Author: Jennifer Brazer

A successful business is a combination of departments harmoniously working under its flagship. The most important of all is the finance department, which is the backbone of all other departments. The finance department is responsible for providing fiscal value to other divisions to make their management possible.

When considering a business budget, many factors go into planning and executing it. One of the first things a business owner or financial manager needs to understand is that the budget must be accurate and complete.

Effective budgeting is required to ensure that a business’s operations correspond with its strategic plan. When planning a budget, efficient practices are adopted to make it effective. Since companies differ, each one should adopt budgeting strategies that make its operations practical and feasible. The following are effective budgeting techniques that can be used to promote efficiency within the company.  

Start from Scratch

Budgeting plays a vital role in operating an organization’s system. To make the task feasible, it is advised to start from scratch. Starting from scratch means familiarizing yourself with all the terms and equipment required to prepare an intelligent budget. Entrepreneurs are advised to take training courses and obtain certifications to acquire knowledge regarding budgeting.

The purpose of starting from scratch is to overcome any mistakes or gaps that may have been in the previous budgeting plan. In some cases, businesses may have never established a business budget. Therefore, the budget would be created from scratch. However, you need to ensure that you understand every aspect of the budget and what is required in order to tailor the budget to your business.

Preview Your Already Existing Budgeting Plans

To make a business efficient, review your existing budgeting plans to avoid errors and insufficiency. After being trained for appropriate budgeting, all business owners are advised to review their already designed business plans to generate error-free results. Bookkeeping is the most trusted method used to test the reliability of a budgeting plan, as it provides a picture of all activities performed on a single platform. 

Many planners do not consider existing plans when creating a budget. However, if you have an existing plan, it will be beneficial to study it and keep what is working while discarding the aspects that don’t. Using an existing budget to plan a new one helps cut down on time and remove some guesswork.

• Go for long-term planning

Every business starts with specific fundamental properties that are different from the others. Therefore, budgeting techniques are planned according to the requirements and nature of a business. Bookkeeping is the only concept that applies to every business. It is considered responsible for providing a clear notion of every task performed in a company.

It supports designing an adequate budget for a company, making long-term planning of its operations possible. Entrepreneurs are advised to pursue long-term planning to avoid chaotic situations in the future; for instance, a specific budget section must be allotted for the time of recession, if and when it comes.

• Look to the future

Financial management is a broad cloud; it involves various genres such as revenues, expenses, cash models, cash inflows, etc. Therefore, effective budgeting caters to all of these concepts under a single flagship to run a business successfully. Financial experts are advised to plan a budget (with the help of bookkeeping), looking at the upcoming planned events of an organization so that the efficiency of a business establishment can be increased.

Conclusion

Efficiency in a business is achieved when it produces maximum goods and services at the minimum possible cost. Effective budgeting is the best strategy to improve efficiency in a business. It responsibly allocates the optimal number of shares and monetary worth to every department to accomplish its operations.

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 budget is a critical part of any business, whether small or large. In a budget, one plans how much to spend on each business operation and when to save. For new small business owners, creating a budget is a challenge, and it must be prepared correctly.  Here are some common mistakes committed in budgets and tips to avoid them for the speedy growth of a business.

Mistake 1: Lack of a Business Plan

New small business owners often don’t have experience in budgeting and running a business. They make the budget without a strategy and business plan. Small and long-term financial plans are a crucial part of a budget, but new small business owners are eager to jump into their startup without a detailed business plan and goals.

How to avoid it?

Take advice from an experienced entrepreneur or a seasoned businessperson. Detailed homework should be done on budgeting. Goals and long and short-term financial plans should be defined. Insert all of these plans into the budget. Once started, this business plan should be reviewed periodically. By a review, you can analyze the validity of the strategy and make necessary adjustments if needed.

Mistake 2: Underpricing

Once a new small business owner enters the market, they find it suitable to sell their product or service at a price less than that of the competitors. This strategy is adopted to attract customers. But in fact, you are losing your money. Less is the profit margin; more is the loss. To compensate for this loss, sometimes, they lower the operating expenses by producing a low-quality product. The customer is not likely to purchase it. Again, you are at a loss.

