Category: Content

Main aspects of a budget

The first thing to note is that your budget should focus on the costs of the goods or services that your business provides and the proposal in general. That is, clearly account for all your client’s needs. The following are a few steps to improve your budget.

• Technical details are incredibly relevant, such as what you are going to deliver, functions that your work will cover, the elements that your service will consist of, etc.
• The form of delivery is another essential aspect, as it is necessary to specify how the service will be delivered to the client. This ensures that they know what they will receive and how much they can demand.
• You must clearly explain what you will receive before starting your work since compensation is relevant to the type of service you provide.
• It is imperative that you outline the duration of the service provided and, if possible, create a schedule specifying specific deadlines.
• The price of each stage of the service must be clearly stated so that the client knows what you charge for each service individually, as well as for overall management.
• Do not forget to put an effective date on the budget.
• It is essential that the budget be clear and detailed and that you address the client as a professional.
• It is advisable to read it aloud and even have a trusted friend or colleague look it over and give their opinion.

A budget must be clear, concise, and detailed. There are several techniques available to create the perfect resume; however, whichever option you choose, it is most advisable to state all charges that constitute your service clearly. This way, your client knows exactly what they are paying for. 

The following are a series of the essential elements that every budget should include:

Data of the company/ service provider:

In this section, you should state the relevant details of the company or professional providing the service, such as the name or business name, the NIF or CIF, the tax address, and other contact information.

Client data:

The budget should reflect the name of the client (either private or company), as well as your CIF or ID and address.

Concept:

The concept expands on the elements that make up the products and or services listed in the budget.

It should include the different offerings, working hours, materials used, and other associated costs. These ancillary costs may include contracting other third-party services, licenses, and supplies.

In this section, you must also include the number of units of each element that makes up the concept, along with their costs and the total cost of each group of units of the same nature.

Amount:

The amount must be broken down, indicating the tax base or the sum of the concepts without VAT, the percentage of VAT that is applied, and the total amount of the budget. This total amount results from the sum of the tax base plus VAT.

Payment method:

It is vital to consider the payment method of each budget. Typically, advances are not usually established when the total cost of services is low or does not require the prior acquisition of material. But in the case of more expensive services or ones that involve a significant acquisition of materials or contracting services from third parties, it is advisable to agree on advancement in the form of a percentage of the total amount.

In this section, you can also specify the means of payment, either by bank transfer or deposit or in cash.

Other elements of the budget:

In addition to the mandatory elements described above, several techniques can help make your budget more comprehensive and ensure greater confidence from your clients.

Delivery term:

Including the deadline for delivering a finished project, or the intermediate periods of the different stages, is an essential resource to add value to your service. Keep in mind, when a budget becomes legally valid, it is important to comply with these deadlines and plan for them in advance.

Guarantees and technical support:

There are certain services or projects that may need to be endowed with certain guarantees (especially when it comes to long-term services) or technical support, which does not have to be included in the amount of the service itself and must be budgeted appropriately.

A good technique to make your budget more attractive is offering this technical support free of charge for a specific time.

Legal conditions:

Include the legal conditions you deem necessary to avoid misunderstandings or abuses by any of the parties. In this way, you can prevent any misinterpretations of what is stipulated in the document, saving time and money.

Format:

Sometimes it will be necessary to present the budget in a different format, such as a preform invoice or a proposal for a commercial contract. This last modality is usually relevant for commercial agents, trainers, or programmers who develop their work continuously over time.

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.

Bookkeeping is a time-consuming task which means that a bookkeeper needs to be highly focused on their work. Generally, a bookkeeper must make plans, follow a budget, collect receipts, and maintain financial records. These duties can be performed by maintaining payroll methods, compiling tax payments and financial services, receiving and applying payments as needed, keeping accurate accounts receivable and payable records, and resolving financial conflicts that can include tax withholding issues. 

