Grow Your Video Business 203: The Importance of Proper Bookkeeping to Save Your Business w/ Jeremy Doorn
Tax planning. Just those words make me shudder. Over the last 17 years, I’ve learned some hard lessons on this subject. I really wish I knew what I know now when I got started. It would have saved a lot of worry and frustration. While this is not the most glamorous topic, this is the kind of stuff that makes or breaks a business.
Key Takeaways
It’s well worth the upfront costs of having an expert do your books. Not only can they save you money at tax time, but they will help you avoid making costly mistakes in the first place.
About Jeremy Doorn
As a ten-year-plus employee of Core Wealth Management, Jeremy Doorn helps small businesses do a better job of tax planning. In addition to firm administration, he handles business advisory services and business succession planning for his clients.
The Importance of Expert Help
Jeremy tells us that you don’t need to be a tax or accounting expert to run a successful business. But you might want to find one to help you out. Getting at least a basic education on how to run your numbers will save a lot of trouble further down the road. Furthermore, having an accountant or other tax expert on your side will help identify tax benefits that you may have otherwise missed and avoid costly mistakes.
Bookkeeping as Business Strategy
In some ways, proper bookkeeping is aligned with the strategy of your business. When your revenue and expenses are truly known, you can identify your profit. You can’t make the best decisions for your company without this knowledge. This is your business that you’ve created. It’s your responsibility to make the most informed decisions that you can to make it profitable. That doesn’t mean you need to be an expert on all things. But you do need to find the right advice to make it a success.
What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned about taxes or bookkeeping since you started your business? Has a tax expert saved you money and helped you grow your business? Tell me about it in the comments on the episode page!
In This Episode:
- The peace of mind that comes with having an expert look over your business’ numbers [5:00]
- What a tax expert can offer that software can’t [10:10]
- How to avoid tax planning mistakes before they become a problem [16:00]
- Common mistakes in overlooked tax savings opportunities [20:45]
- Software and apps to make your bookkeeping easier [26:32]
- The most important financial metrics to pay attention to [32:40]
Quotes
“It’s about knowing where your business is at and not having to put all the work in yourself. It’s this whole peace of mind that you have somebody looking at your numbers.” [6:34]
“A tax return is just a scoreboard for last year’s score. That’s fine, but you can’t do anything with a tax return this year that’s for last year. You gotta do it currently while you’re going through it.” [12:18]
“You need to go do creative stuff. Go tell stories. Go do all that stuff. You don’t need to be doing bookkeeping. Once you get to a certain point, you got to start looking into unloading that onto somebody else.” [17:22]
“Every business is different. You need to pick out what is most important for your business depending on what you’re actually doing… and track those.” [33:30]
Links:
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Additional Links:
Check out the full show notes page
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