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Business Minded Mama Facebook Community

Instagram: @stephanieparenza

Full Transcription Below

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Good morning coming to you on a Wednesday because, uh, this week is a little different for me. I hosted a live workshop in my Facebook group yesterday, so that is why my normal, uh, podcast did not come out. But so excited to bring you now, this live feed here on the podcast, so many good questions were left in the comments, and you can find answers if you come and join us over there in the community. Um, also great place for you to leave any comments or questions that you have. I will be checking back periodically to see if there are any follow up questions from my live workshop, be the boss of your own books, but for now let’s get started.

Speaker 1 (00:50):

Well, as far as I can tell, I am live. I have no idea how to share my face and my screen. So for today, I’m sharing my screen and I will figure out if there is an option to do both, um, uh, later. Okay. Sorry. I keep checking to make sure I’m live. Uh, so today thank you for being here. Um, I briefly just wanted to do a workshop for you guys. I know that I have not been alive as much as I would like to be, but, um, with so many things happening right now, so many things you guys should be considering and, uh, thinking about with, uh, beginning of year, year, end of 2020 tax prep. Um, I think it’s a great time of year for me to start showing up for you. And I’m so excited to be here for our very first training, our first, uh, workshop be the boss of your own books.

Speaker 1 (01:47):

Um, and so for those of you, I’ve actually had quite a few new members over the last week. So welcome. Welcome for those of you who don’t, um, know about me or who I am. My name is Stephanie and I’m a wife. I’m a mother, uh, three soon to be five pregnant with twins right now. And do, um, hopefully after tax season closes, but, uh, it could be, uh, you know, before or right around there. So, uh, gonna get all of this good content out to you here as soon as possible. Um, so busy mom, but still very passionate about, um, you all, and I’m still very passionate, um, about giving you guys the tools and tips to manage your own books as entrepreneurs. Um, because I truly believe that the numbers can help you to grow your business can help you to make business decisions.

Speaker 1 (02:56):

And if you don’t know what’s going on in your books, in your business, um, you may have some problems. You really need to know what is coming in, what is going out, do they, uh, does it make sense for your business? Does it make sense, um, for what you’re trying to do? And so if you can’t have a good understanding of those, then I, I fear that your business will not, um, come to fruition or will not, uh, go as far as you would like it to go. So that is why I am here. That is why I have put this together. Um, I know that many of you may prefer to just outsource and we’ll go through some of that, and that is completely okay, but I want to make sure if you choose to outsource that you are still very involved in the process and that you still know what is going on so that you can make those decisions that you need.

Speaker 1 (03:56):

All right. So let’s go ahead and get started here. And we are going to go head and open this up. Maybe here we go. Alrighty. Can just present in here. All right. Hopefully you all can still see my screen. I can not see comments. Unfortunately, once again, I am still figuring out this technology side of things. I can not see if you are on. Um, so if you have questions or if, uh, you on, I will have to just, uh, talk with you at the very end or respond via the comment section. So be the boss of your own books. All right. Uh, first and foremost, before we get into some of the nitty gritty, I think it’s important that, uh, you know, uh, the basics, what is bookkeeping and bookkeeping is simply the detailed record of your business transactions, uh, sounds really easy, but I know that it can be very overwhelming to many of you, um, who are not, um, a numbers fan or who are not in their numbers daily or weekly.

Speaker 1 (05:18):

Uh, the thought of keeping your own books sounds very overwhelming, but really simply it is the income that is coming in and the expenses that are going out, it really is pretty basic. And so please try to tell yourself that. So that may be, uh, you can have an openness to actually exploring this a little more. Now, I kind of already touched on why it was important, um, because if you don’t know, uh, what you’re making in your business, if you don’t know your net profit, if you don’t know, uh, what your bringing in for specific product in commerce service income, if you don’t know what expenses you are or, uh, incurring because of those different income streams, then how are you going to build up your business? And so numbers are important. Bookkeeping is important. Having accurate records is important for that reason, and not only that reason, but think about the things that could happen.

Speaker 1 (06:14):

If you don’t have an accurate set of books, what if you aren’t tracking things one you’re not prepared for tax season. And so then when it comes to this time, right now, you are scrambling to figure things out. You are just in a chaotic moment trying to get everything done so that you can submit your taxes. And guess what happens when you do that errors happen? Mistakes happen. Um, do you really remember what you did in January, 2020 when you’re already in January, 2021, one year ago? Probably not. So you may not get everything right. You may miss deductions and expenses. You may miss, um, capturing some income. And when you do that, there are penalties. There are fines, there is potential for audit. There are some scarier things that can happen. And so this is why I’m here to tell you it is so important right now.

