Being well organized can save you a lot of time, but more importantly money. With that being said, we understand it’s quite a tall task to maintain. That’s why we’ve come up with several tips to ease the burden. With these tips you’ll spend less time trying to find that one receipt to give your accountant and more time relaxing with loved ones. We’ll start off with personal then move on to business.

Personal

• Move to the Cloud

It’s so much easier and cheaper to have your files in the cloud. Some really good products we use are Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive

• Use apps to do the work

There are a ton of apps out there that just make life easier. If you’re having trouble figuring out where your money is going use Mint or Spend Smarter. You can link your financial accounts (bank, investments, loans, etc.) and categorize what you spend. You can even set reminders of when bills are due.

•  Talk with a friend or adviser

We all have that one friend that just seems to know the right thing to do with their money. Ask your friend if they can share some tips that will make things easier for you. If it’s worthwhile you should pay them for helping you out. If you don’t know anyone, we advise speaking with a financial advisor.

Read a book

We understand talking to someone about your finances may be a bit…personal and books are a great alternative. There are a ton of books out there. Here are some of our favorites: The Richest Man in Babylon, Total Money makeover, The Millionaire Mind, the Millionaire Next Door. As much as we encourage reading, the best action is applying the topics.

Business

• Open a Business Bank Account

We know this might be a topic that can go without saying, but we’re saying it. Mingling personal and business in the same bank account will cause you a ton of work come tax season and you may miss out on deductions which would save you money. Separating personal from business is a foundational step towards being organized.

• Get Accounting Software

Whether you prefer desktop or cloud based software, you have quite a few options to choose from. Operating a business is quite the task and buying accounting software makes organizing your financials much easier. As you continue to grow your business eventually you’ll want to gain funding and having your financials in order is fundamental in the funding process.

Hire an Accountant

As well all know, you can’t go as far being a jack of all trades. As an entrepreneur we wear many hats and as our business grows our goal is to delegate tasks to focus on what we love most. Think about hiring an accountant to take care of the financial piece of the business.

• Use Apps

There are tons of apps out there to help you with, for example, tracking mileage (Mileage IQ), time (Tsheets), expenses (Concur, Expensify), document storage (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive), etc. We could go further but our point is apps can be used as tools to make life easier. Of course there’s a cost with that however, you can’t beat the price of how much time it will save you.

• Move Paper Documents to the Cloud

Take that file cabinet and throw it away! We’re just messing around, but seriously, your file cabinet should be in the cloud. Society is vastly moving to digital and storing files in the cloud is pretty affordable. For less than $10 a month ($99 per year) you can store up to 1 TB of data using OneDrive. That’s thousands of documents! On top of that cloud storage makes it easier to share files with anyone. They even fit in your pocket (your phone to be exact). Instead of thumbing your fingers through file tabs to find that one dental bill you swore you put in the cabinet you can be typing in the search box Dropbox to pull up the file in seconds. That’s why we’re big advocates of cloud storage. The flexibility cloud storage gives you will make your life a whole lot easier!

There you have it. We don’t claim to be all knowing, but at BFS we know a thing or two on organizing and want to share our insights. Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and/or contact to learn more about our services!

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Tax Services

Within our pricing page, you’ll notice a fairly wide price range. That’s because everyone’s tax situation is different. When considering our services, keep that in mind. We’ve priced our services based on the level of work it will take to prepare your return. Simple tax situation, less work, lower preparation fee. Complex tax situation, more work, higher preparation fee. Here are some examples.

Example 1 (Simple tax situation): A person that’s not married (filing single), with 1 job (1 W-2 form) and pays student loans. This person could expect to pay between $85-$175.

Example 2 (Semi-simple tax situation): A married couple (filing Married filing jointly), both working a 9 to 5, owning a home, giving to several charities, and the husband is a Uber driver on nights and weekends. This couple could expect to pay between $275-$400.

Example 3 (Complex tax situation): A married couple that can’t decide whether to file Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately, with the wife working a 9-5, and the husband owns a business that made over $125,000, owns a home, several stocks were traded throughout the year, and they give to several charities every year. This couple could expect to pay between $450-$600.

Here are some brief examples covering a low-medium-high spectrum of our pricing. Just keep in mind, if you know your tax situation is fairly simple, you would be on the lower end of the spectrum, if you have a-lot going on with your financials, expect to be on the higher end.

Accounting Services

Starter Package – In our experience, this package would be for those that have hit the point where they are starting feel a bit overwhelmed wearing many hats in their business. You want a professional to handle your finances to free up time, so you can handle the operations of your business. The hours saved give you more time to increase profit.

Essential Package – This package is for business’s that are in the growth stage, with quite a few accounts (bank and credit card accounts) and looking for a firm to also handle their tax situation as well, to remain compliant with the IRS. A great opportunity to embed the cost of tax preparation and planning within accounting fees, so come tax season it’s smooth sailing.

Enterprise Package – When considering this package, you’ve hit the stage where you need some more muscle to come in and make sure you’re on track in increasing profits. Think of having a CFO at your firm at a affordable cost. We’re not just ticking and tying numbers, we’re also making sure your margins look good.