How to avoid it?

To compete in the market,  don’t reduce the sale price because your revenue will be less than the expenses. Neither lower the quality. Just sell the quality product at a suitable price and let the customer know the value of your product. The customer makes a comparison of the products and decides where to buy from.

Mistake 3: Overspending

The initial few years of startups are very crucial for business success. The mistake often seen is that new small business owners start overspending as soon as revenues start receiving. The most common budgeting mistake is that they overspend on advertising. A common assumption about advertising is that it will immediately enhance sales. At least a quarter is needed to see the impact of advertising on sales. The overestimation of revenue leads to a budget deficit.

How to avoid it?

In the initial stage of small business, each penny should be saved and spent with great care. Advertising costs should be logically budgeted without considering an immediate return on the revenue.  Overspending affects budgeting a lot. Keep the operating costs low, and capital should be increased.

Mistake 4: Underestimating Uncle Sam

Every business has to pay a heavy amount to the Government in the form of taxes. If you underestimate the amount of taxes you are liable to pay; it will affect the budget.

How to avoid it?

To avoid underestimation of taxes, don’t consider the end-of-the-day balance. This balance does not show the exact value of employees’ withholdings and revenues. Make a proper estimation of taxes.

Mistake 5: Lack of Management

A small business owner has a busy schedule. They have to do many tasks alone. They may fail to manage and organize their business cycle at an optimum level. This disorganization can lead to extra expenses and less profit margin.

How to avoid it?

Use software for managing the business properly. This software is used for bookkeeping, accounting, and generating payroll. Your time is saved, which can be used to grow the business.

Conclusion

Budgeting mistakes can be avoided by following the plans mentioned above. A proper budget is key to business 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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 company, large or small, has its ups and downs. The capacity of the staff working in a company is judged by its ability to cope during tough times. Every company should develop innovative strategies to deal with difficult times when they come. Recessionary thinking is reserved for periods when a company is going through a severe downturn. Here are 12 tips for dealing with a recession:

React Quickly

It is advised that entrepreneurs and business owners react to a situation immediately on favorable terms. They should decide on essential strategies to be taken as soon as possible to help the company recover.

Act Based on Facts

Every businessperson or entrepreneur should take steps based on facts and figures. Actions based on facts and figures result in better and more concrete results. Be careful not to react to emotions.

Nurture Client Relationships

Usually, in times of recession, business owners become overwhelmed and anxious, resulting in not serving their present clients well. This should be avoided,d and plans to keep their client base should be made.

Make New Plans

Business owners are advised to look at their business plans again and then move ahead to work against the downfall. The creation of a new business plan is announced during times of recession. This will help owners and employees formulate a plan of action.

Carefully Choose Partners

Business owners are advised to avoid those who can harm their business. This is common sense, but when a company is vulnerable, it can often attract those who will take advantage of it. Be wary of partnerships during these times and look to those business relationships that are already established.

Be Dedicated

Business owners and their staff should give more time to deal with chaotic conditions in the office. These times may demand more dedication to the business. This dedication will pay off and can bring a company to full strength quickly.

Prepare for Change

Staff and business owners should prepare themselves for the worst in terms of making themselves ready for a new venture if the current endeavor fails or declines. An owner and staff must be willing to change, if necessary, to survive.

Invest in the Business

If business owners can afford to do so or take loans, they should invest more to take themselves out of the recession. This needs to be carefully considered and implemented to not create more of a problem through debt.

Invest in Yourself

Business owners should find an outlet to relieve themselves of stress and anxiety. Whether exercising or going to a therapeutic yoga class, ways to find positive energy and release negativity should be sought.

Hire Professionals

Entrepreneurs should seek advice from experts who can handle such situations in challenging and terrible times. Guidance and advice should be sought out through professionals who are experts at dealing with the recession.

Use Past Experience

Try to learn from your experience and past journey, which can help you with the present condition. Often, history will repeat itself in both positive and negative ways. You must use your past experiences to guide you through difficult times.

