Author: Jennifer Brazer

As a new entrepreneur, managing your business finances can be daunting. Many challenges arise when starting a new business, and accounting is one of the most important areas that requires attention. However, with the help of modern technology and online tools, managing your finances can be much easier. In this article, we will explore the eight best websites to help new entrepreneurs overcome common accounting challenges faced by new business startups.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is one of the most popular accounting software tools out there. It is an all-in-one tool that helps you manage your business finances, track expenses, and create invoices. With QuickBooks Online, you can easily track your income and expenses, manage your cash flow, and monitor your business performance. It also provides a dashboard that gives you an overview of your business finances, making it easy to track your cash flow, expenses, and revenue. QuickBooks Online also offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

Xero

Xero is another popular accounting software tool designed to help small businesses manage their finances. It offers features such as invoicing, expense tracking, and bank reconciliation. Xero also integrates with many other business tools, making managing your entire business from one place easy. With Xero, you can set up automatic bank feeds, create custom invoices, and manage your inventory. Xero offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

Wave

If you are looking for a free accounting software tool, Wave is a great option. It offers features such as invoicing, accounting, and receipt scanning. Wave is a cloud-based tool, meaning you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. With Wave, you can easily track your income and expenses, manage your cash flow, and monitor your business performance. It also provides a dashboard that gives you an overview of your business finances.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is an accounting tool that is designed specifically for small businesses. It offers features such as invoicing, time tracking, and expense tracking. FreshBooks also integrates with many other business tools, making managing your entire business from one place easy. With FreshBooks, you can easily create custom invoices, track billable hours, and manage expenses. FreshBooks offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

Zoho Books

Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software tool designed for small businesses. It offers features such as invoicing, expense tracking, and bank reconciliation. Zoho Books also integrates with many other business tools, making managing your entire business from one place easy. With Zoho Books, you can easily track your income and expenses, manage your cash flow, and monitor your business performance. It also provides a dashboard that gives you an overview of your business finances. Zoho Books offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

FreeAgent

FreeAgent is an accounting software tool designed for freelancers and small businesses. It offers features such as invoicing, time tracking, and expense tracking. It also integrates with many other business tools, making managing your entire business from one place easy. FreeAgent allows you to easily create custom invoices, track billable hours, and manage expenses. FreeAgent offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

KashFlow

KashFlow is an accounting software tool that is designed for small businesses. It offers features such as invoicing, expense tracking, and bank reconciliation. KashFlow also integrates with many other business tools, making managing your entire business from one place easy. With KashFlow, you can easily track your income and expenses, manage your cash flow, and monitor your business performance. It also provides a dashboard that gives you an overview of your business finances. KashFlow offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

Bench

Bench is an online bookkeeping service that is designed for small businesses. It offers features such as bookkeeping, tax preparation, and financial reporting. Bench also provides a dedicated bookkeeper who will manage your finances, making it easy for you to focus on growing your business. With Bench, you can easily track your income and expenses, manage your cash flow, and monitor your business performance. It also provides a dashboard that gives you an overview of your business finances. Bench offers various pricing plans to suit your business needs.

Summary

In conclusion, managing your finances is essential to running a successful business. Fortunately, with the help of modern technology and online tools, managing your finances can be much easier. The eight websites listed above are some of the best tools to help you overcome common accounting challenges new business startups face. Whether you are looking for a free tool or a paid one, there is something for everyone on this list. So go ahead and try out these tools, and see which one works best for you and your business.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

A family budget is a plan or statement that reflects how much money comes into the home and is spent by household members. A budget includes regular and irregular usage items, from necessities to comforts and luxuries to essentials. Usually, parents are responsible for making a family budget since they have a wider experience in managing household tasks and a broader knowledge of how much things cost. A household budget is necessary for the effective and optimal utilization of monthly paychecks. No matter how rich you may be, a household budget reveals how much you spend or save.  

Ever-intensifying needs and irregular purchasing or spending patterns are why we exceed our budget and rarely meet our savings goals. When we go shopping, we often buy more than our budget allows, disrupting all our efforts to track our money accurately.

