Accounting and Bookkeeping Articles

Become a Profit and Growth Expert

Accountants offer valuable services-services every business needs.  In fact, businesses are required by law to keep books.  So how could you possibly increase the value of your accounting services when they are already extremely valuable?  By becoming a Profit and Growth Expert!

What is a Profit and Growth Expert?

A Profit and Growth Expert uses information from the accounting system to analyze a business’s fiscal standing, sharing that analysis with those who can use it to make more profitable financial decisions.

A Profit and Growth Expert is a proactive accountant who realizes that the information he/she generates provides crucial data that can make or break a business.  It’s the accountant’s job to share this data with business owners, explaining it in such a way that they both understand what the information indicates and can use it to make important business decisions.

Profit and Growth Accounting

When you enroll in the Professional Bookkeeper Program you not only learn small business accounting, but you are trained to watch key indicators that will help you diagnose a business’s health and recommend a course of action that will improve its profitability.  This will enhance your service offerings and enable you to market this competitive advantage.  Here’s what one student had to say about her new skills:

I am about half way through the program and, in the next month or so, plan…to start visiting my local businesses.  I have been focusing on the marketing side of things and it seems like every meeting I have with a potential client I am able to close.  So far since purchasing the program I have about 6 more monthly clients.  I am sure that 50% of those transactions were closed because [of] improvements in my sales techniques.  I love the fact that I am not an Accountant or Enrolled agent, I am now a “Profit, Growth, and Tax Expert.”  It does work…. -Lynette R., CA

Using the skills mastered in the Professional Bookkeeper Program, Lynette has been able enhance her tax practice before she even completes the entire course.  You can do the same for your accounting practice, and within weeks will be able market yourself as the “Profit, Growth, and Accounting Expert.”  Imagine how appealing that will be for prospective clients who are interested in increasing their profitability and ensuring the growth of their small business.

The Profit and Growth Expert Tutorial

If you would like to learn more about becoming a Profit and Growth Expert, order our informational DVD “Start Today.”  When you do, you will learn how to do the following:

• Make over $80,000 per year working from home!
• Secure more clients than you can handle
• Charge your clients so you can afford to take that next vacation, and they get such a great deal they will be telling all their friends about you!
• Get started for next to nothing and make BIG BUCKS within weeks!

Change the course of your practice.  Take action now to become a Profit and Growth Expert.  For less than $10 you can order your own copy of “Start Today” or you can watch the video online today for free!

Wise Budgeting Tips

As an accountant you probably think you’ve got your budget under control.  You know numbers and watch your spending to ensure that you are managing your money well.  But unless you’re applying crucial budgeting strategies, you’re not using this valuable tool to its full advantage.  Here are 5 tips that will help:

1. Ensure your budget aligns with your business strategy.

This may seem obvious, but in the day-to-day tasks required in business management, strategy may be forgotten.  There are fires to put out, emergency expenses to pay, and last-minute purchases to make.  So unless you’re vigilantly monitoring your outflow, your strategy may be nickel and dimed into extinction.

If you don’t yet have a strategy, now is the time to develop one.  Does your business require more aggressive marketing techniques?  Are you attempting to grow your firm by hiring a support staff?  Or do you want to focus on retaining current clients?  Whatever your strategy, you should devise a budget that supports and sustains it.

2. Assess your Chart of Accounts.

As an accountant you are very familiar with the Chart of Accounts.  The Chart of Accounts enables you to set up categories that align with your management strategies.  It also enables you to establish a healthy balance between control and responsibility regarding business spending.

3. Establish accountability.

Anyone responsible for spending within your business needs to be accountable for his/her choices.  You may currently be the only person responsible.  However, it’s important that you acknowledge and assess your spending and then make any necessary changes.  You may determine that your budgetary items are best distributed among control areas like marketing, skills development, client retention, management, etc.  This may provide you with more control over outflow.

