Stress-Free Tax Season

Runs Businesses with Scissors

Tax season is a stressful time of year for everyone, but especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

It's this time of year that I like to focus on de-stressing. These are my tips for staying stress-free during tax season:

• Make a cup of tea and review all your income and expenses for 2015.
• Hire a professional bookkeeper to review that all your income and expenses are sorted out properly.
• Hire a Certified Public Accountant and give everything from your bookkeeper to the CPA
• Be prepared to answer questions from the bookkeeper and the CPA.
• Don't cry if this is overwhelming, as a small business owner you wear a lot of hats - Chief Financial Officer is only one of them.
• Contact Suzanne** and set up an appointment so she can help you get organized for next year.
• Remember you know more than you think you do!

Client Corner

This month's client is Kyra from Vermeulen & Co:

Kyra's professional story starts in her teens when she fell in love with theater and costume design. Her love of the arts, especially modern fashion and historical costuming, has been balanced by practical skills in business and accounting.  A California native, she wrote her Bachelor’s thesis on sustainable fashion and is passionate about making a positive global ecological impact around how people select and buy clothing.

Along with Co-founder, Bree Hylkema, she launched Vermeulen & Co. in 2012 with a commitment to Slow Fashion.  The casually elegant clothing combines fit and function with an easy, polished style and is designed and sewn locally (in the Oakland Bay Area), in shapely sizes ranging from 2-18.  High-quality fabrics such as organic cotton, silk, Tencel, and wool lend both a luxurious feel and sophisticated look to take you from a day at the office to a gallery opening or night on the town.

Visit the website at www.vermeulenandco.com to see current offerings. For a free private fitting appointment in their Oakland studio, email info@vermeulenandco.com.

Q&A

Question: Do I have to keep on recruiting for new talent?


Answer: Yes, it is hard to predict when a member of your staff will decide to move on, open their own business, or find a different opportunity that works for them.  It is best to recruit consistently and when need be, recruit like mad.  New talent can come from many different parts of our lives. One of the best employees I have ever had was introduced to me by a friend of a friend of my neighbor.  I did not need a stylist at the time but I said I would talk to him, we still work together today.  It is important to keep recruitment as one of the tools in the "working on your business" rather in than "in your business" tool kit.

** If you need help de-stressing your business life, contact me at 510-545-2955 or suzanne@suzannevanhouten.com to setup a consultation.