Below are four benefits from hiring a bookkeeper for your business:

They manage financial dealings

A bookkeeper’s job is often a full-time job. It is nearly impossible for a person to run a business and not hire a bookkeeper to manage the financial responsibilities. Hiring a bookkeeper is a good business decision because you will not have to worry about the daily financial services or financial transactions you may have with a client or company. As an owner, you, and your financial advisor or business manager, will only have to set a budget and then allow the bookkeeper to handle all other financial tasks for you. From paying taxes and salaries on time to resolving financial conflicts, a bookkeeper takes on the responsibility of managing a business’s finances, so you don’t have to. Free yourself from the stress of managing this facet of your business and hire a bookkeeper. After all, a bookkeeper very well knows the financial stability of a company, so they will be able to deal with everything accordingly.

They save you time and energy

Hiring a bookkeeper can help ease your mind because they can get a lot of financial tasks done efficiently. A bookkeeper frees up valuable time in your day by taking on responsibilities that would otherwise fall to you. This allows you to have time to consider your business and reevaluate any plans you might have. You will have time for yourself as well as your family and friends. If you are a busy person, there is no excuse for not hiring a bookkeeper. Be realistic and know that your specialty might not be handling all financial services your business requires. Hire a bookkeeper, and you will be at peace at the end of the day, the end of the month, and the end of the year. 

They allow you to keep your focus

The best reason to hire a bookkeeper is that you can focus more on your business and strategies for growth and success. With maintained focus, you can implement new ideas in your growing business, make more robust business plans, or even think of starting another business. You can also focus and manage other business duties, including meetings, marketing, interviews, etc., without focusing on financial responsibilities. If you don’t hire a bookkeeper, it could be challenging for you to stay focused and motivated at the same time. Loss of focus and motivation could result in costly mistakes, so why not make a good decision today and hire a bookkeeper?

They can help your business grow

A bookkeeper surely needs education and experience to be effective for your business. A bookkeeper’s job requires a lot of effort, organization, and attention to detail. A professional bookkeeper can help your business grow because they have their financial finger on the pulse of the business, knowing when and how fast the company is growing. As a result of managing the finances, a bookkeeper keeps track of all the growth and can be a good advisor. Their advice is generally valid and reasonable, based on facts and numbers. Hiring a bookkeeper is a good decision, so you have additional help to track and manage the growth of your business. 

In short, hiring a bookkeeper will release you from the sole responsibility of managing finances, including paying income taxes, sales tax, payroll taxes, etc. Also, you will not have to worry about making reports yourself and maintaining the budget, saving you time and energy. 

A bookkeeper will take on financial duties, which allows you to focus on your business and can be an asset as you watch your business grow. In every way, hiring a bookkeeper is a favorable business decision, so consider employing one and become a little more stress-free. 

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.

Global expansion is often the vision of every company or startup, and 2021 brings numerous ways to expand a business internationally. International business expansion is possible through efficient research, critical thinking, and choosing an effective systematic strategy accordingly. However, ignoring these aspects can put your investment at risk. Therefore, it is essential to ask: Have you already set a new target for your company? Have you decided to become an internationally renowned brand from a domestic startup? If so, below are some essential factors that require your focus to expand globally:

• Executing proper market research and setting an effective strategy accordingly
• Generating and managing local workforce
• Understanding and following international laws, rules, and regulations
• Understanding culture and setting marketing strategy accordingly
• Determining how to handle multiple languages and localization

Market Research

Once you have decided and set an efficient strategy to launch your business globally, it is vital to analyze your product’s target audience’s requirements, taste, and willingness. Ask yourself:

• Is your product serving a necessity of the target audience?
• Is the target audience attracted? Understand what exactly consumers want.
• Does your product require any adjustment to become acceptable locally? Understand the details of the new market. 
• Does the new marketplace have the necessary setup and supply system that supports your product?
• Are there any competitors? If yes, analyze them properly. 
• Are your competitors stable? Find the possible gaps that your competitors are not fulfilling and use your product to fill them wisely.