Go Back to the Beginning

To wipe out the problem, it is essential to understand the problem correctly. Going from the beginning of the business plan will help you find where you can make changes. Often, there is an indication of where a wrong turn is taken by going back to the beginning and tracing the steps that brought about the recession.

Final Note

Preparation and quick responses can often head off problems that might take out a business. Use these 12 simple but effective tips to guide you if you are experiencing difficult times.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

The term “uberization” is derived from the company Uber, the rideshare company which introduced this business model. Uber is a transport service that you avail by booking a ride from your smartphone whenever and wherever you need it. Uberization is a business model where suppliers and customers communicate directly via mobile technology, website, or software. These parties then agree upon the services offered by a supplier, customer requirements, and payment terms and conditions.

Technology has changed the labor world, and you no longer need to go to a storefront or market in search of a service or a product. Services and products are now accessible on your laptops and mobile phones. This idea means that the small business economy can drive significant growth by uberizing.

Uberization is based on the following characteristics:

• Use of digital platforms for peer-to-peer transactions
• Decrease the distance between the customer and the service provider
• Assessment of the quality of the product or service by using a rating system

Examples

eBay, TaskRabbit, Uber, and Airbnb are a few examples of growing uberizing. 

Here are a few examples of how “Uberizing” can be beneficial for small businesses.

Targeting Potential Customers

Online navigation tracking is utilized to find out potential customers searching for a specific product. Online retailers monitor these customers and provide them with complementary products or services along with cost comparisons. The websites have a detailed description of the product, its availability, customer satisfaction, expected delivery date, and tracking details of the order. A survey shows that during Christmas, 50% of the customers buy a different product than the one they intended to purchase. The reason behind this was online searching for that product by 50% of customers. Online retailers attracted and diverted those customers to buy their products by providing them with details within minutes.

The Customer can Use the Best Choice

Buying a product online has a number of advantages. Customers have more choices and the freedom to compare various brands at a time, with no pressure from a retailer to buy their product. Customers compare products and hold off on ordering until satisfied. Online purchasing or uberization is now one of the preferred services availed by customers. The ease of purchase and time saved are the critical benefits of uberization, which are driving small businesses toward growth.

Flexible, Fast, and Smooth Service

Uberization is a growing business because it listens to the heart of the customer. The customer expects that all information regarding products or services should be available. All questions should be answered, such as the expected delivery time, location, and refunding charges. Satisfied reviews are the most forceful attention-driving services provided to customers.

Control of Purchases

Customers can control the time, date, and location that the product is to be delivered, so they find it more convenient to utilize online services.

Saves Time

For small business growth, uberization is time-saving. Building a concrete office, hiring a workforce, and marketing the product is quite a long process. If you develop a virtual online store or service room, all three are done in one go. Time is also saved, and ultimate growth is ensured.

Growing Technologies

With time, technology has replaced many things in our daily routines. PC desktops, watches, cameras, calculators, and stopwatches are all things of the past. Due to the evolution of technology during the last few years, all of this information is available on your smartphone. Excessive use of smartphones has forced small business owners to uberize their products and services. According to a survey, an individual checks their smartphone forty-six times a day. Providing ways to purchase products on a smartphone is a significant step towards the rapid growth of businesses.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

It’s good for business when employees work together towards a common mission of business success and profitability. Business owners also come to appreciate when marketable bookkeeping alliances foster transparency, compliance, and accountability in the financial statements of their company.

Accounting Statements

A company must print four financial data summaries at the end of a given period, such as a month, quarter, or economic year. These comprise a statement of finances, a declaration of profit and loss, a report of cash flows, and a statement of changes in equity. If you review a company’s financial statements year after year, you can see whether the business has compensated for its operating mistakes and moved forward from a profitability standpoint. A quick way to gauge that is going through its P&L and noting profit trends over the years.