4. Regularly review your budget.

Establishing a budget and then ensuring that it aligns with your business strategy is only part of this valuable process.  The true benefit of budgeting comes when you regularly review your budget with key players in your business.  In your review you can compare budgeted expenses with actual expenses and discuss discrepancies.  You can also talk with those responsible for various expenses and see how they might revise some of their spending choices.  This is also a good time to implement necessary changes and assess any changes implemented since your last budgetary review.

5. Revise as necessary.

A budget is not set in stone.  As mentioned in the previous tip, as you assess and review your progress it’s important that you make necessary changes.  In fact, that’s the beauty of budgeting.  As you monitor your income and outflow, you can make changes that will influence the future profitability of your business.

As an accountant you may assume that you’ve been using this tool to its full advantage.  But if you haven’t been applying the above tips, you may be missing out on some of the best benefits of budgeting.

QuickBooks Made Profitable

Budgeting isn’t the only tool you can use to increase your business’s profitability.  Our program, QuickBooks Made Profitable, will teach you just how to use QuickBooks accounting software to attract and retain more clients.

Nearly 80% of small businesses use Intuit’s QuickBooks software.  While other programs may be useful, QuickBooks has definitely captured the small business market.  Mastering QuickBooks will not only enable you to better manage your budget and keep more efficient records, but it will also help you teach your clients how to use the software so that you can get the information you need which makes your job much easier.  This program will teach you how to leverage your time while saving clients money in taxes and helping them increase their profits.  What client wouldn’t be interested in that?  We’ll teach you how to use this valuable software package to generate more income!

Don’t wait to grow your business and experience the success your budget will certainly help you achieve.  There are countless potential clients out there in need of these specific services.  You can be the one to provide them.  Order QuickBooks Made Profitable today!

Some people are under the impression that leaders are bossy, manipulating, and uninterested in the ideas and opinions of their subordinates.  While there may be countless supervisors who do indeed fit this description, that does not make them good leaders.  As a small business owner who may manage a staff of employees or is looking to hire employees sometime in the future, you should know what makes a leader truly effective.  Here are seven characteristics you should consider developing:

1. Visionary

Theodore M. Hesburgh, retired president of the University of Notre Dame, once said, “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”  Leaders envision what can, but hasn’t yet, been achieved.  They have a clear picture of where they want their business to go and how it can get there.  Unwilling to settle for the status quo, leaders are striving for improvement, progress, and continued and amplified success.  More than that, good leaders can share this vision with their staff and communicate it in a way that makes it clear, reasonable, and most importantly, inspirational.

2. Ethical

Trust is earned, and unless a leader practices good ethics and has integrity, it will be difficult for a staff to trust him/her.  Honest, hard-working, reliable, equitable, and respectful are all characteristics of an ethical leader.

3. Enthusiastic

Enthusiasm is contagious and when you’re passionate about what you do, generally your employees will feel that enthusiasm and begin to reflect it in their own work.  As you interact with staff you must share your passion, enthusiasm, and excitement for your business.

4. Confident

It’s hard to follow a leader if he/she does not appear confident.  You must not only feel confident in your managerial approach, but you must also exude confidence.  However, confidence doesn’t equate to blind arrogance.  It does, however, communicate a cool assurance that you have the resources and know-how to get from point A to B.  Only when you have confidence will employees be willing to follow you there.

5. Motivational

If you possess vision, enthusiasm and confidence, motivating your staff will probably come easily. Leaders must be conscious of every communication they share with employees and ensure that they are positive and inspiring.

6. Open-minded

No one likes a smarty pants.  You must be willing to listen to your employees and the feedback they have to offer.  You might be surprised at the good ideas they have regarding your business and its profitability.  Be willing to listen to what they have to say and explore the possibility of their ideas.

7. Personable

Good leaders are approachable and easy to communicate with.  You should practice an open-door policy in relation to your employees and those things they would like to discuss with you.  Being kind and considerate to them will promote good feelings in the workplace.

While you may not feel like a leader right now, you can become one that employees would be proud to follow.  Evaluate your current leadership style and see how you might implement two or more of the above traits.  And give yourself the time to learn and improve.  You may be surprised at the natural leadership instinct within you.