Decide Your Scale of Entry 

As mentioned above, you will need critical thinking and research at every step. Is investing in this marketplace too risky? According to the research you have completed for this specific market, look for possibilities and risk factors and set an appropriate investing strategy. There are two investing strategies that you can follow:

• Invest a large sum of capital when entering new markets 
• Invest less and enter steadily

Suitable Scale of Entry 

Invest significant capital:

Choosing this investment option in a new market is effective but can also be risky. If you can afford this kind of risk and decide to pursue it, you will be considered a committed and trustworthy company for both the market and consumers. Most importantly, it will set your dominance in the market above all other competitors. 

Invest less and enter steadily:

If you are unwilling to take a considerable financial risk at once, follow the gradual entry format. This option will allow you to understand market parameters, profit and loss factors, possibilities and impossibilities, etc. It will also help you invest wisely, but it can reflect a negative image of the market, leaving your commitment and trustworthiness at stake. It is better to maintain stability between risks and benefits.

Understand Local Laws and Regulations 

A single law can affect a business strategy against your business procedures. The profit margins, ease of doing business, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing can be at stake and cause damage to your business structure. Therefore, it is better to understand the new market’s laws and regulations and make decisions accordingly. This assessment of risk aspects includes customs laws, tax laws, liability laws, commercial laws, limitations on imports and exports, etc.

Local Workforce 

Legalities in daily operations can become complicated when translated, but local experts can be beneficial in such situations. They understand the law and in relation to day-to-day operations and handle situations accordingly.

There are responsibilities attached to benefits, and it is better to properly analyze the local labor laws and regulations before you proceed with hiring a local workforce. Once you employ the local workforce, a sense of place and ownership starts to develop within the market. The local people often connect with you and become loyal to the organization, positively impacting your overall presence.

Conclusion

Internationally expanding a business has become easier than ever before with the help of technology. Similarly, numerous national governments amend their policies to make business easy as foreign investors tend to boost their country’s economies. Many factors of international expansion continue to complicate the process, so a proper analysis must be completed before making any decision. The factors mentioned above significantly impact a global investment and help you prepare for a strategic expansion.

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 drawn-out skyline, the profound downturns activated by the pandemic, relies on enduring scars through lower speculation, a disintegration of human capital through lost work, and interruption of worldwide exchange and flexible linkages. As for developing the business sector and creating nations, many face overwhelming vulnerabilities. It is essential to fortify general wellbeing frameworks, address the difficulties presented by familiarity, and actualize changes to bolster solid and manageable development once the wellbeing emergency lessens.

 Developing the business sector and creating economies will be slammed by monetary headwinds from different quarters: pressure on feeble medicinal services frameworks, loss of exchange and the travel industry, diminishing settlements, quelled capital streams, and tight budgetary conditions amid mounting obligation. Exporters of vitality or modern products will hit hard.

If we look at it objectively, the economic damage cost by COVID-19 is still unknown. However, the impact is unarguably disastrous, with the businesses shutting down and the productions reduced to more than half of the usual.

Indeed, this disheartening viewpoint depends on extraordinary vulnerability and huge drawbacks. The estimate accepts that the pandemic subsides so that household relief measures can lift by mid-year in advanced economies and later create nations that unfriendly worldwide overflows ease during the second 50% of 2020—keeping the far-reaching budgetary emergency away.

According to economists, total GDP growth for 2020 will decrease from 3.0 percent to 2.4 percent. However, with the virus spreading faster than a wildfire, its percentage could well and truly be much less. In other words, many small to medium-sized businesses are in stagnant water to survive this epidemic.

Termination of Employment

As businesses suffer heavy dents on their production operations, they face a hard time paying their employees. Due to this, there are possibly millions of people no longer working worldwide. If not termination then, they face a significant decrease in their salary package. On the other hand, employees with reduced pay have no other job opportunities to grab since not even large-scale organizations need new workers.