Consolidation

Consolidating accounting statements means adding up performance report data for two or more productions, depending on equity stakes and applicable guidelines. Think of it as totaling each financial item and ensuring the final bookkeeping result corresponds to the underlying percentage. When a company owns less than 20 percent of another entity’s equity, it uses the cost method under which the investment value doesn’t fluctuate unless the affiliate files for bankruptcy or copes with insolvency. If the investment business has a stake ranging from 20 to 50 percent, it uses the equity method.

Consolidated Accounting Statements

These declarations are useful for appraising the financial position and results of an entire group of commonly owned businesses. Otherwise, reviewing the results of individual businesses in the group does not indicate the financial bookkeeping health of the group as a whole.

The key entities used in the construction of consolidated statements are:

• A  parent entity and all of its divisions
• A subsidiary entity that is controlled by a parent company

Therefore, consolidated financial statements are the collective financial for a parent company and its subsidiaries. It is also possible to have consolidated financial statements for a portion of a group of companies, such as for a subsidiary and those other entities owned by the subsidiary.

These statements require substantial effort to construct since they must exclude the impact of any transactions between the entities being reported on. So, if there is a sale of goods between the subsidiaries of a parent company, this inter-company sale must be eliminated from the consolidated financial statements. Another common inter-company elimination is when the parent company pays interest income to the subsidiaries whose cash it is using to make investments; this interest income must be eliminated from the consolidated financial statements.

Consolidated Accounting Statements with QuickBooks

If your business has numerous divisions or wholly-owned subsidiaries, consolidating accounting statements from all of them gives you a complete picture of the parent company’s financial health. You can use QuickBooks to merge statements, but it involves careful bookkeeping. Under some conditions, you’ll need the use of third-party software to import the financial data into QuickBooks.

QuickBooks lets you categorize transactions by class, giving the user great flexibility in how to define the class. If your business has several divisions but is still a single legal entity, elect a class to report profit and loss by division. Be certain to identify each operation by its class, however, to keep the reports accurate. Beginning with QuickBooks, you can produce a new balance sheet report by class, displaying assets, equity, and liability, and a consolidated balance sheet for the company.

Final Note

With QuickBooks, small businesses can reduce monthly costs while optimizing productivity. The key benefits are to eliminate many expenses and connect to financial institutions for free instead of paying a monthly fee. It can also provide access to more users, store data for free, and include many more benefits.

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 do a construction project manager, a creative design director, and a pastry chef have in common? Evidently, as small-business owners, each one of them opened up an outlet to serve clients and do what they love rather than spend hours on bookkeeping or accounting.

Being a small business owner, you might have an inborn entrepreneurial attitude, but you are less adept at accounting. Often, owners will find bookkeeping a tedious activity even more so when your focus lies on building your brand and boosting your business.

Modern-day artistic entrepreneurs can leverage an ever-growing suite of business tools and bookkeeping technology. They can help lower the stress of managing invoices, receipts, and bills while spending more time on grabbing new business opportunities. How businesses record their expenses and revenues has radically changed over recent years. More and more businesses are switching to cloud computing to enjoy online accounting and bookkeeping tools and to help streamline their core functional processes. Thus, it would help if you also considered migrating your present accounting data and workflows to the cloud. The tools securely host all the relevant and necessary databases and servers, helping you access your data anytime and anywhere via an internet connection.

Here are the top five logical reasons to incorporate cloud accounting into your business to ensure improved efficiency and increased profits:

1. Have easy access to your data anywhere, at any time

The main reason that cloud-based invoicing and accounting tools are so popular is that they allow easy access to your financial data from anywhere, at any time. Since they host remotely, you do not have to worry about any time-consuming downloads and updates. Busy professionals like you can keep up with their business information on the go and even access their invoices by using the mobile app of the online accounting software. This renders added flexibility and peace of mind as you do not have to be sitting in your shop or office to access your accounts or check your cash flow. Also, you will be making important financial decisions quickly instead of having to go through endless piles of paper containing old and outdated information.

2. Enable smart business for a distributed workforce

As accounting information and financial data stored in the cloud can be accessed or added anywhere, your team members can easily and quickly finish their work, irrespective of their physical location. Whether a project manager has to verify an invoice for a supplier or a sales representative has to add expense receipts, having cloud-based invoicing and accounting tools in place makes accessing any organizational information as simple as taking a picture of a document or searching by date, vendor, or amount.

