“A spreadsheet isn’t good enough”
“If it’s not your zone of genius”
“Save your time for only the things you can do – outsource the rest”
“You’ll probably need it eventually so you may as well pay the monthly subscription now”
And then someone chimes in with “Oh, this new bookkeeping package is SOOOOO much easier” – well is it? Or is the learning you carried over from 2 years of doing bookkeeping elsewhere just shorten the learning curve?
I’ve seen a few of these recently, an ‘expert’ has said something related to accounting or bookkeeping related and, although I know they mean well, it’s really unsolicited advice. What makes this more annoying – they aren’t in the finance management industry.
But when the advice comes from a guru, mentor or someone we admire we seem to forget that they don’t have an in-depth understanding of our circumstances (unless we are working with them and then it isn’t unsolicited).
Although the person giving this advice normally has the best intentions, it should ALWAYS be reviewed through the lens of your business. And although we may aspire to outsource our accounting, it may NOT be the best plan for the moment
Time vs Money
If you’re just starting out in business I would suggest you may have a few hours up your sleeve to be knees deep in your business and you may not have the cash flow for someone else to be knees deep in that same detail.
There’s lot of ways we can keep ourselves busy, 15 minutes searching for the perfect stock image or stock background music, 15 minutes reviewing a random keyword that has nothing to do with our product. Parkinson’s Law suggests a task expands to take the time allocated to it. And the Pareto principle that 80% of the effects are created from 20% of the effort. So what are you doing that isn’t effective?
The busier you become with paid work or production, then you can consider spending some of that income on buying time-saving ‘devices’ like automated services, outsourcing and equipment. BUT we need to remember that a change, particularly a significant change, requires time to manage the change, learn and adjust to the new ways, processes and systems.
You don’t just buy a new tool, let’s say a gem cutting cutting machine (it’s on my wish list) and expect to turn out faceted marquise cut, inclusion free diamonds in an hour. We need to learn about the process and about that specific tool. It’s the same with a new bookkeeping software or even outsourcing. You need to learn the tool or you need to learn how to work with someone else and specific processes and they need to learn about your business.
And I’d suggest using the saved time for a specific benefit, that could be producing more income or spending more time with family, or creating a better outcome at the end. If you’re just going to go back to an hour spend wondering what to blog about it might not be the wisest investment.
Underlying Issues
I often find the ‘I’m not a number person’ attitude is actually a cover for having money mindset issues around value and worth and money management. We ALL money mindset issues, they just show up in different ways. Personally, I’m amazing at saving BUT horrendous at spending money, even when that could save me a heap of time or create something 100x better.
Outsourcing DOES NOT help you to deal with these issues, outsourcing your bookkeeping will not turn your tiny turnover into a mega bucks business, outsourcing will not help you to learn about bookkeeping, financial management and your business.
When you are knee deep in the ‘weeds’ aka details and day to day operation of your business and financial management you will learn and you’ll take that information into every part of the business. Can I afford to invest in a new product line, new supplies, 1000x postage boxes. That information is already known, no checking with some external system that you don’t really know how to use or understand.
You CANNOT just forget about the financial management side of business when you outsource it, so you’re ‘I’m not a numbers person’ is the first thing that needs to be addressed.
You need to be responsible for your business, and that means all parts of your business from creating and delivering products and services, to finance, marketing, sales and everything in between. You need to learn and understand the systems and processes of your business and you need to stay in touch with those details at every step and to take every decision.
And believe me a well designed and technically excellent spreadsheet can do a whole lot of cool stuff you never even knew you needed.
Business is a constant cycle of learning, implementing and reviewing, part of that includes reviewing if you should subscribe to software that could save you 1 hour a week or outsource to save you 6 hours a month (whether thats finance or socials or admin). But first understand your business’s requirements, your requirements and your available resources.
Last year I ran a webinar called ‘Bookkeeping Outsource or DIY’ where I talk specifically about when outsourcing your bookkeeping might be a good fit for you business, if you want access just head over to bit.ly/waOutsourceWebinar
If you want to chat to someone in the finance and money management space who’s willing to tell you what to do reach out for a free virtual chat at bit.ly/bookWryghtAccounts
Watch the video version
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