Business Financing Services

We’ve partnered with an exchange that streamlines the commercial lending process.  Lines of credit of up to $1 million dollars are offered at a discount rate through the exchange.  The lenders love working with us directly, taking a step out of the process.  The exchange can help with all types of business loans from $50K lines of credit to $200M giant real estate purchases and everything in between.  Feel free to contact us if and when you are in need of any kind of financing.

Consulting Services

Individuals

Starting a business is not easy. Growing a business is not easy. Being in business is not easy. We’ve helped our clients navigate the start-up process from deciding the best business formation to deciding whether to hire another employee to distribute workload. At Bradley Financial, we believe every number in your financials has a story behind it and we like helping others create that story.

We offer business and financial coaching sessions. If you love what we’re doing for society, but don’t feel your business is ready for any of our services above, check out our affordable business coaching plans. We’ll discuss business formation, strategy, and recommend resources in our network to ensure your business has a solid foundation.

If you have no idea how much money is coming in and out of your home, how to manage debt, have no idea how credit works, or don’t know how to start an emergency fund, check out our financial coaching plans. We’ll discuss how to get a better grasp of your finances to know how much is coming in and coming out, understand how credit works to continue increasing your score, and a debt management plan to ensure you’re on the right track to lowering it. Our services are based on the number of sessions it takes to get you up to speed.

Business

If your business is driven by key personnel, your business is in the hands of people versus a process. Throughout the years, we’ve assessed quite a few business’s processes and have seen issues arise, especially during audits. Whether you need help with process implementation, audit readiness, or an assessment to ensure you have a solid process in place, we’re here to help.

In assessing business opportunities, we believe the truth is in the numbers. A business opportunity doesn’t make sense unless the margins are good and we’re here to make sure your margins are good. We can also provide financial projections. You give us the numbers and we’ll put the analysis together.

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Ahh, entrepreneurship. Everyone looks at the glitz and glamour of launching a business and believes it’s a celebrity life style. As you scroll through your timeline, you see your friends showing how successful they are, working on their own, and how great it is. Well we’re here to tell you all that glitter ain’t gold.

At Bradley Financial, we’ve noticed so many people are excited to START a business, but rarely have we seen people think through the process of making this come to fruition, the right way. Here are somethings to consider.

What should I be thinking about before starting a business?

For some, this may seem like a simple question, but realistically, this is pretty loaded. The simple answer is getting paid! The loaded answer makes you think the steps it takes to reach that point. Several factors come into play before even getting to this point. For instance, depending on how you want to structure your business (S. Corp, C. Corp, Sole proprietorship) has tax and legal implications.

Also, you’ll have to do some research on what business licenses you need to ensure you remain compliant with state laws to avoid penalties (paying more money). If you plan on selling a product, depending on what state your customer is in may have a different implication of how sales tax is treated. These are just a few factors that play into the beginning process. Here’s our recommendation:

1. Connect with an accountant and lawyer to understand the tax and legal implications of classifying your business under certain business entities (S. Corp, C. Corp, Partnership, etc.).
2. Understand the basic documents you will need to start a business.
3. Begin keeping track of the actual cost it will take you to launch. You’ll need to do some research and look into, for example, how much it will cost to get a 1) business permit , 2) business license, and 3) cost of incorporating your business.

Depending on what kind of business you are planning to get into may cost you more/less than someone else. Thinking through A) what it will cost and B) what it takes to get started are key fundamentals in establishing a business. Get the wheels turning in your mind, because once you start, the business is alive!

“Ok, I know what I need to do, what’s next?”

Once you have a general idea of what you need to get started, now it’s time to put the wheels in motion. Here’s what we recommend:

1. Establish a business bank account – we cannot stress enough the importance of separating business from personal. This step alone will save you money.
2. Open a business credit card account – this puts you on the path of establishing business credit, which will be of aid later down the road if you need to seek financing in scaling your business.
3. Open business trade-lines – there are several businesses that offer the option to make purchases on credit, which is another great way to establish business credit.

“Ok, Great! Done. Now what?”

Now it’s time to get out there and build your business. One important thing to keep in mind is, as humans we weren’t built to be great at everything. As your business grows, at some point you’ll need help. You may not be solid in marketing, or negotiating pricing with potential clients, but you may know someone that is good at that.

The best thing you can do is network with others and rely on their skill-set to help you grow your business. Look for a marketer, so when the time comes you can lean on their skills to increase your brand reputation. Connect with a lawyer that’s savvy to the legal intricacies of your industry. At Bradley Financial, our skill-set lies in the finances. As the saying goes – it takes a village to raise a child; this goes for business as well.

If you didn’t know, business never sleeps, and as an (aspiring) entrepreneur, business will always be on your mind. It’s a living breathing organization and depending on how far you are willing to go, your business can have a great impact on society. At Bradley Financial, our client’s situation is constantly on our mind. We can’t get enough of helping them. Why? Because we know they need our help and we are striving to do as much as we can. What’s crazy about this world is there are others out there that always need our help. This goes the same for you and your business.

We believe you’re of this same mindset, and that’s why it’s imperative you come out the gates doing everything the right way so you can have a peace of mind in doing business with others. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

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