The primary reason elder financial abuse is allowed to happen is the lack of transparency in our current systems and processes. Upon appointing a power of attorney or trustee, encouragement or even a requirement should be made to have an outside accounting firm either perform the bookkeeping or oversee the bookkeeping.
Furthermore, in this age of cloud technology, it is not too much to ask that the books and records be hosted on a platform where all beneficiaries and professional team members can view the financial activity. Advisors, attorneys, and accountants need to see themselves as services to the elderly client, not the trustee or beneficiaries – split loyalties can cause moral and ethical dilemmas. Those professionals should be making the recommendation for transparency right out of the shoot before any impropriety when the trustee is eager to show that their intentions are pure.
Suppose the professional is called upon to fulfill the role of trustee. In that case, there is even more reason for all to be transparent as it reduces suspicion by the family and increases accountability. In fact, it can be a positive differentiating factor for those professionals that are positioning themselves to be providers of that service. Just submitting quarterly reports is not an acceptable level of transparency today – there are better options in the marketplace for that intent upon doing the right thing – those books and records should be hosted and regularly reviewed by an outside firm!
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Author: Stephen Huck
Yes it’s Polite to Talk About Money
In many areas of our lives, we share struggles and triumphs with others, but our financial lives remain secret. Why? I think a lot of it has to do with shame. Everyone compares their own financial fitness with the parts of their friend’s and neighbors’ financial lives that they chose to share – the good part. It’s likened to viewing someone’s FaceBook page and believing that the slew of smiling moments with groups of friends and family is a fair representation of their life. That’s not their life – that’s what they want you to see!
Talk to your kids – In our line of work, we get the inside scoop on how many households with varying degrees of wealth and income manage their affairs. One thing that is evident – wealthy families are more likely to teach their heirs about money management. If financial security and self-supporting skills are important to a family, they will talk about it. Too many kids leave home to go to college without understanding basic financial rules of thumb: What portion of your income should your rent be? When is it smart to use credit to make a purchase? How much of your income should be saved?
Talk to your friends – When you show up authentically in a relationship, you accomplish two very important things – you make yourself teachable. You allow room for the other person to be authentic. When you are young, and it’s hip to be broke, everyone is broke, but one friend gets a good job and buys a fancy car, and then you stop talking about your finances. If you knew the truth, you might find that they are more broke than you. While you are living paycheck to paycheck, they owe more than they will make for the next six months!
Talk to your spouse (and your spouse-to-be) – It is interesting how we will date someone, become physically intimate, and even meet their friends and family without ever knowing their credit score or bank balance. Then we fall in love and resent our partner for their past financial flaws. What would be so wrong with talking about those things early in the ‘getting to know you’ stage? And how many marriages that have underlying financial problems wind up in divorce? More than those that don’t – financial stress is one of the common factors found in relationships that suffer from the big three: abuse, addiction, and adultery. Developing open and frank financial conversations at the beginning of the relationship is healthy. At the point when you decide to live together, creating a household budget will foster honesty and collaboration in financial matters.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Parents Serving As Financial Mentors
I came from the generation that wished our high schools had offered a class in financial health – far beyond learning to balance a checkbook. When should you use credit, and when should you never use credit? What is the stock market, and what is compounding interest? When should I invest, and in what? What is diversification, and how does it protect me? Why do most divorced households have financial issues at the core of their dysfunction? What is a budget, and how should it be used? How can each person ensure their own autonomy even if they want to raise kids, travel, or be of service to their community?
Because I did not benefit from anyone initiating these conversations about topics that ultimately shaped my financial future, I was eager to start them with my kids – my millennials. It took them until their early twenties to believe I actually knew what I was talking about, and it took an effort on my part to make the topics approachable. Parents who don’t share learning experiences with their kids tend to raise kids who don’t share learning experiences. So, I opened up about the household budget, methods for saving to purchase investments, and experiences of my own and my clients that had succeeded or failed. I also closed the pocketbook. When our children were still young, my sister and I decided that the best way to raise self-sufficient children was to let them be that way from the moment they reached adulthood. We didn’t pay for college or even a cell phone bill or car insurance, but we advised them as they learned how to do those things for themselves.
