Want some marketing help?

I hear people and groups talking about wanting to promote their events and things but lack information and training, so here's your chance to get some. And it's free.

This is an invite to a professional group that I run with Tia Paquin. We are having a marketing expert come give our consultancies some support and we've opened it up to our community. John's great and the group itself is a font of knowledge on all things financial and very friendly. Outside of the presentation, we introduce ourselves and our work, eat good food and share resources or problem solve. It's fairly caual as professional groups go. But very helpful.

Let us know if you want to come! You can respond below with contact information or email me: briana at infinitelypossible dot net.
Briana

Happy Fourth Quarter Everyone!

This is a new updated invite for the Roundtable. We got an offer we just couldn't pass up! A special 3- month FREE series on marketing by expert marking coaching John Van Dinther. We've all been looking at how to bring in new clients and John's offered to help us.

He will present a three part workshop series on marketing for small businesses, giving simple and easy to use tips on how to create a marketing plan, generate sales, and present or update your business on the internet. John Van Dinther, the owner of 2hats Consulting, is a small business marketing consultant based in San Francisco. You Can visit his blog at: http://2hats.blogspot.com

Monday, October 5, 2009: How To Build A Strategic Marketing Plan
Time: 7pm
Where: Frjtz
590 Valencia Street, San Francisco
http://www.frjtzfries.com/
Creating Measurable Goals
Using Effective Marketing Channels
Tracking Your Progress

Nov. 2, 2009: How To Market In-Person
Viceroy's in Berekeley
7pm
Finding Great Networking Events
Building Effective Presentations
Making Sales & Landing Clients

Dec. 7, 2009: How To Develop A Compelling Online Presence
San Francisco, TBA
Setting Up Blogs & Websites
Delivering Useful Emails & Newsletters
Accessing Online Communities
__________________________________________________________
The Bookkeeper's Roundtable
Open to any financial professional interested in networking or finding resources for clients, primarily for bookkeeper support and development.

Purpose: To share information and resources for problem solving for clients. To further our studies, our consultancies, bring resources to the table like books we read, online and print and human resources. Refer other legal & professional contacts like lawyers, tax accountants, CPA's. Refer clients to each other.

We begin with introductions, a short discussion of our consultancies and then additional resources and current issues/challenges we are facing sections.

Please RSVP to tia@noir.com so we can arrange sufficient seating.

Employee or Independant Contractor

This is one the biggest, most often asked question in my field. So I've gathered some information for you so that you can get those questions answered.

IRS page on the different between an employee and contractor

More information about the 20 point check list

IRS 20 point check list

Template for a form you can fill out for each person you hire

Let me know if you find any others that are particularly helpful!

Microfinance: Money For Social and Economic Change

I contend that money is one of the easiest and most effective ways to create change. Money touches us all. Every part of every business and individual's lives, at least in the US, somehow touches money. Food, clothing and shelter for individuals, products, services and employees on the business side. All about money. That is because money is really the spirit of exchange - and we've given the power of that exchange away so that it appears that it doesn't belong to us. But it does.

Everyone has money (even if they think it's not very much). You'll touch easily more than a million dollars in your lifetime. (Even at $20k, just above poverty in the US, 50 years of that puts you at $1 million, not including social security, investments, benefits or your real salary. And at $50k for 25 years you'll touch at minimum $1.25 million). That's a lot of money.

That gives you a lot of power. In fact that makes you a millionaire. How would you make decisions if you were a millionaire?

Most of my clients are doing something amazing in the world, whether it's high-standards eco-friendly product reviews or revolutionizing beauty we're all looking for ways to make the world a better place.

There are lots of options to choose from. One of those options is micro-finance.

Microfinance takes the power of money and gets it out into the community. When I decided to write this morning it was because of Scott Cooney's article about Microfinance. I enjoy his work and wanted to pass that on. I also want to say that he's wrong.

Microfinance will change the face of business in the US, whether we challenge Kiva or not.

Micro-finance and micro-lending is one of the most powerful ways that we have of transforming the monetary system. Micro-lending puts power directly into the hands of individual small investors to support things that are important to them. They make decisions about people, often people they know and certainly things they care about. That is really the ultimate goal in my opinion. People helping people with no one getting in the way.

It's a much more sustainable option already because it doesn't depend on banks or countries - which really depend on corporations - to move money. It changes the dynamics of power by putting the power of choice into the hands of the people and diversifying. It gives more people a say in the global economy.

By saying "let's put pressure on Kiva," I think that's a vote for not trusting the people. Instead, let's consider another route. Education.

Instead of trying to get an institution to do anything, I say let's talk to the people who want to make the investments and help educate them so that they are excited about putting their money where their values are.

It's people that create change, not corporations. If you want the world to be different, here's an easy, direct and straight-forward way to do that.

Four Keys to Clarity in Accounting Systems

Contrary to popular belief, accounting systems are not static. Nor are they the same for all businesses or even all businesses in the same industry. Those ideas imply that there is something about accounting that is required, but not useful - stiff, stifling, and boring. Like high school English.

Accounting is optional. You do have a choice about whether or not to do it.

I have met and worked with plenty of people who don't pay attention to their finances and find checks bouncing off the walls. It's a great place to start.

From Dictionary.com: Accounting is...

1. the theory and system of setting up, maintaining, and auditing the books of a firm; art of analyzing the financial position and operating results of a business house from a study of its sales, purchases, overhead, etc.
2. a detailed report of the financial state or transactions of a person or entity: an accounting of the estate.
3. the rendering or submission of such a report.

Accounting is how you get detailed information about your financial position. You can only do that if it's set up and used to get the information you need.

There are four keys to getting the most out your accounting system so that gives you what you need for decision-making:

• Accuracy
  
• Consistency
  
• Reporting and
  
• the Chart of Accounts

Accuracy is the first most important thing to ensure in your system. In fact QuickBooks and other pre-packed software systems have a function called reconciling that helps you find discrepancies. If you don't have the right numbers, you can't get accurate information.

The second is consistency. It's more important that most pieces of accounting: if you don't update consistently, you don't have accurate information and you can't do other important things like reporting. Consistency is also important for another reason, like brushing your teeth. It's improves your current and if you do it regularly it improves your long-term health. It is an investment in the future of your business.

Reporting is the function that aggregates (or puts together) all the information that you've been entering and gives it to you in one neat little package for easy reading. If you are entering the information consistently and accurately, these reports can give you up to the minute information about your money that even the banks don't know - that's exciting! Reports are what moves you beyond bookkeeping as a chore to using accounting for management decisions, budgeting, hiring, expanding, and so on. Reporting rocks!

The last piece we'll touch on today is your chart of accounts. That's the place where you find the categories of transactions that you use (which is another basis for reporting). Some of them like "postage" or "printing and reproduction" are about expenses and seem straight forward and the easiest for people to understand.

I find that people get into trouble in two main places in their accounting: categorizing/understanding income and balance sheet accounts. Assets, liabilities and equity seem to confound people regularly to the point where they give up and stop doing accounting all together. Understanding those pieces will make your accounting a lot easier. If you don't understand them either do your homework or hire someone to help you set these accounts up and teach you how to use them. This, in my experience is a critical piece of a business and deserves the time and dollars you put into it. In fact I find that as a bookkeeper and accounting consultant, having this piece in order makes the other pieces both possible and likely to get done. Having clarity here creates a place for people to take action from.

I think accounting can be a lot of fun. It can also be a function of your business that really supports and informs your decision making and growth. It's up to you to keep it healthy and vibrant.

Enjoy!