Strategic Significance of Creating a Family Budget

Families across the globe often struggle to manage their monthly paychecks. The reason is obvious: they do not make a family budget. This can have negative results, especially when they cannot save for a rainy day. According to studies, more than 70% of people in America fail to meet their household budgets. This signifies that people need to create a household budget, pay close attention, and stick to it. A balanced approach and sensible mindset are necessary to make a budget where family members can free themselves from financial worries and anxieties. 

Whether you are wealthy or have a modest income, a family budget can help you save for the future. Whatever you save now will help you and your family meet unexpected financial demands or the necessities of life in the future. A family budget also helps build a sense of teamwork among family members since they must work together to create a financial framework that guides family financial decisions. Creating a household budget takes time, mental effort, and energy to get things right—the first time.

Tips to Help You Build a Workable Family Budget

Get Organized and Choose Your Budget Style

Before making a weekly or monthly household budget, you must know how much you can spend in a particular month. Set aside adequate time to make your household budget before you begin. You are likely to make mistakes if you are in a rush. Moreover, it would help if you chose your budgeting style—whether you will use software or simply apply the traditional paper and pen approach. However, it is more efficient to use electronic budgeting software instead of recording each transaction manually.

Evaluate Your Priorities and Set Benchmarks

Usually, necessities are given priority, which will cover most of the budget. Once you have an idea of your income and expenses, you can filter out details and see where to cut costs. Considering all aspects of the budget, such as cash outflows, billing details, receipts, or bank statements, will help you know where your monthly money is being spent. Moreover, your fixed expenses, such as household rent, electricity, and water bills, must be dealt with separately.

Opt for Simplicity

Opting for a simple lifestyle will give you greater control over the family budget. When you save each month, you will increase your bank balance, making your future secure and healthier. This way, you can increase your savings and buy something substantial like a new home, car, tuition expenses, or family vacation.

Conclusion

Making a family budget may seem daunting at first, but once you develop it, the process will become more straightforward than you think. Fortunately, we live in an age with many advanced electronic tools, software, and guides to make a household budget. By recording, monitoring, and tracking the budget, you can determine where to cut costs and save money for future needs.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

By: Jennifer Brazer

Jennifer is the author of From Cubicle to Cloud and Founder/CEO of Complete Controller, a pioneering financial services firm that helps entrepreneurs break free of traditional constraints and scale their businesses to new heights.

Fact Checked By: Brittany McMillen

QuickBooks SME Accounting: Maximizing Financial Management for Growing Businesses

QuickBooks SME accounting solutions provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with powerful tools to streamline financial management, enhance cash flow visibility, and support data-driven business decisions. QuickBooks dominates the small business accounting software market, yet many growing companies struggle to fully leverage its capabilities or identify when it’s time to transition to more advanced solutions. This guide explores optimizing QuickBooks usage, overcoming common challenges, and determining when alternative options might be more suitable.

Understanding QuickBooks Options for SMEs

Many SMEs start with simple accounting solutions but soon realize they require more advanced features as they grow. QuickBooks provides tailored options to accommodate businesses at various stages.

QuickBooks Online for growing businesses

QuickBooks Online has become a popular choice for SMEs due to its cloud-based accessibility, flexible pricing, customizable reporting, and seamless integration with numerous business applications. Its subscription model eliminates large upfront investments, offering regular updates and new features. According to Intuit, users save approximately 40 hours per month by automating financial management tasks with QuickBooks Online.

Key Benefits:

• Cloud-based accessibility
• Tiered pricing models
• Extensive app integrations
• Regular updates and enhancements

QuickBooks Desktop for established operations

For SMEs with specific, advanced needs, QuickBooks Desktop remains relevant. It excels in robust inventory management, advanced job costing, and provides industry-specific versions for sectors like manufacturing and contracting. Though less mobile than its online counterpart, the Desktop version offers greater depth and customization capabilities, beneficial for businesses with complex operations.

Optimizing QuickBooks for SME Success

Successful financial management goes beyond merely implementing QuickBooks. Strategic optimization can significantly enhance the software’s impact.

