Accounting and Bookkeeping Articles

You’re not the only small business owner feeling a little stressed this year.  Many are panicking at the state of the economy, and their apprehension is negatively impacting their businesses.  The difference between your experience and that of others can be found in the manner in which you handle your stress.  Unless you take active measures to alleviate and manage your anxiety, your anxiety will manage your business.  Here are six suggestions in coping with job-related stress:

1. Exercise

This is an age-old stress-relieving tactic.  It releases endorphins in the bloodstream which will enable you to feel more energized.  It releases serotonin in the brain which will enable you to be more alert.  It increases your body’s immune system which will enable you to better fight illnesses, both small and large.  And last, but definitely not least, exercise is a natural relaxant that will alleviate stress.

2. Engage

It’s important that you find a passion to which you can dedicate a little down time.  BusinessWeek.com, in their slideshow entitled “8 Ways to Reduce Stress,”  told of Tim Castaneda, owner of Zumba Mexican Grille, who is inspired by live music and performs weekly in a local band in order to keep his stress at bay.  Laura Wright, president of CSW, finds her solace riding horses two to three times a week.  While accounting may be your passion, you should search for something on which your livelihood does not depend in order to decompress and distress.  It will prove to be a healthy distraction.

3. Meditate

Whether you yoga, practice visualization, or pray, meditation is a soothing exercise that will not only release stress but inspire creativity and a stronger connection to your own intuition.  Meditating just 15 minutes a day can enhance your outlook, energy level, and ability to cope.

4. Volunteer

When you volunteer, you remove yourself from your own stressors in order to focus on someone or something else.  This alone will distract you from your own concerns in order to alleviate another’s.  In addition, the positive feelings that come from helping someone else will enhance your mood and make you more positive, emotions that will definitely improve your ability to better manage your business as well as your stress.

5. Laugh

Laughter is the best medicine.  Not only has it been shown to improve a body’s ability to overcome illness, but it lowers levels of stress hormones in the body, inducing relaxation and enhancing your mood.  To inject a little humor into your life, try watching comedies, reading the occasional humor column, or telling a daily joke.

While there’s no cure-all solution for stress, it’s important thing that you take measures to better manage it.  Whether you meditate, volunteer, or exercise, you must take action to alleviate some of the stress you may be experiencing right now.    You may feel you can’t take the additional time to implement any of these tips.  But maybe the question you should be asking yourself is, can your business afford for you not to?

Visit Universal Accounting Center (UAC)

If you were wondering how, exactly, Universal Accounting Center might benefit you and your business, visit our website and take an electronic tour.  You’ll learn more about our programs, our products, and other services we offer.  Don’t wait to find out how UAC could change your professional future.  Take a tour today!

Resources

Evans, Teri.  “8 Ways to Reduce Stress.”  BusinessWeek.com

True Life Success

Wouldn’t you like to sit down and have a good, long discussion with someone who’s living your dream?  Someone who could offer advice, tell you what to do, what not to do, and prove that what you’ve always wanted is possible?  If you want to build a thriving accounting practice, then we have the motivational conversation for you.

Scott Barhold completed the Universal Practice Builder program last year and he’s currently finishing the Professional Bookkeeper Program.  Learn from his experience and see just how these two Universal programs can change the face of your business, for the better.

Growing His Practice

The UPB program is designed to teach financial professionals how to better market their services; it also guarantees that graduates will increase their annual billings by at least $30,000 in just 12

months.  When asked how the program has benefitted his bottom line Scott replied, “My practice has grown from $36k to $87k in the first 6 months, and this year my current projections are about $127K.  I did this by learning how to market what I do.”  That’s more than an initial $50,000 in increased billings with a projected increase of over $90,000 this year, and Scott has accomplished this in a very tenuous financial market.

Scott explained, “The greatest benefit [of the UPB] for me was the understanding of what I needed to make my practice a success and the ability to achieve it.  [It] taught me how to successfully market my product and say the right thing to the right people in the right way at the right time.”

He goes on to say that “going to Utah for the UPB workshop can be the difference between watching a sporting event and playing in it.  It is truly the dynamics that change.  You will come out with more than you could possibly imagine, and a road map of how to achieve it.”

Growing His Expertise and Experience

The Professional Bookkeeper Program is intended to train individuals in the day-to-day tasks of small-business accounting, enabling graduates to earn valuable professional certification.  While he has yet to finish the PB Program, Scott feels that the PB designation will help set him apart from his competition.

Much of Scott’s success stems from his positive attitude regarding his business and his life.  He realizes that his daily tasks are the building blocks for the future success of his business.

