Foxy

Opened in June of this year. Me and my daughter doing it all. No employees. What little money is coming in I balance every night. Daughter mails my taxes each month.
So when do I need to hire an accountant?
I know I will need one at tax time. Doing 20-30 tanners a day. I really can't afford anybody right now. I'm hearing from people about all this stuff i can use as deductions like my car. Any advice? What do I need to know right now?
Foxy

tanu01

You should have hired an accountant before you bought your first bed.
Flick

Extreme John

Yup you need an accountant already, my first year of owning my other business was screwed because I didnt hire one, needless to say im still paying the IRS for it now.

Neon Beach

I agree. At the very least find a good bookkeeper.

COCONUT

had one right away..

bjhcpa

you should get one right away. I am a CPA also but i have hired a bookeeper to do my books and record keeping. As a business owner you have more important things to focus on that spending hours working on bookeeping.

pam

Agree...I would rather go without some pay than let my bookkeeper go. She comes in once a week, pays bills, does bank statements, payroll, files payroll taxes and does a little general office work (which is a bonus). She is an independent contractor and does several other businesses.

X-Treme Tropix

I have an accountant the day I decided to own a business, but I am the bookkeeper. I pay the bill, do the quarterly taxes, balance the checkbook etc, but I have accountant for advice and does my taxes. She is great because if I ever need any help she is there for me.

Extreme John

Especially because I own two business', and the explosive growth of my first one taught me a VERY big lesson in accounting issues, here is a real example of what happend to me:

I opened my home based web business approc 4 1/2 years ago, the first check I ever got was $13.78 after a $10k initial investment, the following week I made $137, week after that $496, hardly impressive, nor did it give me any idea of what was about to come, the week after it was over $1k, within 2 months my weekly cash was coming in at approx $7k, it stayed like that for a while but I hired a Part Timer & another Full Timer to help out and paid them as if I was writing out a grocery store check, within six months it was doing $12k a week, at the end of the year I decided wow, I really newed an accountant, so I got one, the one my sister used for her business she praised him, I ended up having to pay $5k at the end of the year.

I know this is a long story, and im not done yet but if I can ever help someone to really understand the importance of an Accountant & a GOOD ONE at that, I will always do so.

Year #2 comes, you see year #1's $5k was based on a few months of being in business, not a full year. Well pretty much everything went business as usual for the next year, than April comes and my accountant calls, he wants my paperwork, on top of the avg $12k a week I had some side marketing going on web wise that brought in probably an extra $20k for the year. 3 Days after dropping off my paperwork I get the phone call.... Ok John your taxes are done, excellent I think another $5k check and Ill be happy guy.. Well it wasnt my day, you see I owed over $70k in taxes, penalties & intrest, because my accountant really never told me how I should file stuff, or what was a write off or not a write off, I had Zero knowledge and lost a ton of oppratunities, paid out of pocket for business things, used business money for personal things, you name it and I screwed it up, because of a lack of communication with my accountant and poor knowledge of the system on my part. Let me tell you, that $70k doesnt stay $70k very long, it grows and grows VERY quickly due to penalties, etc.

The following year I made changes, brought on a new accounating firm, hired a Personal Assistant/Book Keeper to make sure the accounatnt got what they needed, I also made a large investment into growing my business through agressive advertising, the weekly $12k quickly became over $100k, mostly in bank wires and checks, so no actual cash, tracking every penny is very important, at the end of that year I owed ofcourse, but because I made my annual payments, and deposits for payroll taxes, and qrtrly taxes I only ended up having to send in a check for $1200 at the end of the year. A far cry from the $70k+ I had to do for the year's before.

Just think how many employee's I could have hired for the $70k to handle my books and make sure everything was straight. It's all relative, but in tanning you have sales tax, in my web business there is no sales tax so that increases the risk as well.

Bottom Line. Get an Accountant, not just any Accountant, but a good one, someone with refrences and someone that will look out for your best intrest.

Sorry for the novel, but I would never want to see anyone get suprised like I got suprised, I learned a valuable lesson and there's not 1 purchase I make now without thinking of my accountant Ronnie

There's also a book out there from the "For Dummies" company, I cant think of the name off hand, but it has handy tips in it that can be used in decision making. Knowledge is power.

sweetpea

I do the same as X-Treme----I am my own bookeeper because that is what I have done in the past for years.
But I have an accountant if I need one. I also have a seperate tax man to do my taxes.