Speaker 1 (07:12):

We are in the first month of a new year, get started today and your bookkeeping, um, and you will be set up for success when we get to the end of the year. Now I will make a side note if you are behind in 2020, that is not an excuse to get behind in 2021, make 20, 21 year focused. And in the extra time get 2020 cut up and off before your April deadline. Okay. The next thing, this is also basic. Um, but I think it’s important to set your business up for success right away. Even before you start thinking about your bookkeeping, hopefully most of you are already doing this, but if you are in this group, because you are thinking about starting a business,

Speaker 2 (07:59):

Okay.

Speaker 1 (08:02):

Or if, uh, sorry, it looks like my video, just checking to make sure we’re not interrupted.

Speaker 1 (08:12):

Okay. Hopefully we’re still alive. Um, so if you are, uh, in this group, because you are thinking about starting a business or you were in the very beginning of starting your business, I want to just briefly talk about, um, setting up your business as an LLC. Uh, you can have a business and not do anything registration wise. You could be, what’s called a sole proprietor. You are just performing your business yourself. You are still tracking everything. Um, as you would an LLC, um, essentially you just don’t have that title behind your business name. Um, and where that becomes problematic is that you also don’t have, um, the, or you are, you’re open up to more liability. You don’t have the protection that an LLC will give you. And so really that’s the biggest difference if you’re a sole proprietor and LLC, you’re one person you are running your business, but if you do not register, take the time to register as an LLC, then your personal assets are not protected.

Speaker 1 (09:22):

And I think this is very important and because, um, of that, and because an LLC is really not that complicated to set up, I highly encourage you to think about today, setting up an LLC. It is simply, um, registering within your state. Now, every state is different. So unfortunately I cannot give you specifics on what to do, uh, but simply hop on Google and typing your state and registering an LLC. And it will direct you to where you need to go. Make sure you go to the state website, um, to find out these details, but register with your state. Once you have done that, you’ll want to apply for an E I N and employer identification number that is through the IRS. And this now will take place of your social security number. So one more protection for you personally, you no longer have to send out your social security number, uh, when sending documents to potential customers or clients or to vendors, you get to use your EIN number.

Speaker 1 (10:22):

And so another form of protection after that, it is, um, important that you put together an operating agreement. There are, um, services out there that will put one of these together for you, uh, based upon some, uh, talks that I’ve had with fellow, uh, lawyers, friends that I trust, uh, they do encourage you to seek legal counsel, uh, to put your operating agreement together, just to make sure there are no loopholes. So your choice, I’m just here to inform you, uh, to tell you what I’ve done and what I have heard. So now we get to more of the accounting stuff here. Now what I’m going to tell you, you have set yourself up for your business, or you have your business right now. You are ready to go. You must. And you must, because I say you must not because you actually must have a separate business bank account, a separate tax savings account and, or a separate business credit card account.

Speaker 1 (11:24):

If you so choose to have a credit card, it is not an actual requirement. Um, but I believe truly, truly, truly believe that it is so important to have your business and personal stuff, separate to ease and to streamline the bookkeeping process, to make yourself a more legitimate as a business. Um, if you were to get audited or if some third party were to come in and you’d look at your books, do you want your personal transactions exposed to them? Probably not. So separate your personal, separate your business. Uh, you can transfer between accounts if you need to, but keeping everything separate in a business account is so important. And I promise we’ll save you a lot of time and heartache in the long run as you become the boss of your own books. Okay? Uh, next thing I want to talk about is bookkeeping and identifying which option is best for you.

Speaker 1 (12:32):

This is the first place to start. You are ready to manage your own books. You are ready to really try to dig in and do this all on your own, but you don’t know where to start. And so let’s first identify which option is best for you. I have some, I picked three here. We’re going to keep it simple. There are many programs, there are many softwares out there. Um, of course there’s a fourth option of outsourcing if that is what you choose. But for say for today’s purposes, I’ve just picked the most popular three. And then you can use this to kind of start to research and make the decision on your own. I do truly believe that this is a personal decision. Um, I, I’m going to tell you, I’m going to tell you what I like, and you probably already know if you’re in this group, but, um, this is a personal decision and I do not think you can go wrong as long as you think you can handle it.

Speaker 1 (13:25):

As long as you think you can navigate through, uh, with the one you choose all as well. So Excel, of course, is there, it is most likely free to you already because you probably already have it. If you have a laptop or computer that you use for your business, Excel is ready for you to use. Um, the one con that I see with it is that it requires more of your time for the manual entry. It, um, opened you up for the opportunity to, um, make a mistake, whether that’d be a typo or accidentally deleting something and not realizing it. Um, for me, it’s not ideal, but I completely understand that as a beginner entrepreneur, it may be the best decision for you to just start there to start somewhere. I would rather see you do Excel than nothing at all. So start with Excel, and then, um, you can make the decision if you’d like to move into a software program.