Creating an effective chart of accounts

The chart of accounts forms the backbone of financial intelligence in QuickBooks. SMEs benefit from a clearly structured chart that tracks essential metrics, aligns with tax reporting needs, and facilitates detailed departmental or project analysis. Regularly refining the account structure transforms QuickBooks into a strategic decision-making tool rather than merely a bookkeeping utility.

Automating financial workflows

Manual data entry remains a significant challenge for SMEs. QuickBooks enables automation through synchronized bank feeds, recurring transactions, and rules-based transaction categorization. Implementing these features reduces time spent on data entry, minimizes errors, and supports a paperless workflow. Our small business bookkeeping guide provides additional strategies for streamlining financial processes beyond what QuickBooks offers natively.

Harnessing QuickBooks reporting for insightful decisions

QuickBooks’ robust reporting capabilities often remain underutilized. Regularly generating customized financial statements, cash flow projections, and profitability analyses transforms historical data into actionable insights. Budget versus actual comparisons and trend analyses further empower SMEs to proactively manage business performance. According to a study by Wasp Barcode, SMEs that actively monitor financial metrics are twice as likely to achieve revenue growth exceeding 15% annually.

Common QuickBooks Challenges for SMEs

Despite its strengths, QuickBooks presents several challenges as SMEs scale.

Managing user permissions and security

As businesses expand, the complexity of user access and security grows, posing risks of data breaches or unauthorized access. SMEs must strike a balance between accessibility and protection, establishing clear permission levels, training employees on security protocols, enforcing strong password policies, and regularly conducting security audits.

Handling multi-entity accounting

SMEs expanding into multiple legal entities often encounter accounting complexities such as maintaining separate financial records, consolidating reporting, and managing intercompany transactions. Although QuickBooks Enterprise offers limited multi-company functionality, growing businesses might find these features restrictive as their accounting needs become increasingly sophisticated.

Signs you may need to scale beyond QuickBooks

Determining when QuickBooks no longer meets a business’s needs can be challenging. Watch for these key indicators:

1. Frequent performance issues due to high transaction volumes
2. Sophisticated approval workflow requirements
3. International multi-currency operations
4. Advanced compliance needs beyond basic financial reporting

Combining QuickBooks with Professional Bookkeeping Services

A practical solution many SMEs adopt is blending QuickBooks software with professional bookkeeping services. This approach provides expert system configuration, consistent accounting practices, proactive financial guidance, and scalable support.

Advantages of Combining QuickBooks with Professional Services:

• Expert system configuration tailored specifically to your business
• Consistent application of accounting principles
• Proactive financial analysis and advice
• Scalable support to meet growth demands

Such integration leverages QuickBooks’ technological capabilities and supplements them with human expertise, improving overall financial management.

When to Consider Alternatives

Eventually, even optimized QuickBooks systems might not fully satisfy growing SMEs. Indicators that a business might need to consider alternative solutions include reaching database limits, requiring extensive multidimensional reporting, managing complex inventory systems, or needing tighter integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Options like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, or Microsoft Dynamics offer more advanced functionalities at higher implementation complexities and costs.

Conclusion: Maximizing Your QuickBooks Investment

QuickBooks remains highly beneficial for SMEs, particularly when strategically optimized and professionally supported. Successful QuickBooks management depends significantly on implementation quality, system configuration, and strategic utilization tailored to unique business requirements.

Whether you’re just starting with QuickBooks or looking to enhance your existing setup, professional guidance can significantly improve your outcomes. Complete Controller offers specialized QuickBooks setup, optimization, and ongoing bookkeeping services designed specifically for growing businesses. Our team of QuickBooks certified ProAdvisors can help you transform your financial management from a necessary administrative function into a strategic business advantage.

Contact Complete Controller today to discover how we can enhance your QuickBooks investment and deliver scalable financial management solutions to support your business’s growth and success.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can often encounter challenges in their daily operations or meet financial goals. The best option is to go back to business basics and reexamine what elements work and which need improvement. The following are aspects to consider when going back to the basics.

Market Knowledge

How well do you truly know your market? Remember that it is not as straightforward as deciding the sort of item or service you plan to sell. Finding your particular specialty is critical. For instance, www.ties.com is one such brand that found theirs. By concentrating on a solitary article of clothing, the brand developed noticeably as an online market pioneer, providing the most extensive collection of neckwear across the globe.

