Best small business bookkeeping according to redditors

Doing this while you have a full time job is the perfect way to start. More on that here.

Step 1: Do a quick and dirty market study - start searching and calling competitors. Use trends.google.com to find out which company in your town is the largest (most search volume) and study them. Are they doing digital marketing? Are they putting out good content (content marketing) on their website? Call them and play a customer. Ask them 100 questions about their process and their lead time. Lead time is the most important. If they are booked out a few weeks you know they are overloaded with customers. Thats a good sign. Move on to step 2.

Step 2: Buy a web domain and hosting for $1.99 per month and build a WordPress site. Get a Google My Business location at your home. Get some reviews on here as fast as possible. I wrote down all the early tools I used here if you'd like to check it out. Google is going to power your business early on. Get a logo and some door hanging flyers put together using a freelancing site. Get your logo embroidered on a nice polo shirt.

Step 3: Write some great content focused around keywords in your town here. Use ahrefs.com to research the keywords you want to target and build some DIY guides for homeowners in your town using those keywords. Some really useful stuff that people will engage with. Thats content marketing and its the best way to get a leg up on google. More on that here.

Step 4: Consider getting a part time for a painting company that specializes in interior and/or exterior on the weekends. Get a feel for the sprayers, rollers equipment, methods and get better at painting. Speed is the key in this business. Offer to do some painting for friends for free (if they buy the paint). Get those friends to take pictures of your work and leave you a nice detailed review on your Google My Business location. Get at least 5 reviews. Have them call you and get directions to your location and click through to your website before leaving the review so Google knows it isn't fake.

Step 5: Marketing. Watch Zillow and Realtor.com and filter for homes that are recently sold in your target areas. New homeowners are exponentially more likely to want interior and exterior painting services than a random joe off the street. Put on your polo and a pair of khakis and go to the homes that recently sold and knock on the door. Smile at them and shake their hand firmly. Tell them about yourself and that you’d love to offer them a free quote to touch up or re-paint some rooms. If they don’t answer hang the flyer on the door and go to the next house.

Go to a paint store and make friends with the employees there. Give them your business cards and your flyers and ask them to spread the word. Offer them $20 cash each time they bring a customer that says they sent you.

Get some nice lawn signs made and ask customers if you can put them in the lawn. Some will let you if they like you. If they don’t offer them a discount on a future painting.

Ignore getting a social media following. Not worth your time or money. Post videos of your work on youtube with local keywords instead. Experiment with social media marketing and PPC marketing by hiring a freelancer who specializes in this sort of thing.

Get creative with your marketing. You know where your customers are and who your perfect customer is. Go find them.

When you get some interest move on to step 6.

Step 6: Purchase used equipment and a cargo van. Here is my used cargo van buying guide (i've purchased 15 or so used vans all under $7500 and they are amazing assets. Get a sprayer, rollers, brushes, a ladder etc. You're about ready to go.

Step 7: Housekeeping stuff. Register with the state as a sole proprietor and get liability insurance. Before you hire your first employee get workers compensation insurance and consider incorporating. Get accounting software like quickbooks and outsource your payroll to a service like Gusto or Paychex. Keep very detailed records of everything and read this book. Consider hiring a bookkeeper but make sure you understand most of it yourself as well. Become a licensed contractor in your state.

Step 8: Get out and paint.

A few notes:

Its competitive. A lot of companies are painting. Answer the phone every time with friendly, eager professionalism and enthusiasm and you’ll be in the top 10%. Nurture your Google Business location. Its your most important asset. Reviews with photos are worth 10 regular reviews.

Play around with the pricing you charge. Price your time at what you estimate would be $40 per hour at first but make sure to charge by the job and not by the hour. You will get better at quoting over time and you will also get much faster at painting.

When you start to get some momentum set up a CRM like Jobber. It allows you to look way more professional than you are. Do all of your billing online. Attach photos of the jobs as they are completed.

You are not going to compete on price. You are going to compete on speed, professionalism, customer service and quality. They are going to like you as a person and want to do business with you. Learn more about this concept in my episode#13 "never compete on price again".

How about a text message when you are on the way to service a customer? How about a link in that text to a picture of the smiling clean cut person who will be stepping onto their property? And a note about what you can expect from the person and how the appointment will go? How about instead of a t-shirt and dirty jeans you have a collared shirt and khakis? How about hair up in a pony tail, tattoos covered, and beard neatly trimmed? How about a giant smile, a firm handshake and an enthusiastic opening statement?