Speaker 1 (14:21):

After that, the, uh, the other one I picked for this, uh, training purpose is wave. And I’ll be upfront and honest here. I’ve not personally used wave. So what I’m telling you today is based upon my research is based upon talking to friends and colleagues, um, and others who have used this program. And so, um, it’s all hearsay. I, I have not personally experienced this, but I’m going to bring to you what I have heard, um, from others. So wave is free. So that is wonderful. You do not have to, uh, pay anything. And I know that’s a big bonus, especially for those of you who are new in business. And so wave is free. Um, wave is great. It has so many functions. It is geared for the entrepreneur and really the biggest, um, cons that I have, um, heard are the customer service may not be, um, quite up to par.

Speaker 1 (15:20):

Uh, you may not get your answers or your questions answered in a timely manner. Um, and then wave may not have the ability to grow with your business as it grows. Okay. Um, so perfect for the entrepreneur perfect for the new entrepreneur. Um, but depending on where you envision your company, your business, and a couple of years or a year or whatever, um, it may not be able to progress with you. So that’s okay. Once again, you can start here and then you can transfer over to another software program if that happens to be the case. So by all means, I am not here to knock down wave, um, but just keep in mind these things, as you’re making the decision, now we get to QuickBooks. All of you know, I am an advocate for QuickBooks. I have been using it for nine years. I have moved many clients onto QuickBooks.

Speaker 1 (16:15):

I, um, can not say enough good things. Um, the unfortunate part and one that usually hinders some from using QuickBooks is it has a cost. Now I’m here to tell you that QuickBooks self-employed is about $7 and 50 cents a month. So it’s a very minimal cost. Um, depending on your business model, if you have inventory, or if you have payroll, you may need to upgrade, they do have different versions of QuickBooks, um, depending on your needs. And so it can get up to 30 or $40 a month depending on what you need. Okay. So for most of you, the entrepreneur, if you don’t have payroll, if you don’t have inventory, um, you merely have income and expenses. QuickBooks self-employed is perfect. It is approximately $7 and 50 cents a month. And it gets highly rated for being, um, or having the best overall features for the entrepreneurs and growing businesses.

Speaker 1 (17:17):

Um, and so I really highly recommend this program here. And so if you have any other questions on these, feel free to put them in the comments. And actually before we move to Texas, I will let you know that, um, bookkeeping you’re here. You probably know bookkeeping, this is what I want to bring to you. This is where I want to help you. And that is why I created the bookkeeping basics bootcamp. And, um, in this bootcamp course, I’m giving you all of the basics expanded on what we talked about, like setting up your business, what to do, um, to get started. And then I dive deep into QuickBooks. What’s called QuickBooks one Oh one. That is the meat of this course. And I take you through QuickBooks. Self-employed how to set it up, uh, what to do each week, what to do each month, what to do at the end of the year, um, how to look at your reports more specifically, your profit and loss.

Speaker 1 (18:25):

Um, that is probably the most important report, uh, in there, although all of the reports that are available have some sort of importance, but I walked through the reports. I walk through entering your transactions. I really give you only the tools that you need. So there are other things in the program, but you don’t need to be overwhelmed by those. I want to make it simple for you. So in the course, I am letting you know what you really need to be doing each and every week or month, um, and year, depending on your business type. And I have newly added, uh, some tax information we’re in the season of tax prep, right? And so I am, uh, I’ve added a couple of tax modules and I have a couple more coming, uh, just doing some, uh, more technology tweaks, as you can see, uh, technology is we’re, we’re friendly, but we are not best friends.

Speaker 1 (19:25):

So, um, I am working on getting those in for you. And so you don’t want to miss out on this course. I am actually running a special this week through Saturday, just for you all who are here with me today, listening to this workshop, I’m, uh, have a coupon code. I will share with you at the end of this presentation. And so you want to get in there, you want to get started on your books right now, this first month of a new year, do not wait, do not delay. Um, I promise you get started this month. And by the time we close out 2021, you will be ready to pass your, your reports, your profit and loss over to your accountant, or to put it into your tax software right away. And I just cannot tell you enough that today is the day to get started on your bookkeeping.

Speaker 1 (20:27):

Don’t worry that we’re 19 days into the month, super easy 19 days is a whole lot easier than 365 days. So let’s get started today, stay till the very end. And I’ll, I’ll tell you where to go for that. Briefly going to talk about some tax types we’re in tax season. And these are questions that come up often when to pay what to pay all of this stuff. And so I’m giving you an overview of the tax types here in this workshop, but in the actual course, I go even deeper with you. I’m really giving you specifics on when to pay and how to pay. And so if you are struggling in this department, please consider looking into the course after this workshop. So few different types of tax, um, sales tax, and payroll tax, most likely, um, it’s going to vary. It’s going to vary.

