In this enlightening episode of Money Talk With Tiff, Tiffany Grant sits down with Octavia Conner, a seasoned expert in business accounting and finance, to discuss essential tips for business owners who may have neglected their books.

Whether you’re a newbie entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help you maintain accurate and reliable financial records. Discover how to choose the right accounting system, the importance of training, and how understanding your business structure can impact your finances and taxes.

Check out the full shownotes here: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/small-business-finance-seasoned-entrepreneurs/

Key Topics Covered

• Importance of having an accounting system
• Tips for choosing the right accounting software
• Why professional training or hiring out accounting tasks is crucial
• Understanding business structures and their tax implications
• Importance of having a financial strategy and cash flow forecast

Guest Bio

Octavia Conner is a Fractional CFO and the leading business finance expert behind Say Yes to Profits. She specializes in helping small business owners maintain financial health and profitability. Octavia brings a wealth of knowledge and actionable tips to the table, aimed at helping entrepreneurs thrive financially.

Resources Mentioned

• Say Yes To Profits Website
• Free Cash Flow Mastery Toolkit
• Say Yes To Profits Podcast
• Follow Octavia Conner on Instagram: @octaviaconnorCFO
• Octavia's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/OctaviaConner/shorts

Follow Tiffany Grant

• Website: Money Talk With Tiff
• Instagram: @moneytalkwitht
• Twitter: @moneytalkwitht
• Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff

Episode Highlights

• [00:00] Tiffany introduces the topic and guest, Octavia Conner.
• [00:54] Octavia discusses the importance of having an accounting system for all businesses.
• [02:33] Tips for choosing the right accounting software.
• [05:04] The importance of hiring a professional for accounting tasks.
• [06:05] Understanding business structures and their financial implications.
• [08:10] Octavia's tip on having a financial strategy and cash flow forecast.
• [09:34] Final words and how to connect with Octavia Conner.

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Disclaimer: The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast.

Hey, everyone. I am so excited because I have Octavia Connor

on the line now. Octavia is here to talk to us about business

accounting and business finances, which I get a ton of questions about.

So usually I tailor the interview or the content around

new business owners, but what about those well seasoned

ones that just don't keep up their books? That's who we're going to talk to

today. So. Hey, Octavia, how are you? Hello. Hello. I'm doing

well. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm so happy that we're talking

about this topic. Thank you for having me, Tiffany. I am

always excited to talk about everything. Finances,

everything. Accounting for small business owners. Yes. Yes. So

let's just hop right in. So we already said who we're talking to right now.

So these are the business owners that have been in business for a little

while. However, they haven't been keeping their books up, so

we're going to get into some tips for them. What is your first tip

for those business owners? Well, I would

definitely say the very first thing you want to do

is to get an accounting system. What a lot

of business owners don't realize is that if you are a registered business

in the United States in particular, you have to have a system

that can be audited. And so you want to

maintain an accounting system

that is accurate, up to date, and reliable at all

times. And so you can do this by

using some of the well known systems out there, or one that's even

not well known, but it will definitely help you. And so, of course, we know

about quickbooks, but there are other ones that are out there. And so that's the

very first thing you need to start your

accounting system and start it by, of

course, subscribing to an accounting system and then entering all

of your financial information in that system and make sure that

accounting system match with your bank and credit card

statements for your business. Now, with the accounting

systems, I get questions all the time about what's the best one, how do I

choose? Where do we go from here? And so with

that being said, what are some of the ones that are out

there, and what would a business owner consider when

going with one versus the other? So the very first

thing I highly recommend, before you use any type of

accounting system, is that if you're going to do it yourself as a

business owner, which I do not recommend. But if you are gonna do it yourself,

then I recommend that you receive training. Right. Because it really

doesn't matter which accounting system you

use. If you're doing it yourself and you are

not fully aware of how to use it, then whatever you put in

it is going to spit out that information. And so I always like to say,

garbage in, garbage out. Now, granted, you may not think or want

to put garbage in your accounting system, but if you're not fully

aware of how to use it, then that's exactly what's going to happen. And so

the financial reports that it produces for you will not

be accurate because the information you put in there is not accurate. Now, the

number one accounting system to date is Quickbooks

online. However, that does not mean that is the accounting system

specifically for your business. I would recommend

finding one that is specific for your business,

one that is user friendly, or finding an

accounting firm, like, say yes to profits, that will

handle all of this for you, but also provide you with that

knowledge and financial visibility and insight that you need to make

strategic business decisions. Yes. Yes. I

completely agree with that, because I use Quickbooks

myself, and I was doing my own books for a long time,

and I was like, you know what? Let me just hire someone. Because as a

business owner, why am I doing this?

Exactly. Why am I doing this? And even though I

love numbers and I love money and all those good things, it

was just a task for me. So I'm like, okay, let me hire

someone. Best decision ever, because

I'm, you know, I know that. I know a great deal of this stuff.