3. Verify discrepancies

The vendor-customer relationship is a top priority for almost every business. However, we have all seen situations where accounting discrepancies put vital relationships at stake. Cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping tools make it easier to verify and locate precisely where error or omission took place through advanced yet easy-to-use searching capabilities. Hence, small-business owners no longer need to spend hours and hours searching through old invoices as smart tools are waiting to benefit them.

4. Maintain vendor relationships

When an accounting omission or invoice discrepancy is located through online accounting software, it can promptly be brought to the vendor’s attention. This easy and smart process ensures that it is easier for you to maintain relationships with suppliers because, instead of being frustrated with how long it took to identify the discrepancy, they will appreciate you for quickly finding it and thereby resolving it.

5. Reduce overhead

It can cost you a lot to maintain your business server, local storage devices, and networks for your small business. However, you will no longer be required to bear the costs of maintaining a server system, upgrading to new software versions, or hiring an IT professional to keep up with your system when you migrate from traditional ways of record-keeping to smart tools of cloud-based accounting technology.

6. Leverage a broader suite of secure apps

Cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping applications such as QuickBooks Online and XERO not only provide easy and secure access to information and data from any remote device with an internet connection. They also integrate with many other cloud-based tools. Hence, as soon as you begin using cloud-based record-keeping technology, it is fast and easy to extract and leverage accounting data across a number of different online platforms and save time spent on manual data entry.

Final Note

One thing is certain: the evolution of accounting technology has taken place. The desktop-based system software is dead, while cloud-based applications are ruling everywhere. If you want to spend more time doing what you love and be smart and more efficient with your record-keeping, then cloud accounting is an unbeatable choice for staying on top of your business finances.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, it is crucial to have a solid understanding of accounting – the language of finance and business. One of the most important tasks in the industry is learning how to read financial statements when starting a business. Blindly investing money without understanding financial statements can lead to unwarranted risks. Therefore, it is essential to comprehend financial statements and use that knowledge to make informed decisions.

Over time, the business will expand, and transactions with other businesses, tax authorities, and customers will occur. Business bookkeeping needs to be counted and rechecked. These transactions of business and records are maintained using financial statements and accounting terms. The following three are the most important financial statements in business bookkeeping.

1. Income statement

The Income statement is divided into Sales and Expenses.

Sales include The selling of goods and services to the customers and getting monetary payments in return.
Expenses include purchases made on behalf of the business, employee salaries, bank loans that were received for investment or other purposes, and tax expenses that were paid as income taxes, etc.

2. Balance sheet

The balance sheet is a statement that summarizes all the financial transactions of a company or business in the past. It categorizes the company’s assets and liabilities. Assets include fixed assets, cash in the bank, raw materials, work in progress that will yield profit, finished goods, and even the value-added tax. Value-added tax is the amount of money that a tax authority owes to the company. Liabilities comprise the payments that have to be paid by the company, including the gross amount of money that has to be paid to suppliers and the value-added tax liability, which is the money paid to tax authorities for the sales that were done. Debt is the amount of money that the company has to pay to banks or other sources.

3. Cash flow statement

A cash flow statement shows the cash (money) that flows in and the money that flows out. A cash flow sheet includes the investing and the financing cash flow. Investing cash flow is the invested cash in the fixed assets in the business. The financing cash flow describes the money in cash from that which was either received from the investors or paid to the investors. A third but essential form of cash flow is “Operating cash flow.” It explains the money flowed in and flowed out to the running business.

These three cash flows are added, showing the change in the amount of cash.

Conclusion

The above three financial statements are interrelated. As the income and expenses statement increases, the assets and liabilities on the balance sheet will increase. The assets and liabilities will decrease as per the cash flows from the cash flow statement.