Eventually you will get some momentum. You will be able to upgrade your equipment and get a nicer sprayer. You'll need to hire some help on the weekends you work. Pay well, $15+ per hour, and get competent people. Oversee them for a while until you trust them to paint without you being there.

Avoid being a subcontractor. General contractors only care about one thing - price. You aren't competing on price. You are adding service the the equation so your business only deals with the customers one on one.

Focus on what you do best and outsource everything else.

Form a personal relationship with your customers. Know the names of everyone in the family. Show up with a teddy bear for the little guy. Send a thank you note a few weeks after the job.

Maybe partner with a few realty shops in town or watch the MLS and visit homeowners the week before an open house. A home looks a lot newer with a fresh coat of paint. Use google maps and street view to quote exterior jobs instantly over the phone with customers.

Consider learning Spanish so your customer and employee base is expanded.

Consider expanding to other services like sealcoating and deck staining. Partner with deck builders and pavers and send them business and they will return the favor by sending business your way.

Study and emulate businesses in other towns or cities that are doing an amazing job. Take bits and pieces from each business and build your business as a hybrid that takes the best practices from the best companies.

Eventually you will build a great little business. You will compete on speed and quality and not price. You will charge more than the average joes who offer painting on craigslist and people will be happy to pay it. You can chose to stay small and charge a high price or try to grow and scale the business.

“On demand” is going to be your competitive advantage so you can charge a higher price. Make sure you can offer next day service or same day service. As soon as you get too busy to do that you need to raise your prices or hire another employee. Make sure that person is presentable and clean cut.

Remember that its not about finding great people. Its about simplifying the job so your employees can thrive. Train them to do their core task really well. Don't ask them to do 20 things or they'll do them all poorly. Don’t forget workers comp.

Now spend all of your time answering the phone, dealing with clients, and quoting jobs and managing the marketing. Build a series of youtube videos targeting your city and the keywords so you show up on the second largest search engine in the world (Youtube).

When do you quit your job? That is all up to you. Lean out your life and your business so its less risky and you can get by on earning less. Stay lean as you grow and keep your expenses variable so you can change, pivot and close up shop if things go poorly.

Don’t like painting? Check out this list and take your pick.

There was a book on amazon about inde game development taxes. I picked it up(it's free with kindle unlimited, 5 for kindle) meaning to read it but haven't gotten around to it.

It seems like a good read but ultimately I do agree with getting an accountant, one less thing you don't have to worry about.

Deeply sorry for your loss. I received some advice as a young man about windfalls that I’ll share with you.

Forget about the money for a year. Open a separate bank account that you won’t see and live like it isn’t there. The lost income from investments for one year will be insignificant compared to the cost of a hurried misstep.

In a year with a clear head and a strong heart educate yourself about different investment philosophies and see which ones resonate with you. Investing is very personal and there isn’t one right answer.

There isn’t a right answer, but be wary of the salesmen. All the money / wealth managers are well compensated for their advice and there are many ways they hide their fees and take advantage of their clients (even fiduciaries). If you’re considering enlisting a professional, a robotic trader like https://www.wealthfront.com/ or https://intelligent.schwab.com/ will serve you just as well with lower fees. If you do decide to enlist an advisor to help formulate a financial plan for you, find a fee-based advisor who you can pay once every few years to update the plan.

Here are a few books that were helpful to me in developing my investment philosophy that allowed me to retire in my early thirties.

Bogleheads / Vanguard Index Funds
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Common-Sense-Investing/dp/1119404509

The Richest Man in Babylon (investing philosophy)
https://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-George-Clason/dp/1505339111

Dave Ramsey / Personal Finance
https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Financial-Fitness/dp/159555078X

Tax-Free Wealth - Tom Wheelwright / How investments affect your taxes
https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Free-Wealth-Permanently-Lowering-Advisors/dp/1937832058

Where are the Customer’s Yachts
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Are-Customers-Yachts-Street/dp/0471770892

I think this was the book I read that talks about it - https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Free-Wealth-Permanently-Lowering-Advisors-ebook/dp/B00CCTWBWW

Been there. I self taught myself a ton while I was scaling my business and THEN found a good CPA (my first CPA was a paper pusher that might as well have just been Turbotax, my present CPA listens to my strategies and decides to jump onboard with me).

The most important thing (IMHO) for you to know is to have a decent knowledge of what things are going to be deductible. Just knowing the list will help you make better/correct purchasing decisions as you go along.