Tourism at a Halt

One of the major industries which provide ROI for countries is the tourism and travel agency. COVID-19 has potentially destroyed the tourism industry, which usually generated billions of dollars for economic development. The worst part is that we don’t know when tourism will reopen, which also creates problems for the government to control their financial downfall.

Drop-in Business Confidence

Most businesses were already falling behind due to the financial crisis. However, with the production operations reduced substantially, the Business confidence level has also decreased significantly. Most organizations are just hoping against hope that their firm’s fortune will improve in the coming six months. Not to mention that the investors are afraid to invest significantly in businesses due to the pandemic spread; hence, adding another hit on the economic condition of the global economy.

Increased Demands, Decreased Supplies

We know that there has been a high need for essential items among consumers ever since the outbreak. Since people created havoc and started to store items in bulk, the result of it was that there was an insane shortage of commodities. Who is to say that something like this wouldn’t happen again? Thus, fulfilling the demands of consumers by acquiring the correct number of supplies.

In retrospect, the increased demands of these essential supplies make it good news for the global economic stature. Thus, the business owners in retail and logistics could improve the overall global GDP.

All in all, COVID-19 has drastically damaged the financially hit global economy two decades back. It will take time and effort to get back on our feet efficiently. However, let’s hope for the best!

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.

Young entrepreneurs experience many high points and low points when they start their venture. As a young entrepreneur, you may face numerous choices like leaving an organization with a consistent paycheck to begin an adventure with no soundness and assurance. However, the adrenaline surge to make something new motivates an entrepreneur, not sureness. Facing challenges, committing errors, and taking care of business shapes the young entrepreneur’s life.

Do:

Develop Your Business:

If you have decided to start your business, do everything you can fully develop your idea. While business development does not exclusively depend on the businessperson because of external factors, entrepreneurial drive and motivation are significant aspects of success.

If you do not have an online presence, this is the ideal opportunity to begin and perfect it. Make a well-planned strategy that permits you to situate yourself and your organization in the market. This incorporates making a website, web-based social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and web-based business.

 Collaborate:

An influential businessperson realizes that the way to success lies in leveraging human resources. He should surround himself with capable individuals who can contribute something other than what is expected and incentive to his organization. If you do not plan to hire any partner or employee in 2021, you should reconsider your organization’s status and this possibility. Ensure you locate competent individuals whose thinking aligns with the objectives of your organization. 

The primary individuals in an organization should embody and characterize its mission, and they will set it on its course.

Revolutionize Business Areas:

Advancement is fundamental for any association. Survey your processes, products, or market advantages and distinguish the principal zones for improvement and make it your objective to discover an imaginative solution for them.

Try not to be reluctant to face challenges and do new things. Minor changes to your advertising, HR and advancement methodology can improve your business’s course and give it the lift it needs.

Have Standards:

It is unimaginable for individual enterprises not to follow the standards when an absence of norms can prompt desperate outcomes. Ensure that you work with exclusive requirements. This suggests doing the best, anticipating the best, and building a mentality of value and a base degree of worthy guidelines inside your organization, in all cases.

Do Not:

Neglect Loved Ones:

When you are an entrepreneur, you possess next to no energy for your friends and family. However, these individuals can be your most outstanding inspiration and support. Regardless of whether you have a busy schedule, attempt to commit days or hours only for them. When you have coffee with a friend, dinner with family, or play with your kids, disengage from work to give them quality time.

Lose Attention:

When you fail to remember why you started your business, you will inevitably become dissatisfied with your venture. For example, not thinking about your clients and not choosing to address their needs can cause you to lose perspective. Always keep your client’s needs at the focal point of business operations. Consistently ensure that you connect with your customers and continually assess your focused attention.

Lack Leadership:

Organizational Leadership encompasses numerous ideas and goals that directly impact deals, promotions, and business operations. When entrepreneurs relinquish leadership decision-making to others, it is commonly the beginning of a terrible situation. In 2021, focus on maintaining leadership status and improving leadership skills. Consider advice and counsel but be bold in decisions that will impact your business.