Deploying resources into a brand journey and digging up market data will help characterize and distinguish your product from competitors. It guarantees your customers will see, hear, and recall you over all the market noise. Know your opposition and know them well. Break down their qualities, gauge their oversights, and benefit as much as possible from the information available through bookkeeping data.

Setting Up and Winning Acknowledgment

Being a brand name is not the same as being a recognized name. Gone are the days when it was sufficient to have an item in the market simply– your group of potential customers demands and requests even more today. What does your image represent? Is it true that you represent your brand on a stage your market listens to? The present group of customers is enthusiastic about becoming more acquainted with their brands, from web-based social networking to shelves and beyond. They expect an educational, ambitious, and energizing client journey. 

Distinguished as the United Kingdom’s best narrating brand of 2015, Apple is the best case there is. From practically reinventing phones to realistic stories of how Apple items could change the world, their extraordinary products tell remarkable tales. It is an efficient bookkeeping strategy that can lead to the best business story for customers for any business. No business has ever gone on to establish a strong brand image without compliance with accounting and financial standards, and this compliance leads to a balanced scorecard for a business.

Developing a Digital Presence

Many marketers agree that social media is vital for their business. At the same time, many brands have not adopted this, and customers worldwide over-invest time on the web. It is essential to achieve your market presence on their medium of choice, and a digital platform offers organizations different chances to present brand identity, story, and service offerings creatively. 

Investigate your alternatives with easy-to-use sites and online networking stages like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, all of which effectively encourage people to cooperate and engage with SMEs. In the same instance, it is also efficient to ensure that accounting statements are also available online. This is part of an efficient bookkeeping strategy.

Putting Resources into Assets

Concentrate on what you specialize in. Endeavoring to do everything internally is not always the best approach, particularly when building a solid footing in the market. Energize associations that draw out the best in your business and help it prosper and grow. This aligns with your general business strategy and helps connect your audience more productively. 

Less Expensive is Not Generally Better

Assess your choices, and do not decide on less expensive options simply because they exist. Concentrate on three key components: what will give your item or service more esteem, what will give your gathering of people a wealthier client encounter, and what will fabricate your image loyalty– this will help control your decisions when choices are simply taken based on a book.

Conclusion

In conclusion, navigating SME challenges demands a return to business basics. From market insight to brand acknowledgment, digital presence, strategic investments, and wise decision-making, embracing fundamental principles ensures a resilient and successful business journey. Remember, value, customer experience, and brand loyalty should guide choices beyond mere cost considerations. Going back to basics is the pathway to sustainable growth and market prominence for small and medium enterprises.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

CCH Wolter Kluwer, an accounting research manager, conducted a research study 2013. It was a national research study commissioned by CCH. The study was “Cloud computing – a matter of survival for the accounting industry?” The findings of the study were interesting and expected.

CCH’s study proves that the change to cloud-computing software or platforms for accounting services is proceeding well. Acceptance has reached momentous levels among accountants and small business owners and is predominantly high among younger demographics.
Future intents show that within two to three years, a mainstream of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and their accountants will manage their accounting on the cloud. The change to cloud-based computing offers some direct threats and long-term prospects for the accounting industry.

Cloud computing will mechanize much of the low-level managerial services that accountants have provided to small and medium enterprise clients for so long. This is not lost on business owners, who show they will now consider replacing much of their accountant’s work with cloud software. A significant number also say they will deliberately replace their accountants if they do not work with a cloud computing system. This fondness for cloud computing is increasing abruptly amid younger groups of business owners.

Cloud computing cannot replace an accountant by any means. However, accountants with a wide knowledge of cloud computing will certainly be given preference in future jobs in small to medium-sized businesses.

Before understanding the benefits of cloud computing, let us thoroughly understand the differences between accounting and cloud accounting.

Cloud Accounting

Cloud accounting is the same as traditional accounting; bookkeeping procedures are done on accounting software. The cloud accounting software is hosted on remote servers, similar to the SaaS (Software as a Service) business model. Data is sent to the server into a ‘cloud,’ which is processed and returned to the user. All application functions are done off-site, on the cloud, not on the desktop.