If you would like to grow your business to sustain more employees, you should consider enrolling in the Universal Practice Builder Program.  This course will teach you how to market your unique skills and attract qualified clients, all while increasing your bottom line and improving your marketing strategies.  To learn more, visit our website and listen to testimonials of our very own graduates, sharing what they found most valuable in this program.

What It Takes to Start Your Own Accounting Practice

Hutzpah, also spelled “chutzpah,” is a Yiddish word defined by the wiktionary as “nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence.”  While that may sound like a negative term, it is a characteristic that many entrepreneurs share.  In fact, many people utter the term with reference and upmost respect.  Wow, he sure has hutzpah.  Or, I wish I had enough hutzpah to do that.

Starting Your Own Business Takes Hutzpah

You’ve got to believe that you will achieve success when you first start your own business.  Without that “arrogant courage,” you will always be second-guessing your decision.  And doubt in an incredible energy drain; it will preoccupy you and, if left unchecked, will turn into self-fulfilling prophesy.

So if you don’t have hutzpah, you need to get some.

Universal Accounting Center (UAC) Makes It Easy

While UAC doesn’t necessarily hand out hutzpah along with professional certification, our graduates leave our programs with the confidence necessary to start their own businesses.  Read what they’re saying about our Professional Bookkeeper Program:

This course has literally changed my life. When I started I hardly knew the difference between a debit and a credit. Now I have the confidence to tackle almost any type of business and do their books.-A. Moody

Great practical course providing you with the skills and self-confidence to go out and build your own bookkeeping/accounting service.-B. Pace

The subject matter covered in your course has been invaluable. I have worked in the accounting field for the past six years; your course gave me the training and confidence I needed to advance in this area.-G. Morton

This course is definitely NOT just an introductory course, although it is wonderful even for beginners. It is a comprehensive accounting and bookkeeping course that truly taught me everything I would need to know to start my own accounting business, and gain clients with confidence.-J. Young

What makes this program so special?  Taught by seasoned professionals who understand the unique demand for small-business accountants, this self-paced program will train you using a hands-on instructional approach designed to give you the experience necessary to start a business’s books from scratch.  Whether you’ve been working in the accounting profession for years or have little experience at all, this course will help you gain the knowledge and hutzpah necessary to start your own accounting practice.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program

This course is comprised of four modules contained on DVD so you can view them again and again.

• • Module 1-Accounting Made Easy
  • Module 2-Practical Small Business Applications
  • Module 3-Advancing your “Account-Ability”
  • Module 4-Building a Successful Accounting Service

Each one comes with its own manual where you are expected to practice the concepts and skills you learn.  Upon completion, you will take an exam through which you can earn professional certification, demonstrating your expertise to prospective clients.

In addition to all that you will also receive two additional months of follow-up support, your own customize business website, and two additional practice sets.

Offer Complementary Services and Increase Your Bottom Line

If you order now, we will increase the value of this package by adding our newly-released 2008 version of the Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide (PBG) to QuickBooks.  More than 80% of small businesses use this accounting software to manage their finances.  By mastering this software, you can begin offering QuickBooks setup, consultation, and help services.  And when these same clients need a little accounting help, who will they turn to?  YOU, of course!

This newly updated program, written by QuickBooks Pro Advisor Brent Peterson, includes step-by-step instructions that will lead you through the accounting process.  Also included:

• • 16 interactive CDs
  • 4 full-color instructional manuals
  • Training designed for all user-types
  • Over 300 thoroughly-covered topics
  • Hands-on training that will enable you to practice all necessary QuickBooks functions
  • The ability to earn the QuickBooks Specialist designation

This training program beats others on the market, hands down.  And when you purchase this in addition to the Professional Bookkeeper Program you are able to offer a handful of valuable services that will attract even more clients and increase your bottom line.

Get the training necessary to develop a little hutzpah-your new accounting practice depends upon it.  Order today!