Small Business Accounting Intentions to Help You Make Money in 2017

You’ve made it through the hype of Christmas and the getting-back-into-work-mode of January.

Now it’s go time.

You want to accomplish suave goals and make this a 2017 full of grace and success. If you are looking for some motivation to make 2017 one of your most successful years yet, check out these intentions:

1. Focus On Quality over Quantity

The Navy Seals’ motto is: Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Ie. when you do things slowly but carefully, you save time rather than if you do things quickly and carelessly and have to repeat the job over again.

When you first start a business, it can be easy to do things quickly and think that you will get to it later. For example, you may not set up proper accounting systems, you may store business receipts in random areas of your office/car/office dog bed, and you may not really know how much money you are making or spending.

The good news is this happens and you can make a change anytime you decide to – easily. Turning accounting into a “slow” activity can simply mean implementing a cloud accounting software, taking pictures of your receipts, and figuring out how much money you should be spending and saving by creating a business plan. All easily done if you get the help of a cloud accountant.

2. Learn from People Who’ve Been Where You Are

There’s a reason Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft and richest man in the world, has a mentor. He understands that you can’t know everything from your own perspective, and there’s always room to learn.

In fact, mentors are so important that small businesses are twice as likely to stay in business past five years if the founders get the help of a mentor.

If you want to save money in your business, get the help of someone who has been through everything you are going through. There are many typical pitfalls and successes small businesses go through, and if you are able to plan for these, you are more likely to succeed in your small business.

3. Offer expert advice and Make New Friends

We truly believe that the world is a better place when we work to help each other. And a cool side effect of helping other people in business is that it helps grow your network with like-minded people. In fact, a large indicator of how successful an entrepreneur will be is indicated by the size of his or her network.

Entrepreneurs can save money by bartering services among their network. An easy way to do this is to join an organization like Business Network International where entrepreneurs get together to help one another, barter services and offer referrals.

You can also offer your services at non profits such as Small Business BC in Vancouver where you can teach a workshop for free and in return gain new customers and referrals.

4. Goal Set With Feeling and Get Inspired

Setting goals is one of the most helpful things you can do to steer your business to success as it helps you know what to do during failures, and helps you celebrate during wins.

Setting goals can be extremely stressful and intimidating for some people so they avoid doing it, or they do it then never look at their goals again.

If this sounds like you, focus on how you want to feel when you achieve these goals. For example if you plan to get five new clients by March 2017, write down why you want to do this and how it will make you feel. For example, you could write: “I want to get 5 new organic grocery clients as I want to show them how they can grow their business which will in turn help their customers who are looking to improve their health. This will make me feel helpful and that I am giving back to the greater good.”

Once you base goals on feelings, you will feel a greater sense of motivation towards what you are doing as it will be tied back to your inner values that guide your behaviour. Conversely, you will also know if some of the goals you have written aren’t what you really want to do if you don’t have strong feelings towards doing them.

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Do you need some help setting goals for 2017 or increasing the efficiency of your accounting procedures? Get in touch with us today! We would love to chat with you during a free consultation.