The accounting functions are done online and not on desktop software. The internet or another network is used for the process. Users access the cloud accounting software through a cloud application service provider. The software does not have to be installed onto a computer. It can be accessed anywhere globally, provided the cloud applications service provider is present.

Benefits of Cloud Computing for Businesses

1. If you have access to your accounting and bookkeeping data anytime and anywhere in the world. Spend time on other business operations-related activities or spend quality time with family. You can access cloud accounting software online while sitting at home and stay updated with your business’s accounting and bookkeeping functions from the comfort of your own home. An up-to-date view of the financial status of your business enables you to make the right decisions at the right time.
2. Try and go paperless in accounting and bookkeeping, which makes cloud-based accounting Eco-friendly, too. Paperwork takes a lot of time and resources for accountants and business owners. Small business owners need time to interpret accounting information. Accounting software makes it easy to interpret this critical information without cumbersome papers.
3. Cloud accounting software offers multi-user access.
4. A better relationship is built with your accountant when you use cloud accounting. You can access accounting data online and give your accountant quality time for discussion related to business bookkeeping.
5. Cloud accounting software is automatically updated.
6. Cloud accounting reduces upfront business costs, and you do not face regular maintenance fees.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is the future of accounting procedures in small and medium-sized businesses. Accountants must seek training to learn cloud computing operations for job survival in the accounting industry. Cloud computing cannot replace accountants. It only makes their jobs more efficient and time-effective. The accounting industry is shifting from manual accounting to cloud computing in nearly all small and medium-sized businesses, which is the preference of business owners.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

This blog aims to illustrate how the virtualization journey is undeniably one of the fundamental building blocks needed to achieve cloud computing in a business. Virtualization creates a virtual version of computer hardware platforms, storage devices, and network resources. This is an essential step in technology development because cloud computing, generally described as data centers that are available to users over the Internet, can depend on the virtualization of existing platforms. 

As a result, from the moment the Information Technology (IT) organization virtualizes the first server, it invariably lays the groundwork for cloud technology. Virtualization is needed to move from server to server, cluster to cluster, or even across the data centers to separate the operating systems and the applications from all the underlying hardware platforms.

Foundational Role of Virtualization in Cloud Technology

The virtualization concept is also one of the primary ingredients for resourceful pooling: the ability to link computing, memory, storage, and resources across the data centers into one large virtual computer.

You can understand all of the tremendous advantages, including capital expenditure savings, by tracking the consolidation of systems and drastic savings over time. This is typically accomplished by updating and provisioning the systems and the software.

Although both transformational characteristics may deliver a lot of value early on, they are the core foundation of greater business values later in the journey. The ratio between the server administrator and the servers in one of the leading cloud providers is one to one thousand (or 1:1,000), which is, on average, more than the typical enterprise.   

Evolution of IT Infrastructure

In phase two of the virtualization journey, commonly known as Business Production, clients begin to drive operational savings by automating new server provisioning. The distribution and balancing of computing resources are all based entirely on the application load. Apart from this, there is also the restarting of servers if something goes wrong, as well as the fallover and recovery of the entire data center in case of any disaster. In this case, servers would go entirely down temporarily.

In a completely virtualized data center, all the numerous tasks can be automated entirely due to the flexibility of the fundamental virtualization layer. Once these applications are accessible from fundamental hardware and begin to run on the virtualization platform, enriching them using the new cloud technologies is very much possible, even if the legacy applications were designed and built a few years ago. This evolutionary approach is perhaps one of the most fascinating advantages of the virtualization journey.

Client Experiences and Application Performance

When we, as customers, think about cloud technology, we expect these technologies to be always available and responsive. One of the greatest examples of the virtualization journey is that it allows the same kind of operative excellence in the enterprise through the virtualization of numerous business applications.

Enterprise-class virtualization stages comprised various features, including fault tolerance and high availability, designed to be readily available. Moreover, the virtualization-based recovery from disaster solutions has expanded the business continuity competence to a whole new data center.