Let People Get Their Way:

Organizational bullies are individuals who have their own agenda, often contrary to business objectives, an organization that has created a habit of sabotaging organizational goals. Keeping your organization free from organizational bullies is of the utmost importance for leaders. One way to develop cohesion is to ensure every individual who is essential to the organization knows its values and mission and adheres to the standards you have set.  

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.

According to recent research, people should avoid only investing in stocks anymore. Some experts even stated that it is better to flush money down the toilet or throw a big party rather than investing in a stock. For a fresh investor, investing in the stock market typically results in a loss. Most people often think of the stock market as their one-way ticket towards wealth. However, the reality of the outcome is more disappointing and overwhelming. Below are a few legitimate reasons why investing in stocks no longer makes much financial sense.

You don’t know much about stocks

Buying stocks and watching them go down 70% before they end up going up a mere 30% from their starting price can be extremely disheartening. The stock market can become a frustrating waiting game. However, being patient for so long and not getting the desired results can be very disappointing. Many people invest in stocks while having very little knowledge of what exactly they are putting their money into. Over the past seventy years, the average return of the stock market is 10.7%, with investor return being at 1.8%, generously.

Way too risky

If you follow the daily news, you probably know how fast the stock switches from good to bad and from bad to worse. With this much up and down movement, a person can quickly lose a good deal of money in a short amount of time. Judging by recent figures, investing in stocks is far too risky.

Dealing with brokers

Dealing with brokers can be the worst part of investing in stocks. Some brokers are costly to hire but will offer much more perspective, whereas others are cheap but not very experienced. Finding a reliable broker can be challenging, especially for a new investor.

Even the best investors in the world make, on average, between 10 and 15%

From a realistic perspective, a typical stock market investor will never make the large sums of money they hope for. Typically, if you decide to pick some stocks and hold them for a long time, you will gross a return of 7%. Is that enough? In short, some people are better at playing the market, and they learn faster. These people may profit more than the average investor, but most do not.  

Stocks can be boring

Suppose you own a stock right now related to a drug company that creates a product for treating irritable bowel syndrome. First, you must research the drug and the market extensively. You may even want to reach out to the company to gather more relevant information. The whole research process is extremely tedious and complex, and even after days of research, there are no guarantees.  

Taxes

Let us assume a person buys and sells the same stock in the same year and somehow ends up tripling their money. Sadly, now there are taxes to pay on their gains. Paying taxes is something that everyone has to do. However, the tax liability can become immense when it comes to the stock market, especially for new investors.

Not good at technical analysis? Do not invest in stocks

In stocks, it is almost impossible for someone to predict how the market will move. This means that the markets may be tending towards the north when you invest. However, it can change direction dramatically, and only an experienced forecaster can identify these changes over time.

Require a lot of time

Unlike other long-term investments that you can make almost in autopilot mode when investing in stocks, you will need to continuously research the companies to determine whether they are still earning their target returns. If you are usually busy or do not have the time to do this research, investing in the stock market is a bad idea.

Moreover, you do not want to invest in a high failure rate market. It’s best if you invest in a market that has a high success rate and a tremendous return on investment. So, if you’re thinking about spending money on stocks, think again! Consider these hurdles before spending your hard-earned money on stocks.

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.

Statistics suggest COVID-19 drastically affected small and large-scale businesses. The global market decreased its operations, and the world’s economies had to face the brunt of all inconveniences. The outbreak posed severe challenges to strategists tasked with devising tactics to help businesses continue operations. 

According to statistics, Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE) witnessed a 14.3% drop in 2020, which was the worst performance since 2008. Thus, several countries’ stock markets cut down their interest rates to help economies grow since it encouraged consumer spending. 

