John Briggs shows business owners how to catch up on a year of neglected bookkeeping. Either hire a professional by cutting non-client-generating expenses, or do it yourself with scheduled time. Use his nine-question framework to decide which expenses actually attract or retain clients.
What's the best way to catch up on my books if I haven't really touched them all year? I love this question. Look, not to be Debbie Raincloud here, but the first step is to stop being lazy. Look, I get it. You started your business. Most of our clients in the world doesn't have an accounting business. So this idea of accounting and bookkeeping, not your favorite thing. Totally get that. I believe it's a really important tool though that business owners, that we can use to grow our business. It gives us information that then helps us make better decisions. Honestly, the answer is you got to get it done. It's got to get done. So a couple things I would think about. First, do I have some cash flow that I can use to pay someone to do my bookkeeping, including the catch-up work? If I have some of that, look, it's better to use somebody who does this all the time versus you taking some time, uh, whenever you sporadically do it to get your books done. Consistency is better, and having someone skilled in it is better. And no offense to our spouses or children or best friends or clients that don't have accounting experience, they're not the right fit to be our accountant, okay? I've seen that a lot. So that's the first thing. Let's— do you have some cash flow to maybe use your cash to leverage that to then get you some important information so that you can then make better decisions? Because obviously, based on the question, if you fit into the criteria of I haven't really touched my books, how do I get caught up? That means you're not using your books to make financial decisions. Another great thing to always do, kind of when it comes to any financial decision, is always review your expenses. In my book, Profit First for Microgyms, I have an entire chapter on how to analyze expenses, and there's 9 questions, and I love the 9 questions. I have since read some books by Keith Cunningham, the real rich dad of Rich Dad Poor Dad. He has an even simpler way to look at it, and so I bring this to you via Keith Cunningham. The idea came from him. Look at your expenses and ask yourself, does the expense bring in clients or does it help me retain clients? Ultimately, that's what we're trying to accomplish as a business to stay relevant. We need clients, we need new clients, we need to keep current clients. So does the expense do that? If not, let's figure out how to cut the expense, or can we do the same thing for less money? Go through your expenses. You'll probably free up some money, and with that, with that freed-up cash, look at hiring a bookkeeper to help you get caught up. Now look, if you want to go the do-it-yourself route, The only solution is to get it done. You've got to schedule the time in, you got to stay focused, and you got to put in the hours to get the bookkeeping done. It doesn't automatically do itself. So those are the solutions. If you haven't really touched your books all year, how do you get caught up? Either you just have to do it if you can do it yourself, or you got to find the cash flow to pay someone to do it. I know it's overly simple, but often those are the right answers. Remember, profit is a choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.