I have done a lot of accounting, you know, back in my day,

but it makes a huge difference when you

hire someone that does it day in and day out. Okay?

So, as a business owner myself, I highly recommend

hiring out, and I'm glad that you brought that up. So, since we talked

about, you know, kind of hit on two tips right there.

One was getting an accounting software accounting system in

place. And two, I'm gonna just say, is maybe hiring

out for that accounting work. What is another tip

that we can give our small business owners? You want to understand your business

structure and how that relates to your taxes and how you are

to manage your money. So what do I mean? So there's a difference

if your business is an LLC, a limited liability

company, or if your business is a limited liability company

that's taxed as an S corporation, right. There's a

difference in the way that, one, you manage your money in

the way that you pay yourself as the CEO

and in the way that you file your taxes. And so

based on your business structure, you want to

determine the correct and proper way to manage your

finances and to file your taxes so that you pay the

smallest legal amount possible in taxes,

and your business is one that is thriving, that is cash

flow positive, and that is profitable at all times. Because you're

clear on everything that you, you are allowed

to do based on the structure of your business.

Yes, I completely agree with that one. I think one

of the things that small business owners struggle with the

most, especially when they're first starting out, is how do I want to structure my

business? And because of social media,

everybody believes that they have to have an LLC. And

so there's a lot of people, business owners,

that I know that don't know everything that

goes into having an LLC, how filing

those taxes is a little different than if you're a sole proprietorship and so

on and so forth. And so I'm so glad that you brought up business

structure, because that is something that even some of my

seasoned business owner friends are thinking about redoing their

structure or going into a different structure for different reasons. So

I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. Yeah. It's so important because

as you're growing and scaling your company, there may be a

time where you need to transition to a different structure

for tax benefits. And so you want to make sure

you're clear on the benefit of doing that and when the right

time for you to actually make that transition. Right. You

don't want to make it too early. You don't want to make it too late.

And so in order to stay on top of those things,

you need to have an accounting system, which goes back to the first tip that

we talked about. You want to make sure you have that in place and that

you're looking at your numbers. A lot of

entrepreneurs don't look at their numbers, and so they're

making decisions too late or they're making decisions when it

is, uh, it has became detrimental to their company. And so

you definitely want to, you know, have that financial visibility so you can make

those decisions so that everything works out for your benefit in the

end. Exactly. It goes right back to the numbers.

It goes right back to the numbers. All right, so we

went over a lot so far, but I think we have time for at least

one more tip. What is one more tip that you can give our

small business owners that are in this predicament? So

one more tip. I cannot not say this tip. Right.

So I operate as a fractional CFO, and the biggest

thing that I can tell business owners is to

plan for every dollar that is entering and

leaving your business. So you should have a financial

strategy to call it a profit plan. And you

should have a cash flow forecast that

you are reviewing every single week in your

business. The benefit of this is that it allows you to be

proactive instead of reactive, and it allows you to make those

key decisions that is going to move the needle forward in your business.

So have a financial strategy and have a cash flow

forecast that you look at every single week.

Ooh, I love that. I love that.

Because I tell people all the time,

how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're going?

You have to have a target. You have to have something that you're working

towards, and that goes with your money. Your money needs to have

a job. What is it doing? And I'm so glad you said that

because that is my push today, to go ahead and cancel some of these

subscriptions that I know I don't need in my

business. But I'm so glad that you said that because it's so

true. So, Octavia, this is packed. We

only at ten minutes almost, and we have dropped so many

gems in those ten minutes. So if people were

interested in learning more about you or any of this information

that you provide or services, how could they find you? First?

You can go to my website at say,

yestoprofits.com. there you can

download, and actually, you can download our free cash

flow mastery toolkit that I love to give all entrepreneurs to really help you

get ahead of your game and your business. And you can

get that at say yes to profits.com toolkit.

Right? But you can go to the say yes to profits website to learn everything

about us, to listen to the say yes to Profits podcast.

And definitely you want to follow me on Instagram at

octavia Connor, CFO. Yes. I love

it. Cause I do wanna say, say yes. I do wanna say yes to

profits. Okay, so thank you

so much. And if you all didn't get all of that, I'll make sure I

have that all in the show notes for you. Thank you so much,

Octavia, for coming on and just dropping, I mean,

this whole truckload of gems on us. No problem at all.

Thank you so much, Tiffany, for having me. And I hope that everyone

takes information from this move forward and scream, say

yes to profits in their business. Yes. Thank you. All right,

bye. Thank you for listening, joining and being a

part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check TiFF out

every Thursday for a new money talk podcast. But if you just can't

wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow tiff on all social media platforms at money Talk

with t until next time, spend wise by

spending less than you make a word to the money wise is always

sufficient.