Similarly, the past year was difficult for job seekers. Most employees lost their jobs because businesses halted their operations. In the United States, unemployment escalated to 8.9%, as explained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF states the global economy shrank by 4.4% in 2020, and this decline is considered the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Likewise, the tourism industry also stopped operations as the entire world went into lockdown, forcing millions of employees to lose their jobs and companies to declare bankruptcy. The tourism industry lost billions of dollars last year, and the entire world is said to struggle with similar conditions until 2025. 

While COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted each industry, not much has been stated on its impact on the agricultural industry. Below are some ways in which the agriculture industry has changed since COVD-19 appeared on the world’s stage.  

Unemployment

COVID-19 has led the agricultural industry to leave some workers unemployed irrespective of their job level and type. Agronomists, farmers, veterinarians, clerical staff, and even suppliers have been affected based on how a specific business has decided to adapt to the pandemic. The massive dismissal of personnel results from the low demand for services and products, causing significant losses to businesses. Maintaining a staff when the money being spent is more than the money earned is nearly impossible, which leads to workers quitting or being downsized.

Limited Product Access

Closing international borders because of lockdowns across numerous countries has made it difficult for the agricultural industry to engage in cross-border trading. For instance, if a specific country depends on its neighbors for organic compost, closed borders will delay fertilizer import and export. This has a current outcome in which fields are not fertilized, so crops are left to wilt and die. 

Limited product access also means that the businesses might shift strategies to satisfy supply demands. For instance, if a company carried crop boxes with six varieties of crops, they might have to change the box to include just three crops. This can ultimately result in the loss of clients due to changes in the quantity or quality of the product the crop produced.

Lack of Production 

Agricultural employees might need to stay at home based on the lockdown measures in a geographical zone. A complete lockdown means that no crop production occurs, resulting in a decreased supply that cannot meet customers’ demands. If the need for a product grows or remains constant, but the supply is just reduced, the product will increase in price, such as the law of supply and demand. Farmers must significantly examine their recent production techniques and adopt new ones during challenging times to meet demand without exorbitantly increasing prices.

Loss of Income

Based on the nature of the agricultural businesses, there is no income when there is no production. This means that employees must find alternate sources of income to meet their own needs. Unfortunately, this is hard to do when lockdowns are in place, and people have been recommended to stay home.

Uncertainty

The pandemic made the future uncertain. Farmers and agriculturalists do not know when borders will be open, and they will be permitted to trade again. When borders reopen, they can only hope customers will support their businesses as they used to since their customers have also been impacted economically by the pandemic. This sort of uncertainty means farmers or agriculturalists must tread lightly and wisely plan for the best and worst possible scenarios. 

Conclusion

The pandemic destructively hit the agriculture industry, bringing unemployment, product import and export restriction, lower production rates, waste, loss of income, and uncertainty of the future. 

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.

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to become obsessed with productivity and running from every pillar to post to grow your business. Unfortunately, such behavior is neither healthy nor sustainable. Entrepreneurship isn’t a three-minute sprint; instead, it’s a marathon. You need to ensure that you’re not sacrificing your physical and mental health while working hard for your startup.
This piece discusses some essential tips to avoid overworking yourself as an entrepreneur.

Take Proper Test

Sleep plays an instrumental role in your well-being. If you’re sacrificing your sleep to work for long durations, gradually, it can take a toll on your health and business. Hence, you should always ensure that you’re well-rested. To help you get more sleep, you should track your sleeping habits as aggressively as you do your retail returns. Every person needs a different amount of sleep. So, find one that works for you and stick to it. Second, curate the ideal environment for rest. Removing screens from the bedroom, using blackout shades and good sheets can help.

Find Time for Exercise

As an entrepreneur, you must face various challenges every day. It’s best to find a release for the pent-up frustration. To counter negative feelings from weighing you down, find a time to exercise. A regular workout routine can do more than burn calories; it can also be a great way to release stress. You can opt for any activity that you enjoy and can perform regularly. Whether going on a walk or attending a boxing class, find something to help your body move and clear your mind of troubling thoughts.