Speaker 1 (21:24):

So let’s start with sales tax sales tax, various state by state. It, it would be impossible for me today to, um, teach you everything about sales tax, because it is, um, all over the place when it comes to state by state business, by business. Um, I know in my state, some businesses have to do monthly, some do quarterly, some do annually, and it’s all just, it’s, there’s so many factors that go into it. And so what I like to say about sales taxes, you have any, um, basic questions feel free to ask me, but what I really really recommend is finding someone in your area. If sales tax has become an issue for you, find someone in your area that can help you through this process, because every state is different gay payroll tax, payroll taxes paid at state and federal. There are quarterly and annual filings.

Speaker 1 (22:13):

Uh, once again, you’ll want to check with your state to make sure you’re doing whatever needs to be done there. Um, now the good thing about the sales tax and payroll taxes, as you get into the more advanced versions of QuickBooks, QuickBooks can also help you with these. So if you’re not wanting to outsource to an accountant, QuickBooks has great, um, services to help you with these taxes as well. And then, uh, when we go to income tax, um, income tax, everybody should be worried about income tax. Uh, it, it does vary a little bit, but it also doesn’t so income tax there’s state, federal, and sometimes local. So where it varies is once again, state by state. And if you do have a locality that has an income tax, that also varies, not everybody will have this. Um, you usually see it in bigger cities.

Speaker 1 (23:07):

So just make sure that you are aware, make sure, you know, if you have to pay this tax, but then when it comes to your federal income tax, okay, this is where I really want to point out this as super important estimated tax payments. If you are a business, if you are an entrepreneur, you should be paying estimated tax payments unless you have put yourself on payroll. Okay. But my guess is many of you that are here with me today are not putting yourself on payroll. Um, nor as an LLC, would you put yourself on payroll? You should be paying yourself. Um, as, as you have determined as needed, it’s called a owner’s draw or member’s draw. Um, it is just a draw out of your company. It is not technically payroll, cause you are not taking out payroll taxes. So what you are doing is you need to pay estimated tax payments quarterly in order to not have the penalties and fees at tax time for underpaying your tax.

Speaker 1 (24:07):

So once again, this is why I love QuickBooks and QuickBooks self-employed guess what, if you are keeping your books up to date, if, if your transactions are pulling in through your bank, which hopefully they are, because in QuickBooks, you can automate this, you connect to your bank, everything comes in and then you just have to set up how you want them to flow to your profit and loss, which I teach you in the course, if you are doing that. And if you are, um, on top of it and you were doing it in a timely manner, then QuickBooks is going to help you to calculate what your estimated tax payments should be at the time that it is still. So once again, a great software program, that’s going to help make things easier for you. So if you are not using QuickBooks or a software that will help you do that. And essentially you need to determine how much to pay an estimated tax payments each quarter so that you’re not hit with your penalties and fees.

Speaker 1 (25:05):

Okay? So a lot of information there, I wanted to keep it brief for you today. Once again, um, if you are ready to manage your own books, I’m going to go even deeper into these topics in my bookkeeping, basics bootcamp course, um, helping you to determine when to pay and how to pay and really navigating through some of these things. That can be very overwhelming. And so I encourage you to check it out. I encourage you to reach out to me with questions. Um, even if you’re not ready, I am here to help. That’s what this Facebook group is about. I want you to feel comfortable to put questions in here and, um, if you don’t feel comfortable putting questions in this group, send me a direct message. So many of you have sent me private messages, and I am totally great with that. Um, I want to know where you were struggling.

Speaker 1 (25:57):

It helps me to learn, it helps me to know what to help you with. And so if you don’t tell me that, I don’t know. And then I don’t feel like I’m fully, um, doing what I had been called to do. And so now through Saturday, um, you can use this code, be the boss 2021 to get $50 off. My course, um, here are all my social media handles. If you don’t already know that if you want to reach out to me there or go there to get more tips, tricks, um, podcast episodes, I give you free tips there as well. And there’s so much more to come. It is a crucial time of the year to really start thinking about 20, 21, setting yourself up success and making sure that you’ve done Everett, everything accurately for the prior year before you submit your tax returns. So it is a very important time of year. So please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you for being here today in the life. I am crossing my fingers that I was actually here because I did get a notice. We were uninterrupted or we were interrupted. So cross crossing my fingers. Um, I hope you’ll enjoy this, please, please, please, uh, put questions in the comments or reach out to me and I will see you all later.