how things change in your business.
Where are you spending money that you don't need to?
What are you buying that you aren't even using?
What are your best sellers when it comes to your products, courses and services?
What makes you the most money in your business?
What doesn't really make you money in your business?
What services do you buy that help you make more money in your business?
Where are you wasting money in your business?
This analysis is a regular part of being a business owner and seeing how well (or how poor) your business is performing and making you money.
You'll be getting something that stresses you out off your plate.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if bookkeeping stresses you out, then get it off your plate.
Doing things in your business that are stressful and hard for you, also makes your business performance decline too. (Ask me how I know.)
There is no point in waiting until tax time to do your business bookkeeping. Honestly, it should be done year round.
In my experience, most business owners are stressed about their business finances. So allow someone else to help you out with something that just isn't your own personal wheelhouse. And something that honestly holds you back from growing your business even more.
You'll be able to grow your business more.
When you take the stressful situations off your plate and take the time to analyze your business finances, you will also find ways to continue to grow your business and make even more money.
And who doesn't want to hire someone in their business who ends up helping your business make more money? (That is the point of being in business, right? Make more money?)
Your business is one big experiment finding what works. But also in order to find what works, you also have to do regular analysis. But how can you do this analysis if you don't actually complete your bookkeeping on a regular basis?
Expectations of Hiring a Bookkeeper in Your Online Business
The ROI of hiring a bookkeeper in your online business is there. While your bookkeeper will do most of the work, you will still need to do some analysis on your business finances as well, plus your bookkeeper can also help you with your analysis if you ask them.
For most business owners, bookkeeping is a part of business that just stresses them out and makes them bury their head in the sand.
Stop being that person and get the help you need in your business. Make sure you are hiring the right person for your business that fully understands online business.
So do yourself a favor, hire a bookkeeper and grow your business faster.
Next Read: Making Your Business Recordkeeping Easy