Today, my three children have taken very different paths and have different struggles and goals related to career and finance, but they do ask for my input, and I feel comfortable giving it. My oldest will call me to brainstorm ideas about her career path, the scope of work, and compensation, while the youngest will call to talk about structuring her life so she can again travel in service for three months out of the year. Here’s the thing, remember that they are your children, separate from you. They are not your opportunity to vicariously relive your life without mistakes. So you can give them your ‘what would I do’ and leave it at that. Sometimes they will learn from your experience, and sometimes they won’t – remember that mistakes are opportunities for growth!! Don’t shame them. Just teach them how to debrief and decide how they would have done it differently.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Pick a Bank You Can Trust
As consumers, we often point fingers at the banks for any mistakes or shortcomings in their services. However, it is important to remember that they are service providers just like any other profession such as plumbers or accountants. While we do expect a certain level of competence from them, it is also our responsibility to monitor and evaluate their performance from time to time. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to certain aspects when choosing a bank. These may include but are not limited to the quality of customer service, the range of services offered, the accessibility of the bank’s branches or ATMs, the fees and charges associated with their services, and the security measures employed to safeguard our personal information. By being vigilant and informed, we can ensure that our banking experience is smooth, satisfactory, and hassle-free.
Transparency – The bank’s online capabilities should be up to snuff. You should be able to log in to your online profile and see all accounts under your social or tax ID number at that bank and all activity on each of those accounts. Your transactions should be showing up within a day of creation. This is important because you will not remember when you bought a candle yesterday at the end of the month. To be efficient and smart about monitoring your banking, you should be able to look at it every day. Some banks will even send you texts to alert you when a transaction hits your account!
Accountability – Statements should drop quickly after the end of each monthly period. It should not take weeks to produce a bank statement for your accounts. When you get your statement, look at it. Just take a quick little look to see if everything meets with your approval. After a plumber fixes your faucet, you will probably try out the faucet to see if it works right. Reviewing your bank statements is the same thing – make sure they did their job.
Respect – Okay, this one is mutual. Your bank is a business that makes money off of your money. Banking is a sophisticated industry, but the basic premise is that they use your money on deposit as leverage for other investments that earn them lots of revenue in the form of interest. Every time someone borrows money from them – whether it is by using a bank credit card, taking out a mortgage or car loan, or over-drafting an account – the bank makes money. If you overdraft your account, you are borrowing money from the bank without their permission. If you do it often or they don’t know you, they won’t want to give you instant credit for your deposits because you are at high risk. Don’t be upset with your bank because they charged you for it – would you trust someone who borrowed money from you without your permission?
Affordability – Since banks are making money on lending, beware of those that are charging you account fees. Usually, the bank will have an account that is the right fit for you based on your activity and average balance. If you have a high average balance, then you can usually manage a lot of transactions through the bank for free because you have provided the bank with enough funds on deposit to increase their ability to make more loans. If you don’t have a lot of money on deposit, then you haven’t given them anyway to make money, and since the bank has to pay its tellers and maintain the technology that processes all of your transactions, they will pass that cost along to you. Select an account that works best for you, and then keep an eye out for those bank fees – some banks will slip them in when you aren’t looking.
You are your own best defense against bad banking – be aware and be safe.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
My Favorite Business Quote
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.”
– Thomas Edison
This quote really resonates with me because it highlights the fundamental difference between dreamers and doers. While there’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer, it’s important to recognize that you’re not the only one with great ideas. Ultimately, it’s the entrepreneurs who are willing to put in the hard work and make sacrifices who see their visions come to life. Building a successful business is far from glamorous or prestigious, but it’s those who persevere through both the good times and bad who truly achieve greatness. At the end of the day, success isn’t about wanting it – it’s about doing it.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Change Your Paycheck Plan
So often, the question is asked, ‘How are you going to spend it?’ when we should ask, ‘How are you going to save it?’ People with a plan for saving will save, and those that don’t typically don’t.