This is why the clients who are way past the early stages of adoption and have been steadily updating their mission-critical applications and databases to the virtual environment tell us that both the new and old applications perform better when virtualized. 

Clients are changing the IT infrastructure throughout the first two phases of the entire virtualization journey. When they reach the third and final phase, what is known as IT as a Service, this all comes together, and they are ready to change the relationship with the corporate world.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Every entrepreneur needs an active reading list. After all, books are one of the most valuable knowledge resources. Even the best podcasts and YouTube videos cannot replace the in-depth lessons found in a good book. The challenge, however, is sifting through and finding the right material. Find something that will not only resonate with you and inspire you to aim higher but will also guide you through that process as well.

From self-development to best business practices, listed below are 34 must-reads for entrepreneurs:

1. The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John
2. The Creator’s Code: The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs by Amy Wilkinson
3. Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business by Paul Downs
4. The Purpose Economy: How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth and Community Is Changing the World by Aaron Hurst
5. The Network Entrepreneur: Leveraging Your Social Network for Success by William Brennan
6. Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters
7. Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Bigby Bo Burlingham
8. To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment Historyby Lawrence Levy
9. Chasing Perfection: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the High-Stakes Game of Creating an NBA Champion by Andy Glockner
10. Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford
11. The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Steve Case
12. The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross
13. From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives by Jeffrey E. Garten
14. The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Todd Sattersten
15. Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results by Christina Wodke
16. Stragility: Excelling at Strategic Changes by Ellen R. Auster
17. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz
18. Mapping Experiences: A Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams by James Kalbach
19. Think Simple: How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity by Ken Segall
20. Design for Executives: How the World’s Top Designers Build Organizations and Drive Innovation by Mariya Yao
21. One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking by Dave Trott
22. Simplify: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed by Richard Koch
23. A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideasby Warren Berger
24. The Storyteller’s Secret: From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch On, and Others Don’t by Carmine Gallo
25. Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbolsby Nancy Duarte
26. The Etiquette Edge: Modern Manners for Business Success by Beverly Langford
27. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
28. Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin
29. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
30. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? by Raj Raghunathan
31. How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life by Caroline Webb
32. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
33. Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self by Erik Bertrand Larssen
34. Be Bad First: Get Good at Things Fast to Stay Ready for the Future by Erika Andersen
    
    

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is a commitment—not only to your venture or business but also to a unique learning process. Where others sought guidance through prominent universities and established companies, many entrepreneurs who have a desire to go their own way see learning as a self-guided experience.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

There is certainly no denying the fact that businesses fear embezzlement, fraud, and theft. According to studies, embezzlement consumes significant revenue and annual profits. It restricts companies from creating a high-level impact in the market, further preventing them from expanding their business operations. Statistics reveal that trusted employees steal more from businesses than outside individuals or stakeholders.

Top executives and business owners from around the globe have devised methods to protect their businesses from fraudulent activities. But, still, no one has yet come up with a magic formula to prevent the unfortunate reality completely. Employee theft and fraud are imminent. Employees’ opportunistic behavior often leads them to commit financial crimes, causing companies a great deal of financial stress and trauma. A staggering 87% of embezzlement cases come from trusted partners and employees, which is worth contemplating.

Small Businesses are Vulnerable to Fraud

The media is filled with thousands of stories of serious fraud. This indicates that the life of business owners, especially entrepreneurs, is never easy. They must regularly come up with different ways to protect themselves against embezzlement. Inexperienced business owners often lack the wisdom to distinguish between their employees, especially those stealing. Those with a habit of stealing are often clever, confident, and less concerned about losing their jobs since they already know the repercussions.

Those who steal without the fear of getting caught can ruin a business entirely. Small businesses may be more vulnerable to fraud, but that does not mean that nothing can be done to prevent embezzlement. As a business owner, it is your duty and responsibility to maintain complete control over your finances and other important business matters. Developing a framework and streamlining operations requires you to know every fine detail. You must know everything from bookkeeping accounts and bank statements to inventory and clients before making important business decisions. Moreover, you must be aware of the possibility of fraudulent activities in your business.

