As women in business, we too often feel intimidated by the men in suit brigade, particularly the accountants. Meetings with accountants so often become a simple “Sign here, you don’t need to know the details. You have x dollars of tax to pay,” without any opening to ask questions.
You are either assumed to understand the numbers or treated as though you are school girls on report in the Principal’s office (true story, a couple of middle-aged ladies who ran a highly-successful business and had done so for years, confided to me that they felt exactly like this every time they had met with their male accountant).
Too often, accountants just don’t have the time to explain to you how the numbers were calculated and what they really mean.
I believe that the onus is on you, as a woman in business, to seek out the education on the business numbers yourself and then be prepared to meet your accountant and seek their advice in areas that you need assistance with.
Don’t waste your accounting dollars on the basics.
Your accountant will look after the Business Activity Statements (BAS, that report your GST and employees’ tax) and the Income Tax Returns. That’s a given.
Any input from your accountant beyond that is up to you to ask for. It may be, that you have a really good tax accountant that you are happy with, but he/she doesn’t have the business knowledge to help you grow your business. In this case find a management accountant or business coach who has strong accounting skills to help you.
Working with your accountant or mentor or coach with strong accounting and business skills can turn your business around from struggling to finding the money to pay the rent, wages and other bills; and losing money; to making profits and having money accumulating in the bank account.
What would you rather do? Continue to pretend that you understand? Or take action and get yourself educated on the numbers and find someone to work with to grow your business?