So, before you even get that paycheck while you are dedicating your precious time and energy to earn that money, you should already have a savings plan. Whether it’s a predesignated percentage or amount from each check, be sure to set it aside.
The easiest way is to have your employer split your direct deposit into two accounts. If you get tips, you could save those and try to live on your paycheck alone or vice versa.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Are You Ready to Sell Your Business?
When it comes to selling your business, having your bookkeeping in order is absolutely essential. Be carefully tracking important metrics like your growth rate, EBITDA, balance sheet equity, asset and liability values, and client acquisition costs, you can accurately determine the true value of your business. Ignoring these critical factors could result in a lower sale price or even prevent a sale altogether. So, if you’re thinking about selling your business, be sure to prioritize your bookkeeping and get all of your financial records in order.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Growing as a Leader
As an individual in a position of management or ownership within a business, cultivating strong leadership qualities is crucial. To develop a healthy and effective leadership style, it is important to consider several key factors and tips. By doing so, you can inspire and motivate your team while also achieving your goals and objectives as a business.
Look for Opportunities to Inspire
Criticism deflates, and inspiration empowers. I once learned a parenting technique that encouraged offering children three accolades for every criticism. In this way, parents can build a child’s esteem as well as their desire to improve upon poor performance because they embrace and adopt their parent’s expectations. Leaders that point out everything that is wrong with someone’s work product, rather than providing a big-picture blueprint for the vision will fail to create an environment where people can be honest about their inevitable low points and garner support from the team in an effort to improve. If the whole team is generating work that does not align with the leader’s vision, then the leader has failed to properly inspire the team. When a team is properly inspired, they will go to the ends of the earth to carry out the vision, and they will adopt it as their own, and ensure that it is executed flawlessly.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Learn the Art of Delegation
It is especially difficult for small business owners to delegate because they are used to doing everything for their business, and because of that, they get it done better, faster, and cheaper. While it’s important to be part of the ‘nitty-gritty’ during the start-up phase because that allows for nimble evolution in response to problems as the business grows. Delegation becomes paramount. Leaders that try to have their fingers in every little pie are perceived by their staff as ‘overbearing micro-managers with little faith in the team’s abilities’. It might be true that only very little faith is deserved until a staffer proves themselves, but good leaders don’t let them feel that way, or they risk the loyalty bond that is so essential to the staff-leader relationship.
Look for Opportunities to Inspire
Criticism deflates, and inspiration empowers. I once learned a parenting technique that encouraged offering children three accolades for every criticism. In this way, parents can build a child’s esteem as well as their desire to improve upon poor performance because they embrace and adopt their parent’s expectations. Leaders that point out everything that is wrong with someone’s work product, rather than providing a big-picture blueprint for the vision will fail to create an environment where people can be honest about their inevitable low points and garner support from the team in an effort to improve. If the whole team is generating work that does not align with the leader’s vision, then the leader has failed to properly inspire the team. When a team is properly inspired, they will go to the ends of the earth to carry out the vision, and they will adopt it as their own, and ensure that it is executed flawlessly.
Problem Solve
Attack the process, not the person. Finding problems is part of solving problems, but some leaders make the mistake of approaching them from the wrong angle. If a leader finds a problem and presents it to the team seeking to ferret out who is to blame, they have a defensive team that is deflecting and likely to be dishonest about their part in causing the problem. If a leader instead finds a problem and presents it to the team as an area that needs improvement because….fill in the blank….and walks with the team through the current process to find where it can be tightened up, now they have a team that is collaborating to improve and willing to admit that their area could use support or a change in the process.
Learn from Feedback
Even your most awful client or horrible experience can teach you something. Always be teachable and always be willing to learn and evolve. If it’s not working, change it. If that’s not working, change it again, don’t be stuck on any one idea just because it was your idea. It’s better to be successful and happy than to be right. Share your challenges as well as your successes with others so they know that success is not about being perfect. It’s about being teachable, curious, and determined.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Small Business Owners: Build Personal Credit
I started my small business almost 10 years ago and I quickly learned how important it was to have excellent personal credit. When you are a small business owner, pretty much everything you need to buy on credit or lease, including office space, computers, and even office supplies, requires a personal guarantee. That means the vendor is looking at your personal credit score to determine if you are a good risk!