Spend Time with Your Loved Ones

Human beings are social animals. We are programmed to connect with other people, despite being shy or introverted. Take some time out of your tight schedule and connect with a close friend or family member. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a visit to their house. A simple phone call or video chat could also work. Ensure that you don’t talk about work and share personal stories to keep the conversation lighter and more meaningful.

Take Frequent Breaks during the Day

This tip seems simple but can be tricky to follow. When you’re constantly busy at work, it can be challenging to extract yourself from that environment. Even taking a lunch break could feel like a waste of time. However, this is not healthy. If you want to increase your productivity at work and keep your health intact, you must take regular breaks from work. Step away from your computer now and then and relax. You can also go out for lunch once a week to get a change of scenery.

Keep Personal and Professional Life Separate

Don’t make a habit of bringing work home every night. When you’re at home, try to forget about work for a while. If you live alone, indulge in your favorite activities. In contrast, if you have family, spend quality time with them and ask about their day. Similarly, make sure that you’re not bringing any house troubles to work. If you’ve fought with your spouse early in the morning, don’t let it spill into your office life.

Divide Up Responsibilities at Work

When you start a new business, you’ll find it tempting to get involved in every aspect of your work. However, this can harm your business. Learn to delegate responsibilities. For instance, if you use various digital marketing tools to promote your startup online, hire a team of professionals to look after each channel. Furthermore, don’t try to micromanage your employees. Job satisfaction arises when employees gain decision-making power in their positions.

Create Opportunities for Work

A great way to break the monotony of your workdays is to create avenues for growth. Closely monitor your employee’s performance and offer them incentives to perform better. Show them that if they work hard, they’ll also benefit from the company’s growth. After all, no one wants to feel like they’re working a dead-end job with no future. Give your workers a roadmap to success and witness your worries evaporate.

The Bottom Line

In a nutshell, working as an entrepreneur can be extremely challenging and can make you neglect your health. Ensure that you recognize this problem and take adequate steps to resolve it. Some of the things you can do to maintain your energy levels are taking breaks from work, practicing good sleep, connecting with loved ones, delegating responsibilities, and helping your employees grow. 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.

For growing your business, it is essential to establish solid foundations of internal controls such as auditing, accounting, purchasing, and damage control planning. Every small business needs these internal controls to manage the money correctly. Without this, you are leaving a lot of money on the table for fraud. Employee theft is a big problem for a small business that cannot recover from the loss. According to U.S Commerce Department reports, 30% of business fails because of employee theft, and many of them are the smaller firms that cannot afford to recover from the loss.

Here are the tips that can help in ensuring financial control:

Keep the duties separate. Never assign related obligations to one employee. For example, the person who writes the checks should never be the one who signs them. Or the person who checks the mail should never record the receivable or reconcile the accounts. When you divide the responsibilities, it becomes difficult for the employees to steal from the company and manipulate the records.

Reconcile your bank statement 

Receive your bank statement personally and match it with your business account. Carefully review every transaction, check, and receiver. Examine the payees and signs on each check and monitor any fraud activity.

Sign all the checks yourself

No matter what, always sign every check yourself. Doing so will help prevent employee theft.

Review Payroll

Before sending, review the payroll and check for any variations in the amount. For reducing the risk of payroll fraud, use direct deposit. Direct deposit may be a time-consuming task, but it is worth it in the end. Review every check and make sure they are for your employees only. If you find any unknown name, go, and find that person. Keep a weekly or monthly count of the number of people on your payroll, and then verify that number against the number of checks you have. Ensure that no one can make any changes to your company’s master payroll file without your permission.

Keep personal and business finances separate

You may consider it easy to use your bank account for your business as well, but in the long run, both your personal and business finances will suffer. And this can be a tremendous headache for you in the future. For running your business smoothly, it is essential to open a business account and get a separate credit card to help your company build its credit rating.

If you need to use your business money for personal expenses, transfer that amount into your bank account and use it. If you need a loan for your business, document it properly with a promissory note specifying repayment terms.

