Ja-Naé Duane

Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner looking to outsource your accounting. Here is a segment from my book, “How to Start Your Business with $100” due out this May:

Did you know that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers?  For this very reason, it will benefit your business to know WHAT your customer needs, and WHY they buy your products/services.  Chances are, your loyal customers return over and over again because they trust YOUR skills in what you do best.

OUTSOURCING menial tasks can offer you more time to do just that.  When you can focus on what you love to do, you can enlist others to do your paper-pushing (or, as I like to call it, your “dirty work”).

Outsource your accounting (bookkeeping, payroll, financial analysis, tax-related issues)

I am no math whiz, so learning and maintaining detailed financial records often results in wasted time and added stress.  I once tried setting up my accounting in Excel; while I love this program, it resulted in a lot of wasted time – time I could have spent making a new business contact or taking a trip!  This is why I utilize online resources to help maintain my finance-related affairs.

GnuCash^TM is financial-accounting software for personal and small-business use. It is FREE and available for use on most platforms (ie, Mac, Linux, and Windows).  Gnucash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.

FreshBooks^TM is a bit different.  This online invoicing and time-tracking service allows you to save time on billing, get paid faster, customize your invoices (giving your business an über-professional look).  There are a few different plans to choose from, all of which are based on the number of active clients you can manage, the number of invoices you can send per month, and the number of staff that can access your account.  There is a free account-type available, but it is for the small business that rarely sends invoices or receives payment. Check out the website and decide which plan would be best for you; no matter what the cost, there is a 30-day trial to be sure you are pleased with the service.

Also, if you are looking for cool Twitter followers, I recommend Freshbooks former Head of Magic, Saul Colt. He is great and he constantly cracks me up!

See you next time!