I believe in community. I believe in supporting and encouraging others. I believe that we are all in this together.
I believe in the power of togetherness.
I intentionally support other creative women with my business, my influence and encouragement.
In this series, I want to highlight a few women that do amazing work because I want the world to know how incredible they are.
Please know, that this is not a sponsored post and the businesses featured in this post didn’t ask me to write about them.
The Best Outsourcing Decision I have ever made: Bookkeeping.
Normally during this time of year, I have a low level churn of anxiety. You know that feeling of being unsettled, like when you think you have left your curling iron plugged in and you are 1 hour from home.
The kind of tension that never allows your mind or stomach to relax.
This anxiousness was so common for me each Jan/Feb as tax preparation season approached.
Taxes made me so nervous.
- Did I pay enough quarterly taxes?
- Did I save enough?
- Are my books organized?
- Did I forget to track something important?
And on and on. I knew only enough to be dangerous, which meant I knew very little.
For weeks, I would fill out all of the W9s that clients sent — always wondering, should I be sending these out too?
Then finally in 2015, when my husband was preparing my taxes, he was overwhelmed with my data and lack of regular P&L sheets that he was officially fed up.
It was then that I knew I had to figure something out.
I have a few areas in life where I excel. For example, I am a pretty good cook and I am an awesome dog mom #clappingdood, but I am a terrible bookkeeper.
My favorite meme ever is the one that says, “ Remember when teachers said you won’t always have a calculator with you, well we showed them! “
It was shortly after the dreaded tax season of ‘15 that I looked for help.
How I knew it was time to hire a bookkeeper.
I knew it was time to hire help with my books because taxes were so stressful and I didn’t trust my assessment of how my business was doing financially. And also, I didn’t have the time to clean up the books by myself.
I also had a crazy mix of embarrassment/shame/imposter syndrome when I handed my “books” to my husband to prep my taxes.
Why I chose to work with Steadfast Bookkeeping.
After a little searching on my go-to Facebook groups, I discovered Stephanie of Steadfast Bookkeeping. She had several people touting her greatness, including Lara Casey + Ashlyn Carter so I checked out her site and set up a meet and greet.
Stephanie and I connected on so many levels. We both are and work with online entrepreneurs. She got me and my business within the first few minutes and she assured me that she had tackled more complicated books than mine could ever be!
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I opened my books to her anyway. I was nervous that she would have a million questions that I couldn’t answer, but she didn’t.
She was able to make sense of my mess and was able to explain things in a way that gave me a strategic understanding of the health of my business without making me feel like a 2nd grader.
What is it like to work with Steadfast Bookkeeping?
In a word. Simple.
I have not been in charge of my bookkeeping for 3+ years now.
Each month, I get clean reports of exactly how much money I made, what my expenses were, and outstanding invoices.
I can look at the prepared reports and easily have a solid understanding of how my finances are doing.
I know how I am doing in relation to my goals and I can easily tell if I can afford to buy the next shiny object on my biz wish list.
So, if you are getting tension headaches because of taxes or because you don’t know what a P&L is, do yourself a favor and connect with Stephanie.
Be sure to check back next week as I highlight another one of my favorite ladybosses.
Also, if you are interested in other resources that I depend on to make my biz run, check out the Resources.