What an amazing first year in practice! I’ve met with some inspiring beauty businesses, influencers and mentors along the way and a constant topic of many conversations that frequently came up throughout the year had a common theme; Why do businesses need an accountant and how do you select the best accountant for you and your business.
After a decade working a top 4 Accountancy Firm and with a few years working in my own sole-trade beauty business, I often find myself asking ‘why wouldn’t you want an accountant?’.
In a world where entrepreneurship, Mumteprenuers, freelance businesses, independent beauty academies, garden pods and super salons are rapidly joining the ever growing beauty space, the benefits of having an accountant are becoming even more evident.
When choosing an accountant, word of mouth is great, a flashy website can be a winner but qualifications, licences, insurance and even a niche market are also important factors. You need to choose the best fit for your business and for you, just as you would when seeking a member of staff or business partner.
Here are my top 10 reasons to invest in your business by using an accountant:
- Accountants are bound by legislation and monitored by other agencies and awarding bodies. This means accountants have a legal and professional duty to you, with rigorous checks to ensure that they are fit to provide services to the public.
- Investing in an accountant often saves you more money than not. Consider your hourly rate and then think about how many hours you spend on bookkeeping, payroll, budgeting and cash forecasts. Even the start-up process can be a little tedious when you want to just get stuck in with your trade.
- As the old saying goes ‘two heads are better than one’. Your accountant should be your trusted confidant! Share your ideas and draw upon their consultancy skills to turn those ideas into a profitable reality. It doesn’t stop there, an accountant will analyse and report on the results of a project to let you know what is working, or not before things get bad.
- Less is more. The less time spent pouring over receipts and paperwork, the more time for the business. Accountants will be able to ease the burden of paperwork and provide peace of mind.
- Never miss a deadline again! Your accountant will work with you to ensure that you are aware of any upcoming deadlines, payment dates and reporting requirements. This is important as HMRC issue penalties for lateness and incorrect information. Accountants also liaise with HMRC on your behalf and can be worth their weight in gold should HMRC wish to open an enquiry.
- To avoid paying too much tax. Whilst a lot of self-employed individuals complete their own accounts, they aren’t always claiming all the allowable deductions. A good accountant will research and ensure that you are aware of every possible tax relief available to you. If you have missed an opportunity to claim a potential tax relief a good accountant will identify this and ensure that you get the relief that is available to you.
- To grow your business. All accountants would have covered the area of management accounting as part of their training. This is useful as the technical skills of an accountant can help with strategic planning and decision making at management level to help set business targets and objectives. They can also offer training on accounting software which is very important with making tax digital now in full swing.
- To benefit from the expert knowledge. Some people often choose the same basis to account for car mileage (rather than petrol receipts), because a friend of a friend does it that way or worse a stranger on facebook told them to do it that way. This is not always the best route to take as each business has different requirements. It is also important to be aware that what the next person is suggesting may not be correct or legal.
- To provide lenders with information in the correct format. This could be for anything from a business loan to a mortgage. In addition to this an accountant could offer advice before you make any big purchases.
- Because they are the accountant. As touched on in point 1 it takes years and years to qualify as an accountant, with ongoing CPD as well as regular observation by HMRC and other organisations. A good accountant will be able to reduce pressure for you, identify opportunities and advise on areas that need attention all whilst ensuring that you remain compliant and within the law.
When people question whether or not they need an accountant what I think they actually mean is that they don’t need a bookkeeper, which is mind boggling as a good bookkeeper can help to keep your business ticking over without worrying about the books at all. Accounting literally is the next step(s) up from that, meaning more in depth exams are needed to understand and advise how to analyse figures and ientify what figures can and cannot be accepted in accounts. Then there is the added value an accountant can bring by there experience and qualifications in the complex tax laws that are forever changing. Yes it really can be fairly easy to plug the numbers into a tax return, what isn’t so simple is making sure that you have benefited from all the tax reliefs available as that is where the magic happens.
I think I may have just started my next blog so I will stop here and save the magic for then. Thank you so much if you have got this far! I would love to hear how your accountant makes your life easier and business grow.
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Check out my interview with the amazing Carl Reader on his The Carl Reader Show’ – Ria-Jaine Raw & Uncut.
Check out my interview with the amazing Katie Godfrey, owner of KG salon, KG franchise and Lash training academy on ‘The Life Of KG’ – Guest Ria-Jaine