Scott described to us a typical day at the office:  “My day usually starts with a day plan, the tasks and meetings that I need to accomplish, and a look at the work in progress.  Each day has some marketing involved from e-mails, to letters, to advertisements, and networking.  Then it is off to execute the day plan.  All tasks must be checked before I can go home.  No sales day can end on a no; each must end on a positive.  This lays seed today for a better tomorrow.  To let a day end on a failure is to let today finish better than tomorrow will be.  That is not an acceptable direction for my plan, my business, or my life.”

Client Relationships

Scott believes that the true value of his clients is not in the quantity but in the quality.  “For instance,” Scott says, “One of my clients has over 100 gas stations- [the quality] is in what I bring to him and his businesses. I am currently bringing a uniformity in reporting of income and expenses.  This will make his life easier so he can do more of what he wants to do.”

Scott finds that his clients value face-time and communication.  He explains, “I think the service that I sell is peace of mind.  My clients know that they are going to spend time with me, and that they will feel more at-ease about looking at their financial report.  I constantly hear clients say, ‘My old accountant never went over this with me.’”

Challenges and Rewards

The most challenging element of his job is in finding balance.  “There is a delicate balance between marketing and production.  I had to learn how to effectively delegate tasks in order for the practice to grow.  I love what I do, and I have come to learn that it is a valuable skill to business owners, that many do not possess. But without delegation, I am limited to the amount of help I can give.”

“The most rewarding aspect is that I can help so many others get what they want.  Nobody wants a business that is flailing about.  By doing what I know best, many times I can help them see their business in a whole new light.  It is rewarding that my clients realize the value that I bring to their business–the relationship that builds as we set plans in motion to meet their goals and objectives.  I actually enjoy watching as we overcome obstacles as a team and celebrate milestone successes with my clients.”

Scott’s Advice to Those Starting and/or Growing Their Own Bookkeeping Practice

“Know what you are getting into.  Your clients will rely on you for information; spend the time to become an expert in your field so that you can help them… become an expert in theirs.  And to take something that I have learned from UAC - Believe in yourself, decide what you want, plan for success, and execute your plan!”

Learn more about these two programs that have helped Scott achieve the success he’s currently experiencing by visiting Universal Accounting Center today.

By this time next year you could be knee-deep in tax returns, making as much money in four months’ time as you might an entire year bookkeeping.  Within a few short weeks you could easily become a full-service financial provider by gaining valuable tax preparation skills.  Not only will this keep you busy year-round, but it will increase your income significantly.  Not many business owners anticipate experiencing a substantial increase in profitability this year.  You could be one of the few that do.

A Recession-Proof Profession

In these tough economic times, there’s no profession with greater job security than tax preparation.  Nearly every adult needs to submit a return yearly.  This makes your prospective client base vast.  And with regular and complex changes to the tax code, most individuals and small businesses look to a competent professional to file their returns.  Those competent professionals charge upwards of $75 per hour.

We’re guessing you already have a handful, if not more, accounting clients.  Tax preparation is a complementary service which would appeal to many of your current clients.  You already manage all their financial data; it would be a natural transition for them to have you prepare their tax returns as well.  In this, you could begin making money as a tax preparer quite easily without increasing your marketing efforts.

How Simple Is It?

By taking UAC’s Professional Tax Preparer program, you will learn all you need to know to handle just about any individual or business return you might encounter.  The four volumes of printed manuals combine with the four sets of DVDs to provide clear explanations of the broadest range of basic tax concepts, with specific examples of how these concepts apply to real taxpayers.  This program also includes hands-on practice with actual IRS tax forms, practical tips for tax professionals and their clients, and multiple-choice quizzes to test your knowledge.

The four modules that comprise this course are as follows:

Module 1: Establishing the Tax Foundation

Module 2: Becoming the 1040 Expert

Module 3: Profitable Business Returns

Module 4: Building Your Successful Tax Practice

We believe that the Professional Tax Preparer course is not only the best tax training on the market but the best tax training course of its kind, bar none.  By enrolling in this stellar course you will be able to change the nature of your business, enhancing your profitability, and perhaps, ensuring your practice’s ability to survive the recession.  As you enhance your service offerings, you take an offensive stance in the current market while many of your competitors have already retreated to a defensive position.  You gain a competitive edge and secure your success in a tentative economy.  That’s a win-win scenario.

This reasonable investment will provide you will long-term results and a significant return.  Take advantage of our newly updated course materials and enroll now!

You’re probably starting to prepare for tax season yourself, at least when it comes to your own tax liability.  But what if you were able to add tax preparation services to your menu?  Once trained, you could begin earning as much as you do in one year as a bookkeeper in the four short months that comprise tax season.  Does that sound like a lucrative business move?  Most definitely!