Protecting your business against embezzlement may be hard, but it is not impossible. Below, we have outlined how you can maintain complete control over your business and prevent cash, goods, and sensitive information from becoming the next case of embezzlement.

Know Your Employees and Notice Changes in Their Commitment

Sadly, your employees are a potential threat to your business because you never know who will steal from you. It could be a new employee or a trusted veteran just coming into the company. However, with minimal effort, you can prevent a lot of anguish. To protect your business against embezzlement, you must know your employees well. Things such as sudden changes in habit and behavior, a lifestyle above salary levels, overnight shifts, strong objections to new accounting regulations, discrepancies in financial records, drugs, gambling, etc., may be warning signs of embezzlement.

Keep a Check and Balance System in Place

It is hard to manage everything manually. Creating a custom solution tailored to your business needs is more beneficial to record, track, and analyze things wisely for better decision-making. In simplest terms, what is going in and out of your business must be recorded chronologically to have a clear snapshot of finances and other important business matters. Keeping your personal and business accounts separate allows you to track personal and business expenses independently. This way, you will protect your assets from fraud and gain a true picture of your business, further preventing embezzlement.

Create a System to Report Theft or Fraud

A reporting system must be carefully and preemptively incorporated into a business, as it should not signal employees or convey to them that you do not trust them. Losing the trust of your employees is hard to remedy. Therefore, you must keep all the complaints filed by your employees confidential and secure from their co-workers. This way, employees feel encouraged and safe in reporting fraudulent activities that they think might be happening. This will help you protect your business against embezzlement.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

What Is Life Planning In Terms of Savings?

Having a solid financial threshold is necessary for prospering. The fact of life is that money matters. It keeps you going and enables you to protect yourself and your family from unforeseen circumstances or expenses. Saving money has its strategic importance in life. Everyone wants to become financially secure and more stable in life. People tend to save money for numerous reasons: for independence, emergencies, debt-free living, investments, homes, cars, travel, education, and retirement.

What Happens Without Planning Finances?

‘How much money do we need to save?’ is probably the most discussed topic among peers, families, schools, colleges, and social gatherings. We must learn the art of saving money for hard times, or we will probably get stuck miserably in severe financial crises. Recovering from a serious financial crisis becomes incredibly challenging as your entire financial equation is disrupted. One thing to be noticed is that not everyone is privileged enough to procure a regular paycheck. Most people find making ends meet challenging or saving money for hard times.

Always Save

To meet daily necessities, some people can budget their paychecks extremely well and always save a tiny portion of their income for savings during hard times. Others face extreme difficulties maintaining a healthy financial life cycle, predominantly due to irregular monthly paychecks. Careful planning and budgeting are critically crucial for balancing your income and expenditures. Without creating a budgeting mechanism, you can never expect to save money—no matter how hard you try.

Consistent Support via Financial Planning

According to the 50/30/20 rule, you must put at least 20% of your income into your savings account. Keeping 20% of income as reserves will relieve money-related concerns. It is necessary for people who do not have regular paychecks to make a financial budget to keep an eye on their income and spending schedules. Hundreds of professions, such as consultation, designing, freelancing, and commission-based sales agents, work for different organizations that do not promise a regular paycheck. For such people, following guidelines can help them to save money.

Know Your Baseline

Your baseline includes essentials without which you cannot live. When you do not have a regular paycheck, you must properly record all transactions and examine your spending patterns. Your income may be unstable, but expenditures on different commodities or services are generally stable, predictable, and repeatable. It includes the major expenses listed below.

Groceries:

An adequate budget can help you save a lot of money. Food is a category where costs can be cut significantly—plan on buying those necessary for you to consume for the month. Quite understandably, maintaining a healthy financial flow without a regular paycheck is hard, even restricting you from buying items of your choice.

Housing and Utilities: 

You need to pay your monthly utility bills, rent, or mortgage payments—which can’t be ignored. The costs incurred on house maintenance create a major problem for maintaining a sound financial life cycle. When you have budget issues, you can postpone them or manage to fix things yourself.

