Awareness. It all begins with YOU!

Awareness.  This word has been on my mind for some time now. As I go through my day I see runners sprinting across the street without a glance, business owners obliviously spending their profit each month, wanna be entrepreneurs launching with no plan in sight.

Where’s the awareness of their world? Hit by a car, missed opportunities, and money down the drain all could be avoided with a sliver of attention.

And what is awareness really? Here’s some of what I found.

Self Awareness: an awareness of one's OWN personality or individuality. The first known use of this term was in 1880. Surprising, isn’t it?

But awareness goes back further to Aware: having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge.

Hmmm, aware of what….my surroundings, my place in business and in my business,  with my family and friends?  Doesn’t it go deeper than that?  What about  Awareness of how my actions and  the affect they have on  my family, my friends and colleagues, and most especially my clients.

So I was researching again…how does being aware show up in life. EMPATHY! Awareness and empathy go hand in hand…kind of like, well, like a margarita and salt.

During one of my sessions with Treysii Zamorano she mentioned we only bring ALL of ourselves with us into business....doubts, low confidence, and our inner struggles.   Now that’s a juicy bit that I can use to help my clients. Where there’s awareness and empathy there can be growth.

For me,  clients now learn No Fear Business and Bookkeeping.  This translates into confidently calculating their sales every day, knowing their bank balance before paying bills, looking for ways to increase their bottom line.  And no more sleepless nights!

How does this translate with your and your business?

5 Bold Tax Tips

No one wants to pay more than their fair share of taxes while staying on the right side of an audit.  Yes, it's always best to stay under the radar of the IRS so I say take advantage of the allowable deductions but don't go too crazy.

Here's my BOLD Tax Tips:

1. No need to keep all of those pesky paper receipts anymore.  There are several portable scanners like Neat Receipts or VuPoint and the IRS accepts scanned copies of receipts. Create folders for Gas, Auto, Meals, Travel, etc and then save the scans into the right folder...voila, your office no longer looks like a tornado hit it.  And don't forget the scanner is deductible!

2. Auto Expenses:  You can either take ACTUAL expenses or mileage but not both.  If you have a car for business and another for personal it's easy to track but if you don't you can easily track the percentages by keeping a totally detailed appointment calendar to figure out business expenses.  I know it's a pain to keep all of the receipts (see #1)  so use a gas card for business and you'll have the statements showing all your expenses.

3. Bank and Credit Card Statements:  I don't think anyone likes reconciling bank & CC statements but you've got to do it so you take all of your deductions.  It's easy to think you're good until you start looking line by line...oops, there's that dinner from two months ago, and that gift you bought from Amazon and had shipped to a client, and that vacation that turned into a business trip.  You're only cheating yourself if you don't take what's allowed.

4.  Review personal financials:  As business owners we can mix up personal and business credit, debit cards, or even write a personal check for business expenses.  So repeat above for all of your personal accounts.

5.  Cash or Accrual Basis:  Cash means you count your income when you get the cash and expenses when you pay out the cash.  Accrual means you count income when you send the invoice and expenses when you receive the bill.  Accrual doesn't involve any money...it's all about timing.  Most small businesses don't track Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable so you're CASH but check last year's tax return to make sure.  Once you file cash or accrual you can't switch so choose the one that will you give the biggest tax break.

5 Fashion & Function QuickBooks Tips

Working in QuickBooks can be boring...confusing numbers, dull desktop colors, and perplexing navigation....so jazz it up with our tips.

1.  Personalize Desktop View 

Under the Edit tab, scroll down to Preferences & choose Desktop View. 

Make Navigation easier when you click Multiple Windows box. 

 Next scroll down to the Color Scheme, find the one

that fits your personality.

 Sure, you're still working in QuickBooksTM but now you're snazzier.

2.  Use Enter  between fields.

Move down the list to General.  There are lots of choices here but the number one time-saver is "Pressing Enter moves between fields".  

We are all  used to using the Enter key it's   a no-brainer to activate in QB's.

3. Customize the Icon Bar.   

QuickBooksTM sets up a general Icon Bar during installation so customizing it gives you the control     for the way you work.

Add the Calculator, Delete Estimates, Edit the layout...move the content around anyway you want....you're in charge and that's a good thing.

4. To Do Lists

As we get busier and busier, having up to date lists gets critical.  Open the To Do List when you open QuickBooksTM for a glance at what's important today. 

Add a reminder, mark as done, or print out the list to keep on your desk...that's smart.

5. Business Reminders  

To keep on top of everyday transactions use Reminders.  You'll never lose track of Bills to Pay or Invoices to send, and more importantly, those that are overdue.

Just another way to work smarter.

+1 Bonus:

IntuitTM  adds extra value every year to help entrepreneurs use QuickBooks to grow their businesses.  Now you can create newsletters, invitations or special notifications using      your customer contact list in QuickBooksTM.