Carefully monitor your company’s checks

Carefully monitor and check every single check. Keep your corporate statements in a locked drawer, and don’t give the key to anyone. Always use pre-numbered checks and search for missing check numbers from time to time. Never sign a blank check.

Closely guard your receivables 

Hire more than one employee for counting and verifying incoming checks. Buy a “for deposit stamp only” and use it on all incoming checks. The stamp can prevent the company from employees theft. Investigate the customer’s complaints regarding payment issues. Get a back and front copy of the customer’s check and make sure it is deposited into your business account only.

Send your bookkeeper on vacation 

Sometimes those employees who seem most loyal by not going on vacations are doing fraud with the company. For concealing their theft, they never take a leave. To stop this from happening, make sure that the person handling the responsibility of bookkeeping or accounting goes on a vacation every year, at least for two weeks at the end of the month. Use this time to review the documents and books and look for discrepancies.

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.

QuickBooks is accounting software that meets business financial needs. It is designed specifically for small businesses to help users manage accounting functionalities, including credit card management, accounts payable, financial reporting, and accounts receivable. QuickBooks enables you to manage your department’s responsibilities, including invoicing, payroll, reporting, accounts payable and receivable, cash flow management, and more. QuickBooks Pro provides a variety of benefits, including are as follows:

Money Management:

Integrating QuickBooks Pro will allow the user to manage business amounts efficiently and enter the due payments and dates information regarding all recurring bills. For unpaid bills, the user can directly print checks from QuickBooks. Furthermore, each transaction is recorded to access for future audits. In addition, bank accounts are also integrated with the program by using QuickBooks Pro. All financial records are viewed on a single screen, and QuickBooks Pro allows you to eliminate the need for paper statements.

Expense Billing:

Professionals often support several purchases that are later billed to consumers for business purposes. These may include small expenditures like meals and mileage or significant expenses such as international travel. No matter what your expense type or size, QuickBooks Pro provides a feature to maintain records of each expense. Furthermore, expenses are saved per client requirements, which prevents users from merging all of them manually.

Sales Invoicing:

In QuickBooks Pro, invoices are generated by a single click of a button which is beneficial for tracking sales and creating receipts automatically. These invoices can then be sent electronically to clients via email. In addition, the user is allowed to be billed either in large batches or individually. For subscribers of Intuit, their credit and debit card charges are accepted through QuickBooks Pro. These Intuit subscribers can also check QuickBooks solutions to scan and deposit checks into the program, eliminating the need to enter data manually.

Reporting:

QuickBooks Pro allows the user to create various reports related to finance, including expense, year-over-year income, trends, and forecasting documents. Additionally, these reports can be exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and sent via email.

User-friendly:

QuickBooks Pro is considered a user-friendly software for new user setup because it provides a virtual orientation. In addition, the vital features of QuickBooks can be activated by a single click of a button. It was observed that users find other accounting software challenging to use due to their complex functions. QuickBooks was designed so a user with little financial or accounting knowledge can easily understand it and use it to support business operations.

Integration:

QuickBooks can integrate information with other applications easily. With the help of Product details, data related to business expenses and incomes are recorded and integrated with other business management programs. For example, business owners can easily export data from QuickBooks and import it into tax preparation programs to file income taxes. With QuickBooks, it is easier to import data from different sources that can also be integrated with Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets.

Customization:

QuickBooks provides several ready-to-use templates specifically for business owners to create spreadsheets, invoices, business plans, and charts. QuickBooks is customizable software that enables users to customize invoices per business requirements efficiently. The user can add the company logo with brief information related to each line item, reconcile their invoices, and pay per due date.

Check Signing:

QuickBooks can assist if you sign lots of checks as a business owner. QuickBooks allows business owners first to scan and then upload signatures. These signatures will be used in the future to prepare business checks. Through QuickBooks, check signing is an automated process where users can write hundreds of checks each month and sign them in a more accessible and simpler way.

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.