My favorite quick-read on that subject is this one. It's literally right next to my desk all of the time (actually, an older version is, I should get an updated copy because the TCJA really did change some things in random ways). Read it before you go to bed and it will help you ideate.

If you're doing this get a good CPA who has real estate knowledge.

Morris Invest has an incredible podcast that covers all sorts of topics like this.

Also Tom Wheelwright who is featured on the podcast a lot has a great book on this called Tax Free Wealth.

Thank you! I considered purchasing this exact book but the reviews were mixed so hoping I could get some feedback from reddit.

https://www.amazon.com/QuickBooks-Law-Firms-Smart-Techniques/dp/1932487646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505482123&sr=8-1&keywords=accounting+for+law+firms

Before I continue down this rabbit hole, do you recommend a different approach?

You can say you are a professional escort on your taxes, its a legal career and they will NOT care. If you don't want to do that, say you are a life coach or a dog walker or a personal assistant. Honestly, the IRS does not care how you earn your money as long as they get theirs.

Talking with an accountant will really reassure you. Another good resource is https://www.amazon.com/Dommes-Guide-Workers-Business-People/dp/1439251061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495905539&sr=8-1&keywords=tax+domme

I think it's worth understanding your state's laws. Legal zoom costs some amount of money, and they'll keep costing you. I took the time to understand the laws for creating an LLC (1 day), and got it set up in another 1 day, and the cost was $150 total, just for the submission fee to my state. I just renewed it again a few months ago for $125. If you go with somebody like legal zoom, they're going to keep bleeding you when the renewing and whatnot comes around, and charge you another $500, and so on.

I found this book to be quite helpful regarding taxes in the US, though it's a little dated now

https://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Guide-Taxes-Indie-Developers-ebook/dp/B0197G82MK/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1524772796&sr=8-10&keywords=indie+game+business

It's interesting stuff anyway. You need to understand about how you'll pay taxes for the year on a quarterly basis and all that. Declare what your taxes will be for the year, and so on.

It's a bit rote, but if you are seriously considering launching a game and making money from it, ie forming your own business, you need to really understand what all there is to running a business. You can't just ignore it and stick to only doing the game stuff.

If you're not even thinking about releasing a game, you can't really be sued for anything, so don't worry about it

https://www.amazon.com/Inventory-Log-Large-Business-Perfect/dp/1071363972

There is no such thing as digesting this class quickly and painlessly. This is one of the "Big Four" suck-o-matic courses in the Accounting curriculum.

That said, if you need some outside resources, here are ones I used.

Quick note: for S-corporations, equity and debt basis are separate; in case of a loss, equity basis is depleted FIRST; when that is zero, you can deplete debt basis. For partnerships, there is no difference between equity and debt basis.

The Essentials of Corporate Taxation: https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Taxation-Essentials-Study-Guides-ebook/dp/B00B2S5MSE/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me= (If you only get one of these, get this one.)

Tax Guide for Partnerships: https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Guide-Partnerships-2016-Bible-ebook/dp/B019R2DL3O/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1497360244&sr=1-1&keywords=Tax+Guide+for+Partnerships (This one is poorly formatted and can be difficult to read)

Federal Income Taxation of Partners and Partnerships in a Nutshell: https://www.amazon.com/Taxation-Partners-Partnerships-Nutshell-Nutshells-ebook/dp/B01MRWOT6R/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Federal Income Taxation of Corporations and Stockholders in a Nutshell: https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Taxation-Corporations-Stockholders-Nutshell-ebook/dp/B00SNCLU8S/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1497360450&sr=1-1&keywords=federal+income+taxation+of+corporations+in+a+nutshell

I don't use AMZ Tracker and I also didn't sign up for AMZRT. Again - the eBook is free and I make minimal money per paper copy (it's published through CreateSpace) so I have no complaints. It's just odd.

A batch of about 25 reviewers noted receiving it discounted/free for their review and one specifically noted AMZ.

I really liked this book that you may want to check out if you haven't looked at this important facet of investment reading yet IMHO - http://www.amazon.com/Tax-Free-Wealth-Permanently-Lowering-ebook/dp/B00CCTWBWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383148324&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+tax

I just want to make sure i have your intention correct.

Your goal is to write a book to help accounting departments develop more of a focus on proper accounting fundamentals?

Like a how to properly do bookkeeping?

https://www.amazon.com/Bookkeeping-Dummies-Lita-Epstein/dp/0764598481

Even though I'd bet the questions were ambiguously phrased, these results tell me that gun rights organizations need to focus more resources on educating democratic voters about firearms and gun rights.