Knowledge regarding financial statement interpretation is essential for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to know important information in the credit analysis of their business. Investors/entrepreneurs must understand fully how accounting is done in businesses. Accounting is the language of business. But, learning the meaning of a few terms used in accounting is not enough. Entrepreneurs must understand the parts of the above-described financial statements. This will help the entrepreneurs determine the values of assets. They will be able to calculate profitability and also estimate the risks of the assets of the company. They can understand the company’s financing sources. Entrepreneurs must realize investment, credit analysis, and profitability.

Business owners/entrepreneurs can determine the debt and equity with accounting knowledge in business financing. The ability of entrepreneurs to identify debt and equity shows insight into the value of a company. Understanding the accounting statement is essential for running a successful 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

No one instinctively knows how to build a business. They either throw themselves into the role of a first-time entrepreneur or they begin inside a classroom at the growing number of colleges and universities now catering to entrepreneurs’ needs. 
Listed below are 36 of the best business books for entrepreneurs and professionals:

1.    Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss.
2.    Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.
3.    Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.
4.    The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John.
5.    Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity by Charles Duhigg.
6.    Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek.
7.    The Lean Startup: How today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries.
8.    The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson.
9.    The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz.
10. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.
11. So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport.
12. Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins.
13. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and TahlRaz.
14. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters.
15. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell.
16. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.
17. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by NirEyal.
18. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by NirEyal.
19. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
20. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman.
21. Choose Yourself! Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream by James Altucher.
22. Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin.
23. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.
24. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
25. What If It Does Work Out?: Turn your passion into cash, make an impact in the world, and live the life you were born toby Susie Moore.
26. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath.
27. Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job by Sean Wise and Brad Feld.
28. Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury.
29. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.
30. Virtuous Leadership by Alexandre Havard.
31. The Secret to Success: When You Want to Succeed as Bad as You Want to Breathe by Eric Thomas.
32. The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs by Kevin D. Johnson.
33. The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught In America’s Top Business Schoolsby Steven A. Silbiger.
34. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant.
35. What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World by Tina Seelig.
36. The Social History of the Machine Gunby John Ellis.

    Conclusion

Every entrepreneur needs an active reading list. After all, books are one of the most valuable knowledge resources. The challenge, however, is sifting through and finding the right material for your business goals and needs. 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.

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.

Debt is the capital a businessperson borrows from an outside source and agrees to return within a specific period, along with a particular proportion of interest. Debt negatively affects business, but most start-ups have to borrow finances to begin operations. Even well-established companies often take on debts. The most common source of debt is banks, other companies, friends, and family.

Companies need to borrow money while making purchases like equipment and heavy machinery, etc. Debt is the natural killer of a company. It can be compared to a tiger that will consume your company one day if you don’t eliminate it. The reputation of your company can be ruined. Suppose suppliers don’t supply you with credit. In that case, you may not be able to offer salary increments, bonuses, and insurance, and a drastic effect on the business finances can take place if you aren’t careful.

Here are a Few Drastic Effects Which Companies Face Due to Debt

1. A credit rating is impacted.

Whenever a company needs to make large purchases, start new ventures, or take steps for marketing, finances are required to support these operations. The company may find it easy to borrow money from available resources. This practice is known as “Levering up”. Borrowing money to fulfill financial needs is not a good practice because the loan will affect the credit rating of your company. Every time you borrow money, it is noted in the credit report of the company. The higher the debt, the more the risk. Lenders don’t lend money quickly because of your previously unpaid loans, and you have to borrow money at more excellent interest rates than the previous ones on every following loan. There will come a time when your profit and income will be utilized only to pay interest and debts. The company will fail if you do not have control of debt.

2. Repayment

Repayment is a term often used in business. It means paying back loans periodically with interest. When you take a loan from a lender on specific agreed terms and conditions, repayment becomes your sole responsibility. Your company is not gaining profits and likely not achieving goals. Even if the company fails, you have to make repayments on time. Whatever the circumstances, your company is facing lenders that will forcefully declare your company bankrupt if it fails to make repayments. All assets of the company are used to pay debts by legal proceedings. A company’s credit rating is drastically affected, and soon, the company’s decline is at its peak.

