When your business or venture remains on the relatively small or new side, it often makes great sense to hire your first employees as part-time. The US government defines a part-time worker as an employee who works under 30 hours per week. If you have tasks that need to be done but don't take a full work week to complete, a part-time employee will get the job done without costing as much as a full-time hire.

When working with part-time employees, here are ways to make sure they receive fair employee compensation:

Small businesses focus most of their energy and resources on saving time and ensuring that none of their resources go to waste. As much as this is beneficial to them, when it comes to finances, it takes more than savings for these businesses to thrive, and failure to give this aspect due consideration is detrimental to the operations of the firm. Here are some of the common accounting mistakes companies make.

Mixing business and personal finances
It’s easy to grab the wrong card and make a personal purchase on your business card, but don’t make a habit of it. Using your business accounts for personal use, or not creating a separate account will make tracking cash flow a challenge and could suck profit out of your business. Separate your accounts and write yourself paychecks, but don’t mesh your accounts together.

Cheap solutions
It is no secret that cash-strapped businesses opt for cheap solutions when hiring employees, purchasing technology and buying products, but in the end this becomes expensive for them. When you don’t pay employees enough you will see turnover, which is expensive. Buying low quality technology means having to buy everything again sooner rather than later.

Going it alone
The assumption that one can manage everything in their business either to save on cost or as a passion is a total misconception. Divided attention becomes the order of the day, and this affects operations. If you can’t afford an employee you need to enlist a mentor or someone to run ideas by.

Failure to keep a backup
With so much living in the cloud or as digital files it’s easy to forget to create a backup. When it comes to financial information, client contact information and other important data you want to keep a backup. Data can be lost through computer crashes, accidents and more. Prevent yourself from saying “I should have” and backup today.

Failure to maintain records and receipts
There is a lot of money in and out of business, and you need to know where it’s going. Keep your receipts and keep track of your expenses. Using a bookkeeping service can help to keep you in the black and ready for tax season. It may sound like a lot of work up front but in the end keeping your books up to date will save you time and money.

If you’re ready for help with your business, get started today! ​

Properly handled finances are crucial for business success. It’s tempting to try to operate without keeping a close eye on cashflow but be careful. Just because there is money in the bank doesn’t mean you can spend it. You want to keep a good amount of runway to help you grow your business. It’s important for a business owner to be familiar with basic accounting.
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Here are 5 basic accounting tips for small business owners:

It's easy to get bogged down with your business when you're an entrepreneur. Long days that lead into late nights, business trips across time zones and a diet that consists of eating whatever you can grab as you rush from one meeting to another can wreak havoc on your physical and emotional health. If you're an entrepreneur fighting stress, it's important to remember that you need a break.

Here are 5 easy ways entrepreneurs can take care of themselves:

Starting an online business can lead to a successful and rewarding career. With some advanced preparation, you can increase the odds of success.

Here are our 6 steps for starting an online business:

Identify and research - This is the most important part of your journey. Identify your interests and what type of business you want to run. Research your ideas and see what already exists on the internet. Are there already businesses out there competing for customers or will your business fill a unique niche? Take inspiration from what others are doing. Then improve on those ideas and make it your own.

Many people dream of becoming business owners. Often, this dream a romanticized image of lots of free time for leisure, access to limitless amounts of financial gain and so much more. However, the average entrepreneur works very long days, especially in the first 3 to 5 years to get the business up and running. These crucial years are spent partially in the red, then breaking even, and if all goes well, then profitability.

Let's talk about the time factor. On a given day, a business owner must make countless decisions.

Here are 10 helpful tips for making solid decisions: 

As a small business owner you are familiar with the idea of a stressed life. The pressure to balance work and life and manage a company can feel crushing. While there is a never ending list of recommendations to help you reduce your stress, you may be looking past one key element. Your diet.

Your brain requires 25% of the body’s energy to function properly. That’s a lot of calories. And with your brain running on overdrive, you need to be sure to feed it properly. Stress and anxiety are caused by the feeling of being unable to solve problems. ​

Here are our 7 tips for launching your business with little to no working capital:

Know your numbers: Gain a firm grasp on what it costs to produce your project and where you need your margins to be in order to pay rent. This simple knowledge will help to guide your decisions and set your prices. ​

Managing payroll is a time-consuming task and if not done correctly, it can result in a loss of precious time and money.  For instance, late or inaccurate payroll could cause delayed paychecks and late penalties from the IRS.  But, do not despair, we've compiled a list of 10 tips to make payroll management simpler.

Here are our 10 tips to streamline payroll management:
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1.  Select a good payroll system
Identify a cloud-based, payroll system that records and documents data, tracks health care insurance contributions, 401K plans and wage garnishments.

For a lot of people, accounting looks like a big ball of confusion. A maze of spreadsheets and receipts can overwhelm even the most number savvy business owner. We hope that explaining some of the key terms of accounting will help to calm your fears.

Here are some definitions of accounting terms for non-accountants:
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Debits and Credits - A debit is money coming out of an account and a credit is money coming in. When you subtract debits from credits you get the balance of your account. If you have more debits than credits, well, you’re in the red.

The Profit and Loss Statement (aka Income Statement) - A summary of all operating transactions that occurred within a specific period of time – usually a calendar month. In other words: sales minus expenses. This report lets you know if your business is profitable during that period of time.

For a lot of small business owners, accounting can be tedious and time consuming. Unfortunately it’s non-optional as a business owner. It’s best to stay organized and up-to-date with everything to lower the burden.

Here are our 10 Tips for Small Business Accounting:

Keep it simple:
Don’t over complicate the matter. Keep your spreadsheets or software and organizational systems in line and easy to follow.