- Keep an eye on your credit report – I had never paid that much attention to my credit before starting my business. When I ran the report, I immediately saw a couple of things that I could clean up simply by disputing the validity of the reporting. Some creditors had doubled up their accounts or left old records on the report after selling the account to a new creditor. These were really easy to clear and made a big difference.
- Don’t apply for credit lightly – I used to apply for department store credit cards just to get the 10% off promotion and then never use the card again. That’s okay up to a certain point, but if you are really trying to improve your credit rating, you have to be more discerning about when you apply for credit. Every inquiry has the potential to lower your score, and it can take months for the inquiries to drop off and your score to go back up. Also, those department store credit cards often have really low starting credit available and one major purchase can tip your % of credit used to a higher ratio which can really impact your score.
- Know your score – By being aware of my score and checking it every month or so, I became aware of what impacted it negatively and positively. It became a goal for me to at least one action each month to increase the score: pay down debt, increase a credit limit, not make any inquiries, etc. I use Credit Karma to monitor my score and full credit report for free.
Now I’m in control of my credit, and I know I can go into the bank and qualify for a business line of credit or a large equipment purchase without much effort at all – my small business relies on it!
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Advice for New and Young Entrepreneurs Starting a Business
Not only am I a successful start-up entrepreneur, but my expertise also lies in the area of helping small businesses across the nation to succeed in their business endeavors by keeping an eye on their financial performance from the top line to the bottom line.
Young entrepreneurs may be tempted to use their credit to cover expenses when starting a business. You need to be very careful and understand the risk involved in that decision! Most businesses are not successful, and especially your first few ventures will have a low possibility of long term success. But the impact on your credit will stay with you for a very long time. Keep your credit for the business you start that outlasts the initial ‘proof of concept’ stage and is at least producing revenue. Until then, bootstrap it or find like-minded people to invest in you.
Don’t buy a bunch of inventory. Inventory intensive businesses carry a lot of risks. You have to spend to purchase the inventory; the less you order, the more it costs per unit, and you have to consider the cost of lost opportunities because your precious capital is sitting around in the form of inventory gathering dust. Even though your margins may be lower, it is recommended that you produce as ordered or limit your inventory purchases to current orders on hand plus 100%. That way, at a 100% markup, if you never get another order, you won’t be out-of-pocket once you sell that inventory – unless it never sells and you have to discount it or give it to charity.
Reinvest in your business. A start-up business is like a baby; you have to feed it, nurture it, stay up all night, give it your all, and you hope it grows up and takes very good care of you. If you take all of your profits and spend them on fancy things, you run the risk of starving the baby! Protect your capital and spend it in ways that will generate more capital. Use your entrepreneurial negotiating skills to convince your producers to lower their prices to you in anticipation of your future growth. Don’t hire staff members that cannot help you generate more revenue or save on costs. Don’t rent an office unless you absolutely must – keep it virtual. Rely on associate relationships and interns to do your evangelizing. Use free or low-cost platforms for a website, CRM, social media, and other tech and marketing needs. The rule of thumb is – don’t spend money unless it will make you money.
Keep an eye on the numbers. When you first start a business, it is difficult to predict what your revenue and costs will be, but it is still important to make a forecast and cross-reference your budgeted numbers with actual performance. Don’t fib to yourself about the potential, create forecasting that is reasonable and achievable so you can use it for goal setting. As soon as you have reached a revenue phase, you should begin measuring critical KPIs (key performance indicators), so you can learn the percentages and flow that represent your business cycle. A few important things to know about your business are margins, cost of client acquisition, attrition rate, debt to income ratio, revenue growth rate month over month, and monthly overhead total.
The entrepreneurial spirit is one of persistence and confidence. Stay true to the vision and carry it out. If the vision is getting blurry, stop, and recalibrate. Decisions made out of desperation lack good judgment. If you can’t get to proof of concept, scratch it. Your experience will serve you in a later endeavor. Be smart, listen to your instincts, and know when to fold.
Success is right around the corner! About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.