Also, these graphs remind me of a book I once read: How To Lie With Charts

Tax Savings:

I’m no expert here, but I do most of the bookkeeping for the rentals. The way I view it from the layman’s perspective is that the rentals are taxed like a business, so income less expenses = taxable income. Expenses includes maintenance, repairs, mortgage interest, insurance, property taxes, office supplies, etc. Does NOT include the principal of the mortgage payments because that is addressed with depreciation.

This is a lot like any other small business, so I don’t view it as extra sweet, just reasonable that you’d pay taxes on net income, not gross income.

Depreciation is a bit unique, if it works like I think it does. Effectively deferred tax payments because you are depreciating the building cost (not counting land) over 27.5 years but you are effectively paying that back when (if) you sell the property. Helps with cash flow each year, but not a freebie really.

I’d recommend this book if you want to go down the rabbit hole of rental taxes more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1413325688/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_JzgyCb5PV9WZH

I will add from our own experience, rentals immediately pushed us from doing our own taxes to hiring a CPA because they got much more complicated. Some % of that CPA fee is also added as a rental expense.

"As a minor, I can't do a ton as far as money goes."

Its an interesting legal gray area for sure. Suffice it to say that the courts have given you so much power with regard to disaffirming a contract that its stacked life against you.

"I understand that in order to do this I need to basically have an adult own the business and pay me and others a salary. "

As far as I know, if you have a Social Security number, you can have a sole proprietorship. Folks at this level usually want to formally incorporate for liability purposes, but again...you've got a lot of power when it comes to contracts.

"I would be starting off with me and possibly 1 or 2 other friends working on this. How would this work? I need to be paid at least minimum wage in order to run the business legally right?"

Your profits are going to be treated as regular income in a sole proprietorship. As far as your friends go, how much money are you realistically expecting them to make off of this? Can you pay them by the job and just 1099 them? The IRS doesn't even require that you 1099 anyone that you paid less than $600.00 in a given year.

"What if I make money from the business and decide to treat myself to a nice meal? Can this come out of the money the business made?"

No. You can't take write-offs like this unless you have a reasonable expectation that the meal will result in some sort of material benefit to your business.

"Where the hell can I learn all of the financial side of this stuff?"

Major in Business Administration when you get to college.

"I've been reading about Warren Buffet and he just ran around doing little ventures with his friends, selling pinball machines to business owners and such, but nobody questioned him for it. I feel like it's different now. I don't feel like I have that freedom. Am I wrong? "

Not really. Sales is still sales, and relationships with people are still relationships with people. A lot of things will open up to you when you reach the age of majority. I'm not saying it never happens, but there is a considerable amount of risk to a corporate buyer to enter into a contract with a minor.

"Where can I look to learn things about the bookkeeping part of business, business accounts, running stuff as a minor, etc.?"

Bookkeeping is simpler than you might think. Its a very straightforward process.

https://www.amazon.com/Bookkeeping-All-One-Dummies/dp/1119094216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491587782&sr=8-1&keywords=bookkeeping

Accounting is the more difficult subject. I recommend you take the free courses on Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting from saylor.org if you wish to learn more. Also, you can take tests on both of those courses at that website for college credit. They cost $25 a piece, and you take them from home using a web-based proctor. You might have to check and see if the college you plan to attend will accept credits from ACE or NCCRS, though.

Good luck!

get your self this book, and anyone starting or thinking of starting an llc or scorp should read this book.

https://smile.amazon.com/Taxpayers-Comprehensive-Guide-LLCs-Corps/dp/0990763218/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=scorp+tax&qid=1571679973&sr=8-2

Definitely I recommend going to a tax pro. There are plenty of online articles on "how to choose a tax professional."

One option available to you is that you can do a Qualified Joint Venture. Basically, this means you do a Schedule C, one for each of you, and you just split the revenues and expenses.

Definitely get educated Tax Mama has a good book for the self-employed (I haven't read it but she is a trusted source of information). She also has a website that describes taxation in a more plain language.

Get into good bookkeeping and tax compliance habits now. Self-employed individuals tend to shoot themselves in the foot when they don't bother getting educated on taxes. It's boring, but it can make a huge difference on your profitability.

The fact that you are on here asking questions is a very good sign. Good luck on your business, I'm sure you will do great!

Here you go dude. Read this http://www.amazon.com/Tax-Free-Wealth-Permanently-Lowering-Advisors/dp/1937832058 . There are plenty of reasons why people dont pay as much taxes. They invest the way the government wants them too. They provide jobs ect.

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amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

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amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

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