3. High-interest rates

If a company is borrowing money again and again, interest rates will be increased. Interest rates are increased due to many reasons, which are as follows:

• Credit history of the company
• Personal credit history of the business owner
• Banking history of the company
• Credit rating of the company
• Macro-economic conditions

The higher the interest rates at which you borrow money, the greater the risk will be, which will have dire implications for your business. The more significant is the tiger running after your company to hunt.

4. Effects of debt on human resources

Debt hurts the human resources of a company as it is unable to facilitate and retain employees through incentives. It cannot offer a salary raise, bonuses, or insurance, which results in numerous resignations of experienced employees. This also earns a bad name for the company in the market, leaving your company all alone in the sea of debt.

5. Mature Debt is a serial killer

The older and more mature the debt becomes, the more difficult it will be to handle. The older the debt history in your bookkeeping, the more stressful the situation will be.

6. Failure to satisfy customers

When there is an increase in leverage, the company may try to cut costs by compromising on the quality of products or services delivered. This lower standard decreases your customers and ultimately results in less income.

Conclusion

Debt cannot be suitable for a company. At all costs, companies should have minimum obligations to ensure the growth and prosperity of the business. While it is understandable that sometimes a business may need to borrow money, the debt must be a priority to clear so it never overtakes the company, causing it to fail.

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.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is an agency that was created to collect taxes from Americans and administer the Internal Revenue Code enacted by Congress.

 The IRS is always generating tax resources for small-sized businesses. Small business owners do not always need to turn to accountants. They can greatly benefit by using these resources provided by the IRS.

Here are some important small business tax resources provided by the IRS:

1. A federal tax center for small business owners & the self-employed

The Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center conveys info on IRS.gov to a single shared place.

The link to this resource is:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-business-and-self-employed-tax-center

2. Small business tax resources for organizing tax-related Information

The IRS Tax Calendar for Businesses and the Self-Employed aids owners in systematizing. It contains tax due dates & actions for each month. Users can subscribe to calendar reminders or download the calendar to their desktop or calendar on their mobile phones.

The link to this resource is:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/irs-tax-calendar-for-businesses-and-self-employed

3. Tax-related information by topic is indexed and searchable

There is an A to Z business index, and it helps people in finding small business topics on IRS.gov.

Here is the link to this:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/a-z-index-for-business

4. Benefit from informational videos

The IRS Video Gateway deals with learning actions & informational videos on various business issues.

Here is the link to this:

https://www.irsvideos.gov/Business

5. Discover forms

The Small Business Forms and Publications page benefits business owners in finding the documents they require for the kind of business they own. It lists tax forms, directions, desk guides, and more.

Another link to this service/resource is:

https://smallbusiness.com/taxes/small-business-irs-tax-forms-guide-2017/

6. Personally meet someone from the IRS or online

Small business workshops, seminars, and meetings are held all over the country. They are funded by IRS allies that major in federal tax topics. Topics differ from summaries to further definite topics such as retirement plans and business bookkeeping and record keeping.

Conclusion

Small business owners are often busy in their day-to-day business functions. Most of them are managing their resources on their own. From basic business functions to bookkeeping and accounting, they are managing them alone. Keeping a check and balance type control on bookkeeping is not a small task. They are left with little time to calculate new ideas and interpret their financial status better. Especially at the start of business, it is a difficult task to interpret and carry out all business operations in an effective way. At that time, entrepreneurs require assistance throughout the year until their business gets settled to some extent. Many cannot hire accounting consultants all at once. At the same time, small business owners need to pay taxes as well. They might be trying to manage several loans as well. Knowing how to cope with taxes and loans is a challenging task for new entrepreneurs and small business owners. That’s why the IRS has made many resources for the proper guidance and tax assistance for small business owners. Entrepreneurs. 

Small businesses work like a network of veins throughout the body. The body is the national economy. Small business owners are essential for the economy of a country. That is why the IRS is facilitating its small business owners in the best possible and legal way. They can get instructions, forms, and many other services on the conjoined web portals that are specially designed and dedicated to small-sized business owners/entrepreneurs.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.