Medical:

Heavy medical treatment expenses can cause you to lose every penny in your savings if you don’t have medical insurance. According to a study, it is perhaps the number one reason people go bankrupt. This indicates that life without a regular paycheck is tough.

Transportation: 

You can use public transport instead of buying or managing a car to save money for hard times. Going to work in your vehicle may be considered stress-free, but it should be avoided by looking at the cost and benefit analysis.

Set Your Income Target

Everybody can roughly predict how much they can earn in a single month. The expectation should be kept high, and income targets must be set to get a clear picture of how much more money you need to earn to maintain a balance in your emergency fund savings. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to meet your income target—all you can do is predict it and work hard to earn it.

Open Multiple Savings Accounts

Opening multiple savings accounts is a secret tactic to save money without a regular paycheck. Your income from different sources can be smartly allocated into various savings accounts. In prosperous times, a tiny portion of your income that you credit in those accounts will surely help you out in rough financial times.

Conclusion

Having a regular paycheck does not necessarily guarantee financial safety and security. With irregular paychecks, you can still afford to save money for hard times. Your will and motivation matter for saving money, not just the regular flow of monthly paychecks.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

An email has become one of the most powerful channels to reach consumers. It has the highest rate of return among digital marketing channels. It is also the channel that consumers prefer the most for brand communications. Emails are no longer solely text-based. They can use HTML and CSS for colors, buttons, images, and more. Today, email marketing is more powerful than ever and is the most effective platform for brands to distribute middle and bottom-of-the-funnel content. 

Here are some tips for effectively distributing your content via email and refining your B2B (Business-to-business) email performance.

Provide Frequency Options

Your subscribers represent individual people – people with different needs, wants, and expectations. By providing different subscription options, potential subscribers will feel more in control of the emails they receive and are more likely to sign up.

Offer Content Options

One way to provide subscribers with relevant content and inspire potential subscribers to sign up for your emails is by offering several content options. For example, if someone only wants to receive communications about email design techniques rather than email marketing strategies, they can subscribe to a niche newsletter focusing on their interests. 

Send An Engaging Welcome Email

Please ensure your subscribers get your following newsletter or campaign after opting in. Onboard your subscribers or send them a welcome email thanking them for subscribing, and include some of your best evergreen content. By immediately demonstrating the value of your emails, you will excite your subscribers for future sends.

Keep It Valuable, Not Promotional

When writing your email copy, put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes and ask, “What’s in it for me?” Please do not focus on your wants and needs; focus on theirs.

Optimize Your Inbox View

Before your subscribers can read the content in your email, they must first decide to open the campaign. This decision to open occurs in the inbox, where the subscriber will frequently see a few critical pieces of influential information – you are from the name, subject line, and (sometimes) preview text.

Share Third-Party Articles

Your subscribers crave education and motivation. However, producing great content is complex and time-consuming. So, instead, look to others in your industry for helpful, actionable content and curate those articles in your emails. You will be sharing great content and building trust with your subscribers, and it’s minimal work for you. Plus, sharing content with your partners can help strengthen those relationships. 

Utilize Brand Partnerships

Utilize your brand partnerships to expand your content’s reach. For example, work with others on content initiatives, like webinars, eBooks, and blog posts. Then, when it is time for the campaign, you can leverage your email subscribers to reach a superior audience.

Make It Easily Shareable

Send great content that your subscribers will want to share. Use your current subscribers as an avenue to reach new ones. By encouraging your subscribers to forward and share your emails, you are meaningfully expanding the reach of your content and increasing the possibility of additional subscribers.

Measure And Improve

If it is not measurable, it’s not worth doing; even email isn’t an exception to that rule. There are plenty of different analytics that you can measure with email distribution platforms that will give you insights into your database’s health. When measuring the efficiency of your content via email as a distribution channel, the three key metrics you should keep an eye on include Click-through Rate (CTR), Open Rate, and Unsubscribes.

Conclusion

Email is the perfect medium to distribute your content initiatives. Since email is a permission-based marketing channel, those signing up to receive your emails explicitly request more information. Your campaigns on your valuable content can help them do just that. If you are segmenting when distributing content and executing campaigns, your content will be far more successful in moving your leads through the buyer’s journey.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.