How Long Should I Keep My Tax Documents?

Keeping track of all those tax documents can be tricky. Should you throw them away after you've filed your taxes for that year, or do you have to keep them? Learn about what to keep and how long you should keep them in today's podlet.

Are Legal Fees Deductible? Want to know what expenses you can write off? In today's podlet, you'll learn about legitimate business expenses and which ones are deductible this upcoming tax season.

I Want To Work For Myself- Where Should I Start?

So, you want to break off on your own? Good for you! Taking that first step can be scary, but don't let that stop you! I'm here to give you a few tips so that you know how to work for yourself.

Should I File My Taxes Together?

Tax season is right around the corner, and if you're a new business owner, you'll need to know how to properly file your taxes. In this podlet, you'll learn the difference between filing your personal taxes and filing your business taxes.

How Do I Get Financing To Create My Own Business? Happy Halloween, everyone! Thinking of starting your own business can be spooky stuff. It's important to make sure you have funding before you move forward. Listen to this Podlet to learn more!

How Often Should I Increase My Prices? Once you've established a reasonable price point for your services/business (refer back to episode 50 for a refresher), now it's time to decide how often you should increase your prices. It might be more frequent than you think!

How Do I Determine What to Charge For My Services? In this 50th podlet (Yay!), you'll learn how you should be charging for your business and services. Coming up with a proper price point can feel intimidating, but it's important to know what value you bring to your client. And here's a little tip... you might be undercharging!

Why Is Bookkeeping So Expensive? Spoiler - it’s not! Bookkeeping is a necessary part of your business’s foundation. Learn more about how to shift your mindset to realize the importance of having your business financial matters in place. Actually, it is more expensive to not have bookkeeping in place!

What Does Your Business Need Besides Bookkeeping?

What are some things you should be considering as a solo entrepreneur? Listen to this podlet to gain insight on other things you should be thinking about for you and your business. As a business owner, do you have a retirement plan, and a savings account, is your recordkeeping and filing system up to snuff, etc.

How Can You Minimize Taxes When Profitable? It’s great when your business is earning a profit - and even better when you can mitigate taxes paid on that profit. Listen to today’s bag to learn why tax strategy and planning can help you optimize your business earnings.

What is financial commingling and why should business owners avoid it? Listen in on Tuesday’s Bag and learn why it’s important to separate your personal finances from your business’s finances. You’d be surprised how important this is.

Our listener asked, "What Should You Prepare For a Professional Tax Preparer?"

Is it your first time working with a professional tax preparer during tax time? Get prepared by listening to this podlet about what documents and reports you need to have ready to make the process run smoothly.

In case you haven’t noticed, many so-called business “experts” and other entrepreneurs like to use the terms LLC and company interchangeably. This might not sound like a big deal, but it can be if you personally heeded their advice to “start an LLC” when perhaps they should have advised you to “start a company.” In reality, an LLC is just one type of business structure but not necessarily the right formation for everyone depending on their goals.

Maybe you have a great idea for a business and you feel ready to take the plunge. That’s awesome, but before you do, listen to the advice of those who’ve gone before you and consider completing the seven financial tasks listed below first. They will help ensure you’re in a good place financially before you get started.

Society teaches us that wanting lots of money is bad. Think of old Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, for example. He certainly isn’t viewed favorably as he greedily counts and hoards all of his riches, refusing to help those less fortunate than him. Indeed, being a miser at the expense of others is not at all good. But ensuring that your business is profitable so you can consistently pay your employees what they’re worth? This is what the Profit First methodology is all about – creating sustainable businesses that put their people first.

Our listener asked, "I applied for a loan and they asked me for a balance sheet, what is that?" Financial documents are commonly requested when a small business person applies for a loan. Listen to understand what a balance sheet is and why it is often requested for a bank loan application.

It might be tempting to count yourself out as you’re first getting your company off the ground. You might think when my business gets bigger, I’ll get some real accounting software or once my company grows, it’ll be time to automate that process. But, in fact, even a company in its nascent stage can benefit from automating many of its processes. And there are many free and low-fee automation options available – you just need to look for them.

The question today about First Profit - is actually referring to the term "Profit First" which is a concept that is used in small business to help founders shift their mindset towards - profiting first!

There are lots of small business owners out there who have reached a certain level of success. We can point to them as examples and say that they are clearly operating successful businesses. And that success can be defined in many different ways. Perhaps they’re making a ton in revenue, they’re simply happy, or their team is strong and capable. The meaning of success is naturally open to interpretation.