Increase Your Options and Your Earning Potential

Becoming a tax preparer opens up countless career options.  You could supplement your current income with part-time work in the evenings or on the weekends.  You could turn your accounting/bookkeeping practice into a one-stop financial shop by adding tax preparation to your services.  Or you could replace your full-time income by becoming a Professional Tax Preparer.  Whichever option appeals to you, the training necessary to become a tax preparer isn’t as long and painful as you might expect.  Universal Accounting Center has made it easy.

Our newly updated program includes the following:

• Informative video instruction
• Full 1040 training
• Full business return (1065, 1120, 1120S) training
• One Year Follow-up Support from expert tax preparers

Many programs will lecture you on tax law and preparation practices, but Universal’s program is much more effective because it provides you with the hands-on practice that will perfect your skills.  Theory is taught as guiding principles, but the focus is on actually doing taxes to gain proficiency.

The PTP course consists of 20 hours of video training. Most tax preparation courses include books and some worksheets. Our training uses engaging and entertaining tax preparers who give practical advice on tax issues; they also provide real-world solutions that will give you the edge in productivity and profitability. Our instructors know what challenges you will face because they have been there themselves.

To be honest, you don’t need a Professional Tax Preparer designation to prepare taxes.  Currently, there are no qualifications for any individual to complete tax returns.  But in today’s world of complex tax laws and increasing tax fraud occurrences, taxpayers are looking for specialists with credentials.  It affords clients peace of mind to know that the individual they’re working with is qualified and knowledgeable.  It also affords the tax preparer peace of mind to know they’ve been properly trained.  Universal recognizes the value of professional certification and awards the Professional Tax Preparer designation to those who pass the final exam with a score of 90% or higher.

Income from a tax preparation business peaks during the first four months of the year. Many professional tax preparers charge $100 per hour or more, enabling them to work 4 to 6 months per year and semi-retire the rest of the year. Would you be interested in increasing your income by that much?  By adding tax preparation services to your menu, you’ll increase your bottom line significantly which could enable you to ride out the recession in comfort and ease.  If practically every adult must pay taxes, tax preparers not only have the largest potential client base of any profession around, they also enjoy serious job security.  Tax preparation is a recession-proof occupation.

Be one of the first to enroll in our newly enhanced Professional Tax Preparer program.  We’ve updated the program to include the latest changes to the tax code.  In a few short weeks you could be ready to prepare individual and business returns for current and prospective clients.  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.  Enroll in the Professional Tax Preparer program today!

The Dos and Don’ts of Streamlining Your Budget

In a recent article on Entrepreneur.com, C.J. Price examines “Smart Moves in a Bad Economy,” suggesting expenses small businesses should cut and others they should avoid.  In this article we examine four of Price’s suggestions and add one of our own.

1. Do eliminate high-maintenance clients.

Some clients cost you more in time than they are worth.  Take a good look at your client roster and see if you have high-maintenance clients that suck more from your business than they return in fees.  Of course, in the current economy, beggars can’t be choosers.  So you should only consider “firing” significantly costly clients that can be emotionally, mentally, and financially draining.

2. Don’t eliminate good employees.

Most small businesses are examining their staff to see who they might be able to eliminate in order to save some money.  Many, in their panic, layoff valuable employees who bring money into the business.  Don’t make that same mistake.  Only fire those who underperform and don’t significantly contribute to your business’s profitability.

3. Do streamline your technical budget.

Many businesses, especially those in the service industry, put their hard-earned money on high-end technical equipment.  Luckily, an accounting firm doesn’t require high-end equipment.  If you find yourself in a pinch, scale back on your computer equipment and unnecessary software.  Instead of buying the latest and greatest laptop, consider purchasing the floor model to enjoy significant savings.  You can also save lots of money in buying used equipment.

4. Don’t overcut your marketing budget.

While you can cut back on your marketing budget, you should remember that no marketing means no growth, and in this economy you can’t afford not to grow.  Leave enough money in your marketing budget to adequately promote your services.

5. Do add low-cost complementary services.

It never hurts to make more money by adding complementary services to your menu.  And when you select a low-cost service, all the better.  Consider purchasing Universal Accounting Center’s QuickBooks Made Profitable (QBMP).  For next to nothing you can use your QuickBooks expertise to attract more clients and increase your bottom line!

80% of small businesses use Intuit’s QuickBooks software.  Once you complete QuickBooks Made Profitable, you will be able to use our proven system to attract more clients with your QuickBooks expertise.  Not only that, but when you add QuickBooks setup, help and consultation services to your menu, you enhance your financial service offerings and widen your customer appeal.

Take advantage of this marvelous opportunity to increase your bottom line.  Order now!

Now may be the time to significantly cut business costs.  But in your haste to save your business, you must avoid cutting that which is important.  Be cautious and thoughtful as you move forward!

Resources

Price, C.J.  “Smart Moves in a Bad Economy.”  Dec. 2008  Entrepreneur.com